Year: 1870


Henry Ward Beecher's idea Of the


Future State.


That Heaven which you think of
and think OF, is purely imagina>
ry. Imagination is the pathway
between the flesh and the spirit. It
is that which gives to every man
aspiration. Men despise it because
it is not measuring quantity. We
are taught that it is not safe to build
on, but 1 aver that in the economy
of Gods providence the human
race has been instructed more thro'
its Imagination than thro' its rea>
SON. We are not to suppose that
there is hell--literally, place of
! fire and birthstone. I don't believe
/, it, and you dot believe it, and you
ought not to believe it any more
than you are to believe that heav-
en- is really paved with golden pa
wing stones. No one believes it;
| if they did there would be more
misers anxious for their souls sal
walton. Amusement. The great
trouble of symbols is that they first
represent, then hinder. It is pos
siblc for the Bible itself to stand in
the way of understanding. l hold
it is the duty of the Christian to
interpret, not the letter, but the
spirit of revelation, and many good
people will no doubt be shocked to
hear me say that you may take the
theory on which the Scripture was
employed to represent heaven, and
then, instead of those figures you
may take your own, and make your
own figures of heaven. Now, Ma
ry is not mentioned in the Apoca-
lypse, but the Mary who left you
heart-broken, and went up into
heaven, you can never forget; and
then, when your old father, who
was prophet, priest, lover, and friend
to you. .disappear'd from your sight,
and went to join other friends in
another land, then you began to
people heaven with familiar faces,
and heaven begins to get full Of
people, and you have made of hea-
ven a vast land inhabited by depar-
ted friends.


The reason, then, Of the indis-
tinctness of teaching in the New
Testament is apparent. We are
not developed. We are not prepa-
red to understand the things that
lie beyond us. We see through a
glass darkly, but by and-by we
shall see face to face. For instance,
the lower classes Of society the
gross and animal, and even vicious
cannot understand the highest
states Of society. They. cannot
understand the position OF pure
virtuous and refined family. In
other words, the bottom Of society
cannot understand the top; but the
top can understand tae bottom, be-
cause the higher always includes
in it the development of the lower.
So We cannot interpret that which
is above, although that which is
above interprets US clear down to
the, bottom. If men understood
the blessedness Of the state which
is to come, it might be q snare
We are here to suffer, we are here
TO earn, we are here to be wrought
upon. You are seeking for your
self. You will never find yourself
this side Of the grave. Now, my
friends. do you make right use oi
Heaven He that has a true way
of looking at Heaven will be more
industrious, more patient, more
manly on earth. He has no fl
Heaven whose Heaven makes him
effeminate He has struck the true
way Of making Heaven whose
Heaven makes him strong, hopeful,
sweet, gentle, amiable and teach.
able in the present life. Now, may
God grant that every one of u:
may look not simply at Scripture.
but through Scripture into life it
self, that We may fashion for our
self Heaven that is SO near to us
that it may ever distill celestial in
fuence W on us.


INDUSTRIAL EXPOSITION - The
Cincinnati Chronicle, thus speaks
of the Exposition just closed in