Republican news item. [volume] (Laport, Pa.) 1896-19??, 1898-08-18
DIR. TALMAGES SERMON.
SUNDAYS DISCOURSE BY THE NOTED
DIVINE.

"Silence in Heaven" the subject-The
Mighty Import of the Cessation De
scribed in Revelations-Half Hours
Which Have Determined Destlnies.
TEXT: "There was silence in heaven
about the space of half an hour" ."-Reve-
lations, viii, 1.
"Take this watch and keep it," said a
dying Christian as he picked it up from
need of it. am going where time shall
be no longer" But it seems from my text
that heaven was at least once measured
by an earthly time-piece.
The busiest place in the universe Is
heaven. 1t is the center from which all
good influences start; 1t is the goal at
which all good results arrive. The Bible
represents it as active, with wheels and
wings and orchestras and professions,
mounted or charioted. But my text de-
scribes space when the wheels ceased to
roll and the trumpets to sound and the
voices to chant. The riders on the white
horses rened in their chargers. The dox-
ologies We're hushed and the professions
halted. The hand of arrest was put upon
all the splendors. stop, Heavenl' cried
thirty minutes everything celestial stood
still. "There was silence in heaven for
the space of half an hour"
From oil we can learn it is the only time
heaven ever stopped. 1t does not stop, as
other cities, for the night, for there is no
night there. 1t does not stop for a plague,
to1 the inhabitant never says, Il am
sick" 1t does not stop for bankruptcies,
for its inhabitants never fail. 1t does not
stop for impossible streets, for there are
no fallen SHOWS or sweeping fceShetS.
What, then, ST stopped 1t for thirty minutes?
Grotius and Professor stuart think it was
at the time of the destruction of Jerusa-
lem Mr.. Lord thinks it was in the year
3l1, near the close OF the Dtocletian perse-
cution and the beginning of the wars by
which Constantine gained the throne. But
that was all a guess, though learned and
brilliant guess. l do not know when it
was, and do not care when it was, but of
the fact that such an interregnum OF sound
took place l am certain. "There was
silence in heaven for the space Of half an
hour
And. first of all, we may learn that God
and all heaven then honored silence. The
full power of silence many of US have yet
to learn. We are told that when Christ
was arraigned "He answered not word"
That silence was louder than any thunder
that ever shook the world. Ofttimes, when
we are assailed and misrepresented, the
mightiest thing to say is to say nothing,
and the mightiest thing to do is to do moth
ing. Those people who are always rush
ing into print to get themselves set right,
accomplish nothing but their own chagrin.
with God. Among the grandest lessons
the world has ever learned are the lessons
of patience taught by those who endured
uncomplainingly personal or domestic or
political injustice. Oh, the power of
patient silence! Eschylus, the immortal
poet, was condemned to death for writing
something that offended the people. All
the pleas in his behalf were OF no avail un-
til his brother uncovered the arm of the
prisoner and showed that his wrist had
been sacrificed for his country at the battle
of Salamis. That silent plea liberated
him. The loudest thing on earth is silence
if it be Of the right kind and at the right
time. There was a quaint old hymn,
spelled in the old style, once sung in the
churches:
The race Is not forever get
By him who fastest runs,
Nor the Battel by those peopell
That shoot with the longest gun.
MY friends, the tossing sen of Galilee
seemed more to offend Christ by the amount
of noise it made, for He said to it: BE
still" Heaven has been crowning Kings
and Queens unto God for many centuries,
yet heaven never stopped moment for
any such occurrence, but it stopped thirty
minutes for the coronation of Silence.
"There was silence in heaven for the space
of half an hour"
Learn also from my text that heaven
must be an eyentful and active place, from
the fact that it could afford only thirty
minutes of recess There have been events
on earth and in heaven that seemed to de-
mand a whole day or whole week or whole
year for celestial consideration Ii Grotius
was right and this silence occurred at the
time of the destruction of Jerusalem, that
scene was so awful and so prolonged that
the inhabitants of heaven could not have
done justice to it in many weeks. After
fearful besiegement of the two fortresses of
jerusalem Antonio and Hippicus-- had
been going on for long while, a Roman
soldier mounted on the shoulder of another
soldier hurled into the window of the tenn
pie q 'flrebrand, and the temple was all
afiame, and after covering many sacrifices
to the holiness of God, the building itself
became a sacrifice to the rage of man. The
hunger of the people in that city during
the besiegement was so great that as
some outlaws were passing doorway and
inhaled the odors OF food they burst open
the door, threatening the mother of the
household with death unless she gave
them some food, and she took them aside
and showed them that it was her own child
she was cooking for the ghastly repast. Six
hundred priests were destroyed on Mount
Zion because, the temple being gone, there
was nothing for them to do. Six thousand
people in one cloister were consumed
There were 100, 900 dead, according to
Josephus. Grotius thinks that this was the
cause Of silence in heaven for half an hour
IL MI. LOIu WAS IlSut, anu tulS sllence was
during the Diocletian prosecutions, by
which S44 600 Christians suffered death
rom sword and fire, and banishment and
exposure, why did not heaven listen
throughout at least one Of those awful
years? mol Thirty minutes The fact is
hat the celestial programme is so crowded
with spectacle that 1t can afford only ono
recess in all eternity, and that for short
space. While there are great chorouses in
which all heaven can join, each soul there
las story of divine mercy peculiar to it.
SELF, and it must be solo. How can heaven
get through with all its solos, as well as
All its recitatives, with all its cantatas,
With all its grand marches, with all its vic
ories2 Eternity Is too short to utter all
he praise.
Not only are all the triumphs of the past
% be commemorated, but all the triumphs
o come. Not only what we now know of
cd, but what we will know of Him after
rerlasting study Of the Deific. If my text
ad said there was silence in heaven for
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