The Hickman courier. [volume] (Hickman, Ky.) 1859-current, 1902-04-11

pared BY DR.. TaImage before his i'll
ness, vivid glimpse of the splendors
and glories of heavenly life is pre-
sented; text, Revelation viii. l.:
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 chariotsd.
But my text describes space Wien
the wheels ceased 20 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 al the spiendors. stop. Heav-
en-" cried an omnipotent voice. and
il stopped. For 80 minutes everything
celestial stood still. There was 81
lence in Heaven about the space Of
half an hour"
From all we can learn it is the only
time Heaven ever stopped. II 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 saysg II am sick" IL
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 il for
30 minutes? Grotius and Prof. Stuart
think il was at the time Of the de-
struction of Jerusalem. Mr.. Lord
thinks il 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.
do not know when il was. and | do
not care when 1t was. but of the fact
that such an interregnum Of sound
took place ! am certain. There was
silence in Heaven about the space Of
half an hour"
And. first of an we earn that Cod
and all Heaven then honorcd silence.
The longest end widest dominion
that ever existed is that over which
stiffness was queen. For an eternity
there had not been sound. World
making was later day occupation.
For unimaginable ages it was "a mute
universe God was the only Rcing
and as there was no one 60 speak to
there was no utterance. But that 81
Ience has all been broken up into
worlds, and il has become a noisy uni
verse. Worlds in upheaval. worlds in
eongelation. worlds in confagration,
worlds in revolution.
II biologists are right-and / be-
Geve they are-therc has rot been a
moment of silence since this world
began its. travels. and tho crushing
and the splitting and the uproar and
The bubbub are ever in progress. But
when among the supernalS voice
A'ied: Hush" and for half an hour
Heaven was still, silence was hon
bred. The full power OF silence many
Of us have vet TO learn. We are told
.hat 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 assaiIed and misrepre-
,ented the mightiest thing to say is
70 say nothing and the miehtiest
thing to do is to do nothing. Those
people who are always rushing into
print to get themselves set right ac-
.omplish nothing but their own cha
grin. Silence. Do right and leave
The results with God.
Learn also from my text that
Heaven must be an eventful and ac-
live place from the fact that il could
afford only 80 minutes of recess.
There have been events on earth and
N Heaven that seemed to demand a
whole day or whole week or whole
gear for celestial consideration. If
occurred at the time of the destruc-
lion of Jerusalem. that scene was, so
awful and so prolonged that them
labitants of Heaven could not have
lone justice to il in many weeks.
After fearful besiegement of the two
fortresses of Jerusalem. Antonio and
Hippicus, had been going on for
'ong while. a Roman soldier. mount
I'd on the shoulder of another sol
der, hurled into the window of the
temple a firebrand. and the temple
was all afiame, and after covering
many sacrifices to the holiness of
God the building itself became a sac
rifice to the rage of man. The hun
ger of the people in that city dur
ing the besiegement was so great
that as some outlaws were passing
a doorway and inhaled the odors of
food they burst open the door,
threatening the mother of the house
hold with death unless she gave them
some food, and she took them aside
and showed them that IL was her
own child she was cooking for the
CHASTITY repast. Six hundred priests
'+Atre destroyed on Mount Zion be-
cause. the temple being gone. there
was nothing for them to do. Six
thousand people in one cloister were
consumed. There were 1.1Oe,0o0 dead
according to Joscphus. Grotius
thinks that this was the cause of
silence in Heaven for half an hour
II Mr.. Lord was right. and this
silence was during the Diocletian per-
solutions. by which s44. 900 Christians
Sr*fara1 1aath from, sword and fire