Evening star., 1915-12-11
&p(nortt. league @isfussiom

, tians were never more hercely beset, ana
we can only realize the conditions then
as we become more and more famlliar
with the unbelievably horrible details of
the deliberately diabolical annihilation OF
a whole nation in this, our own day-for
nowhere in history can we hnd anotner
such instance of whole nation or nun
dreds of thousands of people sunering
such a martyrdom for their faith as the
Moslems are inflicting even now upon
the Armenians. To these early Christians,
prosecuted and threatened with extinction
by individual and wholesale martyrdom,
John sent from the Isle Of Patmos this
message of encouragement, vision, and
promise, couched in the language and
imagery of the Apocalypse of Daniel and
of the Jewish writings of the period be-
tween the two testaments.
x x
Heaven.
The wise and humble of all nations and
ages have sought some assurance that
death is not the great finality. AS far
back as we can trace the workings OF the
human mind we find that men instinct
lively were repelled by death. Based on
this universal repulsion by death and
search for something beyond. We find the
provision Of some kind of heaven the
one element common to practically every
religion worship and philosophy con-
ceived by the mind of man. This con-
seriousness, common to humankind, OF
life other than the mere hysicai-that
does not cease with the death Of the body
has produced the idea of heaven as a
place where that part which Is immortal
will spend eternity. or that condition or
state Of the soul after death OF the body.
Mans idea of heaven has been pro-
gressive, and has gone through as dis
tinct and traceable an evolution as
physical life in the animal and vege-
table Kingdoms. AS the physical body
has universally been accepted as sym
bolical of the soul, so the idea of
the physical life and its conditions.
The primevaI man thought of heaven
as the happy hunting ground. De
velopment of physical life brought re
fnement of this idea, and we find varl-
Gus IDEAS. such as the qualification or
the physical senses. as in the Elysian
fields of the early Greeks: and later, IN
tellectual delights became part OF the
idea Conceptions of heaven as place
of rest, worship or reward also de-
veloped as physical life progressed, put
not until Christ came and awakened
man to the consciousness OF the soul
life-the kingdom Of heaven, as ne OFTEN
called ibid the idea of the spiritual
nature of heaven take root. But men
have been slow to accept and slower
to understand Christ's teaching, and
after nearly twenty centuries OF prog
ress we still find our vision of heaven
obscured by our inability to free our
selves from consciousness of the con-
ditions of physical life, and we still
say. with Paul. now We. see through a
glass, darkly."
Since the time of the earliest Chris
tians, whose ideas of heaven and hell
were of certainly located places, where
the restored physical bodies enjoyed
physical pleasures or suffered physical
pain, as pictured by Dante, some pc
culiar ideas have arisen during the
gradual evolution of man.k idea of
heaven. We read of theologians dis
cussing earnestly the question Of how
many angels could stand on the point
of a needle only few centuries ago;
and most of the hymns and other poetry
of the last few centuries express the
idea of heaven as distant place of
restoration, to be reached by
a journey after death We sing:
There is happy land,
Far, far away!
Where saints immortal stand,
Bright, bright day!
Today we find extent various ideas
of heaven, which may perhaps be clas
sified into ideas of state or place of |
rest, and reward. work (service), wor-
ship, physical restoration. physical |
mental Development, men, |
tai completeness. spiritual awakening, |
spiritual development. spiritual COM |
pleteness and of consciousness of |
Christ's presence.
Fulhllment-How, When, Wherep
In view of these widely differing and
ideas Of heaven how shall ]