The Roanoke daily times. (Roanoke, Va.) 1895-1897, 1895-12-07
A DREAM OF HEAVEN.
EDWARD FOSTER TEMPLES IDEA OF
A HAPPY HEREAFTER.

Soul In the Abode Beyond tho Grave.
Reasoning That Brings Comfort to tho
Borrowed.
There Is nothing In lifo so interesting MS
death. Whether We have m immortal soul
and what becomes of it whom tho spirit Is
out of tho earthly body is II problem ever
In tho human mind, and ono That over
cries to us trumpet tongucd MS wo stand
by tho sido of our beloved dead. In Today
Edward Foster Temple declares his convic-
ton of n bright and happy spiritual lifo In
an article entitled IA Dream of Heaven"
Ho begins by saying:
"In my conception of heaven there are
bloom and bird song very much akin to
tho bloom ! see by tho waySido and tho
bird song l hear under my window. When
my eyes open to tho experience of tho here
after, l expect to DO greeted, not by some
thing marvellous, but by familiar sights
and ounds Why may not oven nature
have its spiritual counterpart Before tho
violet existed ms u substance 1t existed as
nn idea in tho thought of God. Why, then,
may not TINT mental conception continue
to exist after tho substance itself has per-
ishcd, so that when the violet is no longer
visible to our natural vision wo may still
know it as q violet through our sense of
spiritual recognition? Icnnnot believe that
anything loses its identity by dying. Be-
cause the flower withcrs when the first
frost touches it and before long becomes a
heap of unsightly decay it is not evidence
that the flower ceases to exist any moro
than the pulsclcss form of a man arraycd
in his burial clothes is evidence that his
life is forever extinct. Some ono will say
perhaps, There is u decomposition to inn
mortality in the case of man because OF
his spiritual attributes How do We know
that vegetation has no spiritual attributes
Who indeed among tho wiscSt who over
lived has actually demonstrated when the
vegetable creation end and the animal
creation bcgins?"
Mr.. Temples belief that heaven is moth
ing moro or less than II g~loriled earth is
hus beautifully expressed:
~ believe that everything in nature has
Il spiritual form which is tho exact like
ness of its material form. Tho pattern of
what has beel always must be, and the
heaven which l cherish in my holicst
dream, and which l expect to realize after
my feet have crossed the threshold of this
hereafter, is only this beautiful earth trans
figured. There will be laughter and sun
shine, tinted sky and springing grass
blade, running brook and mclodious bird
song just tho same as we experience here,
only we shall know them then, not rs
tangible things, but as conditions of soul.
According to tho ancient conception of
heaven, which somo believe even today, it
is II place where tho elect spend eternity
IN the worship of deity, but I do not see
why it is not just rs reasonable to suppose
that tho lover of flowers will have flowers,
that the lover of birds will have birds,
that tho lover of sunshine will have sun
shine and that tho homage we render deity
viii. be our willing II faithful care for
something we love rather than any mere
vocal and conventional praise.
"Becchcr always thought that going to
heaven was gcing to claim ones own He
wanted no band of Grape tied to his door
when he died, but in place of it Il wreath
of beautiful flowers. He wished it to DO
understood that tho transition from the
hero to the hereafter was not something to
be regretted or dreaded, but something to
DO rcjoiccd in as u triumphant going
home"
That VIC shall meet in another world the
friends whose departure has wrung our
hearts in this, Mr.. Temple firmly believes,
as this paragraph proves:
"Thc reunion of friends is another fen
ture that cannot he omitted from any RI
tional conception of heaven. We arc often
told that tho future Is II scaled book. Wo
see our friends die and cannot follow them
into the other world and como back and
demonstrate tho absolute certainty OF u
continued existence after death. That is
true. But, standing beside them when
their breath grows fainter and fainter,
when they have taken their final leave of
us, and arc only waiting until the glad
spirit can DO wholly freed from n wornout
franc, what does it mean when they SEQ
faccS which we do not SEQ and hear voices
which we do not hear? 1t sometimes hap
pens that before tho natural vision has
closed the spiritual is opened, and the
hand of the dying is not only put into ours
for Il pressure of aifcctionato parting, but
Is at tho Same time put into that of an
angel for n pressure of afrcctionatc greet
ing"
That thcro Is progress oven in heaven Is
a theory vigorously maintained by Mr..
Temple thus:
Tho law OF progress is u universal law.
1t operates rs distinctly in tho realm of
spirit us in tho realm of matter, and is
concerned both with tho evolution of a
planet and the growth of II human soul. l
believe that the future state is q state of
progression. Growth is essential to hap
piness. While We arc subject to bodily
limitations 1t may be that our growth is
INSTRUCTED. There arc sometimes physical
ln~iirlnltlcs which prevent us from reach
ing the heights We aspire to, but when
these distractions arc removed by death
we have no audablc EXCUSE for staying bo-
hind.
"'To me- said Goethe, tho external ex-
istoncc of my soul is proved from my idoa
OF activity. If | work necessarily until
my death, nature is bound To give mo an
other form OF existence when tho present
can no longer sustain my spirit Open
tho door of heaven but u little way and wo
must surely SEQ movement toward higher