The weekly intelligencer. [volume] (Lexington, Mo.) 1891-1901, 1894-02-10

~ ~ 49, ~ 'fNS ~ - nv
churches IN earth were still singing
h hymns he composed at the house of
Lord and Lady Abney, to whom he paid
a visit of thirty-six years, and l told
him that many of the churches opened
their Sabbath morning with his old
hymy, welcome, Sweet Day of Rest"
and celebrate their gospel triumphs
with his hymn, salvation, o the JOY
full Sound" and often reused their de-
votions by his hymn, Come We That
Love the Lord
While we were talking he introduced
me to another of the song writers and
said: This is Charles Wesley, who
belonged on earth to n different church
from mine, but we are all now MEM
bers of the same church, the Temple
of God and the Lamb" And while we
were talking on that street called Song
row, Kirk White, the consumptive col
lege student, now everlastingly well,
came up, and we talked over his old
Christmas hymn, "When Marshaled on
the Nightly Plain" And William
Cowper came up, now entirely recov-
cred from his religious melancholy, and
not looking rs il he had ever in demen.
tia attempted suicide, and we talked
over the wide earthly celebrity and
heavenly power of his old hymns,
"When Can Read My Title Clear"
and There Is u Fountain Filled with
Blood"
But" say some of my hearers, did
you see anything of u friends in
Heaven" Oh. yes, l did. did you
see my children there?' says some one,
and are there any marks of their last
sickness still upon them?" | did see
them, but there was no pallor, no
cough, no fever, no languor about
them. They are all well, and rudy,
and songful, and bounding with eter-
nal mirth.
But" say other voices, did you see
our glorified friends?" Yes, ] saw
them, and they are well in the land
across which no pneumonias or palsies
or dropsies or typhoids ever sweep.
The aroma blows over from orchards
with trees bearing twelve manner
of fruits, and gardens, compared
with which Chatsworth is n desert.
The climate is a mingling of an earthly
June and October. the balm Of the one
and the tonic Of the other. The social
life in that realm where they are is
superb and perfect. No controversies
or jealousies or hates, but love, uni.
versal love, everlasting love.
But yonder in this assembly is an up
turned face that seems to ask how
about the ages of those in Heaven.
'Do my departed children remain chill.
l..- ,, u,,. tL., I~.t xl... .I.Jl..I.
vivacity? Do my departed parents re-
main aged, o have they lost the ven.
cradle out of their nature?" Well,
from what l saw l think childhood had
advanced to full maturity of faculty,
retaining all the residence of child.
hood, and that the age had retreated
to mid-life, freed from all the deca.
dence, but still retaining the charm of
the venerable. In other words, 1t was
fully developed and complete life of all
sous. whether young or old.
Some one says: will you tell u
what most impressed you in Heaven
| will. | was most impressed with the
reversal of earthly conditions. KNEW,
of course, that there would be differ.
ences of attire and residence in Heaven,
for Paul had declared long ago that
souls would then differ ''as one star
differeth from another" But at every
step in my dream in Heaven l was
amazed to see hat some who were en-
pected to be high in Heaven were low
down, and some who were expected
TO be low down were high up. You
thought, for instance, that those born
of ninpS rNoranfo nn md Of natr-Il,
good disposition, and of brilliant fac.
ulties. and of all styles of attractive.
ness, will in the highest range of
celestial ~splendor and pomp. No, no. j
found the highest thrones, 1.-THE brightest
coronets, the richest mansions, were
occupied by those who had reprobate
father or bad mother, and who inherit.
ed the twisted natures of ten genera
tions of miscreants, and who had COM
pressed in their body all depraved APP
p titles and iall evil prope ~nsities; but
they laid hold Of Gods arm, they cried
for especial mercy, they conquered
seven devils within and seventy devils
without, and were washed in the blood
of the Lamb. and by 30 much as their
contest vas terrific, and awful, and pro
lix, their victory was consummate and
resplendent, and they have taken
places immeasureably higher than
those of good parentage. who could
hardly help being good, because they
had ten generations of preceding piety
to aid them.
Then l pointed to one of the most
colonnaded and grandly domed resi-.
dences in all the city and said: "Who
lives here?" and the answer was: ''rhs
widow who gave two mites" And
who ives there?" and the answer was:
THE penitent thief to whom Christ
said: This day shalt thou be with Me
in Paradise" And who lives there?"
l said, and the answer was: THE blind
beggar who prayed, Lord, that my
eyes may be opened"
Some of those professors of religion
who were famous on earth l asked about,
but no one could tell me anything con-
corning them. Their names were not
even in the City Directory of the New
Jerusalem. The fact is that l suspect
ed some of them had not got there at
all. Many who had ten talents were
living on the back streets of Heaven.
while many with one talent had resi-
dences fronting on the Kings park. All
social life in Heaven graded according
to earthly struggle and usefulness as
proportioned to talents givenl
AS walked through those streets /
appreciated for the first time what
Paul said to Timothy: 'If we suffer,
we shall also reign with him" 1t sur
prised me beyond description that all
the great of Heaven were great suffer
ers. Not alp" Yes, all. Moses, him
of the Red sea, a great sufferer. David,
him of Absolom's unfilial behavior, and
~Ahithophefs betrayal and a nations
dethronement, a great sufferer. EZe-
kiel, him of the captivity, who had u
dream on the banks of the Chebar, a
great sufferer. Paul, him of the dis
eased eyes, and the Mediterranean
shipwreck, and the Mars Hill derision,
and the Mamertine enlargement,
and the whipped back and the heads
mans AK on the road to Ostia, u great
sufferer. Yea, all the apostles, after
lives of suffering, died by violence
beaten to death with fuller's club, or
dragged to death by mobs, or from the
thrust of sword, or by exposure on bar
rem island, or by de~capitation. All the
high up in Heaven great sufferers,
and women more than men,; women
never heard of outside their own neigh