St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1877-03-02
Mr.. Moody's Talk on Heaven.
AT TABERNACLE, FEB. 20.

AT TABERNACLE, FEB. ~.
/ was on my way to meeting one
night and friend asked me what / was
going to talk about, and | told him
Heaven and | noticed scOwl on his
forehead, and | said to him, "What do
you scowl in that way for ?" He said
he hoped | was going to give him some
thing practical. My answer was that
if the Lord didn't want us to know any
thing about heaven He wouldn't have
put anything about it in the Scripture.
If this audience was going to emigrate,
going to go West, and l was coming
here to talk about the western country,
how eager you would all be to catch
every word. You would want to know
all about its climate and its advantages
and the society you would have there.
Now, we are not going to stay here but
for little while on this earth it is
only an inch of time to eternity. A
few days, it may be, for some of us; "A
few months for others few years, at
the most, for all of us, before we go
hence; and therefore, it seems to me,
we ought to find out all we can about
heaven. 1t would take more than one
or two lectures TO tell you all there is
about heaven in the Bible. If we will
only read all the Bible has to say about
heaven, things down here will look
pretty small, and we should all want to
get there. There we're three heavens
to the Jews. There was the first heaven,
where the clouds came from then there
was the second heaven, the armament,
where the stars shOue and then there
was the third heaven, where the Lord
dwells; where His throne is, and that
is the heaven Paul speaks of in the
second epistle to the Corinthians, the
twelfth chapter and the second verse
81 knew man in Christ above fourteen
years ago. whether in the body
can not tell or whether out of the
body | can not tcll-GOd kuOweth. J
Such an one was caught up to the third
heaven. And | knew such a man
whether in the body or out of the body,
| can not tell-GOd knoweth.) How
he was caught up into paradise, and
heard unspeakable words which it was
not lawful for man to utter" That
is the third heaven that | want to talk
about, and l believe that that is just
as much place as Boston. Some peo-
pie tell us that this is all the heaven
we shall know, that this life is all we
have to live for. If it is all, what a
failure it has been for most of us.
But thanks be to God, this Book tells
us there is something in the future,
something grander and better than any
thing that has been seen in this world.
When first became Christian an in
fidel asked me here in Boston why l
addressed my prayer upwards. He said
God yvaS ~ bara in tho air in tho
water, in the rocks and in the trees,
and need not address my prayers up.
And l was a good deal COMPOUNDED
then. l didn't know my Bible, and l
thought of what that infidel said and it
got me into "a mist and fog, but since l
became acquainted with my Bible |
have found that it is right for me to
address my prayers upwards. When
Christ left the earth for heaven He
went up. He didn't go down. Heaven
is locality. 1t is place. In Genesis
we read that He went up from talking
with Abraham. So when we come to
this subject of heaven, let us bear in
mind that it is a real place; it is city
which has foundations, whose Builder
and Maker is God. People talk about
this as myth. 1t is the only city that
VIII WITCH all OtHtI CltltS are
swept away. Abraham got sight of
this city, and directly he got that sight
he proclaimed himself pilgrim and a
stranger. The well-watered plains of
Sodom had no attractions for him. Lot
could go that way if he wanted to, but
as for him he was only pilgrim and a
stranger. Now, want to call your at
tcntion to who is going TO be there. In
the seventh chapter of the second Book
of Chronicles and the fourteenth verse,
we read: ''If my people which are
called by name shall humble themselves
and pray and seek my face, and turn
from their wicked ways; then will |
hear from heaven, and will forgive their
sin and will heal their land" A great
many people have tried to find out how
far off heaven is from this place. We
don't know that, but it is not so far off
but God can hear every sigh that is
drawn on earth, and see every tear that
is dropped. In the first book of Kings,
the eighth chapter, and the thirtieth
verse, we read: "And hearken Thou
to the supplication of Thy servant, and
of Thy people Israel, when they shall
pray toward this place; and hear Thou
in heaven thy dwelling place; and
when Thou nearest, forgive" There
are good many other passages which
| won't call your attention to now. The
point I want to call your attention to
now, is that God dwells there. Some
will ask how is He here if He dwells
there How is it that the sun is ninety
five millions of miles away and yet it is
shining here ?
But let us not forget that God is a
person, and has a throne. God has a
dwelling-pl The disciples came to
Christ and said, 'Lord, teach us how
to pray And did He say ''Our Father
who art in earth ?" No-but ''Our Father
who art in heaUen." And if ever we go
to heaven we shall see God, the Father,
God who loved us and gave His Son for
us. 1t is the dwelling-place of God.
If you turn over into Acts you will find
who else is there. He was seen there
by Stephen. The disciples saw Him
when he assembled up out of their sight
1t says in Acts, z: So: ''But he being
full of the Holy Ghost, looked up into
Jesus standing on the right hand of
God" 0 Pm so thankful He amt in
the grave where they laid Him. A
great many people in Boston haven't
found that He isn't in that grave where
Joseph of Arimathea laid Him. They
haven't got yet to the resurrection and
the fact that He was seen up yonder by
Stephen. Stephen was full of the Holy
Ghost, and the curtain was lifted, and
he was permitted to look clear into
heaven. He saw the throne, he saw