The daily morning journal and courier., 1894-07-09
.fN ISTEREsTING ARTICLE
On the Topic of Recognition of Friends In
 Heaven.

On the Topic of Recognition of Friends iH Heaven,
 The following article by the Rev, l., W. Fitch of westyille was read by him in the hearing of his Bible class short time ago creating much interest;
 WILL KINDRED AND FRIENDS RECOGNIZE
 ONE ANOTHER IN HEAvESt
 One of my correspondents quoted in n recent letter the following extract from an article by Prof A. II, curricr of Oberln college. and asked what l thought of it,
 Prof. C, asserts his belief that infants in heaven would remain such and chil- dren would remain children. that We should have the beautiful variety there that we have here. since children add so much 10 society" How else shall We who go 10 heaven forty years after our infants have left us know them If they are men and women forty years old?'
 answered my correspondents qucs' ton substantially as follows. passing my opinion In this particular case upon my general views as 10 the recognition of friends In heaven.
 In the present life children are cared for by their parents and expected t" obey them. When the children com" to maturity parental care changes to esteem and friendship iilial obedience to u joyous anticipation of parental iC th.sft.. mad nf a cial care. no longer Is obedience re- quired. The relations however. are not outgrown and obliteratcd. only trans. formed. Parents and children then as sociate with each other on an equal plane; but the ties of kindred are nev. ertheess still binding. and when these ties are broken by death they cannot but reappear hereafter. and that to re- main forever. without the possibility of being again discovered. If this is so with children who live to grow up why should there be any difference in the case of those who die in childhood? Why should a limit be fixed beyond which they can no longer grow intellec- tually or spiritually? Why may not these too hope to become the compan- ions of their parents? Are they to re- main forever shut in. spcll-bound, as it were, within the same narrow horizon, out of which 1t will be impossible for them ever to emerge? Reasoning from the analogy of the present life. We can not but answer in the negative.
 In the present life children are ever looking from one period 10 another with hope and expectation till they reach adult years. Why. then. if they die in childhood, are they to he debarrcd in heaven from a similar growing delight in constantly expanding powers? Why are they not there also to become the companions of their parents, and to learn from them and understand the reason for the early bereavement and the temporary separation? There is no word of Revelation upon which we can base the slightest belief that children who die in childhood will remain chil dren forever. It Is true that parents always think of the children they have lost as they were at the hour of their death. They cannot in the nature of things well think otherwise. But when they meet them at the expiration of forty years or more can they recognize them in their maturity? Again chil- dren are very often taken away in early life, before they have learned to know and love their parents. In heaven will they recognize their parents and be- come conscious of the tie of relation ship?
 These two questions may be answered approximately by reference to this plain word of Revelation: namely, Tt doth not yet appear what we shall be-" The context warrants the conclusion that our present faculties are 10 be enlarged and broadened, and moreover 1t is req sonable toinfer that"we shall experi- ence either an endowment of new pow CTS or an awakening of powers lying dormant within us in the present life. Why, then, may we not believe that we shall hereafter become conscious of for mer relationships and find ourselves in possession of an unerring instinct, so to speak, that shall lead friends to recog- nize friends, also parents and children to mutually recognize each other? Why notf, It is by no means impossible, though it may now appear so to our be- clouded vision. But with God, whose resources are exhaustless, and whose infinite love cannot but satisfy our deepest yearnings 1t is not only possi- ble but condition sure to be realized.
 Such a view is sanctioned by re- peated declaration of the Holy Scrip lures that the redeemed of all genera tions form one complete family forever. And can it be that the members of the universal family of Christ are to be for ever deprived of tic joy of Knowing and loving ohe another and of together recalling their varied earthly experi- ences? '-'
 cannot think. so.., And will not their earthly relations of .kinship, which con- sfitute an inseparable part of their be- ing, remain unchanged and forever un- ehangeable? It must be so Such con- clusi6n satisfies our reason and accords likewise with the entire spirit and scope Of Revelation.
 L. w. FITCH.