St. Paul daily globe., 1891-03-02

and to know right from wrong. and the
conclusion that an appeal to his sense of
obligation and his sense of humanity
would ever respond to the appeal of
truth. This is the central revelation of
Christianity. The tendency of the Cos
pei is all hopeful, because It is based on
the assumption that the strongest power
in. the universe is love. Then we must
turn to the struggles of men with the
sense OF duty as these struggles are
written down III history, to find what
remains. And in the world we find
progress is the @s ssE 4asa
WatchyOrd of the Race.
Men believe they have not gained the
best. They make sublime revolt. That
makes sublime improvement. Take
the water craft, from the canoe of the
savage to the palatial steamer and the
massive war ship. Is there any i'm
proVement? Take the Saxon girl, throw
ing. her bark fiber around a tree, and
then pulling it out into rude threads.
IS there any improvement noticeable
when you look at the modern factory?
Compare the first locomotive with the
last. the first apple with the last, the
first rose with the last, the first college
with the last. Is there any improve
ment? Humanity is another word that
goes along with progress. We may not
do we'll, but we always admire human
ity. We strive to embody it in law, in
social institution, in poem, story and
drama. 1t has changed our manners
and creedS. reformed our prisons and
made the association of men for i'm
proyement possible. Do not these ten
dencieS speak hope for the race?
1t is very clear that men have ever
held the idea of a life beyond the pres
ent. 1t is clear, too, that they have as
rule considered the geography of that
land as the feature of most Importance.
1t is equally plain that they have held
that entrance into the felicities of that
abode was to be gained by some pass
port as the righteousness of another,
penitence, some kind of mental expert
ence like repentance and faith. Moral
lty and character have never been close
ly connected with its door or its happI-
ness. Heaven has been looked upon by
most men, too, as place in which the
outward conditions, appealing entirely
to the senses. will give the supreme en-
Jeyment men
Call Perfect Bliss.
The Mohammedan believes in the
heaven Of sense, where every Joy will
appeal to the appetite-hiS heaven is a
refined debaucb. Elysian fields was
the Older conception-a place suggest
ing gardens, flowers, groves and cas-
cades of beauty.
Thomas Moore voiced the senti-
ment of the average modern Chris
tian when he pictured the Peri at the
gate of Eden. She compared the joys
OF heaven with the beauties of earth.
Her conclusion was clear and easy TO
understand. All the beauties of Cash
mere, with their rare appeals to sense,
fragrance of tree and flower. the crystal
waters of Sang Su Hay, the golden
floods straying hitherWard over golden
sands, the songs of beautiful birds. the
rare days of perfect weather; all these
were duly considered. Butif they were
compared with the gardens of the
blessed, and the days that came in that
perfect cline, aud the waters that
flowed in rivers, broadened to seas with
out breaker or surgeon Wove themselves
into spires of diamonds in the cascade;
then after seeing all these giories. one
might still say that moment OF heaven
was worth all that earth could give III
all ages to come. To the average mind,
then, heaven has been a place and its
happiness dependent upon climate, pro-
duction and physical advantages.
But II we take Christ for an example
and study closely what He says. We
shall be surprised to see how little we
get OF detail in regard to the dim and
mysterious future. ''In My Fathers
house are many mansions what
are they like? II go to prepare a place
for .you''-but where? Where is the
land to which our ship would go? We
may well pause where He paused.
Still He
- Told Us of Heaven.
yVn 1aarrfad thof IL ,yoc NOT in narfaot
cline, nor in lazy ease, nor in gardens
OF luxurious beauty. TO Him heaven
was the sympathetic heart. To Him
heaven was the broad mind, illustrated
in His compassion on the multitude.
To Hin heaven was undying, un-
Quenchable love, illustrated in the para
BILE of a returning prodigai. TO Him
heaven was the sacrifice of brave
heart illustrated by His own suffering
under ~Pontius PLATE, HIS crucifiXion
and death. 1.-The kingdom Of God is
within YOU Heaven to Him was
condition of mind and heart.
With US it is not different. There will
be some kind of place in which we shall
live. We hope its conditions will be
better than we have had here. We do
not know the geography Of that far
land.
I'VE know not where His islands lift their
fronded palms in air:
We only know we cannot drift beyond His
love and care
And we, therefore. wait for the solu-
ton of the mystery of death and the
knowledge of the future land where we
shall live. But love, sympathy, sacri-
flee, patience, worship, cllnging friend
ship, noble aspirations, high thought
and pure feeling, all these are ours, and
these will be the characteristics of our
heavenly life.