The Highland weekly news. [volume] (Hillsborough [Hillsboro], Highland County, Ohio) 1853-1886, 1870-11-24
Henry Ward IBeecher's Idea OF
the Future State.

That heaven which you think o
and l think of Is purely imaginary
Imagination is the pathway between
the fl al and the spirit. 1t is thai
which gives to every man aspiration
Men despise it because it is not 6
measuring quality. We are taught
that it is not safe to build on, but
aver in the economy of Gods provi
dence the human race has been in
structed more through its Imagination
than through its reason. We are not
to suppose that there is hell-liter'
ally, a place of fire and brimstOne.-
/ don't believe it, and you don't
b lieve it, and you ought not 10 bell We
it any more than you are to believe
that heaven is really paved with
golden paving stones. No one be-
.iieves it ; if they did there would be
more misers anxious for their souls
salvation. Amusement The great
trouble of symbols is that they first
represent, then hinder. Il is possible
for the Bible itself to stand in the
way of understanding. l hold that
it is the duty of the Christian to
interpret, not the letter, but the spirit
of revelation, and many good people
will no doubt be shocked to hear
me say that you may take the theory
ON which the Scripture was en-
ployeG to represent heaven, and
then, instead Of these figures you
may take your own and make your
own figures of heaven. Now Mary
is not mentioned in the Apocalypse,
but the Mary who left you broken
hearted and went up into heavenj
you can never forget; and then,
when your old father, who was
prophet, priest, lover and friend to
you, disappeared from your sight,
and went to join other friends in
another land, then you began to
people heaven. with familiar faces,
and heaven begins to get full of
people, and you have made Of heaven
Il vast land inhabited by departed
friends.
The reason, then, for the indis-
tinctness of teaching in the New
Testament is apparent. We are not
developed. We are not prepared to
understand the things that lie beyond
us. We see through d glass darkIy,
but by-and-by we shall see face to
face. For instance, the lower classes
of society-the gross and animal, and
even vicious-cannot understand the
condition of a pure, virtuOus, and
refined family. In other words, the
bottom of society cannot understand
the top; but the top can under
stand the bottom, because the higher
always includes in it the develOpe
ment of the lower. So we cannot
interpret that which is above, but that
which is above interprets Us clear TO
the bottom. If men understood the
blessedness of the state which is to
come it might be a snare. We are
here to suffer, we are here to be
wrought upon. You are seeking
for Yourself. You will never find
yourself this side of the grave
Now, my friends, DO you make a
right use of Ireaven? He that has
a true way of 10 king to heaven will
be more industrious, more patient;
more manly on earth. He has no
fit heaven whose heaven makes him
effeminate. He has struck the true
way Of making heaven, whose
heaven makes him strong, hopeful,
sweet, gentle, amiable and teachable
in the present life. Now, may God
grant that every one of US may look,
not simply at Scripture, but through
Scripture into life itself, that we fash
ion for ourselves 3 heaven that is
SO near to US that it may ever distill
celestial influence upon us.