Republican news item. [volume] (Laport, Pa.) 1896-19??, 1898-11-24
DIR. TALMAGES SERMON.
SUNDAYS DISCOURSE BY THE NOTED
DIVINE.

solstion to Good People.
TEXT: "And saw a new heaven. REV.
xxi. !.
The sterotyped heaven does not make
adequate impression upon US. We need
the old story told in the new style in order
to,arouse our appreciation. do not sup
pose that we are compelled to Che old
phraseology. King James's translators
did not exhaust all the good and graphic
IL we should take the idea OF heaven, and
translate it into modern phrase. We would
find that its atmosphere is combination OF
early June and Of the Indian summer In
October-a place combining the advantages
Of city and country, the streets standing
for the one, and the twelve manner OF
fruits for the other; place Of musical en-
tertanment-harpers, pipers, trumpeters,
dOxologies; place of wonderful architec-
ture-behold the temple! place where
there may be the higher forms of animal
life-the beasts which We're on earth beaten,
lash-whipped, and CALLED and unblanketed,
and worked to death, turned out among
the white horses which the Book of Revela-
tion describes as being in heaven; u place
Of stupendous literature-the books open;
o place Of aristocratic and democratic at
tractiveness--the kings standing for the
one. all nations for the other; all botanical,
pomological, ornithologfcal, arborescent,
worshipful beauty and grandeur.
But my idea now is to speak chiefly Of the
improved heaven. People sometimes talk
Of heaven as though it were an old city,
finished centuries ago, when have to tell
you that no city on earth, during the last
fifty years, has had such changes as heaven.
1t Is not the same place as when Job, and
David, and Paul wrote of 1t. For hundreds
and hundreds OF years 1t has been going
through peaceful revolution, and year by
year, and month by month, and hour by
hour, and moment by moment, 1t is chang
Ing, and changing for something better.
Away back there was only one residence in
the universe-the residence of the Al
mighty! Heaven had not yet been started.
Immensity was the park all around about
this great residence; but Gods sympathetic
heart after while overfowed In other
creations, and there came, all through this
vast country Of immensity, inhabited vii
lagos, which grew and enlarged until they
joined each other, and became one great
central metropolis OF the universe, streeted,
gated, tempted, watered, inhabited. One
angel went forth with reed, we are told,
and he measured heaven on one side, and
then he went forth and measured heaven
on the other side; and then st. John tried
to take the census of that city, and he be-
came SO bewildered that he gave it up.
That brings me to the first thought of
my theme-that heaven is vastly improved
In numbers. Noting little under this head
about the multitude OF adults who have
gone into glory during the last hundred,
Or five hundred, or thousand years, 1 re-
membor there are sixteen hundred millions
OF people in the world, and that the vast
majority of people die in infancy. How
many children must have gone into heaven
during the last Ave hundred or thousand
years. If New York should gather in one
generation million population, if London
ehould gather In one generation four mil
lion population, what IL vast increased! But
what mere nothing as compared with the
Iva h11n will hn fxpn
million, the multitude that no man can
number" that have gone into that city!
OF course, all this takes for granted that
every child that dies goes as straight into
heaven as ever the light sped from a star;
and that is one reason why heaven will
always be fresh and beautiful-the great
multitude of children in it. Put five hum
dred million children in country, it will
be blessed and lively country.
But add to this, If you will, the great
multitude CT adults who have gone into
glory, and how the census of heaven must
run up! Many years ago clergyman
stood in New England pulpit, and said
that he believed that the vast majority OF
the race would finally be destroyed, and
that not more than one person out of two
thousand persons would be finally saved
There happened to be about two thousand
people in the village where he preached.
Next Sabbath two persons were heard dis
cussing the subject, and wondering which
one of the two thousand people in the
village would finally reach heaven, and
one thought it would be the minister, ard
the other thought 1t would be the old
deacon. Now, have not much admiration
for life-boat which will go out to a ship
sinking with two thousand passengers
and get one off in safety, and let nine
teen hundred and ninety-nine go to the
bottom. Why, heaven must have been a
village when Abel. the first soul from
earth, entered it, as compared with the
present population Of that great cityi
Again: remark that heaven has vastly
improved in knowledge. Give man
forty or fifty years to study one science. or
all sciences, with all the advantages Of
laboratories and observatories and philo-
sophie apparatus, he will be marvel of
information. Now into what intelligence
must heaven mount, angelhood and saint
hood, not after studying for forty or fifty
years, but for thousands Of years-study-
ing God and the soul and imm ortality and
the universe! How the intelligence of
that world must sweep on and on with
eyesight farther reaching than telescope,
with power of calculation mightier than
all human mathematics, with powers Of
analysis SURPRISING all chemical labor
atory, with speed swifter than telegraphyl
What must heaven learn, with all these
advantages, in IA month, in a year, in a
century, in millennium? The difference
between the highest university on earth
anu tAe siudlleSt claSS III primary Sc00Ol
cannot be a greater difference than heaven
as it now is and heaven as it once was.
DO you not suppose that when Doctor
James simpson went up from the hospi-
tails OF Edinburgh into heaven he knew
more than ever the science of health; and
that Joseph Henry, graduating from the
Smithsonian Institution into heaven,
awoke into higher realms Of philosophy:
and that Sir William Hamilton, lifted to
loftier sphere, understood better tho con-
struction OF the human intellect; and that
John Milton took up higher poetry in the
actual presence of things that on earth he
bad tried to describe? When the first
saints entered heaven, they must have
studied only the A G of the full litera-
ture of wisdom with which they are now
acquainted.
Again: heaven is vastly improved in its
society. During your memory how many
exquisite spirits have gone into It'll II you
should try to make a list of all the genial,
loving. gracious, blessed souls that you
have known. it would be very long list
souls that have gone into glory. Now, do
you not suppose they have enriched the So
cietyP Have they not improved heaven?
You tell OF what heaven did for them.