The Marion daily mirror. (Marion, Ohio) 1892-1912, 1912-04-15
God and keep His commandments, is
the promise given"
EDwortII Church.


Heaven, What 1t is and Where"
was the subject of the sermon preach
ed at Epworth church Sunday even
ing by Rev. G. II. IIavighurst. The
text was as follows, but now they
desire a better country, that is, an
heavenly"
DR. Havighurst began by saying
that he did not announce this subject
as matter of curiosity but as a
question of deep practical import to
human life. The question OF the life
to come has a great deal to do with
the shaping of our life here. No
doubt many hold unworthy views of
kcavcn that subject them to the ridi-
Culc of tn thoughtful. II Is our pur-
pose tonight to get such conceptions
of heaven as shall put greater sig
nifcance into our lives and make them
deeper and richer and stronger and
more divine
All we know about It Is what God
has revealed. The Investigations of
reason and the researches of philoso-
ply are here In vain. There are no
promises upon which to build conclu-
sions. Only a few facts have been
|
Cnly few rays Of light have come
to us from the infinite beyond.
| IL has sometimes been asserted that
heaven is state of mind and not q
lplace. Sure 1t is that heaven. If Il
| means anything, means character
Heaven consists less in where a mar
is than In what he is. Here or n,
where must man find his heaven
The eternal beyond Is the eternal here
If heaven does not begin for a mar
here. iswill never begin for him here
after IT Is God in man that con
stitutes the heaven ofheaven.
| z But II heaven is primarily and en-
iphatically character, IT Is also a place
a, definite place prepared for us. II
we are going to be, I'VE must be some
where, God g going 10 ~ mp place
somewhere for His redeemed ones
just as this, earth was prepared for
us, whepe IN one continuous, progress
slve cimacteric series Of unfolding,
they shall be working out the Al
mightys plans.
If you ask me what the nature of
that place IS, 1 must answer l do moi
know II has not been revealed. God
|
about gardens, and better country
ana a great city with foundations OF
sapphire and amethyst and Jasper, and
gates of pearl, and streets of gold
But these are only representatives OF
the unknown in terms OF the known
The only way God can give as any
iGea Of the world to come is by telling
us of the things we know. lie takes
the most beautiful ana glorious thing'
Of this earth with which to paint the
lplclurc of the world to come
1t will be "A place perfectly suited
to our activities There will be per
feet correspondence between the or
ganism and its environment 1t vii
be a place of unalloyed felicity There
will be no trouble or sorrow or cry
ing or dying. God shall wipe away
Ian tears. 1t will be, | dare say,
lplace Of untiring activity. For tina
surely can not be heaven, that W.
shall sit on the bank of sunny streams
whore the myrtlcs blossom and tn
ualm tree waves, forever resting wit
folded arms, while our checks ar
famed by the gentle zcphyrs o
heaven. Eternal Happiness can no
consist with eternal idlencss. Ther
: Twin be work to be done, truth to b
/. discovered, problems to be SOLVED
mysteries to be fathOmcd. oh, VIII
can measure the possibilities Of TN
human spirit in its never-ending on
/ ward sweep through the cycles upo
, cycles of eternity? Beloved, it dot
, not yet appear what we shall be bu
we know, that when it doth appear
we shall be Ike Him, for we Snail Sc
1 HIM, aa IIp Is