Edgefield advertiser. [volume] (Edgefield, S.C.) 1836-current, 1920-11-24
:sHeavenly Recognition by Inn.
plication of Its Rejection"
Text: stI Shall go to Him"
II Sam. 1928
(Sermon by DR.. R. G. Lee.)

man, none are more interesting dnC
important than those that relate tc
mans origin and destiny. The
whence" and whittier" of personal
life. are both fundamental questions
Both, too, are bound up with reli-
gion. From time immemorial man
has looked into the years, backward
and forward, reminiscently and pro-
phetically, wondering, wondering! In
these far-back, primitive days when
life seemed simple, something in man
revolted from the thought that life
could end in endless sleep. And, even
now, in this our day when we have
let go of some of the sweet simplici-
ties of the old-time religion, we are
apt to think of the future life as less
obvious, less real, more ghostly, more
metaphorical. Thus we become the
victims of time and space.
DR.. Jowett said: "We must preach
on these great subjects whose vast
ness almost terrifies us as we ap-
proach them" And am frank to say
that the subject of the morning hour
and the subject of the evening hour
is subject whose vastness almost
,terrifes me as I approach it, but it's
solemn splendor thrills my soul.
There come times to us all when
we wish Christ had said more. There
are great questions which we should
like to have put to Him, and on which
we should like to have received exact
and definite information. So it is
with this question of heavenly recog-
milton which presents to us problem
of unusual interest. The question
comes to US distinctly amid the roar
of the complex machinery of our
modern life. 1t presses down upon
our hearts when the cares of life
press heavily on our shoulders. The
question comes to us when we would
be materialistic; but the spiritual
will not down; the oft smothered but
unquenchable fires of the spiritual
burn--and we find ourselves in times
of unspeakable loneliness, in periods
of meditation, in times when the
heart is crushed with some great
sorrow, asking: "Shall we know each
other in heaven?"
lnere are many VINO say.
''I have friends in the Spirit land
Not shadows in shadowy band,
Not others but themselves are they,
And still I think of them the same
As when the Masters summons
.camep
OF course they think of them the
same-and the mother whose boy
died on the battle fields and died in
the faith wants to know if she shall
know her boy in the green fields be-
yond the swelling flood. And the
mother whose arms ache in emptiness
for the little child that went away,
wants to know sssuredly if she shall
mold her child again. And the father
whose boy died just when the years
were opening with golden promise
sas the day opens with sunrise glory,
wants to know if over yonder he will
look on his child's face again. And
the friend whose friend went away
as Elijah left Elisha wants some as
surance that the friendship will be
renewed again in a better world, say
ing oft:
'E'Here in this body pent,
Absent from him / roam,
Yet nightly pitch my moving tent
A days march nearer home"
Now it is one thing to avoid reck-
less assertion without any founda-
ton. 1t is undoubtedly another thing
to have so little trust in God that we
are afraid to make fair inference
concerning the life beyond such as
we would unhesitatingly make in like
conditions here. believe in recogni-
tion in heaven as surely as / believe
in any teaching of the Bible, as firm
.ly as believe there is God, as
strongly as l believe you are before
me this morning. If consciousness,
character, love, memory, fellowship,
are in that life, why should there be
any question about it? May God help
me for your sakes to take the doc
trine of Heavenly Recognition out of
the region of surmise and specula-
ton into the region of absolute GER
tainty. May we all leave the house
today and tonight as one who leaves
here his burden and takes away
song, believing that the kiss of re-
union at the celestial gate will be as
certain as the dying kiss at the gate
to the grave
Let us consider Heavenly Recog-
milton from what implications of its
rejection implies. Its rejection i'm
plies:
/. The Utter Forgetfulness of Our
Earth Life and Friends: In other
words the blotting out of the faculty
of memory. Shall we forget forever
those whom we knew on earth? Shall
we forever be unfamiliar with those
with whom we walked and talked in
the sacred intimacies of this life on
earth? Shall we in the glory come
near to those with whom we locked
arms in sweet comradeship and join
ed hands in holy endeavor and with
whom we ran in lock step toward no
BILE goals on earth and, up there,
know them not? Was the old poet
I.