The watchman and southron. [volume] (Sumter, S.C.) 1881-1930, 1894-02-14

4
heaven when I die, you give express
sion to q desire for which there is no
| warrant in the word of God. If you
want heaven. you must find it before
you die. Going to heaven" is simply
going to Christ. All that constitutes
heaven is in him. To know him is to
| have eternal life. He that believeth
on the Son hath everlasting life.'' That
life is present possession. The pres
ent enjoyment of it is imperfect, only
because immeasurable difficulties rem
der present communion with Christ
imperfect. We taste heaven now as VIE
see Jesus-''through glass darkly. !"
After death, when we ''see him as he
is'' and 'face to face, y we shall have
heaven in all of its inefable fullness
and glory.
I am quite familiar with the objec-
tions that have been urged against this
view. It is claimed that we con6ne
celestial enjoyments to comparatively
narrow range when we say that heaven
is simply to be with Christ, and love
him, and praise him. Mr.. Beecher was
quite rebellious at the idea that heaven
is place where God, in the person of
Christ, sits upon visible throne and
requires his myriads Of saints and an
gels tospend eternity singing songs and
blowing trumpets to his praise. He
thought there would be very weari-
some monotony in such a service. The
Scriptures donot support any such view
Of heaven, and I do not know of any
intelligent Christian who holds to the
conception which Mr.. Beecher so vigor-
ously repudiated.
IT WILL NOT DESTROY OUR IDENTITY.
The Bible does not teach that the
solitary occupation Of the redeemed in
heaven will be singing songs and blow
ing trumpets to the praise of God. The
man who believes that it does is crazy
iteralist. In revealing to US the real
ities Of the future life the inspired
writers were compelled to use imagery
figures of speech. In no other way
could they give us an idea of supersen-
suous and divine things. Their picto-
rial representations of the future state
of the redeemed we're meant to teach us
that the worship of God there, as here,
is the highest and most satisfying act
of the human soul.
Where is it that our souls are in
closest touch with God: Where is'lt
that we are the most conscious Of the
divinity within us: Where is it that
our spiritual faculties experience the
best illumination and the highest and
sweetest exaltation? Where is it that
'sheaven comes down the soul to greet,
and glory crowns the mercy seat?' It
is where we worship God ''in spirit
and in truth" It is in the secret cham
Der of prayer, where we speak to God,
and God speaks to us in the still small
voice Of his spirit. It is also in his holy
temple, where every faculty of the soul
is lifted up and enraptured by the in
spirations of sacred music, and the con-
secrated spot on which we stand is trans
formed into Mount of TRANSPORTATION.
Now, think of these blessed expert
ences multiplied and intensified a thou
sandfold, and you will at least ap-
proximate a right conception of the
sublimity aud the satisfying rapture of
heavenly worship. But IN that better
life we shall do more than speak and
sing Gods praise.
Death will not destroy our identity.
We shall be the same beings in the next
world that we are in this. We shall
have the same intellectual and spiritual
faculties, and when these faculties are
exalted and expended, as they doubt
less will be after they cease to be fet-
tered by their earthly environment, we
shall engage in loftier and more diver
sifed employments than have ever oc-
cupied us here. Complete absorption
of mans faculties in the service Of
Christ in this, life does not restrict his
energies or render his movements mo-
notonous. Whose faculties were more
thoroughly concentrated and riveted
upon single object than William Ca
rey's- the consecrated cobbler-when
he undertook the work of converting In
dia to the faith Of the gospel? Of all tn
men who have lived in the nineteenth
century, know not one whose life was
less restricted than Carey's.
There is nothing that so quickens, ex-
pands and exalts mans mind, and
nothing that gives such amplitude, va
riety and power to his life. as the inspi-
ration of that gTandest affection called
the love of Christ Now, if there are
such range and variety of activity to be
found in the service of Christ on earth,
how much vasrer the range and greater
the variety in the same service contin-
ued in heaven, where the field is infn-
itely broader and grander, and every
object, from the beauty OF the crystal
seat to the majestic glory which crowns
the Saviour's brow, fires the redeemed
soul with the loftiest aspirations!
The novice in Bible study is apt to
be confused by the variety of the image
ry which is employed to set before us
the felicity of the celestial world. He
is apt to be confused especially by the