The age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1897-1902, 1902-04-13


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 command
To the other miners till they digged them
selves SO near out that the people from
the outside could come to their rescue.
The multitudes of men and women VINO
got no crown on earth we will want 10
see when they get their crown in heaven.
I tell you heaven will have no more half
hours to spare.
Besides that, heaven is full OF chiloren-
They are in the vast majority NO child
on earth who amounts to anything can
be kept quiet half an hour, and how are
YOU going to keep FIVE hundred million
of them quiet half an hour? You know
heaven Is much more of place than
is was then that recess of thirty min
utes occurred. Its population has quad
rupled, sextupled, centupled. Heaven
has more on hand, more of rapture, more
of knowledge, more of intercommunica-
ton, more of worship. The most thrilling
place we have ever been in is stupid
mpared with that, and, If we now
have no time to spare, we will then have
no eternity to spare. Silence in heaven
only half an hour!
That immortal Half Hour.
My subject also impresses me with the
immortality of a half hour. That half
hour mentioned in my text is more wide
ly 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 centuries. OF
tho millions of ages past and the millions
of ages to come not one is especially
measured off in the Bible. But the half
hour of my text is made immortal. The
Only part of eternity that was ever meas
ured by earthly timepiece was measured
by the minute hand of my text. Oh, the
half hoursl They decide everything. l
am not asking what you Will do with
the years or months or days of your life
hut what of the half hours? Tell me the
history of your half hours and l Will
tell you the story of your whole life on
earth and the story of your whole life
In eternity. 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. 1t was the
half hours between shoeing horses that
made Elihu Burritt the learned black
smith, the half hours between profess
sional calls as. a physician that made
Abercrombie the Christian philosopher,
the half hours between his duties as
schoolmaster that made Salmon P. Chase
chief justice the half hours between shoe
lasts that made Henry Wilson vice presi-
dent of the United States, the half hours
between canalboats that made James A.
Garfield President. The half hour day
for good books or bad hooks, the half
hour day for prayer or Incidence the
half hour a 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-
ar and the ignoramus, between the Chris
tian and tine inf1del, between the saint
and the demon between triumph and
catastrophe, between heaven and hell
The most tremendous things of your life
and mine were certain half -lours. The
half hour when In the parsonage of a
country minister | resolved to become
a CIiristian then and there, the half hour
when 1 decided to become a preacher
of the gospel, the half hour when 1 first
realized that my son was dead, the half
hour when I stood on the top of my
house in Oxford street and saw our
church burn, the half hour in which l
entered Jerusalem, the half hour in which
hour in which l stood on Mars hill and
about ten or fifteen other half hours are
the chief times of my life. You may
forget the name of the exact years or
most of the important events of your
existence, but those half hours, like the
half hour of my text, will be immortal
1 do not query what you will do with the
twentieth century, l do not query what
you will do with this year. but what will
you do with the next half hour? Upon
that hinges your destiny, and during
that some of you will receive the Cos
pei and make complete surrender, and
during that others of you will mako
final and fatal rejection Of the full and
free and urgent and impassioned offer of
life eternal. Oh, that the next half hour
might be the most glorious thirty min
utes of your earthly existence!
Far back in history q great geogra-
pher stood with sailor looking at a
globe that represented our planet, and
he pointed to place on the globe where
he thought there was an undiscovered
continent The undiscovered continent
was America. The geographer who point
ed where he thought there was a new
world was Martin Behaim and the sailor
to whom he showed 1t was Columbus.
This last was not satisfied till he had
picked that gem out OF the sea and set
1t In the crown of the worlds geography.
o we who have been sailing up and down