The Birmingham age-herald., 1903-08-30

PCIlCCl adJuSlAACnA u ilhihCA thANss w. shall live and continue to live, because decay and corruption shall flee away when death. the last enemy, shall be destroyed"
 Heaven is to be a place of progressive enjoyments If the resurrected brain Is to be alert it must have something to feed upon. So some writers have pre- dicted that in the "heavenly city, we shall have our music halls and libraries and museums and art galleries. places for intellectual as well as spiritual devel- opment. l personally take no exception to this thought. I believe the musical desire is a God given desire. The celes- tial harp or the celestial canvas or the celestial statue is net a degradation of the word celestial But. though there may be many intellectual enjoyments of heaven, I believe there shall be two which will most appeal to the denizens of the skies. The first is in studying the wonderful construction of the celestial city. Oh answers some one, T know now what is the formation of heaven It Is a great walled town. And the length and breadth and the height of 1t are all equal. And the city is made of pure gold, and the foundations of the walls of the city are collection of pre- cious stones, and the twelve gates of the city are twelve massive pearls. Why
 
 to it's mnutest detail"
 Do you truly mean what you say? Do you affirm that the streets of heaven are to be literally made out of yellow bricks and the city to be walled in town with a lot of precious stones for foundations? Why the apostle in the book of Revelation is merely talking in figurative language on in the language of earth. He is giving us a description of baa f,, xyh xxya prehend. He does not mean that heaven Is to have streets of gold any more than he literally means that hell Is to be a place of fire. Fire is a symbol of torture. Gold and precious stones are the sym bols of unlimited luxuries. Thus the apostle piles together a great mass of diamonds and sapphires and emeralds and topazes and amethysts and says: Heaven is to be like that. Heaven Is to be like pearls, like mansions of white, like golden boulevards. Picture to your self the brightest place you possibly can, and heaven is to be multipotently, inf- nitely, transcendently more beautiful" Yet when at last we reach heaven all will be so new, so strange, that our minds through all Eternity will never tire of exploring the grandeur. We shall take wings of the morning and fly away as bird and every place our eye lights
 
 investigation.
 But infinitesimal will be the enjoyment of studying the physical construction of heaven compared with that of studying the beautiful characters of those immor- tals, who will everywhere live about us. Old Samuel Johnson. l think it was, once said: ''The grandest of cathedrals or the most wonderful poem in stone never impressed me so much as theA sight of human heinz Tho I fo leave London is not on account of it's St. Paul and its Westminster Abbey but because of the endless sea of humanity every human being for which has for me a strange fascination" The study of the human character is the most interesting of all studies.
 Heaven a Place of Surprises.
 Now, the more you live with some peo- pie the more you appreciate their love and devotion and realize their true worth. When you were a little child you thought you loved your mother, but ev- cry year you grew older the more beauty and tenderness you found in her life When she was old and her hair silvered and face wrinkled and form emaclated she thought that her work was done and wondered why God did not come and get her But she became dearer to you then every day. You said to her lust before her death: Mother mother, cannot get along without you. I am just now beginning to appreciate what your love means" Yes, 1t takes some of us ten, twenty forty-aye, fifty-years to fully appreciate the beautiful characters of those who have lived by our side. Each month reveals some new sweetness or gentleness, each year some new worth So our heaven is to be place of con tinual surprises We shall all be hourly and daily discovering some new manifes- tation of purity and love in the lives of those with whom we are spending eter- nity. We shall be continually surprised with their thoughtfulness and sacrifices and tender attentions. When they do us the unexpected kindnesses which only heaven can offer we shall delightedly exclaim, Why, Mary, though I have been living with you now in heaven for a thousand years I never realized before how thoroughly kind you could be-" Their spiritual beauties their noble deeds their self sacrificing attentions shall be as a changing Kaleidoscope, ever revealing to us new natures and wonder fully new developments of love.
 Heaven Is to be a place of manifested gratitude a place where we can thank i. those whose self sacrifices helped save us when we were upon the earth. 1t will be place where we can lay at the feet of our benefactors the rich golden sheaves of our lives which came as a result of their seed planting. It shall be place where others may rejoice in our gospel conquests because their words of advice and their prayers and their examples were the means of first leading us to the foot of the cross and starting us forth as gospel messengers.
 Heaven must be such a place Why? Because most Christians never live long enough on earth to see the full results of their services for the Master. But few gospel workers can say as did Si- neon of old. Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace according to thy word, for mine eyes have seen thy salva- ton which thou hast prepared before the face of all people" When my father was born he was the youngest of thir- teen children. My grandmother was well advanced in years. Soon after his birth she turned to her husband and said, "Oh, Davit, sam so sorry that we will not in all probability live long enough to see little De Witt, our baby, grow into strong manhood and consecrate himself as iaborer in the vineyard of the Lord Jesus Christ" As with my grandmother, the regret which nearly all Christians have that in an earthly sense we shall not live long enough to see the harvest ings of our gospel seed planting We shall not live long enough to see our boys and girls, for whom we have slaved and worked and prayed, grow up into Christian men and women and see them as teachers in Christian Sunday schools and leaders in evangelistic meetings and perhaps elders and ministers about the communion taDIe of the T,Ords Sunner