Douglas Island news., 1898-11-30
THANKSGIVING.
The Congregational Church People Hold their Service on Sunday night. Rev. Loyal l..
 WItt or Heaven.

The Congregationalists of Douglas City and Treadwe1l held their Thanks giving services in Ohman's hall last Sunday night and the room was com fortably filled which is quite a compli- ment to the pastor, Rev. Loyal l.. Wirt, who is building up fine organization in this city, The church people are putting up s35OO church on Third street and all are looking forward to 1 it's completion which will be in about six weeks.
 The service consisted of singing by the congregation, responsive reading and short sermon by the pastor. Mrs. Ross presided at the organ and MT. Courson led the singing and the music was one of the most enjoyable parts of the service. Much of the ev ening be- ing taken up with the regular Thanks giving service, the sermon was neces' sarily shortened, some.
 The pastor read the first twelve yer ses of the fifth chapter of St. Matthew and drew picture between the con dition of man at the time when Christ uttered the words and the present time; also referred to the old Mosaic law and compared the law of ''an eye for an eye'' with that of love, forbearance and for givness, which Christ so freely taught. He spoke of heaven, and illustrated where the place was by telling of man who was inquiring where heaven was. The seeker after knowledge was told to take fifty dollar bill and an abundant supply of provisions to certain widow and pray with her and her children and he would find heaven right there.
 Heaven is a condition, not a place." said the able divine, with much empha- sis. If you expect to find a heaven, other than on this earth you will be disappo4nte6," he said
 The pastors Illustration of the love of the Assyrian girl was beautiful and the point he made was that in following and finding her lover she found her heaven on earth.
 From the estimate we have placed on the Rev. Mir. Wirt, we believe his edu- cation and liberahty will not permit him to object to fair criticism of the doctrine he breaches, and we wish to take exception to bis statement that aheaven is condition and not 8 place." When Elijah east his mantle aside and bodily ascended into heaven, where did he go? In the II chapter of the second book of Kings and the eleventh verse we find the following:
 And it came to pass, as they still went on and talked that behold, there appeared chariot of fire, and horses of fire, and parted them asunder; and Elijah went Up by a whirlwind into heaven"
 When Christ was crucified, buried and arose from the dead, where did he go? Where does the Bible teach us Christ came from? Where is the right hand of God"? When Christ said, "I go to prepare place for you ;what did he refer to? According to the Jewish heaven, it was divided into three parts, the third being the place where God and his angels dwell. Where did the angels go that are referred to in the 18th verse of the 2nd chapter of Luke? Where did Christ go when he was spoken of as being carried into heaven in the 51 verse of the 4 chapter of the same writer
 How will the 1lth verse of the 1st chapter of the Acts be explained with the idea that heaven is a condition, not 1 a place. The same may be said of the 9th verse of the 10th chapter of Ro- mans.
 The word heaven appears in the Bi- ble hundreds of times-and how Chris tian people will believe the sacred old book and deny the existence of heav en-a place where the angels hover around throne and minister to the wants of those who have washed themselves white in the blood of the Lamb" is mystery to us.
 We are are aware of the fact that the beliefs of men, concerning the scrip lures are being iberalized and brought more in harmony with human thought than inspired declarations. You sell dom meet bright, we'll educated di- vine who at the present time really believes the Bible and it's teachings. One will wander away on one point and a second on somethinp else and be-