The Washington herald., 1917-02-23
Where Is Heaven?
BY oRIsON swETT MARDEN,

/ The most startling and perhaps the
most revolutionary statement ever ut
tered by man was that of the Christ,
"The Kingdom of Heaven is within
you"
We are only just beginning to rec
ognize the truth OF Christ's saying,
that the Kingdom Of Heaven is not
somewhere else, not on some other
planet or in some other part of the
universe, that heaven is not a place,
but that every every human being
carries within himself the only heaven
which he will ever know.
Heaven (happiness), or hell (mis-
ery), lives in our consciousness or
nowhere. The Creator never intend
ed that we should die in order to
get to heaven. We are in heaven right
now. That is, VIC can make it heaven.
Or we can make it hell as most OF
us do.
II we ever enjoy any heaven it will
come from the development OF the
divinity, the God in us. The Kingdom
OF Heaven is really the embodiment
Of our highest ideals, the realization
of our divine inheritance
One of the most unfortunate things
that ever happened to the race was
the teaching OF the doctrine that
heaven is not to be enjoyed on earth,
that it is something way beyond, and
that we must die to reach it,
The whole teaching of the theo-
logians of the past looked toward the
life beyond, the life to come. Man
was simply passing through a very
disagreeable probationary state which
was to decide his future for all eter-
nifty. Life was very serious matter
to them, and religion was still more
serious.
There was great deal of the sad
and morose in the old theology. A
long, sober, sad face was regarded as
sign of piety. People who laughed
and played much, who enjoyed hav-
ing a good time were believed to be
on the road to destruction; and were
often told that the devil was after
them.
Practically all of the Puritans suf-
fered from the curse of fear, fear of
the hereafter, which darkened all
their lives. Their faces wore an
anxious and sad expression. There
was little or no joy on earth for
them, because their natural love of
humor and fun was constantly sup
pressed.
Think of the effect on a sensitive
mind of the belief that an infant
which had not been baptized, though
it had never come to the years of un-
derstanding, did not know how to
reason, and knew nothing about re-
ligion, could be punished for ever and
ever, and that hell was paved with
infants skulls! 1t was such a horri-
bic doctrine to inject into the child
nature that il seems unthinkable such
thing could be possible.
No wonder then the Puritans were
sad and overserious when their child
hood was filled with such pictures;
when for centuries the clergy were
constantly cautioning men and women
against the play instinct, reminding
them that it was the food OF evil
forces.
Why, the love of play OF laughter
and fun are the first signs Of
intelligence in a child, as natural to
it as its breath. Just watch a per-
fectly healthful, normal child and see
how true this is. Why, it wants to
play all the time, and it laughs large
part of the day. Did the Creator put
these instincts into the child to be
crushed by the theologian? No, the
crushing of the play instinct, the love
of fun in the child is to crush its in
divduality, stunt its development, and
any religion which does not recognize
this phase of human nature is not
sound. There was no Christ at all
in the teaching which made life miser-
able. 1t was theology; not Christian
ity God was left out, as He is left
out of everything that Is not normal.
And what is religion if it is not nor
NAL?
The modern forms of religion such
as Christian Science, New Thought
Mental Science, strike different note
They teach the religion of JOY and
gladness. They put the great stress Of
living upon today, not on the life after
death. They teach that if we live a
joyful, helpful, unselhsh life, practice
the Golden Rule, go through this
world in loves way, we shall not only
h.