The Grenada sentinel. [volume] (Grenada, Miss.) 1868-1955, 1902-04-12

PdiCo ny LII. ldllldSc pcloiS Ills III
ness, a vivid glimpse of the splendors
and glories of heavenly life is pre-
sented; text, Revelation viii, 1:
'"There was silence in Heaven about
the space of half an hour"
The busiest place in the universe is
Heaven. 1t is the center from which
all good influences start; it 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 c~harioted.
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 process
sions halted. The hand of arrest was
upon all the splendors. stop, Heav-
en!" cried an omnipotent voice, and
it stopped. For 30 minutes everything
celestial stood still. There was si-
lence in Heaven about the space of
half an hour
From all 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, for the inhabi-
tant never says: 81 am sick" 1t
does not stop for bankruptcies, for
its inhabitants never fail. 1t does not
stop for impossible streets, for there
are No 11inn cnnyyc or CNVPan1nO
freshets. What, then, stopped it for
80 minutes? Grotius and Prof. Stuart
think it was at the time of the de-
struction of Jerusalem. Mr.. Lord
thinks it was in the year 81, be-
tween the close OF the Diocletian per-
secution and the beginning of the
wars by which Constantine gained
the throne. But that was all a guess,
though a learned and brilliant guess.
1 DO not know when 1t was, ana l do
not care when it was, but of b fact
that such an interregnum of sound
took place l am certain. There was
silence in Heaven o the space OF
half an hour"
And, first of all, we learn that God
III ali cav thCh iiChSC
The longest and widest dominion
that ever existed is that over which
stiffness was queen. For an eternity
there had not been a sound. World
making was a later day occupation.
For unimaginable ages it was a mute
universe. God was the only Being,
and as there was nc n to speak to
hnra x,.,c mn ,,ffaronoa Rut that c.
lence has all been broken up into
worlds, and it has become a noisy uni
verse. Worlds in upheaval, worlds in
congelation, worlds in confiagration,
worlds in revolution.
If biologists are right-and I be-
lieve they are-there has not been a
moment of silence since this world
began its travels, and the crushing
and the splitting and the uproar and
the hubbub are ever in progress. But
when among the s%upernals a voice
cried: "Hush!" and for half an hour
Heaven was still, silence was hon
ored. The full power of silence many
of us have yet to learn. We are told
that when Christ was arraigned "He
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was louder than any thunder that
ever shook the world. Oftentimes
when we are assailed and misrepre-
sented 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 cha
grin. Silence. Do right and leave
the results with God.
Learn also from my text that
Heaven must be an eventful and ac.
tive place from the fact that it could
afford only 80 minutes of recess
There have been events on earth and
in Heaven that seemed to demand 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 destruc.
ton of Jerusalem, that scene was sc
awful and so prolonged that the in.
habitants of Heaven could not have
done justice to it in many weeks
After fearful besiegement of the two