The Yakima herald. [volume] (North Yakima, W.T. [Wash.]) 1889-1914, 1890-02-06
SOME IDEAS ABOUT HEAVEN.
ASpipHOnS and Faiths Of Various People
Concerning Tho Great Beyond.
The Early ChFissIans, the Hebrews
NorSemsn, Budahlsts, mOhan.
modnns and Others. L

| NNSAypSuy hao heoku VI tAio puor Otu
fellow. aged, bent double by labor and
sickness, and with only secondhand
acquaintance with pleasure, who when
asked his idea Of heaven answered that It
seemed 10 him . place where one might
cit forever In an easy chair and be served
with cake and wine BY angels. Such q
heaven seemed TO his Imagination
tured all his Life on aches and pains and
thoughts Of the labors Of the morroW-a
vertiable elysium; the antithesls Of his
Sonber experiences Of life, and in conss-
quenee there was nothing irrelevant in
his ansver, but simply Of description Of
what % him was . thought full Of joy and
comfort TO his aching bones. Simple,
however. % was the old mans answer. IL
was representative Of the universal voice
Of mankind, and contained within Il the
germ Of that faith which in all its ages
has blossomed into aspirations Of the bliss
and Joy Of the great unknown" whose
problem has never yet been solved.
The early Christians, torn BY wild
beasts In the Roman arena, driven to %.
cret worship In underground holes, peFse-
euted, tormented and dispised, pictured Q
gorgeous city with streets Of gold and
gates Of pearl. through which they could
pass with erect head and crowned with
gold. bearing palms in their hands and
decked in new robes. singing till their
hymn should resound a. the voice Of
many waters. This, according 70 . writer
In the Brooklyn Standard Union, was the
Patmosian heaven, q scene Of splendid
felicity and pure beatiheation. What
more enhancing idea could there be Of
such reward for those Who are faithful
unto death. and what more bright and
sweet TO the quiyering martym who,
while watching in flames and torture,
could look Smilinsly up 70 the troop Of
bright ones" who come to bear them
away 10 such delights.
The orthodox Jew elories in thoughts
Of The final congregation Of al IGael,
and finds in their fruition the bliss Of the
life 10 come.
The Hebrew apocryphal literature de-
scribeS an upper or heavenly, and
lower, or earthly, paradise. Each 3
divided into seven dwellings, each II
which is twelve times ten thousand miles
In length and breadth. A column, a.
cends from the lower 10 the upper heaven,
by which the souls Of the blessed mount
10 the higher after q temporary sojoun
in the lower. The Talmud names as one
Of the gloEies Of the upper paradise the
society Of Enoch, Elijah, Moses and Ezra,
who walk In the light Of the coming
Messiah. At the last day all Irael's
enemies are 10 be cast into Gebenna and
the blessed gathered together In the
higher paradise.
The MohAmmeian heaven, % described
IN the Koran, & . place of the rarsst
delights, where the righteous recIine on
NOISY couches In q fair garden, listening
to entraneing strains and drinking Of the
rarest and plesantest beverages.
The heaven Of the Norssmen d the
abode Of the heroes slain In battle, who
live again in the scenes Of their life, nut
amid eternal victories, chanting saeaS
and battle sones and quGHing mead from
the skulls of their enemies.
OF an entirely different nature is The
heaven Of the Buddhist. II consists Of
twenty-eight grades 10 gradually aseenAs
ing scale Of happiness, q follows; The
not-Hghting, the joyful, the chanes-en-
ioying. the changing others- aEbiiEarily,
the assembled Brahmas, The - - ol
Braham, the great Dramas, lirnlicd llghl.
illimited Light, pure light, limited purity,
illimited purity, perfect purity, great
merit, unconscious, the not great, the
exempt from pain, the WeIl-seeing, the
beautiful, the highest, illimIted space,
illimited science, the place Of naueht,
that Of no-thought and that Of notsno-
thought, this being sphere whore I'll
the activities Of Life are nil. Indeed, the
final goal Of Buddhism looks toward the
distraction Of sin BY exhausting iis exia-
tence or BY impelline sxistence. Much
akin 10 this are the BrahamicaI and
Shinto heavens, e well q that Of The
Parsees, which look toward final glorin-
cation in . state Of ecstatlc peace in com
pany with Ahura-Mazada, their supreme
deity.
There b something pathsticalIy simple
In the distinctiyely opposite idea II which
the red mans heaven 3 conceived. 10
him there h spread out the happy hunt
Ing grounds whero, with his dog, hin bow
and Arrows, he may follow the der over
Fusiling pEaiFiss and through thewhi1per-
ing Woods with no pale race 10 follow and
impossupon him the restraint he dsspises;
all oiwhich has been sohappiy described
By Pope:
70, The poor Indlsnl Whose pntulored mind
1eo1 God N clouds, o. hoan him IN the wind.
Hil soul proud seiencs nag1f taught % stray
EaR = the solar walk o. milky way,
Yol alnplo nature % hll hop6he1 Hlytn
n1hInf tho cloud-lop'd hill an hunhl1l hrarons
Soma hal1f world IN depths d woods embraced,
some hslpi1f illend y ne yately yallei
Whele alaVgs once more thelr nallye land behold.
No thieves tofment, 10 Chrlltlan1 thiut loI gold
10 Be-, conlnnl1 hia na1ural oe1Ilot
He a1kn 10 ongofg wing, no nolar1p IN,
But thlnka, ndml11od % that cou1l ~, n
Hil faithful dog ihan bcnf HIN company.
%. Z. McEuea d now oasrine sd