The Montgomery advertiser., 1907-03-17
INT NIIEH lMIR HllE VI lN EgIliml EEl
A Tar Country. Easter Messitatfons.

China was an unreal place to me. l looked with small interest at the yell low splotch which represented 1t on the map But one day a fsvorite niece of mine was on the point ey sailing to China talked with her over the long distance" I twitted her with the Oriental slant already, as al- legged, appearing in her eye. heard her merry laugh and then over one thousand miles of charged wire came her .'Good-by, Uncle!" and she was gone. And years must pass before sec her face again. Instantly China was real to me, and a place of absorb Ing interest. Che of my own" was there. She was treading the soil and breathing the air of the yellow Elm pire. Now, all books pictures. persons that can tell me aught of China at once command my attention.
 Heaven is like far-away and unreal place to us, concerning which 1t Is dif- ficult to have lively interest But let one of our own sail away to that dis tant country and instantly all is changed. Heaven ceases to be myth teal. We have an absorbing desire to know what 1t is like, who are it's in- habitants and what their occupations This desire expresses itself In the lines:
 70 talk to. me of heaven. love
 To hear about my home apove;
 For there doth many loved one
 In light and joy ineffable.
 tell me how they shine and sing,
 While every harp rings echoing:
 And every glad and fearless eye
 Beams like the bright sun Kforiously.
 Tell me of that victorious palm
 Each hand in glory beareth.
 Tell me of that Celestial calm
 Each face in glory weareth"
 
 The quest of beauty has been age- long All the arts have sought it-- but all say: We have not attained. !" Heaven will be the realization of the ideal of beauty. Tradition says that ST. Cecena on hearing an angel choir broke her Instruments and dropped them on the ground. She stood en- sranced at the absolute perfections of melody to which she could only ap- proximate. So at first vision of the perfection of heavenly beauty, it will be confessed that what man sought. God realized.
 The >occupation of heaven will be devotional. contemplative and active. Heaven is a temple--and worship is in- separable from temple. John the Di- vine says: T heard the voice of har- pers and they sung a new song before the throne" Again. the capacity and facility for acquiring knowledge will rernain--only greatly enlarged But the heavenly life will not be merely devotional and contemplative It will be active. There. as here, will be ap- plication of knowledge for definite ends.
 It is mistake to divorce the life in the world from the life in heaven. The mere experience of transition will have no effect upon character. It has been said the dead Hottentot knows more than the living Plato. But the Hottentot in heaven will acquire just as much as he has capacity for and no more. Our present duty is to enlarge our capacity. This we do by thought, worship, love and service.
 A genuine rustic, when he comes to town. can do nothing but gape and stare But there live in the country many people who are in tune with the city. By reading, conversation and thought they have come to know the city and its ways. They walk the streets as if they had always lived there So it is possible to live in such tune with the Celestial City that we shall enter 1t as if 1t belonged to us and we were always its citizens. Since am coming to that holy room,