Juniata sentinel and Republican. [volume] (Mifflintown, Juniata County, Pa.) 1873-1955, 1898-11-16
SERMONS OF THE DAY

Subject: Improvements in Heaven"-
Society and KnowIedge-A Great Con-
ISOLATION to Good People.
TEXT: "And saw a new heaven."-Rev.
xxi, 1.
The sterotyped heaven does not make
adequate impression upon US. We need
the old story told In the new style in order
tosarouse our appreciation. / do not sup
pose that We are compelled to the old
phraseology. King James's translators
did not exhaust all the good and graphic
words in the English dictionary. / suppose
II we should take the idea of heaven, and
translate 1t into modern phrase, we would
early June and of the Indian summer in
October-a place com bining the advantages
OF city and country, the streets standing
for the one, and the twelve manner OF
fruits for the other; place of musical en-
ertainment-harpers, pfpers, trumpeters,
doxologies; place Of wonderful architec-
ture-hehold the teinplei a place where
there may be the higher forms Of animal
ife-the beasts which were on earth beaten,
lash-whipped, and CALLED and unblanketed,
and worked to death, turned out among
the white horses which the Book OF Revela-
tion describes as being in heaven; place
of stupendous iteratufe-the books open;
place of aristocratic and democratic at
tractiveness-the kings standing for the
one all nations for the other; all botanical,
omologicai, ornitholoyical arborescent,
worshipful beauty and grandeur.
But my idea now is to speak chiefly of the
improved heaven. People sometimes talk
of heaven as though it were an old city,
finished centuries ago, when l have to tell
you that no city on earth, during the last
fifty years, has had such changes as heaven.
1t is not the same place as when Job, and
David, and Paul wrote of 1t. For hundreds
and hundreds Of years it has been going
through peaceful revolution, and year by
year, and month by month, and hour by
hour, and moment by moment, it is chang
ing, and changing for something better.
Away back there was only one residence in
the universe-the residence of the Al.
mighty. Heaven had not yet been started.
lmmeDsity was the park all around about
this great residence; but Gods sympath hetic
heart after a while overflowed In other
creations, and there came, all through this
vast country OF fmmensity, inhabited vii
lagos, which grew and enlarged until they
joined each other, and became one great
central metropolis OF the universe, streeted,
gated, tempted, watered, Inhabited. One
angel went forth with a reed, We are told,
and be measured heaven on one side and
then he went forth and measured heaven
on the other side; and then st. John tried
to take the census of that city and he be-
came SO bewildered that he gave 1t up.
That brings me to the first thought of
my theme-that heaven is vastly improved
in numbers. Noting little under this head
about the multitude of adults who have
gone into glory during the last hundred
or five hundred, or thousand years, / re-
membor there are sixteen hundred millions
of people In the world, and that the vast
majority of people die in infancy. How
m oh OF hox- ;nk l.
during the last five hundred or thousand
years. II New York should gather in one
generation million population, II London
should gather in one generation four mil
lion population, what Il vast increased But
what a mere nothing as compared with the
five hundred million, the two thousand
million, the multitude that no man can
number" that have gone into that cityl
OF course, all this takes for granted that
every child that dies goes as straight into
heaven as ever the light sped from a star;
and that is one reason why heaven will
always be fresh and beautifuI-the great
multitude of children in it. Put five hun
drei million children in a country, 1t will
be a blessed and lively country
But add to this, il you WILL the great
multitude Ct adults who have gone into
glory, and how the census of heaven must
run up! Many years ago a clergyman
stood In New England pulpit, and said
that he believed that the vast majority of
the race would finally be destroyed and
that not more than one person out OF two
thousand persons would be finally saved
There happened to be about two thousand
people in the village where he preached
Next Sabbath two persons were heard dis.
cussing the subject, and wondering which
one Of the two thousand people In the
village would finally reach heaven, and
one thought 1t would be the minister, ar
the other thought it would be the old
how ~ ,rnh
for life-boat which will go out to a ship
sinking with two thousand passengers,
and get one of In safety, and let nine
teen hundred and ninety-nine go to the
bottom. Why, heaven must have been
village when Abel. the first soul from
earth, entered it, as compared with the
present population Of that great city!
Again / remark that heaven has vastly
improved in knowledge. Give a man
forty or fifty years to study one science or
all sciences, with all the advantages OF
laboratories and observatories and philo.
information. Now, into what intelligence
must heaven mount, angelhood and saint
hood, not after studying for forty or fifty
years, but for thousands Of years-study-
ing God and the soul and mmortality and
the universe! How the intelligence OF
that world must sweep on and on, with
eyesight farther reaching than telescope,
with power Of calculation mightier than
all human mathematics. with powers OF
analysis SURPRISING all chemical labor
atory, with speed swifter than teIegraphyl
What must heaven learn, with all these
advantages, In a month. in a year, in
century, in a 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 Doctor
James Simpson went up from the hospi-
tails of Edinburgh into heaven he knew
more than ever the science of health; and
that Joseph Henry, graduating from the
Smithsonian Institution into heaven,
awoke into higher realms of philosophy;
and that Sir William Hamilton, lifted to
loftier sphere, understood better the con-
struction 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 of the full litera.
ture of wisdom with which they are now
acquainted.
Again: heaven is vastly improved in its
society. During your memory how many
exquisite spirits have gone into It'll II you
should try to make 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
you not suppose they have enriched the So
ciety? 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 acquaintanceship, and add to them
all the gracious and beautiful souls that for
five hundred or a thousand years have
gone out of all the cities and all the vii
lagos. and all the countries OF this earth
into glory, and now the society of heaven
must have been improved! Suppose Paul,
the apostle, were introduced into our So
cial circle on earth; but heaven has added
all the apostles. Suppose Hannah More