Virginia citizen. (Irvington, Va.) 1891-1921, 1902-04-11

y
Thirty minutesl The fact is that the
celestial programme Is SO crowded
with spectacle that II can afford only
one recess in all eternity. aud that for
short space. While there are great
choruses I'm which all heaven can join.
each soul there has a story OF divine
mercy peculiar TO itself, and II must
be a SOLO. How can heaven get
through with all its recitatives, with
all its cantatas. with all its grand
marches, with all fits victories? Eter-
nifty is too short to utter all the praise.
In my text heaven spared thirty min
utes. but II will never again spare one
minute. In worship in earthly church
es where there are many TO take part
we have TO counsel brevity. but how
will heaven get on rapidly enough to
let one hundred and forty-four thou
sand get through each with his own
story and then one hundred and forty
four million and then one hundred and
forty-four billion and then one hundred
and forty-four trillion? Not only are
all the triumphs OF the past TO be COM
memorated, 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 deific. If
my text had said there was silence in
have been startled at the announce
mcnt, 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 will want to see, so
many OF the inScrutablc things OF earth
we will need explained. SO many excit-
ing 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 aud hcroines that the world
never fully appreciGted-the yellow
fever and cholera doctors who died. not
dying from their posts; the female
nurses who faced pcstilence In the laza-
rcttos; the railroad engineers who stay
ed ut their places In order to save the
rain. though they themselves persisted.
Hubert Coffin. the master miner. who,
landing from the bucket at the bottom
of the mine Just rs he heard the waters
rush In and when one Jerk of the rope
would have lifted him into safety, put
in the bucket blind miner who want
ed to 90 to his sick child and jerked
the rope for him TO be pulled up, cry
ing, TEL 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 TO the other miners till they Dig
ged themselves so near out that the
people from the outside could come to
their rescue. The multitudes of men
and women who got no crown on earth
we will want TO see when they get their
crown I'm heaven. | tell you heaven will
have no more half hoJrs 10 spare.
Besides that. heaven is full of chill
drcn.- They are I'm the vast majority.
No child on earth who amounts to any
thing can be kept quiet half an hour,
and how are you going TO keep five hun
dred million of them quiet half an hour?
You know heaven is much more OF
place than IL was when that recess of
thirty minutes occurred. Its popula-
ton has quadrupled. seXtupled, GEN.
tupled. Heaven has more on hand,
more of rapture, more OF knowledge,
more OF intercommunicai ton. more of
worship. The most thrilling place we
have ever been I'm is stupid compared
with that. and. IL we now have no time
TO spare. we will then have no eternity
to spare. Silence i'm heaven only half
an hourl
That Immortal Half Hour.
My subject also imprcsses me with
the Immortality OF half hour. That
half hour mentioned in my text is more
widely known than any other period In
the calendar OF heaven. None OF the
whole hours OF heaven is measured
of. none OF the years. none OF the CEN
turtles. or the millions OF ages past
aud the millions OF ages to come not
one is especially measured of in the
Bible. hut the half hour OF my text is
made immortal The only part OF eter-
atty that was ever measured by earth
y timepiece was measured by the min
ute hand OF my text. oh, the half hoursl
They decide everything. am not ask
Ing what you will do with the years or
months or days OF your life, but what
OF the half hours? Tell me the history
or your half hours and / will tell you
the story OF your whole life on earth
and the story OF your whole life in eter-
nifty. The right or wrong things YOU
can think in thirty minutes. the right
or wrong things you can say in thirty
minutes. the right or wrong things you
can do In thirty minutes are glorious or
baleful. inspiring or desperate.
Look out for the fragments OF time.
They are pieces of eternity. Ii was
the half hours between shooting horses
that made Elihu Burritt the learned
blacksmith. the half hours between
professional calls as a physician that
made Abercrombie the Christian phi
losopher. the half hours between his
duties as schoolmaster that made Sal
mon L. Chase chief justice, the half
hours between shoe lasts that made
Henry Wilson vice president of the
United States, the half hours between
canalboats that made James A Gap
field president. The half hour a day
for good books or bad books. the half
hour day for prayer or Incidence, the
half hour day for helping others or
blasting others, the half hour before
you go to business and the half hour
after you return from business-that
makes the difference between the schol.
or aud the iSnoramus, between the
Christian and the irfidel. between the
saint and the demon. between triumph
ana catastrophe. between heaven and
hell. The most tremendous things of
your life and mine were certain half
hours. The half hour when I'm the par
sonaSe OF Il country minister / re-
solved TO become Christian then and
there. the half hour when ! decided to
become preacher OF the gospel. the
half bonr when first realized that nv
son WAS dead, the half hour when /
stood on the top of my house in Ok
ford street and saw our church burn,
the half hour in which | entered Je-
rcsalem. the half hour Ia which stop
PED on Mount Calvary. the half hour
in which ] stood on Mars hill and
about ten or fifteen other half hours