St. Tammany farmer. [volume] (Covington, La.) 1874-current, 1902-05-17
THE HEAVENLY LIFE
Its Splendors and Glories Presented
by Dr.. Talmage.
Its Activity Also brought Out-The
hmm rtal Half-HOur When Every
thing Was Silent-Valua6le
Fragments of Time.

Copyright, 1902, by Louis Klopsch. N. "
Washington,
In the following discourse, pre-
pared by DR.. Talmage before his i'll
ness, 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 charioted.
But my text describes 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 80 minutes everything
celestial stood still. There was ST.
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 plague, for the inhabi-
tant never says: II am sick 1t
does not stop for bankruptcies, for
its inhabitants never fail. 1t does not
stop for impossible streets, for there
are no falling SHOWS or sweeping
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 guess,
| though learned and brilliant guess
l do not know when it was, and l do
not care when it was. but of the TACT
that such an interregnum of sound
| took place I am certain. "There was
silence III HedNeu dDOuC CHC SksiSo W
| 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
stiffness was queen. For an eternity
there had not been a sound. World
making was a later day occupation.
For unima ginable ages it was a mute
universe. God was the only Being.
and as there was no one to speak to
there was no utterance. But that 81
lence has all been broken up into
worlds, and it has become noisy uni
verse Worlds in upheaval, worlds in
congelation, worlds in confagration,
worlds in revolution.
If biologists are right-and 1 be-
lieve they are-there has not been q
moment of silence since this world
began it's travels, and the crushing
and the splitting 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 hon
ored. The full power of silence many
of us have yet to learn. We are told
that when Christ was arraigned HE
answered not a word" That silence
was louder than any thunder that
ever shook the world. Oftentimes
when we are assaulted and misrepre-
sented the mightiest thing to say is
to say nothing and the mightiest
| IL
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
grandest lessons the world has ever
learned are the lessons of patience
taught by those who endured uncom-
plainingly personal or domestic OF
political injustice. Stronger than any
bitter or sarcastic or revengeful an
swer is the patient silence.
The famous DR.. Morrison, of Chel.
sea, achieved as much by his silent
patience as by his pen and tongue
He had asthma that for rs years
brought him out of his couch at two
o'clock each morning. His four sons
and daughters dead, the remaining
child by sunstroke made insane, the
afflicted man once said: cat this mo-
ment there is not an inch of my body
that is not filled with agony" Yet
he was cheerful. triumphant, silent
Those who were in his presence sale
they felt as though they were in the
gates of Heaven. Oh, the power OF
patient silence! Aeschylus, the i'm
mortal poet, was condemned to death
for writing something that offended
the people. All the pleas in his be
half were of no avail until his broth
err uncovered the arm of the prisoner
} and showed that his hand had beer
shot off at Salamis. That silent plea
J liberated him. The loudest thing OF
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 and once sung in tn.
churches:
The race is not forever got
Bv him who fastest runs
Nor the Battel by those peopen
That shoot with the longest guns.
Nv friends, the tossing sea of Cali
} lee seemed most to offend Christ by
the amount of noise it made, for HI
} said to it: 'Be still" Heaven ha:
. been GROWING kings and queens untt
. God for many centuries, yet Heavel
never stopped a moment for any sucl
} occurrence, but it stopped 80 minutes
1 for the coronation of silence. "Ther'
J was silence in Heaven about the space
1 of half an hour"
} Learn also from my text tina