The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1901-08-09
HOT WEATHER VIEWS OF HEAVEN.


Some of the brethren of the pulpit
have essayed, during the recent hot
wave, to give us a clearer insight into
Heaven and what 1t is like than we
have had before. And, singularly
enough, the most exploited of these at
tempts at enlightenment have rather
tended to create the impression that
Heaven is altogether different sort
of place from that which most persons
have heretofore believed it. For in
stance we have thought of ii as a ce-
lestial city, with pearly gates and gold
en- pavements, in which there were
limpid streams, beautiful trees and
blossoms and other things conducive
to pleasure and an ecstatic frame of
mind.
But the Rev. G. Whey. pastor of the
Second Baptist Church of Circleville,
o., tells us that this is all wrong.
Heaven, he assures us, is as hot as
the other place, and that the
temperature of each is S26 de-
grees Fahrenheit. This is
pretty fine calculation, nevertheless
the preacher claims seriptural author
ity for the assertion. In Isaiah, xxx: %,
it is stated that 1.-THE light of the sun
shall be seven-fold. as the light of
seven days. This, Mr.. Whey says,
means that Heaven is seven times as
bright and as hot as the sunshine of
our hottest summer days. Since the
thermometer has been known to regis
ter lis degrees in the sunshine, and
since seven times lis degrees are s26
degrees, that figure, the preacher
says, must be the temperature of
Heaven. That, of course, would pre-
clude all possibility of pearly gates,
golden pavements, trees, flowers, birds,
etc. The preacher asserts. as a matter
Of fact, that the saints and the saved
will all be transformed into flames
themselves, otherwise they would be
consumed by the fire. To the saved.
however. the intense heat and light will
be pleasurable, while to the lost, exist
ing in identically the same tempera-
ture, Fahrenheit, the experience will
be indescribably excruciating.
This odd ideal of Heaven, however,
is no more striking than that of the
Rev. Mr.. Leach of Chicago. He says
there will be mighty few men there;
that the great majority of the popula-
ton of the celestial city will be wo-
men. He says the women are living
purer lives than the men, therefore the
hosts of Heaven will be recruited al
most wholly from the gentler sex, while
the other place will get the most of
the men. The reverend gentleman may
have thought that he was paying the
women of his congregation a high COM
pliment in this statement. but we doubt
If they will look at il that way No wO-
mans life is complete without the love
OF a man-father, brother. husband or
son-in it; and it may be asserted
without great risk that the majority
of women would not be happy in the
future life II they knew that all of
those of the opposite sex whom they
loved in this life were consigned to
endless torrents, as the Rev. Mr..
Leach asserts will be the case.
Again, the Chicago preacher seems
to fail 10 give the mere man" his Just
dues. While it Is true that women
make up the majority of the church
congregations, and put into the contri-
button boxes the money that keeps up
the organization and pays the preach
er, nine times out of ten ii is the man
who earns the money and it, is upon
his consent and pleasure that it is paid
into the church Golfers. Brother Leach
is altogether too hard upon the men.
and some OF the sisters of his congre-
cation may be constrained TO tell him