Connecticut western news., 1902-04-10


 before his illness, a vivid glimpse of the splendors and glories of heavenly life is presented; text Revelation viii, l, There was silence in heaven about the space of half an hour"
 The busiest place in the universe is heaven. It is the center from which all good influences start; 1t is the goal at which all good results arrive. The Bible represents 1t as active with wheels and wings and orchestras and processions mounted or charioted. But my text describes a space when the wheels ceased to roll and the trumpets to sound and the voices to chant. The riders on the white horses refined in their charges. The doxologies were hushed and processions halted. The hand of arrest was upon all the splen- dors. "Stop, heavenw cried an omnipo- tent voice, and t stopped. For thirty minutes everything celestial stood still. ''There was silence in heaven about the space of half an hour"
 From all we can learn 1t is the only time heaven ever stopped. It does not stop as other cities for the night, for there Is no night there. It does not stop for a plague, for the inhabitant never says, T am sick" It does not stop for bankruptcies, for its inhab- itants never fail. It does not stop for impossible streets, for there are no fallen snows or sweeping freshets. What, then, stopped it for thirty min- utes? Grotius and Professor Stuart think it was at the time of the destruc- ton of Jerusalem. MT. Lord thinks 1t was in the year 311, between the close of the Diocletian persecution and the beginning of the wars by which Con- stantine gained the throne. But that was all guess, though a learned and brilliant guess. l do not know when it was, and 1 do not care when it was, but of the fact that such an interreg- mum of sound took place I am certain. '.There was silence in heaven about the space of half an hour."
 And, first of all, we learn that God and all heaven then honored silence. The longest and widest dominion that ever existed is that over which still ness was queen. For an eternity there had not been a sound. World making was a later day occupation. For un- Imaginable ages it was a mute uni verse God was the only being, and as there was no one to speak to there Mas no utterance. But that silence has all been broken up into worlds and 1t has become a noisy universe. Worlds in upheaval, worlds in congela- ton, worlds in conflagration, worlds in revolution.
 The. Power of Silence.
 If geologists are right-and I believe they are-there has not been a moment of silence since this world began its travels, and the crashing and the split ting and the uproar and the hubbub are ever in progress. But when among the supernals a voice cried, Hush" and for half an hour heaven was still, silence was honored. 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. Oftentimes when we are asSailed and misrepresented the mightiest thing to say is to say nothing and the mightiest thing to do is to do nothing. Those people who are always rushing into print to get themselves set right ac- complish nothing but their own cha grin Silence! Do right and leave the results with God. Among the grand est lessons the world has ever learned are the lessons of patience taught by those who endured uncomplainingly personal or domestic or political injus- tice. Stronger than any bitter or sar- castle or revengeful answer is the pa tient silence.
 The famous Dr. Morrison of Chelsea achieved as much by his silent patience as by his pen and tongue. He had asth- ma that for twenty-five years brought him out of his couch at 2 o'clock each morning. His four sons and daughters dead, the remaining child by sunstroke made insane, the afflicted man once said, At this moment there is not an inch of my body that is not filled with agony" Yet he was cheerful, trium- phant, silent. Those who were in his presence said they felt as though they were in the gates of heaven. Oh, the power of patient silence! Eschylus, the immortal poet, was condemned to death for writing something that of tended the people. All the pleas in his behalf were of no avail until his broth. CT uncovered the arm of the prisoner and showed that his hand had beer shot off at Salamis. That silent plea liberated him. The loudest thing or earth is silence if 1t be of the right kind and at the right time. There wa: a quaint old hymn spelled in the olC style and once sung in the churches:
 The race Is not forever got
 By him who fastest runs
 Nor the Battel by those peopell
 That shoot with the longest guns.
 My friends, the tossing sea of GaHle' seemed most to offend Christ by tn amount of noise it made, for he Sai' to it, Be still" Heaven has beer crowning kings and queens unto Co., for many centuries, yet heaven neve stopped a moment for any such occur renee. but 1t stopped thirty minute for the coronation of silence. liner was silence In heaven about the spac of half an hour"
 Heaven an Eventful Place.
 Learn also from my text that heavel must be an eventful and active plac from the fact that 1t could afford onl. thirty minutes of recess. There hay been events on earth and in heavel that seemed to demand a whole day o whole week or whole year for celestia consideration. If Grotius was righ and this silence occurred at the tim of the destruction of Jerusalem, tha scene was so awful and so prolonge that the inhabitants of heaven coul not have done justice to it in man weeks. After fearful besiegement c the two fortresses of Jerusalem, Antt mia and Hippicus. had been going on fC long while. a Roman soldier. mounte on the shoulder of another soldie hurled into the window of the tempt firebrand. and the temple was a af1ama and flor covarinu many Sacr