The herald., 1895-12-02

to come" says the Epistle to the He.
bisws, AMI in the same epistie it IL written,
"God hath prepared for them city, So
from analogy and from the New Testa-
ment We have grounds sufficient for be-
lieving that the physical universal has
metropolis.
Sore questions regarding prayer can
be answered along this hne of thought
and belief. We learn In the gospels that
Christ prayed to God as if God were
present about Him ind in Him, and that
He, also, spoke about coming from God
and going back to God. God is outside
the spirit OF man as we'll as inside IT.
Re is outside the earth and the physical
unievrse as we'll as inside them. A
bird breathes the air and is in the air,
when it is on the ground; but, when IL
wants to fly, it uses its wings TO rise in
the same air. a man lives and moves
and has his being in God when he sleeps,
or works, or walks; but in his prayers he
rises IN the same God, as the man who
elm BIS tower rises in the air. When
father puts his arms around his child the
child may be said to be in his father;
and yet the child talks to the father who
is all around it. The child mag put its
arms around tie fathers neck, and then
the father may BIZ said to be in the child
and still the child can talk to the father.
So human spirit can pray to God,
whether it is conscious thas God Is
around it or III il. And child, although
it knows that its mother lives IN her feet
and arms. yet 1t locates the headquarters
of its mothers life in her head, and it
creeps up to her face and prays 10 her,
looking into her eyes. We know that God
is in these hills about Us, i'll tue SHINING
stars, in the trees and grasses, IN every
atom in this church, in our bodies ana
brains. Yet, when we pray, we look
toward "the city of the living God, as
the Jews pray with their faces toward
Jrusalem, and the NOLAN m edans With
their faces toward Mecca. We naturally
say glory to God in the highest, aud
turn our faces toward the place where
His honor dwelletb, where His power and
glory manifest themselves in their fullest
light. The ohild's instincts teach it that
the capital of its mothers life IS IN her
head; and through our spiritual in
stincts, we feel in our prayers toward the
metropolis of Gods infinite life; the
heavenly jerusalem A IL the forces OF
the earth are in the tree. and yet the
tree stretches out its branches into the
air, seeking for more power and life from
the source of ITS existence. We stretch
our hands and souls out toward the head
quarters of God, whence We came,
although God lives, moves, ana has His
being in us.
There is spiritual nerve in our souls,
connecting us with the mind and heart
of God, and along this nerve track our
prayers reach the holy of holes in the
highest heaven, and the messages OF His
love come back along it to our lives,
making us feel his divine presence, and
then we say that God comes to us, al
though He is H. us. When we SIN, and
smut our souls against His messages, pre-
wanting the thrill OF His love from start
ing spiritual pulsations in ouc hearts. We
say God has left us. although He is still
in and ABOUT us. When We have sense
of God s spiritual presence. We interpret
the sensation by saying He mas come 20
us; but when this sense is lost in unbe-
lief or doubt or passion, we feel that His
presence has forsaken us.
The city described in Revelation is
city that is managed on civil! service prin-
cples. No boodler, no unclean person,
no favoritism. no liar, can enter its beau.
tiful gates. MY reward is with me to
give to every man according to his
works. The innocent. unselfsh. self
sacrificing sonls have their names in the
Lambs book of life. If We follow Christ
we shall be prepared to enter in tt rough
the gates into ''tbe city of the living
God " 1.-The heavenly jerusalem, " 1.-THE
m other of us all"