The Universalist. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1884-1897, 1897-01-23


ever the Israelites moved from the
place of their sojourning on the way
to the promised land, was dissolved,
or taken in pieces, and the ark of the
covenant, covered with its own cur
tains, was carried forward by itself.
The comparison is between this hum
BILE tabernacle or tent, thus taken to
pieces and moved from station to
station, and the splendid temple in
which the sacred ark found a fixed
and permanent abode.
So. the body is the tabernacle, or
tent, in which the spirit takes up its
abode while on its journey to the
promised land; and when this mortal
habitation is dissolved, when the tent
is struck by Death, then the soul is
clothed upon with the immortal, and
enters into its heavenly house, the
building Of God, where, its pilgrimage
ended, it will dwell rejoicingly forev-
ermorel Hence Paul says, "we de-
sire to be clothed upon with our house
which is from heaven; for we that
are in this tent (tabernacle) do groan,
being burdened; not that we would
be unclotbed, but clothed upon, that
mortality may be swallowed up of
life. knowing that, whilst we
are at home in the body, we are alb
sent from the Lord-for we walk by
faith and not by sight"
There is no metaphor in all the
Bible more beautiful than this, or
more full of comfort to the weary
toiler, to the heart that has been be-
reaved, to the poor sufferer who with
falling strength and trembling step
is approaching the end of his life
pilgrimage. At home in the body
we are absent from the Lord; dwell
ing in tents we have no fixed habita-
ton; we are travelling onward toward
the city when our home is to be,
where our kindred dwell, or will by
and by come to join us. Here every
thing is transient, changing, tenn
porary-there everything is perma-
nent, fixed and final. Here we meet
and part; today we are together re-
joicing, and tomorrow we are scat
tered in sadness and tears. But
there we are together always; no
more separation nor sadness; we are
at home in the many mansions of
our Fathers house. This thought of
the Heavenly Home, and the trans
fer to it of one after another of the
family circle, till all our hearts treas
ures are on the other side, finds beau
tiful expression in the following pas
sage from Athanasia, or Fore
CLEANS of Immortality"
sour home is always where our
are. We sigh and wander,
we vibrate to and fro, till we rest in
that special center where our deepest
loves are garnered up. Then the
heart fills and brims over with its
own happiness, and spreads sweet
ness and fertility all around it. Very
often when the eyes are closing in
death, and this world is shutting off
the light from the departing soul, the
last wish which is made audible is
TO go home The words break out
sometimes through the cloud of de-
lirium; but it is the souls deepest
and most central want, cropping after
it's object, haply soon to find it as
the clogs of earth clear away, and
she springs up on the line OF swift
affection, as the bee with unerring
precision shoots through the dusk of
evening to her cell.
"How admirable are the arrange
ments of Providence by which he
removes the home-center
from this world to the other, and SO
draws our affections toward the
heavenly abode! We start in-life an
company; brothers and sis
ters, friends and lovers, neighbors
and comrades, are with us; there is
circle within circle, and each one of
us is at the charmed center where the
heats affections are aglow, and
whence they radiate outward upon
society. Youth is exuberant with JOY
and hope, the earth looks fair, for it
sparkles with May-dews wet, and no
shadow hath fallen upon it. We are
all here, and we could live here for
ever. The home center is ON the
hither side of the river, and why
should we strain our eyes to look be-
yond? But this state of things does
not continue long. Our circle grows
less and less. 1t is broken and
broken, and then closes up again; but
every break and close makes it mar
rover and smaller. Perhaps before
the sun is at his meridian the major
ity is on the other side, the circle
there is as large as the one here, and
lo..,,, oo,,krar;u,;aa a,,I ~;