The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1898-11-11

eratu-e of wisdom with which they are
now acquainted.
Again, heaven is vastly improved in
its society During your how
many exquisite spirits have gone into
it2 If yea should try to max a list Of
all the genial, loving, gracious, blessed
souls that you have known, it would
be a very long list-Souls that have
gone into glory. Now, do yon not sup
pose 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 FOUR acquaintanceship and d
to them all the gracious and beautiful
| souls that for 500 or 1000 years have
| zone out of all the cities and all the
| villages and all the countries OF this
| earth into glory, and how the society OF
| heaven must nave been improved! sup
| pose Paul, the apostle, were introduced
| into your social circle on earth; but
| heaven has added all the apostles. Sup
! pose Hannah More and Charlotte Eliz-
abeth 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 MacCheyne and o
Summerfield should be added to your
| earthly circle-but HEAVIER has gather
Il ~ AZ Oil NAiS HtAa SAi Ai@SN AAAAAA
istry of the past. There is not a town,
or a city, OF a Village that has so i'm
proved in society in thel asst 100 years
as heaven has Improved.
ALWAYS PERFECT.
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 glorious
now and glorious forever. But / speak
now of attractions outside of this, and
l have to tell you hat no place on
earth has improved in society as heav-
en- has within the last seventy years,
for the most of you within forty 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 hen a group Of
your own glorified kindred-which
| group would you choose? You might
| look around and make comparison, but
it would not take you long to choose.
You would say: "Give me back those
whom | loved on earth; let me enter
into their society-my parents, my chill
| Z lily oIoIlCIS, lily SlSlcIS. we
lived together on earth. let US live to-
gether in heaven" Oh, is it not a blessed
thought that heaven has been improv-
ed by it's society-this colonization from
| earth to heaven?
Again, I remark hat heaven has
| greatly improved in the good cheer of
announced victories. Where heaven
r%ejoiced over one soul it now rejoices
over a hundred or a thousand. In the
olden times, when the events of human
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 heav-
en-; 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 app
up in sympathy with human history,
and we look at those inventions Of the
day-at t~elegraphy, at swift
ication by steam, at all these modern i'm
| prOvementS which seem to give one al
most omnlpreSence, and we see only
the secular relation, but spirits before
the throne look out and see the vast
and the eternal relation. While nations
rise and fall, while the earth is shaking
with revolution do you not suppose
there is arousing intelligence going up
to the throne of God and that the ques-
ton is often asked before the throne,
What is the news from that world
that world that rebelled, but is coming
back to it's ~allegiance?" If ministering
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 with cargoes
of blessing, go back unfreighted? Min
istering spirits not only, but our loved
ones leaving us, take up the tidings.
Suppose you were in a far city and
| had been there a good while, and you
heard that some one had arrived from
your native place-some one who had
recently seen your family and friends
| you would rush up to that man and you
would ask all about the old folks at
home. And do you not uppos when
| your child went up to God your glori-
ned kindred in heaven gathered around
and asked about you. to ascertain as
to whether you were getting along we'll
in the struggle of life; to find out
whether you were in any special peril,
that with swift and mighty wing they
| might come down to intercept your
perils? Oh. yes! Heaven is a greater
| place for news than it used to e-news
sounded through the streets, news ring
Ing from the towers, news heralded
from the palace gate. Glad news! Vic
toriOus news!
A GLORIOUS DAY.
But the vivacity and sprightliness of
HEAVIER will be beyond all conception
when the final victories come in, when
the church shall be triumphant every
where. oh, wha a day in heaven it
will be when the last throne of earthly
| oppression has fallen, when the last
chain of serfdom is broken, when the
Last wound of earthly pain is healed,
when the last sinner is pardoned, when
the last nation is redeemed! What a
time there will be in heaven! You and
l will be in the procession. You and I
Will thrum a string in hat great or
chestre- That will be the greatest day
In heaven since the day when the first
block of jasper was put down for the
foundation n the first hinged pearl
swung. II there is a difference be-
tween heaven now and heaven as it
was, oh, the difference between heaven
II or - -l-