Democratic messenger. [volume] (Snow Hill, Md.) 1869-1973, 1902-04-12
HEAVENLY LIFE.
Rev. Dr.. TaImage Says the Busiest
Place in the Universe is Heaven.
A Glimpse of the Kings Paiace-Au Impress
I've Half Hour In Eternity.

WASHINGTON. ID. C.-In the following
discourse. prepared by DR. Talmage before
his illness, vivid glimpse OF the splen.
doris and glories OF heavenly life Is pre-
scented: text. Revelation viii, !, There
was silence in heaven about the space o.
half an hour
The busiest place in the universe i.
heaven. Ii is the centre from which all
good influences start; 1t Is the goal al
which all good results arrive. The Bible
represents - H. 1csiNc wit.l wnec.s and
wings and orchestras and procession:
mounted or charloted. But my text de-
scribes a space when the wheels ceased 10
roll and the trumpets to sound and the
voices to chant. The riders on the white
horses refined in their charges. The doxol
ogies were hushed and professions halted,
The hand OF arrest was upon all the splen
dor. stop heaven" cried an omnipo
tent voice. and it stopped. For thirty
minutes everything celestial stood still
There was silence IN heaven about thu
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 inhabitant never says, i
am sick" 1t does not stop for bankrupt
cies, for its inhabitants never fail. IL
does not stop for impossible streets. fol-
there are no fallen SHOWS or sweeping
~ minutes: Grotius and Professor Stuart
think il was at the time of the destruction
of Jerusalem. Mr.. Lord thinks it was in
the year 81. between the close of the Dho
cletian persecution and the beginning OF
the wars by which Constantine gained the
throne. But that was all n guess, though
a learned and brilliant guess. l do not
know when 1t was and do not Gaze when
1t was. but of the fact that such an inter.
regnum of sound took place l 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 domain that ever ex.
listed Is that over which stiffness was
queen. For an eternity there had not
been a sound. World making was a later
day occupation. For unimaginabe ages
II was a mute universe. God was the only
being. and as there was no one to speak
10 there was no utterance. But that ST.
lence has all been broken up in to worlds
and it has become a noisy universe
Worlds in upheaval. worlds in congela
tion. worlds in contlagration, worlds in
revolution.
II biologists are right-and ! believe
they are-there has not been moment OF
silence since this world began its travels,
and the crashing and the splitting and the
uproar and the hubbub are ever in pro-
gress. But when among the supernals
voice cried. Hush" and for half an hour
heaven vas still. silence was honored. The
ull r OF silence many or us have yet
We aie told that when Christ
igned HE answered not a word"
nee was louder than any thunder
shook the world. 0ftentimes
are assailed and misrepresented
test thing to say Is to say moth.
the mightiest thing to do is to dc
Those people who are always
nto print to get themselves set
,omplish nothing but their own
Silence! Do right and leave the
it'll God. Among the grandest les.
world has ever learned are the
II patience taught by those who
uhcomplalningly personal or do
or political injustice. Stronger
bitter or sarcastic or revengeful
$ the patient silence.
famous DIR. Morrison. of Chelsea,
ID as much by his silent patience az
pen and tongue. He had asthma
for twenty-five years brought him
his couch at o'clock each morning.
my text heaven spared thirty min
but it will never again spare one min.
In worship in earthly churches
acre there are many to take part we
ave to counsel brevity. but how will
eaven get on rapidly enough to let one
hundred and forty-four thousand get
through each with his own story and then
one hundred and forty-four million and
and then one hundred and forty-four trill.
ion?
Not only are air the triumphs of the
past to be COMMUNICATED, but all the
triumphs to come. Not only what we now
know OF God, but what we will know OF
Him after everlasting study OF the deiiic
II my text had said there was silence in
heaven for thirty days. would not have
been startled at the announcement, but il
indicates thirty minutes
Why, there will be so many friends to
hunt up, so many of the greatly good and
useful that we viii want to see. SO many
OF the inscrutable things OF earth we will
need explained. so many exciting earthly
experiences we will want to talk over and
all the other spirits and all the ages will
want the same. that there will be no more
opportunity for cessation.
How busy we will be kept in having
pointed out to us the heroes and heroines
that the world never fully appreciated-the
yellow fever and cholera doctors who died
not flying from their posts; the female
nurses who faced pestilence in the laza
rettos; the railroad engineers who stayed
at their places in order to save the train
though they themselves perkhed HUI
bert Coffin. the master miner who, land
ing from the bucket at the bottom of the
mine Just he heard the waters rush in
and when one jerk of the rope would have
lifted him into safety. put in the bucket
bhnd miner who wanted to 90 to his sick
child. and jerked the rope for him TO be
pulled up, crying. Tell them the water
has burst in and we are probably lost. but
We will seek refuge at the other end OF the
right gallery" and then giving the com
mand 10 the other miners till they digged
themselves so near out that ire people
from the outside could come to their res
cue. The multitudes OF men and womer
who got no crown on earth we will wan
10 see when they get their crown in heav
en-. | tell you heaven will have no NOR,
half hours to spare.
Besides that, heaven is full of children
They are in the vast majority. No chic
on earth who amounts to anything can bt
kept quiet half an hour. and how are yo,
going 10 keep five hundred million of Their
quiet half an hour. You know heaven i,
much more OF place than it was wher
that recess of thirty minutes occurred
Its population has quadrupled, sextupled
centupled
Heaven has more on hand. more of rap
ture. more OF knowledge. more of inter.
communication. more OF worship. The
most thrilling place we have ever been ir
is stupid compared with that, and. if we
now have no time to spare we will Their
have no eternity TO spare. Silence in heav-
en- only half an hour.
NJ Il Al.