The Windham County reformer. (Battleboro, Vt.) 1876-1897, 1895-10-18
HERE AND HEREAFTER.

Nam 10 fully satisfied with what
satisfies his soul. only wltl rhHra''''
and an endless chance for that 'h"'"'
ter to grow.
Spiritual serenity is spIiltnal
strength. II comes in by no sol.nVs'
Of sentiment, but by thorough Vih'
# comes in by faith that e'hpolue"'
and energizcs the whole soul
The oftencr the Christian rises TO
the mount of prayer, and there oplaiiis
truer know ledge of the Most higl'
tbe oftener his spirit comes lnlo con
fact with the A mighty Holiness the
more he is TRANSPORTED ana maue
divine.
Heaven is Gods home and God is
love. therefore love is the atmosphere
of heaven. But it is not the narrow
selfish passion commonly called rove
among men. 1t is a sell -sacri1iclhg,
all embracing delight in dong good 10
others. A love whose chlei blessed
ness consists in giving.
Heaven is "a prepared place ior
prepared people, and this world If the
place of preparation for heaven ~
man could enter that holy place, WIN
out being holy himself, he Wouiu prop
ably be more miserable lhefc lhah
even in hell and he would certainly
be an object of horror to an the lilii"p
itants of that home OF the hoiy' -
man who does love God, man VINO
thinks of himself and his interests
first such man would necessarily pc
abhorred in that land whose lnhani
tants are filed to overlooking WIN
the love of holiness.
There is a ladder between earth ana
heaven on which angel messengers
carry up our prayers to Cod ana prlhe
His answers down. Nay. this IS blt
the hope of our dreams: the realty
transcends it, for God is here, ana
needs neither ladder nor angel to coIa
municate with us, or open to us com
munication with Him; here in our
hours Of sorest need, of bitterest lone
illness. of self-intiicted sorrow OF we'll
deserved penalty. Of more poignant
remorse: here as He was in the burn
ing bush to Moses and in the mys
ferrous visitor to Gideon and IN the
still. small voice to Elijah and in the
Child wrapped in the swaddnng
clothes to the stable guests, and still
by most of us unseen and to most OF
us unknown. But when the veil Is
taken from our faces, and we see HIM.
then the ground becomes consecrated
ground, the stable a sacred place, the
lowing of the cattle an anthem, Horeh
sanctuary. the land OF indian holy
land, our pile of stones Bethel. -
Lyman Abbott, ID. d.
God is not "A hypothesis to account
for the phenomena of nature. God is
the eternal reality. As President
HYDE. of Bowdoin College. has well
put it, God is not hypothesis; He is
the hycpostasis. He is not thesis,
an opinion, theory, a supposition.
created to account for phenomena; He
is the great underlying reality Of
which all phenomena are the mani
festation Do you remember that
beautiful image in Plato's Republic
of man sitting in a cavern, various
figures passing behind his back, and
he unable to turn about and look up
on them, but the bright light stream
ing upon them and casting their
shadows on the screen before him?
So we sit in chains in life. We look
at the shadows. Unseen is the de-
vine and eternal reality that casts
them. All the beauty of flower, of
sound, of literature, and all the beau
ty of men, all the beauty Of home life.
all that makes life true and great and
noble. are but shadows that He, the
invisible and eternal God, casts on the
screen, that we look upon them.
When Samuel lay upon the couch
trembling, and the voice called out of
the darkness Samuel, Samuel -
God was not a hypothesis TO account
for the voice; God was and the voice
was the witness of His presence. So
the secret voice that speaks in the soul
Of man is the witness Of a God that is
The ideals are realities Lyman Alb
hott. u. y.