Peninsula enterprise. [volume] (Accomac, Va.) 1881-1965, 1898-11-05

prOvements IN heaven, IOI tGre9 SIOuG
reasons. First, because find that some
OF You are impatient to be gone. You
are tired of this world and you want to
get into that good land about which
you have been thinking, praying and
talking so many years. Now be patient.
I could see why you would want to go
to an art gallery if some Of the best
pictures were to be taken away this
week or next week, but if some one tells
you that there are other beautiful pic
lures to oome-other Kensetts, Raphaels
and Rubenses-other masterpieces to
be added to the gallery-you would
say: 81 can afford to wait. The place
is improving all the time" Now, L
want you to apply the same principle
in this matter of reaching heaven and
leaving this world. Not one glory is to
be subtracted, but many glories added.
Not one angel will be gone, not one
hierarch gone, not one of your glorifed
friends gone. By the long practicing
the music will be better, the procession
will be longer, the rainbow brighter
the coronation grander Heaven, with
magnificent addenda! Why will you
complain when you are only waiting
for something better?
Always Bright.
Another reason why speak IN regard
to the changes in heaven and the new
improvements in heaven is because l
think it will be a consolation to busy
and enterprsing good people. l see very
we'll that you have not much taste for
heaven that was all done and finished
centuries ago After you have been &C
tive 40 or 90 or 60 years it would be
shock to stop you suddenly and forever,
but here is "a progressive heaven, an
ever accumulative heaven, vast enter
prise OH foot there before the throne OF
God. Aggressive knowledge, aggressive
goodness, aggressive power, aggressive
grandeur. You will not have to come
and sit down on the banks of the river
of life in everlasting inoccupation. Oh,
busy men, / tell you of a heaven where
there is something to dol That is the
meaning of the passage, "They rest not
day nor night in the lazy sense of rest
ing.
speak these words on the changes in
heaven and the new improvements IN
heaven also because I want to cure some
of you of the delusion that your depart
ed Christian friends have gone into
dullness and silence and unconscious
ness. They are in a stirring, pictur-
esque, radiant, ever accumulative scene.
When they left their bodies, they only
got rid of the last hindrance. They are
no more in lakewood, Laurel Hill or
Mount Auburn than you in holiday at
tire, having seated yourself at BAN
quet can be said to be in dark closet
where you have left the old apparel
that was not fit to wear to the banquet.
4 soldier cannot use sword until he
has unsheathed it, and the body Of your
departed was only the sheath of a bright
and glitteling spirit which God has
lifted and is swaying in the heavenly
triumph. According to what I am tell
ing you at present, your departed Chris
tian friends did not go so much into
the company of the martyrs, and the
apostles, and the prophets, and the po-
tentates of heaven as into the company
Of grandfather and grandmother, and
the infant sister that tarried just long
enough to absorb your tenderest affec-
ton, and all the home circle. When they
landed, it was not as you land in Ant
werp or Hamburg or Hayre, wandering
up a strange wharf, looking at strange
faces, asking for strange hotel. They
landed amid your glorified relatives,
who were waiting to greet them.
No Frozen spIendor.
Oh, does not this bring heaven nearer?
Instead of being far off, it comes down
Just now, and it puts its arms around
our necks and we feel it's breath on our
faces. 1t melts the frigid splendor OF
the conventional heaven into domestic
scene. 1t comes very close to US. If we
had our choice in heaven, whom would
we first see? Rather than look at the
great potentates of heaven we would
meet our loved ones. | want to see
Moses and Paul and Joshua, but l
would great deal rather see my father,
who went away 30 years ago. l want
to see the great Bible heroines Deborah
and Hannah and Abigail, but would
rather see my mother than to see the
archangel.
I do not think it was superstitious
when one Wednesday night, stood by
deathbed within few blocks of the
church where 1 preached, and on the
same street, and saw one of the aged
Christians of the church going into
glory. After l had prayed with her l
said to her: "We have all loved you
very much and will always cherish your
memory in the Christian church. You
will see my son before see him, and
wish you would give him our love-
! She said, 81 will, will, !" and in 30
minutes she was in heaven-the last
words she ever spoke. 1t was swift
message to the skies. If you had yoar
choice between riding in heavenly
chariot and occupying the grandest psl-
ace in heaven, and sitting on the throne
next highest to the throne of God and
not seeing your departed loved ones, and
on the other hand dwelling in the
humblest place in heaven, without
crown or throne, and without garland
and without scepter, yet having your
loved ones around you, you would
choose the latter. say these things be-
cause want you to know it is do
nestle heaven, and consequently it is
all the time improving. Every one that
goes up makes it a brighter place, ana
the attractions are increasing month by
month and day by day, and heaven, SO
vastly more of a heaven, a thousand
times more of heaven, than it used to
be, will be better heaven yet. On, l
say this to intensity your anticipation!
The Jubilee.
- Lo.,.o, QUO low r. ic o1r110St