The Toledo chronicle. [volume] (Toledo, Tama County, Iowa) 1873-1924, 1878-05-09
sunday-school Lessons.

june 9-Daniel in the Lions
June I6-Messiah's Kingdom. Daniel Z: 9ll.
June S g Decree re ,S Of Cyrus: 2 Ghf ron 500
Knowing Our Friends in Heaven.
THERE is not enough in the Bible
about Heaven to satisfy our curiosity;
but there is quite enough to satisfy a
reasonable faith. 1t is certainly more
than a happy condition of glorified
spirits. 1t is a holy place. Such ex-
pressions as e city with foundations
a building or structure of God and
a "~habitation" point to a definite
locality. Certain characteristics of the
abode of the blest are clearly indicated.
1t is a rest that remaineth for the peo-
pie of God. No sin can penetrate it,
or anything whatever that defleth.
Neither shall any of its inhabitants
suffer from sickness or pain. Knowl-
edge shall be commensurate with the
enlarged powers Of the glorified soul.
W. shall know ever as We are known.
Companionship with the spirits of the
just made perfect will furnish endless
variety and unbroken harmony of
social intercourse. Above all, we shall
see God, and not die.
These are among the most distant
truths which the Scriptures reveal con-
corning that Jerusalem the Golden,
whose walls are like unto precious
stones and whose gates to orient pearls.
For whom is this celestial habitation
prepared For beings of other worlds,
or for those occupants of this globe
whom Jesus hath redeemed unto Him
self? Certainly the latter. Christ says
to His disciples: " / go to prepare a
| place for y0M." Where He is, He de-
sires that His own shall be also. The
occupants of Heaven shall be those
who were once occupants of this sinful
earth. The transfer from earth to
Heaven does not {accordingto the only
Book which reveals Heaven) destroy
personal identity. On the contrary,
Gods Word assumes continually that
this identity will be preserved. The
same living organism, the same char
acteristics which made the Patriarch
| Abraham a different man from
everybody else in Chaldea will make
Abraham a different person from
anyone else in Heaven. These physi-
cal and mental traits enabled his
neighbors in Sur to recognize him.
He has carried with him to the Eternal
World also such personal character
istics that he is recognizable there.
According to Christ's statement, the
rich man " saw Lazarus in Abraham's
BOSOM" He also declared that the
righteous will yet sit down with Abra-
ham, Isacc and Jacob in that Celestial
Kingdom. 1t is preposterous to imag-
inc that these three persons are some
other persons than those who passed by
change death and the resurrection may
produce on the forms or organisms
known as Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.
The body here changes by chemical
processes, so that there are entirely
new particles in myrhysical form from
what were there six or seven years
ago. Yet / am the same person. My
individuality is not changed in the
slightest degree. Lincoln, the nursing
infant, and Lincoln, the President,
were the same individual.
In like manner, Paul before the
throne is and inevitably must be the
identical Paul who preached at Athens
and was martyred at Rome. When he
longed to "depart and to be with
Christ" he expected to be not somebody
else but the same individual. Moses
died fifteen centuries before the advent
Of Jesus Christ. Yet there was a per-
sonality still existing, who appeared at
the time of Christ's TRANSPORTATION on
the mount, and who was addressed by
Him as Moses. The Prophet Elijah,
who had died 700 years before, was
there also. When the great apostle
speaks of his Thessalonian converts as
his "glory and Joy in the appearance
of the Lord Jesus Christ" he assurcdly
expected to meet the same persons in
Heaven that he had labored with in
Thessalonica- If they were not the
same people and if he could not meet
them there, how could they be to Him
a "crown'' or q "joy?"
This point is clearly in accordance
with Scripture andwith common sense.
Whatever change may be produced by
death, personal identity will not be
altered by one jot or little. Without
this preservation of perfect identity the
whole idea of future rewards and pun
ishments would be an absurd impossi-
bility.
If identity is preserved in eternity,
will the faculty of memory also survive
the grave? Undoubtedly it will. The
obliteration of memory would amount
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