The Chanute times., 1898-11-04

en- learn, with all these advantages, IN
a month, in year, in a century, In
millennium? The difference between
the highest university on earth and
the smallest class in primary school
cannot be a greater difference than
heaven as it now is and heaven as 1t
once was. Do you not suppose that
when DR.. James Simpson went up from
the hospitals of Edinburgh into heav-
en- he knew more than ever the science
Of health; and that Joseph Henry, grad
uating from the Smithsonian Institu-
tion into heaven, awoke into higher
realms of philosophy; and that Sir
William Hamilton, lifted to loftler
sphere, understood better the construc-
tion of the human intellect; and that
John Milton took up higher poetry IN
the actual presence of things that on
earth he had tried to describe? When
the first saints entered heaven they
must have studied only the A b c of
the full literature of wisdom with
which they are now acquainted.
Again, heaven is vastly improved in
its society. During your memory now
many exquisite spirits have gone into
it! If you should try to make a list
Of all the genial, loving, gracious,
blessed souls that you have known, 1t
would be a very long list-souls that
have gone into that glory. Now, do
you suppose they have enriched the
society? Have they not improved
heaven? You tell of what heaven did
for them. Have they done nothing for
heaven. Take all the gracious souls
that have gone out of your acqualnt-
anceship, and add to them all the gra-
cious and beautiful souls that for hVe
hundred or thousand years have
gone out of all the cities and all the
villages, and all the countries of TINS
earth into glory, and how the society
of heaven must have been improved!
Suppose Paul, the Apostle, were intro
duced into your social circle on earth;
but heaven has added all the apostles
Suppose Hannah More and Charlotte
Elizabeth were introduced into your
social circle on earth; but heaven has
added all the blessed and the gracious
and the holy women of the past ages.
Suppose that Robert M'Cheyne and
John Summerfield should be added TO
your earthly circle; but heaven has
gathered up all the faithful and earn
est ministry of the past. There is not
a town, or city, or village that
has so improved in society in the
last hundred years as heaven has i'm
proved.
But you say, Hasn't heaven always
been perfect?" Oh, yes; but not in
the sense that it cannot be augmented
1t has been rolling on in grandeur
Christ has been there, and he never
changes-the same yesterday, today,
and forever; glorious then, and glor-
ious now, and glorious forever. But
l speak now of attractions outside of
this, and l have to tell you that no
place on earth has improved in society
do nCoNCn NlIill IiC lGtoI pS'SAANJ
years; for the most Of you within for
ty years, within twenty years, within
five years, within one year; in other
words, by the accessions from your
own household. If heaven were
placed in groups-an apostolic group,
a patriarchal group, a prophetic group,
group of martyrs, group OF angels,
and then a group of your own gloritied
kindred-which group would you
choose? You might look around and
make comparison, but it would not
take you long to choose.
Again. I remark that heaven has
greatly improved in the good cheer OF
announced victories. Where heaven
rejoiced over one soul, it now rejoices
over hundred OF thousand. In the
olden times, when the events of hui
man life were scattered over four or
five centuries of longevity, and the
world moved slowly, there were not so
many stirring events to be reported in
heaven; but now, l suppose, all the
great events of earth are reported in
heaven. If there is any truth plainly
taught in this Bible it is that heaven
is wrapped up in sympathy with hui
man history, and We look at those in
ventions of the day-at telegraphy, at
swift communication by steam, at all
these modern improvements which
seem to give one almost omnipresence
and we see only the secular relation;
but spirits before the throne look out
and see the vast and the eternal rela-
ton. While nations rise and fall,
while the earth is shaking with revo-
luton, do you not suppose there is
arousing intelligence going up to the
throne of God, and that the question
is often asked before the throne,
What is the news from that world
that world that rebelled, but is COM
ing back to it's allegiance?" If minis
tering spirits, according to the Bible,
are sent forth to minister to those that
shall be heirs of heaven, when they
come down to us to bless us, do they
not take the news back? Do the ships
of light that come out of the celestial
harbor into the earthly harbor, laden