The Indianapolis journal., 1902-10-26
THE VOICE OF THE PULPIT
"MANY HOMES" IN WHICH ALL SHALL
REST FROM THEIR LABORS.
By Rev. Edward Everett Hale, ID. D.,
Pastor Emeritus, South COngre-
gational Church, Boston, Mass.

"In my Fathers house are many man
sions; IL it were not so, 1 would have told
you; for go to prepare place for YOU
John xiv, 2.
AS the declaration in which the Saviour
lifted the curtain highest, this text is stud
led. of course, with curious, even anxious,
interest There is, 1t seems. heaven for
each Of US, whatever his mood or his at
tainment; and 1t seems that, as Jesus
thought Of it, these might be quite different
each from EACH One thing more. which
our stately word mansion" does not teach.
but which appears distinctly in the original
text, and In all that Jesus ever says of
heaven-these places which he prepares are
so many homes. Your home is ready for
you, mine for me. The text would be better
rendered indeed, If we read, I'm my Fa-
theirs house are many homes"
The Jesus Christ, leading a life wholly
spiritual, the whole sense of these realities.
what / may call the sight of them. the
hearing and conception Of them, was per-
fectly clear. To us it is clear or not clear.
strong or faint according as our lives are
lives of the spirit or of the flesh; according
as we live for things that die or for the
three realities which endure.
And here is the answer to the frequent
question, why Christ himself, with his clear
description of it, nor other pictures of 1t,
than are in these words. But what is the
use of pictures to a person who cannot
see, or Of descriptions to one who cannot
understand? No revealer can reveal any
thing to us which we have not the spiritual
power to at least apprehend, and in a meas
ure to comprehend. Jesus reserves what he
might have said, because unless those who
heard him are Of spiritual life, habit and
experience. which is to say, unless they are
exercised in faith, hope and love, they can
not understand, see, or hear of the spiritual
heaven, of a heaven Of faith, hope and
love. He did not make, therefore, the fatal
error which teachers Of children make,
who, with a poor earthly fancy, describe
to the poor little things that before which
the loftiest heavenly imagination Is silent
a mistake which. If 1T has any fruit, results
In binding them for years to heaven which
is only a garden, or only shop of jewels.
or a kings palace, according as the childish
allegory may have taught them. The de-
scription of a spiritual heaven, though 1t
were perfectly wrought out by an arch
angel, would be as unintelligible to the car
nal mind as the heaven itself.
So is 1t that the only statement Of de-
tail which the Savior gives is this in the
text; which, translated into our habit Of
speech, says this-that whatever be the
heaven which we are prepared for when
we pass from this world. that spiritual life
n,,>
as we ourselves have made them. II your
highest joy be the counting out Of rubies,
or the dressing your person with diamonds.
Omnipotence itself Will not force you into
life more spiritual. There are many man.
sions there. That is, the economy of the
life before us is the same as that of life
here in its variety, and in it's adaptation to
each separate soul.
A HOME FOR EACH.
So In all life, there and here, each shall
find himself in his own home, bearing his
own character, and living his own life. Be-
cause love is one of the three elements of
heaven, these homes are homes of mutual
life. AS there is society mere so there is
there; sympathy here and sympathy there;
kindred hearts fuse together here and they
fuse together there. But the mansions are
different mansions there as here. 1t is no
CHASTITY caravansary, poorhouse, or palace,
where Room 80 is like Room /. and Room
1000 like Room 80. 1t Is myriad multitude
of homes. There are many spheres of duty,
many voices in chorus. There are differ
ent trees to water-if you call it a garden
and different flowers to train, as in the old
paradise, where Adam taught the tangled
ivy how to climb"
If you describe heaven for another and
insist on your description, you drive your
pupil right away from 1t, unless he be
precise counterpart Of yourself. An eager
student will tell a child that In heaven he
shall always learn; and the child, hating
booklearning really breads such a heaven.
An eager spirit, always on the alert,
breaches that in heaven there shall be no
pause in its activity. Heaven, like earth,
is to be eager planning, forward marching,
and every success a stepping stone for new
plans and other marches. What wound is
this to the aged heart which has tossed
long enough In the gales of life to be long