The Fulton County news. [volume] (McConnellsburg, Pa.) 1899-current, 1902-04-10
HEAVENLY LIFE.
Rev. Dr.. Taimsse Says the Busiest
Place In the Uaiyerse Is Hesyen.


discourse, prepared by DR.. Talmage before
his illness, a vivid glimpse of the splen'
dors and glories of heavenly life is pre-
sented text, Revelation viii. !, There
was silence in heaven about the space o.
half an hour"
The busiest place in the universe i,
heaven. 1t is the centre from which all
good. influences start; it is the goal al
represents it as active with wheels and
wings and orchestras and pTocessioni
mounted or charioted. But my text de,
scribes q space when the wheels ceased to
roll and the truinnpets to sound and the
voices to chant. The riders on the white
horses reined in their charges. The doxol
ogies, were hushed and professions halted
The hand OF arrest was upon all the splen
dor. stop heayen!" cried an omnipo
tent voice, and it stopped. For thirty
minutes everything celestial stood still
There was silence in heaven about tho
space Of half an hour"
From all we can learn it is the only
time heaven ever stopped. IL 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, 81
am sick" 1t does not stop for bankrupt
cies, for its inhabitants never fail II
does not stop for impossible streets, fol-
there are no fallen SHOWS or sweeping
freshets. What, then, stopped it for thir.
ty minutes? Grotius and Professor Stuart
of Jerusalem. Mr.. Lord thinks it was in
the year 3ll, between the close of the Dio.
cletian persecution and the beginning OF
the wars by which Constantine gained the
throne. But that was all a guess, though
a learned and brilliant guess. | do not
know when it was and l do not care when
1t was, but OF the fact that such an inter.
regnum of sound took place 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 sound. World making was later
day occupation. For unimaginable ages
Il was 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 in to worlds,
and it has become noisy universe.
Worlds in upheaval, worlds in congela.
tion,, worlds in conhagration, worlds in
revolution.
If geologists are right-and j 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 was still, silence was honored. The
full. power of silence many of us have yet
to learn. We are told that when Christ
was arraigned "He answered not word"
That silence was louder than any thunder
that ever shook the world. Oftentimes
when we are assailed and misrepresented
the mightiest thing to say is to say moth.
ing, and the mightiest thing to do is to do
nothing. Those people who are always
rushing into print to get themselves set
right accomplish nothing but their own
chagrin. Silence! Do right and leave the
lto will nAI 4 L.. - 1
sons the world has ever learned are the
lessons of patience taught by those who
endured uncomplainingly personal or do
mestie or political injustice. Stronger
than any bitter or sarcastic or revengeful
answer is the patient silence.
The famous DIR. Morrison, of Chelsea,
achieved as much by his silent patience as
by his pen and tongue. He had asthma
that for twenty-five years brought him
out of his couch at o'clock each morning
In my text heaven spared thirty min.
utes, but it will never again spare one min.
ute. In worship in earthly churches
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 thousand 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 fofty-four trill.
ion?
Not only are air the triumphs of the
past to be commemorated, 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
II my text had said there was silence in
heaven Tor thirty days, l 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
ant 10.
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 persisted. HUI
bert Gofnn. the master miner, who land,
ing from the bucket at the bottom of the
mine Just as he heard the waters rush in
ana ana when one jerk OF the rope would have
htted him into safety, put in the bucket
bind miner who, wanted to go TO his sick
child, and jerked the rope for him to be
pulled up, crying, "rell them the water
mas 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 digged
themselves SO near out that tAe people
from the outside could come to their res
cue. The multitudes of men and women
who got no crown on earth we will want
to see when they get their crown in heav
en-. l tell you heaven will have no mor
half hours to spare.
-, Besides that, heaven is full of children
They are in the vast majority No child
on earth who amounts to anything can bt
kept quiet half an hour, and how are yor
going to keep five hundred million of Their
quiet half an hour? You know heaven ID
much more of place than it was wheu
that recess of thirty minutes occurred
Its population has quadrupled, sextuplei
centupled.
Heaven has more on hand, more of rap
ture, more of knowledge, more st inter
communication, more of WORSHIP. The
most thrilling place we have ever been in
Is stupid compared with that. and, il we
now have no time to spare. we will then
have no eternity to spare Silence in heay
en- only half an hourl
My subject also imprcsses me with the
Immortality of half hour. That hall
hour mentioned in my text is more widely
known than any other period in the caleti.
l..