OUR ETERNAL HOMES.
BY
A BIBLE STUDENT.
"To the law and the testimony: if they speak not according to this word, it
is because there is no light in them." - Isa. viii. 20.
"Thy kingdom come."
FROM THE FOURTH LONDON EDITION.
BOSTON:
T. H. CARTE R AND SO N.
CHICAGO: E. B. MYERS AND CHANDLER.
1866.




UNIVERSITY PRESS: WELCH, BIGELOW, & CO.,
CAMBRIDGE.




TO
THE EVER CHERISHED MEMORY
OF MY MOST TENDER FRIEND AND EARLIEST TEACHER,
MY BELOVED MOTHER,
WHOM IT HAS PLEASED THE DIVINE MERCY TO REMOVE FROM THE CARES,
TOILS, SORROWS, AND ANXIETIES OF EARTH,
THIS LITTLE WORK,
ON A SUBJECT WHICH SHE DELIGHTED TO CONTEMPLATE,
IS MOST GRATEFULLY INSCRIBED
BY
THE AUTHOR.








CONTENTS.
INTRODUCTION.
WHY WE OUGHT TO INVESTIGATE THE SUBJECT... 1
I.
WHAT IS HEAVEN?
HEAVEN CONSIDERED AS A STATE, WHAT IT IS, AND BIBLE
REFERENCES TO IT. - THE IMPORTANCE OF SO CONSIDERING
HEAVEN. - HEAVEN CONSIDERED AS A PLACE. - WHERE IS
HEAVEN? - HEAVEN CONSIDERED AS HOME. - VARIETY IN
HEAVEN. - PLURALITY OF HEAVENS. - THE THREE GLORIES.
— THE NATURAL AND THE SPIRITUAL MEANING OF THE
WORD "HEAVEN." - THE ANALOGY OF THE SOUL WITHIN
THE BODY TO THE SPIRITUAL WITHIN THE NATURAL UNIVERSE.- " BEYOND THE BOUNDS OF TIME AND SPACE "
CONSIDERED. - TIIE NEARNESS OF HEAVEN PROVED BY THE
APPEARANCES OF ANGELS AS RECORDED IN THE BIBLE. -
THE TWO COMMONLY RECEIVED HYPOTHESES AS TO THOSE
APPEARANCES. - A THIRD STATED, ILLUSTRATED, AND ENFORCED. - WHAT CONSTITUTED A SEER. - MOSES IN THE
MOUNT. - THE SPIRITUAL WORLD NOT DISTANT, AS SHOWN
IN THE EXPERIENCES OF THE DYING. - TRANCES. - SPIRITMANIFESTATIONS CONSIDERED IN THIS CONNECTION. —OBJECTIONS TO PURSUING THE INVESTIGATION EXAMINED AND
REFUTED. -THE NEARNESS OF HEAVEN THE SECRET OF
STRENGTH. —HEAVENLY TEACHERS.- THE NEARNESS OF
HEAVEN THE SECRET OF LIFE. - THE NEARNESS OF HEAVEN
THE SECRET OF PRESERVATION. - ALL THE UNIVERSE
BOUND TOGETHER IN CONSEQUENCE OF THE NEARNESS OF
HEAVEN......11




vi                 CONTENTS.
II.
GUARDIAN ANGELS.
MAN AN INHABITANT OF BOTH THE NATURAL AND THE SPIRITUAL WORLDS. - EVEN WHILE HERE HAS ASSOCIATES IN
BOTH. - THE ARGUMENT FROM THE NATURE OF MAN.THE ARGUMENT FROM THE NATURE OF ANGELS. - ANGELS
ARE INTELLIGENT, LOVING, ACTIVE BEINGS, AND POSSESS
THE HUMAN FORM. -THE ARGUMENT FROM ANALOGY. -
THE ARGUMENT FROM THE BIBLE. - THE PEOPLE OF ISRAEL. - THE NEW TESTAMENT DISPENSATION. — OBJECTIONS CONSIDERED. —THE PROPOSITION OF ANGELIC MINISTRATIONS RIGHTLY STATED. - THE UNIVERSAL DECLARATIONS OF THE SCRIPTURES. - THE CASE OF DANIEL, THE
ANGEL, AND THE PRINCES OF PERSIA AND GRECIA. -
CONFIRMATORY EVIDENCES. - SPECIAL PROVIDENCES AND
DIVINE INSTRUMENTS. - CHRISTIAN CONSOLATION DERIVED
FROM BELIEF IN ANGELIC MINISTRATIONS. - THE HOPE OF
THE CHRISTIAN IN RELATION TO ANGELIC LIFE  ~.. 45
HEAVENLY SCENERY.
THE ORDINARILY ENTERTAINED CONCEPTIONS OF HEAVEN. -
TRUE SUBLIMITY. - THE MAINTENANCE OF UNITY IN
VARIETY THE LAW OF DIVINE OPERATION. — THIS LAW
OPERATIVE IN HEAVEN. - THE ARGUMENT FROM MAN'S
NATURE. — ESTHETICAL LOVES, AND THE WANTS THEY
INSPIRE. - MAN TAKES THEM WITH HIM INTO THE OTHER
LIFE. - SCRIPTURE CONFIRMATIONS. - MUSIC IN HEAVEN,
AND ITS CONSEQUENCES BY ANALOGY. -DESCRIPTIONS OF
HEAVEN IN THE BIBLE. - THE PRINCIPLE OF HARMONY
THE PREDOMINATING LAW IN HEAVEN. - THE LAW OF
CORRESPONDENCE BETWEEN THE OBJECTIVE WORLD AND
SUBJECTIVE STATES OF THE SOUL. -THE BEAUTIFUL IN
HEAVEN. - THE REDEEMED IN HEAVEN REGENERATED
AND SANCTIFIED, NOT TRANSFORMED.- THE VARIETIES
OF INDIVIDUAL GENIUS RETAINED IN HEAVEN.- HEAVEN
HUMAN, AND FITTED FOR MAN AS MAN IS FITTED FOR
HEAVEN.-THE OBJECTION, HEAVEN ONLY AN IDEALLY
BEAUTIFUL EARTH, CONSIDERED.-HEAVEN, "TIlE GARDEN OF GOD "........ 70




CONTENTS.                     vii
I V.
DEATH  THE GATE OF LIFE.
MAN LIFE'S GREAT PARADOX. -THE PRESENCE AND UNIVERSALITY OF DEATH. - IS DEATH A CURSE? - DEATH THE
INEVITABLE CONSEQUENT OF PHYSICAL LIFE. -DEATH AS
THE PENALTY OF SIN EXAMINED. - DEATH IN RELATION
TO MAN. - EXAMINATION OF SCRIPTURE-TEACHINGS ON
THE SUBJECT OF DEATH. - DEATH A BENEVOLENT. NECESSITY. -WHAT IS DEATH? - MAN'S NATURAL AND SPIRITUAL BODIES. - PAUL'S THREE TERMS OF COMPARISON
BETWEEN MAN AND GRAIN. - THE RESURRECTION OF THE
NATURAL BODY CONSIDERED. - THE THREE KINDS OR
DEGREES OF SUBSTANCE. - CONCLUSIONS AS TO THE REDEEMED IN HEAVEN. - SCRIPTURE TESTIMONIES AS TO
THE LIFE AFTER DEATH.- DEATH SWALLOWED UP IN
VICTORY. - LIFE A JOY.- DEATH A BLESSING... 91
V.
DO THE DEPARTED FORGET US?
HUMAN NECESSITY TO LOVE AND BE BELOVED.- THE LAW
OF LOVE. -THE QUESTIONS THAT LOVE ASKS AS TO THE
BELOVED WHO HAVE GONE. - THE EARTH-LIFE THE BEGINNING OF MAN'S EXISTENCE. - WHAT MAN TAKES WITH
IHIM INTO THE OTHER LIFE. - NO NECESSARY FORGETFULNESS IN THE OTHER LIFE, NOR CESSATION OF LOVE FOR
THOSE LOVED WHILE ON EARTH. - SCRIPTURE TESTIMONIES. - NEED OF DEEPER VIEWS. - TEMPORAL UNIONS
AND TEMPORARY ATTACHMENTS. - ONLY REAL AND PROFOUND LOVE PERMANENT. - LOVE THE CAUSE OF REMEMBRANCE. - THE BLESSINGS OF FORGETFULNESS. - THE
ARGUMENT FROM EXPERIENCE.- THE FULNESS OF HEAVENLY JOY..118
VI.
MAN'S BOOK  OF LIFE.
AN ANALYSIS OF MEMORY. - ITS MARVELLOUS CHARACTERISTICS.- DO WE EVER FORGET? - THE SECRET OF REMEM



viii                CONTENTS.
BRANCE. - THE PHILOSOPHY OF MEMORY. - THE CONNECTION BETWEEN MAN'S MEMORY AND HIS REAL NATURE. -
MAN'S TWO MEMORIES, THE EXTERNAL AND THE INTERNAL.
- MAN'S MEMORY HIS " BOOK OF LIFE." - THE IMPOSSIBILITY OF SECRECY. -REWARDS ACCORDING TO WORKS.
- THE GREAT ASSIZE. - COMPENSATIONS. -THE RECOLLECTIONS AND THE FORGETTINGS OF THE HEREAFTER. -
HUMANITY'S HOPE IS REGENERATION. - THE DOUBLE
MEANING OF FORGIVENESS OF SINS. -THE VALUE AND
IMPORTANCE OF OUR PRESENT LIFE IN THE WORLD.. 136
VII.
INFANTS IN  HEAVEN.
GOD'S LOVE TO LITTLE CHILDREN. -THE MOTHER'S LOVE.
-THE SANCTITY OF PATERNITY. - GOD'S MERCY MANIFESTED IN ITS PERMISSION. - THE SPIRITUAL USES OF
PATERNITY. -JOY IN HEAVEN OVER THE BIRTH OF OUR
LITTLE ONES. — DEATH OF CHILDREN. - ALL WHO DIE IN
INFANCY ETERNALLY SAVED. - HEREDITARY EVIL AND
ACTUAL SIN. —THE EPITAPHS OF INFANTS. - MOURNING
FOR BABES THAT HAVE DIED.- WHY DO CHILDREN DIE?
- RECOGNITION OF OUR CHILDREN IN THE OTHER LIFE. -
WILL THEY FOREVER REMAIN INFANTS? - GROWTH IN
HEAVENLY WISDOM AND GOODNESS. - ANGELS THE TUTORS OF OUR ANGELIC BABES. - CONCLUSIONS ON THE
TOPIC. - GENERAL PRACTICAL LESSON OF THE WHOLE
WORK.                    160




OUR ETERNAL HOMES.
INTRODUCTION.
OYAGERS to a distant port, travellers
to a far-off country, emigrants from a
land of destitution to a land of hope, desire to know somewhat of the character
of their several destinations.  This desire is not
unnatural. Indeed, we should reasonably consider
indifference as an indication and a proof of strange
shallowness of thought or of feeling. The warmer
the hopes that point to that far-off resting-placd,
the keener will be the anxiety to learn all that
can be known as to that resting-place. Delight
in contemplating its prospects may be measured
by the disposition to inquire into its character.
Men, as reasonable beings, must necessarily prefer
to investigate most those subjects that take the
strongest hold upon their interest. We think the
most constantly of that which we love best, and
desire to obtain information thereon, to enable us
the more fully to think of it. So far from this
1                        A




2             INTRODUCTION.
being unnatural, it is the very necessity of our rational nature; and as such, anxiety to learn something about heaven is at once God-designed and
God-given.
Nor is such a disposition puerile.'The immensity of human interests that are involved in the
subject, - the universal certainty of death, the
many dear friends whom we have had, and who
are now deceased, gone out from our sight, yet
not faded from our memories nor our love, the
pregnant questions of immortality and our future
life, — all these unite to press the consideration
upon us. The strongest minds bow in weakness
before the shadows that loom up from the abyss,
and become the most absorbed in the contemplation of the secrets of the hereafter. Sage and saint
have acknowledged the sovereignty which this anxiety to know has swayed over them; and the tenderest affections which they have cherished have
only invested such anxiety with the halos of love.
There is so startling a disproportion between our
capacities for learning and our opportunities here
for acquiring knowledge; between our faculties of
use and the occasions afforded on earth for their
exercise, that involuntarily all good men seek in
the belief of future existence the prospect of a
wider arena for sublime action, and an interminable opportunity for acquisition and development.
Warped by hope to the contemplation of the future
life, we combine with our belief of it the loftiest




INTRODUCTION.                  3
aspirations and the largest thoughts.  It is the
glory and pride of man that alone of all animated
creatures he is the heir of immortality, and that
the rational existence which he possesses fits him
to appreciate, and therefore to receive, capacitates
him to improve, and therefore to enjoy, perpetual
being; and surely it is not improper that he should
seek to ascertain somewhat in relation to this sublime prerogative, which marks him the apex of the
pyramid of creation, the grand middle term of life,
"midway'twixt nothing and Deity."
While this disposition is neither unnatural nor
puerile, it is not unlawful. The best evidence of
its lawfulness will be afforded in the proof that it
has pleased our Divine Teacher to reveal in His
holy word occasional glimpses of heaven and man's
future state. Intelligence is the faculty of perceiving, and revelation is the presentation of something
to be seen, and which in its absence either could
not have been seen at all, or which could not have
been seen so clearly. But the very fact that something is revealed, proves that this something was
intended by the Revealer to be seen by those to
whom the revelation has come. The revelation is
the evidence of the intention. Not only to be seen,
but also to be investigated; for investigation is only
the effort to see more clearly.  If it has pleased
God to reveal any information on this subject, it is
not only not unlawful to endeavor to learn, but
further, it is treating the revelation with improper




4             INTRODUCTION.
inconsiderateness if we do not endeavor to learn.
It must be indeed a slight and an offence to the
Communicator to regard with indifference the communication which it has pleased Him to make.
"As is moonlight unto sunlight," so is the light
of nature to the light of revelation on all subjects
connected with man's immortality or the nature of
his hereafter. Poets and philosophers have obtained
some dim perception that the cradle and the grave
are not the boundaries of human being, that the
light kindled at birth is not to be extinguished in
the sepulchre, that while the clods of the valley may
cover man's body, yet the deathless principle with
which he is endowed must and will rise into broader
development and grander existence, when the Power
that adjoined it to the exquisite machinery of the
body shall beckon it away; yet their perception of
these sublime facts has been a hazardous conjecture,
vague in its character, and ephemeral in its influence on their conduct. It has been rather an intuition than a solid decision of their judgment, a
creature of hope more than a child of conviction.
The few heathens who held it, so held it despite
the ridicule of many, and the stolid incredulity of
most. Lord Macaulay only expressed what must
more or less be the conviction of a large number
of serious and reflecting readers, when he remarks:
"In truth, all the philosophers, ancient and modern,
who have attempted, without the aid of revelation,
to prove the immortality of man, from Plato down




INTROD UCTION.               5
to Franklin, appear to us to have failed deplorably."
Into the midst of the crude fancies, gross superstitions, vacillating hopes, and the dim mass of uncertainties which existed, revelation comes down like
a giant among pigmies, or like a sage among children, to correct their errors and increase their
knowledge.  It rises like a sun upon the mists
and darkness that preceded it, confounding problems and displaying certainties, in order that men
may see, where previously they doubted, and understand, where before they laid their hands upon
their mouths, having no answer from God.
Guided by the light of nature alone, the hazardous
and intricate inductions of reason formed no more
than an uncertain pathway for human thought; but
by the light of revelation man is safely shown the
truth.  That God has revealed anything on the
subject of heaven is the great proof that He designs
us to be instructed. But we can only be instructed
by the knowledge so far as we comprehend it, and
we can only comprehend so far as we investigate
and consider it. Investigation into such subjects
cannot therefore be unlawful.
Such investigations are not only lawful; they are
highly beneficial. The hope of the Christian lays
hold on heaven. The clearer his conviction that
heaven is a certainty, and the more vivid his conception of what heaven is, the more potent and
operative will be his hope of attaining it.  We
need not fear that familiarizing his mind with the




6             INTRODUCTION.
subject will generate in man either indifference or
contempt. The more intimately we know God's
works in the natural universe, the more profound
becomes our consciousness of His majesty, and the
deeper grows our adoration. Similar results must
follow a clearer perception of what heaven is. We
need not be apprehensive that heaven will exhibit
less wisdom, or display less goodness, either in its
design or its government, than does the natural
universe. Intended to be the everlasting habitation of rational and holy intelligences, it will and
must be found to be worthy of God, who has provided it, as well as worthy of man, for whom it has
been prepared. Indeed, as heaven is an advanced
state, into which the blots that mar and disfigure
our earth-life, the strange and problematic blending
of evil with good, of pain with pleasure, of misery
with happiness, of sorrow with joy, can never enter, - so we may anticipate that heaven will yield
testimonies more invariable and still more triumphant to the love and wisdom of our august Creator. These will reward the effort of investigation,
and repay its toil. There must be something radically shallow and wrong in our conception of heaven,
if we dread the results of a more intimate acquaintance with its nature, or a fuller consideration of its
character. Remoteness can only augment uncertainty; but the glories of the future state of the
blessed can only shine the more resplendently the
more closely we approach them.




INTR OD UCTION.               7
Devotion can thereby only find new reasons to
rejoice in hope, and to persevere in the pilgrimage
of the regenerate life; while even cursory curiosity
may, from contemplation, meet with a new inducement to holiness, or a fresh incentive to deter man
from sin. Our inquiries into the mysterious problems of man's earth-life, which now often baffle our
limited knowledge, may, perhaps, receive some illustration from a clearer insight into the relation of our
present to our future state of existence. Seeing two
terms of the problem may aid us in attaining a closer
approximation to the solution; and an enlarged comprehension of the curricula of heaven may shed light
on the probationary processes of earth.  That is,
man's destiny may irradiate man's wayfaring, and
the triumph provided may illume the mysteries of
the warfare.  The ridicule of scepticism and the
objections of infidelity may find a fresh refutation
in the evidences our investigation may furnish us
of heaven's adaptation to man's highest nature, and
the adaptability of man's highest nature to such a
heaven as the Bible reveals.
Even though incredulous intellect be but remotely affected, yet the operation of more certain and
worthy conceptions of heaven on the hearts of believers must be incalculable ill its benefits: and so
far as the heart can influence the head, and the
affections the intellect, even mind must be the
gainer. The heart of the mourner, blistered with
tear-drops at the loss of the beloved, may find from




8             INTRODUCTION.
such contemplation an additional consolation. The
waning strength of the struggling combatant in
temptation may receive through such suggested
recollections new power to fight the fight and
press forward toward the mark of the prize of our
high calling in Christ Jesus our Lord. The bewildered wanderer in the labyrinths of life may
obtain direction and a guide, from brighter perceptions of the hereafter; while the wayworn and
weary may be nerved with renewed resolution, as
they catch the gleam of the hill-set city nearer to
them than they thought. As the sight of home
brightens on the heart of the traveller, though mists
be mantling round his path, so will clear conceptions of heaven illume and cheer the soul walking Zionwards, which has -already decided that in
heaven is his home.
In our inquiry into this sublime subject, we shall
only seek to learn and indicate the glimpses of
heaven furnished to us in the Bible. From the
Scriptures we derive our knowledge of the fact
that there is such a state. No means other than
revelation could supply us with the declaration of
this fact. Reason might attain to the induction
that such a state may exist, as it can show, after
the revelation has been afforded, that the declaration is not contrary to our otherwise acquired
knowledge.  It may thus endeavor, not only to
comprehend, but also.to confirm what has been
thus made known; but for the clew and the inti



INTRODUCTION.                   9
mation reason is indebted to revelation. As revelation alone informs us of the fact, revelation alone
must supply us with information on the subject.
Devout inquirers, we shall attempt only to follow
where God in the Bible leads us, and shall discover
that as God requires no blind acquiescence in His
truth, so He has revealed sufficient to supply reason
with its worthiest exercise, together with abundance
to satisfy the heart. We shall attempt to draw no
conclusions that are not plainly involved in the suggestive words of Holy Writ. God intends not that
man should serve Him with an unthinking obedience, or love Him with an irrational devotion; belief in His word is the triumph of reason, and trust
in His promises is the culmination of confidence.
One thing we shall find, that everything revealed
on the subject of heaven is pregnant with practical
importance, and potent with application to the daily
issues of life. To His service we commend this
little book, as for His glory we have written it, in
the spirit of the prayer: -
", What in me is dark,
Illumine; what is low, raise and support;
That to the height of this great argument,
I may assert eternal Providence,
And justify the ways of God to man."
In so far as the opinions advanced in this little
book are novel, we solicit for them  attentive consideration; in so far as they are peculiar, we only
ask that they be not charged upon others; in so far
1 *




10            INTRODUCTION.
as they are good in their purpose and tendency, we
hope that they will be cherished, and that no idiosyncrasies of thought may frustrate whatever spiritual advantage they might otherwise impart; in so
far as they are imperfect, fragmentary, and unsatisfactory, we plead our own deficiencies and ignorance; but in so far as those opinions are in accordance with reasonable deduction, we require for them
candor; and in so far as they are consonant with
the inspired declarations of the sacred word of God,
we demand for them acceptance.  "To the law
and to the testimony: if they speak not according
to this word, it is because there is no light in them."
(Isa. viii. 20.)




WHAT IS HEAVEN?
"There is one glory of the sun, and another glory of the moon, and another
glory of the stars: for one star differeth from another star in glory." — 1 CoR.
xv. 41.
HEAVEN CONSIDERED AS A STATE, WHAT IT IS, AND BIBLE REFERENCES TO IT. - THE IMPORTANCE OF SO CONSIDERING HEAVEN.
— HEAVEN CONSIDERED AS A PLACE.- WHERE IS HEAVEN? -
HEAVEN CONSIDERED AS HOME. - VARIETY IN HEAVEN. -
PLURALITY OF HEAVENS.- THE THREE GLORIES. -THE NATURAL AND THE SPIRITUAL MEANING OF THE WORD " HEAVEN."
- THE ANALOGY OF THE SOUL WITHIN THE BODY TO THE SPIRITUAL WITHIN THE NATURAL UNIVERSE. - " BEYOND THE BOUNDS
OF TIME AND SPACE " CONSIDERED. - THE NEARNESS OF HEAVEN PROVED BY THE APPEARANCES OF ANGELS AS RECORDED IN
THE BIBLE. - THE TWO COMMONLY RECEIVED HYPOTHESES AS
TO THOSE APPEARANCES.- A THIRD STATED, ILLUSTRATED, AND
ENFORCED. - WHAT CONSTITUTED A SEER. - MOSES IN THE
MOUNT.- THE SPIRITUAL WORLD NOT DISTANT, AS SHOWN IN
THE EXPERIENCES OF THE DYING. - TRANCES. - SPIRIT-MANIFESTATIONS CONSIDERED IN THIS CONNECTION. - OBJECTIONS
TO PURSUING THE INVESTIGATION EXAMINED AND REFUTED. -
THE NEARNESS OF HEAVEN THE SECRET OF STRENGTH. - HEAVENLY TEACHERS. - THE NEARNESS OF HEAVEN THE SECRET
OF LIFE. -THE NEARNESS OF HEAVEN THE SECRET OF PRESERVATION. - ALL THE UNIVERSE BOUND TOGETHER IN CONSEQUENCE OF THE NEARNESS OF HEAVEN.
r n    iHERE  are two modes of considering
the question, What is Heaven?  First,
what constitutes Heaven?  or heaven
considered as a state; and secondly,
what is Heaven? or heaven considered as a place.
The Bible frequently treats of heaven as a state




12         OUR ETERNAL HOMES.
of existence, irrespective of the external place where
they who are in this heavenly state may objectively
dwell. It is in this sense that we are able to understand all that is said of " the kingdom of heaven,"
or " the kingdom of God." The Lord declared to
His disciples that " the kingdom of God cometh not
with outward show," for " the kingdom of God is
within you,"l thus intimating that the heavenly
kingdom was a state of holiness and joy, of peace
and light, into which His disciples might enter, by
its having entered into them. Hence the testimony,
"' Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand":2
hence, also, the promise, " Blessed are the poor in
spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven "; 3 theirs
not only as a future gift, but also as a present possession: hence, too, the blessing, "Unto you it is
given to know the mysteries of the kingdom of
heaven, but unto those who are without, all these
things are done in parables ":4 to the disciples it
is given to know the mysteries, because they are
within the kingdom of heaven, but unto those without the kingdom it is not given, because they are
without: hence, likewise, the gift to the Apostles,
that " Whatsoever they should bind on earth should
be bound in heaven, and whatsoever they should
loose on earth should be loosed in heaven";;  because the Apostles bearing the truths of the Gospel
to the world were the types of those Gospel truths,
1 Luke xvii. 20, 21.  8 Matt. v. 3.  5 Matt. xviii. 18.
2 Matt. iii. 2.  4 Mark iv. 11.




WHAT IS HEAVEN?               13
which truths they are that bind and loose the states
of man, either confirming him in evil or awakening
him to righteousness. Hence also the condemnation of the Pharisees and scribes, "Woe unto you,
scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye shut up
the kingdom of heaven against men: for ye neither
go in yourselves, neither suffer ye them that are
entering to go in." 1 By withholding the precious
things of God's word, by making God's commands
of none effect by their traditions, by breaking the
law and teaching men so, they, in their conduct
and by their example, placed impediments in the
way of men receiving the precious truths of the
kingdom of heaven, and consequently prevented
men from realizing that heavenly state of spiritual
holiness and peace.
In like manner, the Lord speaks of "the kingdom of God," where in His parables He likens it
to many things, and declares the entrance into that
kingdom of even harlots, publicans, and sinners, or
promises, " That there be some of them that stand
here who shall not taste of death, till they have seen
the kingdom of God come with power";2 or asserts
to the scribe who had -kept the law, " Thou art not
far from the kingdom of God";  or declares that
"' It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a
needle, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God";4 or instructs us, that "Except a
1 Matt. xxiii. 13.            8 Mark xii. 34.
2 Mark ix. 1.                 4 Matt. xix. 24.




14         OUR ETERNAL HOMES.
man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of
God." I In like manner, the Apostles confirmed
"the souls of the disciples, exhorting them to continue in the faith, and that we must through great
tribulation enter into the kingdom of God";2 or,
as St. Paul shows, that " the kingdom of God is not
in word, but in power";  or, as is sublimely testified by St. John, as he heard "the loud voice in
heaven saying, Now is come salvation, and strength,
and the kingdom of our God, and the power of his
Christ: for the accuser of our brethren is cast down,
which accused them before our God day and night," 4
where the casting down of the accuser describes the
destruction of all that is false and evil out of the
soul of the believer, that the Christian may. feel
"the answer of a good conscience toward God," 5
which is the necessary precursor of the coming of
the kingdom of God into the soul, the advent of the
heavenly state in salvation and strength.
In many cases where a distinction is drawn between the kingdom of Christ and the kingdom of
this world, there is made a like reference to heaven,
regarded more particularly as a state of holiness
and peace, or as composed of those who have entered into such a state on earth, rather than to the
kingdom of God as composed of the saved in heaven.
Hence the Lord declares, " The Son of man shall
send forth his angels, and they shall gather out of
1 John iii. 3.   8 1 Cor. iv. 20.  6 1 Pet. iii. 21.
2 Acts xiv. 22.  4 Rev. xii. 10.




WHA T IS HEAVEN?              15
his kingdom all things that offend, and they that
work iniquity";1 and further, that of the increase
"of his kingdom there shall be no end"; 2 and,
" My kingdom is not of this world: if my kingdom
were of this world, then would my servants fight,
that I should not be delivered to the Jews: but
now is my kingdom not from hence "; 3 and, "Fear
not, little flock, it is the Father's good pleasure to
give you the kingdom." The " kingdom and glory
of God, unto which the Christian is called," 4 is the
sovereignty of holiness, purity, goodness, truth; the
dominion in which the whole man is subject to the
laws of the great King; an allegiance owned here,
by which they are made not only heirs to "the
glory which shall be," but inheritors of the glory
that even now is. The glory which shall be is only
the consummation and fuller development of the
glory already begun here; and the joy begun to be
realized here is the foretaste of the joy to be evermore amply realized above. The disciple is already
" a child of the kingdom," not merely as sharing
the promise, but as already having entered thereinto. The guaranty of his future blessedness is the
possession of the present blessedness whereunto he,
has attained. Holiness is heaven, love is heaven;
and the heaven of the future, the objective heaven,
can only be a grander embodiment of love and holiness. The importance of this consideration cannot
be exaggerated; as neither the Bible nor reason
1 Matt. xiii. 41.   2 Luke i. 33.   8 John xviii. 36.   4 1 Thess. ii. 12.




16         OUR ETERNAL HOMES.
affords us any ground of presumption that those
who have not realized this heaven begun here, can
hope to realize the heaven completed hereafter.
On heaven as a state must all adequate conceptions
of heaven as a place be founded, and therefore we
have presented the former as our first topic of consideration.
Heaven as a place, where are assembled and
where dwell the saved ones, " the children of the
kingdom," or those in whom the kingdom of God
had previously begun on earth, also receives many
notices in the Bible. Perhaps the best illustration
of heaven which our earth-life affords to us is the
idea of HOME. Home embraces all we can conceive
of peace, of rest, of joy; the presence of the dear
ones whose happiness is interblended with our own,
the circle of loving services and devoted uses, with
God for its great Head, God's word for its chief
guide, the fostering and development of goodness
and delight in each other as its prime object. And
heaven is the idea of home, extended, as to locality,
into everlasting habitations, enlarged, as to inhabitants, till it comprehends all God's children; with
its peace intensified till it knows no fear, its joy
amplified till every tear shall be wiped away from
the face, its holiness increased till nothing shall hurt
or destroy in all God's holy mountain, with innumerable multitudes on multitudes as ministers of
blessing, one to all and all to each. All the lingering attachments which bind our heart to home re



WHAT IS HEAVEN?               17
ceive grander measure and profounder depth, in
proportion as with our idea of home we associate
the fuller idea of heaven, with God as the universal
Father, and the saved as our universal brethren.
Arguing from the seen to the unseen, from the
known to the unknown, which is the only sound
method, the idea of home, which we know, will enable us to attain a conception of the heaven, which
we know not yet. In a sense far deeper than our
perceptions previously enabled us to utter it, we
may say that " our home is in heaven"; for all the
various felicities with which the Divine mercy allows our home-life on earth to be environed are
only mundane pictures or emblems of the broader
and more bountiful bliss which the same Divine
mercy has prepared in heaven.  Not that the
earthly shall be sublimed or intensified into the
heavenly; but, with that difference which ever
must exist between earth and heaven, the earthly
purest is still the type of the heavenly pure.
Prominent among the descriptions furnished us
of heaven is the scriptural assertion of the variety
that exists there. Heaven is not to be regarded.as an unvarying monotony, either in the place of
habitation or in the character of those who dwell
there. On the contrary, the idea is repugnant to
all that we know of man, and all that, from that
knowledge, we. may hope for man's future. God
has not made two things alike. The unity of God
is preserved in the unity of all His works, just as
B




18         OUR ETERNAL HOMES.
the infinity of God is mirrored in the variety which
He has impressed on all His works. As we shall
develop this idea elsewhere, we do no more than
indicate it here, seeking in this place only to show
the scriptural statement of the thought as applied
to heaven. The Apostle declares that "there is
one glory of the sun, and another glory of the moon,
and another glory of the stars: for one star differeth from another star in glory."' This threefold
distinction of heaven receives confirmation from
that other statement made by the same Apostle
in his second epistle to the same Church at Corinth: "It is not expedient for me doubtless to
glory. I will come to visions and revelations of
the Lord. I knew a man in Christ above fourteen
years ago, (whether in the body, I cannot tell; or
out of the body, I cannot tell: God knoweth;)
such a one caught up to the third heaven. And
I knew such a man, (whether in the body, or out
of the body, I cannot tell: God knoweth;) how
that he was caught up into Paradise, and heard unspeakable words, which it is not lawful [or possible]
for man to utter: of such a one will I glory." 2
That these words do assert the existence of a plurality of heavens there can be no question, and that
they intimate this plurality to consist of three heavens there can be no just reason to dispute. St.
Paul is evidently speaking of himself, who, by the
Divine mercy, had thus been intromitted into the
1 1 Cor. xv. 41.         2 2 Cor. xii. 1-5.




WHAT IS HEAVEN?                 19
third heaven. This narrative gives additional weight
to the description furnished in his first epistle, wherein he compares the various degrees of the glory of
heaven severally to that of the sun, and moon, and
stars.
That there should be such a threefold distinction
in the heavens is eminently reasonable, when we
consider that there are also three grand planes of
spiritual life, in each of which thousands of Christians do really exist. Some act from a principle
of simple Obedience. Because God has commanded,
they obey; and the predominant idea in their conception of God is as to His Divine Power. Others
act from love of the Truth. Seeing the harmony
of the Divine injunctions with their highest wants
and noblest nature, their realization of the spirit of
Christianity is rather directed to the beauty and
excellence of the Divine Wisdom.  Others again
act from the overpowering force of LOVE. The
Divine Goodness is the supreme object of their contemplation and reverence. These are the "living
ones " of the Revelation; they " run and are not
weary, walk and are not faint"; the "' Garden of
the Lord," Eden, is restored to their souls, and the
law of the Lord is written on the secret tablets of
their hearts. A similar distinction is made in the
Bible as to the three orders of angels. Not only
is there mention made of the cherubim, or guarding
ones, and seraphim, or flaming ones, in the Old
Testament; but the distinction is also still more




20         OUR ETERNAL HOMES.
explicitly made in the Revelation.  The " living
ones" (wrongly translated beasts), "the elders"
(the wise ones), and "the ten thousand times ten
thousand round the throne."l A similar distinction exists in the characters of Peter, all-earnest
for faith, and the first to acknowledge the Lord
Jesus; of James, zealous of good works; of John,
into whose soul, as a crystal chalice, the melting
draughts of LOVE seem to have been poured. A
similar distinction appears to have prevailed in the
tabernacle of the wilderness, which was made " after
the pattern of things in the heavens,"2 and which
had a court, a holy place, and the Holy of Holies.
Thus, with the invariably consistent symbolism of
the Bible, repeating this threefold distinction.
This assertion of plurality in relation to heaven
derives additional corroboration from the plilral form
in which heaven is so frequently spoken of elsewhere.
Even in the prayer which the Lord taught His disciples to use there is an express assertion of this
plurality, although the translators of the Gospels
have obliterated it in our version.  " After this
manner therefore pray ye: Our Father who art
in the heavens." 3- 0 v 7ro oopavo?", "in the heavens."  Thus the Lord has provided that even in
our daily prayers we should be reminded of the
plurality of the heavens, and their consequent adaptation to every variety of human character, which
would ever remain individually distinct, although
1 Rev. v. 11.    2 Heb. ix. 23.    8 Matt. vi. 9.




WHAT IS HEAVEN?.                21
harmonized into the whole congregation of the
saved, by having undergone, in common with all
the redeemed ones, the sanctifying operations of
regeneration, and having shared in the purification
of the Gospel of Christ. Were it not for these
plain statements, we might be inclined to regard
as poetical hyperbole the use of the plural heavens,
in many of the descriptions of the Old Testament;
but illustrated by these, every such use of the plural form becomes an additional evidence, so that,
instead of being regarded as examples of mere
poetical exaggeration, they solidify into assertions
of fact. Hence, " Give ear, O ye heavens, for I
will speak; and, hear, O earth, the words of my
mouth"; and, "His heavens shall drop down
dew";2 and, "He bowed the heavens also, and
came down: and darkness was under his feet";3
and, "Yea, the heavens are not clean in his sight"; 4
and, "By his Spirit he hath garnished the heavens";5 and, " Thou hast set thy glory above the
heavens";  and, " He shall call to the heavens
from above, and to the earth, that he may judge
his people";7 and, " Let the heavens rejoice, let
the earth be glad,"8 and, "The heaven, even the
heavens, are the Lord's: but the earth shall be
given to the children of men ";9 and, "The heaven
of heavens cannot contain thee";10 and, " I have
1 Deut. xxxii. 1.    5 Job xxvi. 13.    8 Ps. xcvi. 11.
2 Deut. xxxiii. 28.   6 Ps. viii. 1.  9 Ps. cxv. 16.
8 Ps. xviii. 9.  7 Ps. 1. 4.   10 1 Kings viii. 27.
4 Job xv. 15.




22         OUR ETERNAL HOMES.
put my words in thy mouth, and I have covered
thee in the shadow of mine hand, that I may plant
the heavens, and lay the foundation of the earth,
and say unto Zion, Thou art my people";1 and,
"Behold, I create new heavens";2 and, "I will
hear the heavens, and they shall hear the earth";3
and, "For David is not yet ascended into the heavens";4 and, "Whom  the heavens must receive
until the times of restitution";5 and, " We have a
High-Priest, that is passed into the heavens"; 6
and, " Let us lift up our hearts unto God in the
heavens"; 7 and, " Unto thee lift I up mine eyes,
O thou that dwellest in the heavens" ";8 and, " Provide yourselves a treasure in the heavens that faileth not";9 and, "We have a house not made with
hands, eternal in the heavens ";10 besides numerous other passages, all combine to confirm and establish the explicitly declared statement of the
plurality of the heavens.
Nor must we confound such declarations with
references made to the natural heaven or heavens,
the firmament surrounding the earth, in speaking
of which the plural form is frequently used, as in,
"The heavens declare the glory of God; and the
firmament showeth his handiwork." 11 The natural
heavens with their glowing galaxies of stars are by
analogy often employed to represent the spiritual
1 Isa. ii. 16.  5 Acts iii. 21.  9 Luke xii. 33.
2 Isa. lxv. 17.  6 Heb. iv. 14.  10 2 Cor. v. 1.
8 Hos. ii. 21.  7 Lam. iii. 41.  11 Ps. xix. 1.
4 Acts ii. 34.  8 Ps. cxxiii. 1.




WTHAT IS HEAVEN?               23
heavens, the abodes of the blessed; but even while
they bear a natural or literal application to the
physical heavens, many of the passages evidently
refer, in their deeper sense, to the spiritual heavens,
the everlasting dwelling-places of the children of
God. Indeed, it would furnish a subject full of interest to inquire how the same expression, heaven,
became appropriated both to the physical firmament
and to the spiritual abodes of the angels; and singularly suggestive reasons might be found to show
why, in common with many other expressions, both
a physical and psychological, a natural and a spiritual signification have been attached to it. As the
physical heaven is at once the highest and most
glorious object our natural sight can behold, so the
same word is exalted into being the expression of
the highest and most glorious object our mental
sight can behold; and thus heaven the natural becomes the visible symbol of heaven the spiritual,
and which at present remains the invisible. The
thought of the spiritual, when concreted into language, is forced to assume terms to which our outward senses have previously affixed only natural
meanings; and thus a link of analogy is established
between them. This is a necessary result of " wedding thought to speech," of bringing down our
higher conceptions into the lower plane of utterance. The ineffable is pictured in the visible, the
spiritual is concreted into the natural, soul is embodied, and the body is its effigy and image. This




24         OUR ETERNAL HOMES.
is so, not only as to things, but also as to language.
We can, however, do no more here than glance at
this interesting subject as we pass it by.
Granting, then, that there is a plurality of heavens, and admitting that this plurality consists of
three, the question occurs, Where then is heaven?
The first answer is, that heaven is not a natural
place, that is, not within the confines of natural
space. As heaven is the abode of spiritual beings,
so it must be a spiritual place; and if such a definition be difficult of comprehension, it may be
asked, where in the body is the soul of man?
Some have located it in the whole brain; but there
seems but little more reason to assign to it such a
locality, than with others, to believe that it resides
in the heart, or with others, to conceive of its being exclusively located in the pineal gland. That
its connection with the body is established through
the subtler energies of the nervous system, and
that its more immediate contact with the organism
is effected in the brain, there may be reason to believe; but to affix to it a local habitation there, is
certainly presuming too far. As the spiritual being, the soul, is within the body and yet not of it,
so heaven may be regarded as being within nature
and yet not of it.  It is beyond the bounds of
space, not as being situated in some indescribable
region far beyond the physical stars, but as being
uncircumscribed by the limitations of physical
space; just as it is beyond the bounds of time, in




WHAT IS HEAVEN?               25
being unfettered with its- limitations, and unaffected by its laws.
We must neither look to the sun, as some have
done, and fancy that heaven may be there, nor to
Sirius, nor to any others of the stars, and believe
that heaven may there be found. It is spoken of
as " the invisible world," just as man's spirit may
be regarded as the invisible man, - a spiritual world
at present hidden from us, because our present perceptions are almost entirely natural, yet neither
distant as to locality, nor remote as to time. Near
to us as the spirits of other human beings are near
to us, and as our spirit is near to them, and yet
possessing a contiguity that is not to be measured
by feet and furlongs.
To this conclusion all the Scripture declarations
abundantly tend. We will adduce a few of the
many testimonies furnished in the Bible.
The Apostle John is in the isle of Patmos, and
" on the Lord's day," as he informs us, "he was
in the spirit."  As to his body, he was a convict
on the island, and yet he beheld the world of spirits, - the middle state, into which the souls of men
first enter after the death of the body, —also
heaven, and a still higher heaven, out of which
the New Jerusalem descended. He saw myriads
of the saved, "out of every nation, tribe, tongue,
and people"; conversed with angels, with the
elders, —the holy ones; and heard the awful
voice of God. Three hypotheses are before us,
2




26        OUR ETERNAL HOMES.
by which to account for this marvellous apocalypse.
One is, that the whole revelation was a vision, or
a series of visions, that is, nothing more than a
series of ideas presented before the Apostle's mind.
When he asserts that he SAW, we should, according to this theory, read, "he imagined that he
saw"; and when he avers that he HEARD, we
ought to understand "' he thought that he heard";
that though it seemed to him as if he did really
both hear and see, yet it was all a mental process,
a set of hallucinations providentially appointed and
arranged, but entirely subjective in their nature,
without there being any corresponding objective
realities. This hypothesis shocks our veneration
for the Word of God; it altogether shakes our
confidence in the accounts of the appearances of
angels contained in the Bible, and it lends weight
to Paine's objection, -", When it is said that Joseph saw an angel in a dream, it only means that
he dreamed that he saw an angel." Every argument on the immortality of the soul, and every
illustration of man's future state of existence drawn
from such experiences as those of John, have all
their foundations swept away by the adoption of
this hypothesis.  Such experiences would then
prove nothing beyond the existence of the individual experiencing them, and would be the high-road
to Berkleyism and nothingness.
If the mind recoils from such a conception and
its consequences, there is, however, another hy



WI~A T IS HEAVEN?              27
pothesis; although this is but very little more satisfactorv. It is that angels and spirits were permitted to assume a temporary covering of something resembling human bodies, so that they might
for a time be rendered visible to the natural senses
of the seers. This rescues us, truly, from the dangers of the theory above noticed; but while it requires the performance of a most remarkable and
astounding miracle on every occasion when angels
or spirits appeared, it likewise tends to undermine
and destroy a lively faith in the reality and objectivity of heaven, or the spiritual world. Even
more insidious than the before-mentioned hypothesis, it does not even spiritualize the seers, but it for
a time carnalizes the angels. Grant this view, and
for aught we know, spiritual beings, when not temporarily invested with a visible and objective substance, may be formless, aerial nothings, - an idea
utterly bewildering to human thought to conceive
of, provocative of no wish to become like them,
and only subversive of love of heaven, or the
desire to enter therein.
There is yet another hypothesis which may be
entertained, and which avoids the Scylla and Charybdis of both the above.
It is that the spiritual world is so contiguous to
man that it needed no more than the opening of
the spiritual senses of the seer, —those senses of
which the physical are but the concretions, the natural symbols the earthly types, - and, thus em



28         OUR ETERNAL HOMES.
powered to see and hear, that the Apostle did really
both hear and see what the Apocalypse declares
him to have seen and heard. By this hypothesis
the Revelation is rescued from the meiosis of being
a mere subjective mental phenomenon, a set of
hallucinations, a series of impressions on his imagination, dramatic in form, vividly remembered
when he awoke, and afterwards accurately described. It also rescues the vision from the more
astounding pretence that it was produced by a species of incarnation of the myriads of spiritual beings whom the Apostle is declared to have seen.
The voices that he heard, and the spectacles he
beheld, present insuperable difficulties in the way
of receiving this last theory; for it would require
that the scenes should have been temporarily made
substantial in this plane of matter in order that he
might perceive them, and that the voices should
have actually stirred the pulses of the air in order
that he might hear them. By the adoption of the
third view that we have offered, the Apocalypse
becomes an objective reality, and the spiritual world
is shown to be not very far off.
In confirmation of this, the temptation of Jesus
presents similar testimonies. In the wilderness,
when fasting and hungry, the Devil is described to
have presented himself to tempt Jesus; and when
the tempter was subdued, "angels ministered unto
him."' This leads us again to the conclusion of
1 Matt. iv. 11.




WHA T IS HEAVEN.?               29
the contiguity of the spiritual world. So, again,
in the narrative of the transfiguration. Jesus was
with Peter, James, and John, on the mountain,
"and his face did shine as the sun, and his raiment
was white as the light.  And Moses and Elias appeared unto them [the disciples] talking with him
[Jesus]."l In this, the most sublime spectacle
ever presented to human sight, it is far more rational to believe in the fact that the disciples were
empowered to see by the opening of their spiritual
sight, and that thus they really beheld Moses and
Elias, than it is to believe either that Moses and
Elias temporarily invested themselves with material covering perceptible to the natural sight of the
disciples, or that the whole was a phantasmagoria,
a hallucination of their senses, a freak of fancy, or
a dream of their imaginations. It certainly does
appear more in consonance with reason, more in
harmony with the other statements of the Bible,
and more worthy of God, that such manifestations
should be produced by operating the change in the
seers, by which theyfwere enabled to see, than that
the change should have been wrought in the angels by which they were rendered temporarily visible. And this is eminently confirmed by the fact
that in some instances, as in the case of Saul of
Tarsus,2 the perception was confined to one person; all hearing the voice, but Saul alone seeing
the Lord: as also in the case of Stephen, who,
1 Matt. xvii. 23.            2 Acts ix. 7.




30         OUR ETERNAL HOMES.
surrounded by the infuriate mob, judged by his
enemies, and afterwards stoned to death, declared,
"I see the heavens opened, and the Son of man
standing on the right hand."'l  And this will still
more clearly appear from the cases to be cited
below.
When Elijah was in the wilderness, weary in
spirit, and wishing to die, " angels ministered unto
him";2 and when he was about to depart from this
earthly scene of probation, Elisha, who was with
him, desired as the last gift of God through his
tutor and friend, that "a double portion of his
spirit might be upon him." Elijah replied, " Thou
hast asked a hard thing: nevertheless, if thou see
me when I am taken from thee, it shall be so unto
thee; but if not, it shall not be so." 3 The answer
reads like an enigma, but as explained according
to the above hypothesis, it is of easy solution.
"'When I am taken from thee I shall be surrounded by spiritual beings; I shall have become
an inhabitant of the spiritual world; these spiritual beings thou canst not see without the opening
of thy spiritual sight, and this power of seeing
spiritual beings is God's alone to bestow. If He
will bestow this power, it shall be unto thee a sign
that thy prayer is answered, that thou art indeed a
seer, and that my office and my power shall be increased by God in thee." Still "they went on,
and talked, and behold, there appeared a chariot
1 Acts vii. 56.    2 1 Kings xix. 21.    3 2 Kings ii. 9, 10.




WHAT IS HEA VEN?              31
of fire, and horses of fire, and parted them asunder; and Elijah ascended unto heaven. And Elisha saw it, and cried, My father, my father, the
horsemen of Israel, and the chariots thereof."l
The gift of spiritual sight was conferred, Elijah
was thus appointed and acknowledged of God as a
seer, the prayer was answered, and in more than a
natural sense, " the mantle of Elijah descended
upon Elisha."2
That Elisha retained the possession of this power, that it sustained him in his wanderings, supported him in his dangers, was his comfort and
surety, the guaranty to him of his being able to
perform his mission, and the source of strong hope,
we have a further testimony. The King of Assyria had been baffled by the wisdom of the seer,
who warned the King of Israel of his stratagems,
and, incensed against Elisha, he sent to Dothan,
where the prophet was staying, and encompassed
the city with his army. When the "young lad,"
Elisha's servant, saw the host, he exclaimed,
" Alas, my master! how shall we do?"  And Elisha answered, " Fear not: for they that be with
us are more than they that be with them. And
Elisha prayed, and said, LORD, I pray thee, open
his eyes, that he may see. And the LORD opened
the eyes of the. young man; and he saw: and, behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots
of fire round about Elisha."3 Here the declara1 2 Kings ii. 11, 12.   2 2 Kings ii. 12, 13.   8 2 Kings vi. 16, 17.




32         OUR ETERNAL HOMES.
tion is explicit. The angelic guards and companions were round about Elisha; he, the seer, saw
them, and did not fear: lie, the young man, saw
them not, because his eyes were not opened, yet
they were none the less there. The prayer was
that the young man's eyes might be opened; in
answer to the prayer, the young man's eyes were
opened, and he beheld only what his master had
seen previously. Their presence was not affected
either by his not seeing, or his being able to see;
the change wrought in his sight only effected the
change in his perception. Though unseen, the
angels were still there, and his seeing them there
only revealed to the young man the previously
existing fact. As we have in this narrative the
fullest description of the mode by which the seeing of angels was conferred on.a mortal man, this
description may rightly serve to explain all those
narratives in which the description is less explicit
or copious.  From this description, and from all
other narratives interpreted by this description, we
must therefore conclude that the seeing of angels
was effected by the opening of the eyes of the beholders, and that therefore the spiritual world is
contiguous to us even while we are here. Did
angels appear to Abraham, to Hagar, to Jacob, to
Moses, to the elders of Israel, to Jpshua, to Manoah, to Samuel, to Isaiah, to Ezekiel, to Daniel,
to Zechariah, and hosts of others living in the Old
Testament times; or to Mary, or Joseph, or Eliza



WHAT IS HEAVEN?                33
beth, or Zacharias, or Jesus, or the Apostles, the
same phenomena were rendered possible to the
beholders of them by the same simple, sufficient,
universal means, - their eyes were opened, and they
saw.
The inevitable result of such intercourse with
the spiritual world on the minds of those permitted to enjoy it, must have been the creation in
them of a conviction that the spiritual world was
not remote. Indeed, to a man like Elisha, a seer,
the conviction of the nearness of the spiritual
world must have grown into a consciousness,
which, if not so constantly maintained as his natural consciousness, was equally a matter of certainty
which nothing could shake. And in whatever degree the eyes of others of the seers of the Bible
were opened, by so many.times as they were permitted to gaze into the spiritual world and behold
the inhabitants or the things thereof, exactly so
many were the demonstrations they received of
the contiguity of the spiritual world, and just to
that degree of certainty must their convictions
have attained that heaven is not far off. To them
the expression of heaven being " upward," could
only suggest the idea, not of physical altitude., but
of moral elevation, an altitude not to be measured
by degrees and minutes of the circle of the natural universe, but to be meted out according to the
higher and nobler standard of holiness and obedience to God. To them God was the Most High,
2 *                      c




34         OUR ETERNAL HOMES.
not merely from elevation in space, but from His
ineffable Majesty, the infinitude of His Goodness
and Wisdom and Greatness; and to ascend nearer
to Him was a spiritual approximation to His Goodness and Wisdom and Purity. Thus the physical
expression of upward was sublimed into being the
exponent of a spiritual idea; they could rightly
employ no other, and it was adequate to their
meaning when correctly understood.  However
much, therefore, they may have blended in their
descriptions of heaven the idea of ascending to, or
descending from it, such terms were used rather
to express elevation and depression of state, than
to signify geographical or astronomical altitude.
The presence of angels, the vision of spirits, the
glorious revelations they enjoyed, were intromissions into an adjoining, though interior, world; a
world which they knew to be around them, of
which, by their spirits and as to their spirits, they
were already inhabitants, though it might be
shrouded from their normal conditions, and veiled
from those grosser senses which were fitted to take
cognizance only of the material substances of earth.
In a higher than figurative sense, in a sense, indeed, of full objective truth, the aged Christian,
weighed down by years, but buoyant with spiritual
hope, may be nearer to heaven than when he commenced the pilgrimage of regeneration.1
From this broad principle of the contiguity of
1 Rom. xiii. 11.




WHAT IS HEAVEN?                35
the spiritual world we can understand how Moses
should see the patterns of the tabernacle in the
heavens, while his body was physically present on
the mount. St. Paul declares that " it was therefore necessary that the patterns of things in the
heavens [the holy places] should be purified with
these [sacrifices]; but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these";1 for
those things which Moses made "serve unto the
example and shadow of heavenly things, as Moses
was admonished of God when he was about to
make the tabernacle: for, See, saith he, that thou
make all things according to the pattern showed to
thee in the mount."2 The patterns that Moses
saw were things in the spiritual world, into which
he was permitted to gaze, while he was, as to his
body, on the mount.
Similar is the gleam of light which this principle
throws upon the visions of Ezekiel, of the temple,
the great river, and the city, new Jerusalem;
"' The Jerusalem which is above is free, which is
the mother of us all." 3 So also with the visions
of Zechariah, of Daniel, of John, and, in fine,
with all the visions recorded in the Bible; —they
were objective realities seen in the spiritual world,
into which the seers were intromitted, iii order
that the Word of God might be written as we
have it.
To the vast mass of testimony afforded from
1 Heb. ix. 23.   2 Heb. viii. 5.  8 Gal. iv. 26.




36         OUR ETERNAL HOMES.
such sources may be added evidence different in
kind, but still confirmatory. There is in human
history an unwritten chapter, which is yet thronged
with mysterious incidents half fearfully remembered by their witnesses. To publish them might
provoke the witless sneers of materialistic satirists,
as well as wound the feelings of those of whose
feelings the love that we cherish for them makes
us most regardful. All who have frequently stood
beside the bed of the dying must have been
thrilled with singular testimonies that the dying
are conscious of the presence of other than mortal
visitants. It would be shallow and cruel to assert
that the weakening faculties of those passing away
were deceived, and that such consciousness was
hallucination. Though some may take refuge in
this belief, on reflecting upon such incidents, yet
at the moment when the dying utter their testimonies,
it is difficult for even scepticism to doubt. The
thrill they feel gives denial to the unbelief they
afterwards profess. Is it not a grander and more
consolatory conviction, that when Christians are
passing away from their earth-work to their eternal
homes, then the attenuating links that chain consciousness to time and clay are melting away one
by one, and their consciousness becomes, by the
gradual enfranchisement of a lingering death,
more and more spiritual?  Thus sinking to sleep
as to earth, they are awaking to heaven; growing
unmindful of the lower and outer existence, they




WHAT IS HEA VEN?               37
are arousing to the inner and spiritual life; becoming blind to the clay-enveloped forms of friends
standing round their failing bodies, they see already, as through a mist, the brighter beings who
are to be their everlasting companions, - some of
whom may be already welcoming their coming.
Their hearing waxing dim and unconscious to the
melody of beloved voices whispering in their natural ears, they can become aware of a sweeter
music sung by more exquisite voices still, of the
beloved who have gone before them: in fine, dying
unto' earth, they are becoming alive unto heaven.
Does this not fully and worthily explain the solemn scenes of thousands of death-beds? visions of
spiritual visitants ministering to the dying, resplendent light surrounding glorious beings who hardly
cast a shadow, gorgeous scenery, bright with neverfading beauty, voices thrilling in tenderness, music
mysterious in harmony, the recognition of dear
familiar faces fondly loved in the bygones, or the
foreknowledge which some have received of the
exact moment of their departure? There are few
families who have not some tale of this kind to
tell, some testimony to add to this proof of the
contiguity of the spiritual world. They hide such
secrets in their hearts, not caring to provoke the
ridicule of the incredulous, and in the feeling that
there is something too holy in such reminiscences
to permit them to cast them to the dogs. Yet the
memories of such incidents still cling to them, per



38         OUR ETERNAL HOMES.
haps more closely for their silence, and such recollections establish in them  the certainty that
the other world is nearer to us than many have
believed.
To this source of evidence may be added another,- that furnished by the singular phenomenon of trances. The history of such has seldom
been fairly written, or if vJritten, hardly credited.
Yet this class of proofs deserves to be not entirely
overlooked by a thoughtful examiner into the evidences of a future state and the contiguity of the
spiritual world. The proof of both is sufficient
without it, and at most, the few well-authenticated
cases of the kind could only supply corroboration,
and, perhaps, illustration of that which, independently of such evidence, must be regarded as so
certainly a fact. We only indicate rather than
omit it. With this class of evidences may be included those furnished by one of the most extraordinary phenomena of modern times, - spiritism.
We cannot deny that amid much imposture and
more self-delusion there does appear to be some
certainty of spiritual agency in some of their operations. That the spirits who perform in them are
of the lowest and most degraded order we think
there is no reason to doubt, and that, therefore,
herein consists the real danger of all such physical
manifestations; but we cannot join in that shallow
and easy reprobation of the whole, which denies
without due investigation, and which denial is often




WHAT IS HEAVEN?                   39
the result of hastiness, prejudice, and ignorance.
So far as spiritism is fictitious, so far it is incapable
of supplying evidence for or against anything, except the weakness or wickedness of its practices;
but so far as it is genuine, so far certainly it affords
a fresh evidence of the fact of a future life, and of
the contiguity of the spiritual world to the natural
world.
But it may be objected, that if the fact of there
existing such a state and place as heaven be admitted, any inquiries into its nature or whereabouts is
unnecessary, serving only to gratify a curiosity at
best unpractical, and at worst idle. Surely not!
It may be because we regard heaven as so far off,
that we are so far off from heaven. The conviction of the nearness of heaven increases our sense
of its reality. It is invisible; but if felt to be near,
it becomes all the more real to our consciousness.
The analogy between the invisible soul and the invisible spiritual world being clearly seen, we grow
more believing as to its actuality. The spirit is invisible, yet joy is real, and sorrow is real; happiness and heart-break, contentment and repining,
peace and remorse, are all real, and from the realities of the invisible soul we may rise to a deeper
sense of the realities of the invisible spiritual world.
Tears and smiles, laughter and mournfulness, are
only the effects produced in the body by the emo-tions of the spirit: they are the outward signs of
our spiritual activities. The cause is felt to be




40         OUR ETERNAL HOMES.
real, if only from the reality of the effects it produces. Sobs and groans, ejaculations and cachinnations, are only the vocal language which the visible body supplies to the sensations of the invisible
spirit. Under the pressure of intense thought, or
the burden of terrible calamity, the hair has been
known to become gray in a night; digestion is
impeded, or hunger quelled by hearing disastrous
news; paralyzed limbs have become active under
the influence of strong excitement; fear has produced syncope and death; faith has wrought its
cures, and overwhelming grief has burst the muscular coatings of the heart: the emotions of the
invisible soul have wrought such realities in the
physical organism to which it is annexed. The
conviction of the reality of the soul is increased by
these evidences of its immediate presence in the
body, and its close connection therewith. In like
manner, to prove the nearness of heaven is to
strengthen our conviction of its reality. And to
strengthen our conviction of its reality is to enable
that conviction to operate upon our souls far more
effectually as all incentive to holiness, and to deter
us from sin.
The nearness of the spiritual world may, further,
become the secret of strength. The power that
has sustained martyrs and even fanatics in their
cruel experiences, the power that has supported
prophets and even self-deluded impostors, the
power that has enabled conquerors of nations and




WHAlT IS HEAVEN?               41
the changers of the face of political affairs to perform their missions among men, the power that has
inspired reformers and philanthropists, all those
who have discovered nature's arcana, and all those
who have developed human progress, - may perhaps be found explained from the contiguity of the
spiritual world. The world has its heroes in every
department of science, art, jurisprudence, philosophy, literature, mechanics, commerce, and national
politics, and the secret of their greatness may be
this: —that they were more open to the inflowing
of thought into their minds, and heroism into their
hearts from the spiritual world than other men, -
more capable recipients and apter exponents of
spiritual activity going on within them. The fact
is, and it is as grand a fact as it is all-embracing,
that man is bound about with spiritual ties. We
owe the knowledge that we acquire by an external
way, partly to the exercise of our powers of observation, but still more to the instructions of men in
the flesh who have left us rich legacies of learning; but who can tell for how many of the clear
perceptions, the noble purposes, the far-reaching
intuitions, the lustrous gleams and glances of
thought that visit us in our quiet hours of contemplation, we are indebted to men in the spirit who
are with us and near us, as full of love as earthly
friends may be, and far abler to guide us to truth,
and to influence us for good? The universally
asserted afflatus of poetry is more than a figure of




42         OUR ETERNAL HOMES.
rhetoric, a rhapsodical figment, or a pretty fiction.
The ablest of writers have admitted that the ideas
they have communicated to mankind were rather
given to them than originated by them, results of
a reception rather than a creation; and if there be
any truth in this opinion, then the nearness of the
spiritual world may present us with a key to the
mystery.
The nearness of the spiritual world may be the
secret of LIFE.  God is the sole source of being,
and its more immediate recipients must be those
who are nearest to Him; and the outflowing
streams of life may pass onwards and outwards
through the spiritual world into the natural universe, just as the vital power flows from man's
soul, as its first recipient from God, the only source
of life, into man's body as its physical receptacle
and organism. On this topic we forbear to dwell,
feeling that here we must take our shoes from off
our feet, for this is holy ground.
The nearness of the spiritual world we shall subsequently prove to be a marvellous explanation of
the secret of Providence; as we may here see that
it will reveal to us the secret of preservation. As
life when first communicated is the gift of God, so
the preservation of life is the continued impartation of life. The great stream of life from which
all things live is exhaustless in quantity, and its
impartation is from moment to moment. To cease
to receive it for an instant would be to die. Not




WHAT IS HEAVEN?                43
only have we originally derived our life from God,
we also live from God continually. If the heavens, being nearer to God, are the first recipients
of life from Him, and from being passive recipients
they become active mediums or instrumentalities
for the impartation of their derived life to spheres
still more remote, then the contiguity of the spiritual to the natural universe will elucidate the preservation of the natural universe. In this way the
vast chain of being may be seen to be complete in
itself, and comprehending all things; the natural
exists, and is preserved from the spiritual, and the
spiritual exists, and is preserved immediately from
God. With a fuller perception and a juster discrimination than was possessed by Kant, we can
now see that the spiritual world is thus, as it were,
the soul of the natural universe, and the only
source of the life of that soul is God. Just as the
body of a man not only lives from the man's soul,
but is also preserved by its connection with the
soul, so the existence and preservation of the natural world is secured by its connection with, and
consequent nearness to, the spiritual world, the
glorious places of which are heaven.
Bound together indissolubly as the creatures of
one Creator, the children of one Father, men in
the natural world and men in the spiritual world
are participators in one common brotherhood; and
the nearness of heaven is at once the hope and
solace, the joy and glory of earth, its mystery of




44         OUR ETERNAL HOMES.
creation and preservation, its source of strength
and the secret of its beauty. This may, perhaps,
be called mysticism; but it is a mysticism full of
comfort and hope to man.




GUARDIAN ANGELS.
" For he shall give his angels charge concerning thee, to keep thee in all thy
ways "-Ps. xci. 11.
MAN AN INHABITANT OF BOTH THE NATURAL AND THE SPIRITUAL
WORLDS. - EVEN WHILE HERE HAS ASSOCIATES IN BOTH. - THE
ARGUMENT FROM THE NATURE OF MAN. - THE ARGUMENT FROM
THE NATURE OF ANGELS. - ANGELS ARE INTELLIGENT, LOVING,
ACTIVE BEINGS, AND POSSESS THE HUMAN FORM.- THE ARGUMENT FROM ANALOGY.- THE ARGUMENT FROM THE BIBLE. -
THE PEOPLE OF ISRAEL. - THE NEW TESTAMENT DISPENSATION.
- OBJECTIONS CONSIDERED. -THE PROPOSITION OF ANGELIC
MINISTRATIONS RIGHTLY STATED. - THE UNIVERSAL DECLARATIONS OF THE SCRIPTURES. - THE CASE OF DANIEL, THE ANGEL,
AND THE PRINCES OF PERSIA AND GRECIA. - CONFIRMATORY
EVIDENCES. - SPECIAL PROVIDENCES AND DIVINE INSTRUMENTS.
- CHRISTIAN CONSOLATION DERIVED FROM BELIEF IN ANGELIC
MINISTRATIONS. - THE HOPE OF THE CHRISTIAN IN RELATION
TO ANGELIC LIFE.; 0  some persons it is very difficult to
realize that there is a spiritual world,
K:I..~~ l  and to such persons it may appear still
_- more difficult of comprehension, that
men, while upon earth, are inhabitants of both the
natural and spiritual worlds. Yet it requires only
a small amount of consideration to perceive that
this must be the fact. We are connected with the
natural universe by our physical existence, and we
are acquainted with its objects by the means of our
senses; but we can think of ideas which the natu



46         OUR ETERNAL HOMES
ral world does not present to us, and of which it
offers us but dim mirrors and faint echoes. While
still dwelling in time, we can meditate upon eternity; in the midst of the limitations of space, we
can conceive of a state not subject to its restrictions. Our own consciousness manifests to us that
there is something within us above nature. Revelation itself comes to us as a super-natural thing.
The idea of God, the author of external nature, is
possible to us; and the fact of this possibility
proves us to be superior to external nature, - the
sensual universe; - proves us, therefore, to be
supernatural.  Fettered by its temporary connection with the sensual world, by its union with the
body, our consciousness in its normal condition is
far more physical than spiritual; yet all have at
times glimpses of something grander than a mere
physical being.  And these glimpses, however
transient and faint they may be, are still evidences
of our double existence. Because of this double
existence, we are capable of enjoying a double
association,- that of man in the flesh, and that of
spirits in the spirit. Such spiritual beings may be
no more visible to our physical senses than are the
spirits of men in the flesh visible to our physical
senses; yet in neither case is the invisibility of the
spirit a proof of its non-existence, nor an evidence
of its non-presence.
It appears, at least, remarkable, that in this age
when men universally boast of intellect, its progress,




GUARDIAN ANGELS.                47
its discoveries, its development, and its triumphs,
that they should be inclined to doubt or ridicule
the existence of spirit. The soul of man is man's
spiritual constitution, and intellect is one of its sublime,functions or powers. The very intellect that
they boast is the refutation of their own denial of
spirit. Enveloped in this transitory tabernacle of
clay, we are spiritual beings with spiritual powers,
of which the physical powers are only the instruments that enable us to do our work, and to render our purposes and thoughts visible by enacting
them in this mundane sphere: but we are spiritual
beings still, clothed on with a natural or physical
investiture. Although it has unhappily become
the fashion to despise such convictions as fanatical,
there is nothing in them repugnant to the severest
reason or the soundest philosophy. Indeed, the
severest reason will only be the most satisfied that
its intellectual faculties are the powers of a spiritual
being possessing them, and hence be the most convinced of the existence of spirit. That we are
spiritual beings is a fact which is patent to the
consciousness of all, and it is only by a long and
laborious process of reasoning that a few can convince themselves of the contrary; and, after all,
the convictions they have thus acquired are terribly liable to be shaken by the moral earthquake
of doubt.
In any case the testimony of the Word of God
is irrefutable on this subject, and it unquestionably




48         OUR ETERNAL HOMES.
teaches us that we are spiritual beings surrounded
by the inhabitants of the spiritual world. As such,
we may have to do with angels as well as men, -
both our fellow-creatures, the ones wholly resident
in the world to which, as spirits, we belong; the
others, like ourselves, heirs of immortality, who
are for a time incorporated in the flesh. We cannot but feel, therefore, a lively, because personal,
interest in all that concerns the angels, especially
so far as regards their being our guardians, companions, and guides. The Bible furnishes us with
many bright glimpses of such heavenly associations,
illustrating the subject by examples, and confirming the fact by explicit statements.
Angels are certainly intelligent beings. We
read of their singing songs, bearing messages to
the prophets and other servants of God, performing
important missions among men, sometimes of mercy,
and at other times of wrath and destruction. These
acts presuppose, and, indeed, necessitate, their possession of intelligence.
Angels are also loving beings, that is, not only
susceptible of receiving, but of reciprocating, God's
love for them, and also possessed of vast love and
tenderness towards each other, and likewise towards mankind.  The Psalmist asserts, "In his
presence there is fulness of joy; at his right hand
there are pleasures forevermore."    This proves
the capacity of love possessed by the angels; for
1 Ps. xvi. 11.




GUARDIAN ANGELS.               49
their joy in the presence of God is only the result
of their love to God. The Lord declares, " There
is joy in the presence of God among the angels
over one sinner that repenteth." I This evinces
how close must be the connection between heaven
and earth, how constant must be the supervision
of earth by the angels of heaven, how individual,
indeed, must be that supervision; and not only
individual as to each human being, but also as to
every particular state and frame of mind in each
individual; and it further proves how tender must
be the love which angels bear to man. The depth
of the interest they take in man is the evidence of
their love for him.
Angels, further, are active beings. Proofs of
the vast powers intrusted to or possessed by them
abound in the Word of God'. In the Passover, the
instrument of Divine judgment was an angel. In
the destruction of the hosts of Sennacherib, the instrument of the Lord was an angel. In the various
desolations revealed in the Apocalypse, God accomplishes His purposes through the mediumship of
angels, and employs them as the instruments of
His designs.  The Psalmist directly asserts their
power. "Bless the Lord, ye his angels, that excel
in strength, that do his commandments, hearkening
unto the voice of his word." 2
Not only do angels possess intelligence, affection,
and activities, - which also form the spiritual na1 Luke xv. 10.           1 Ps. ciii. 20.
3                          D




50        OUR ETERNAL HOMES.
ture of all men, and, therefore, the angels may
and, indeed, must be, regarded as spiritual men, -
but the constant declaration and suggestion of the
Bible is that they are likewise human in form.
They are invariably described as men. In one particular case, when an angel appeared to Manoah
and his wife, he seemed so to resemble a man that
they knew not but that he was a man; and not
till "the angel did wondrously, and ascended in
the flame of the altar," 1 did the parents of Samson
know that he was an angel: " Then Manoah knew
that he was an angel of the Lord." Not only in
their appearances with special missions to individuals, but also when beheld by the Prophet Daniel
and the Apostle John, in the forms that are their
own in heaven, they are invariably described as
men, more exquisitely beautiful than men on earth,
radiant with glory, harmonizing with the loveliness
and grandeur of their dwelling-place, but still MEN.
It is impossible to conceive of them in any other
shape than the human. Wings are a fancy which
symbolism has depicted, as an emblem of their
powers of movement and ascension; but even the
idea of their possessing wings never had a serious
lodgement in our conceptions of them.
"Angels are men in lighter habit clad,
And men are angels loaded for an hour."
From these four postulates as to the nature of
angels, - their being intelligent, loving, and active
1 Judg. xiii. 19, 20.




GUARDIAN ANGELS.               51
beings in the human form, -several important
consequences result. As they are loving beings,
loving not only God who is above them, but man
who is their inferior, they must desire to benefit
and serve man. As they are intelligent beings,
they must know how most effectually to consummate their desire. As they are endowed with vast
powers of action, powers superior to any that we
can adequately conceive of, they must be able to
accomplish what their love for man has prompted,
and what their intelligence has shown them how to
accomplish. Angels are therefore the servants of
and ministers unto man. And from analogy also
this conclusion seems inevitable. Men on earth
who largely love their kind, desire the most ardently to serve their fellow-beings. The desire to
serve is the measure by which their affection may
be tested. When to their love they add great
intelligence, the method and nature of the service
which they can best render is seen by them; their
desire prompts, and their intelligence directs them.
And when to their love and intelligence they can
add vast powers of action, - whether it be from
the high positions they occupy and the wide influence such positions enable them to command, or
from the energy they possess, and the persevering
endurance which such energy confers, or from the
wealth intrusted to them, and the instrumentalities which such wealth bestows, - their desire to
help, and their knowledge how to help efficiently,




52         OUR ETERNAL HOMES.
find expression in deeds of service and labors of use.
So of the angels. We can only think of them as
men immensely more loving, more intelligent, and
more powerful than any man on earth,-yet glorified men who dwell above, and who are still laboring for the good and help of suffering man below.
But as they are human in form, as well as intensely human in their interest in man, so their
operation upon man must be to some extent analogous to the operation of man upon his fellowcreatures. The mode by which they most constantly operate must therefore be by endeavoring
to impress his will through his affections, his understanding through his thoughts. This does not
require that the angels should be visible to man.
We are often most influenced by our fellow-men
when they are absent from our sight. The principles of knowledge they have taught us, and their
maxims of wisdom which we remember, are often
the most active within us when we have gone out
fiom their presence. Memory forges the subtle
chain by which we are bound to them. Their
thoughts have become our thoughts, their affections
our sentiments; and even though they be dead,
they "rule us from their urns."  Admit, as we
must, that angelic beings possess interior means
of impressing their thoughts on our minds, and
their emotions on our hearts, and we can see at
once that though invisible they can still influence
us. If we are influenced by such beings at all, it




GUARDIAN ANGELS.               53
must be through our human minds and hearts;
while those who can thus influence us by affections
and thoughts, must likewise be human too.
This, the argument from the nature of things,
and from analogy, is abundantly supported by all
that the Scriptures teach us on the subject. It
was the faith of Abraham. When sending his
steward to seek a wife for his son Isaac, he declares, " Jehovah, God of heaven, who took me
from my father's house and sware unto me, saying,
Unto thy seed will I give this land; he shall send
his angel before thee, and thou shalt take a wife
unto my son from thence." 1 This was also the
consoling faith of Jacob. When he was blessing
the sons of Joseph, he said, " The angel which redeemed me from all evil, bless the lads, and let my
name be named on them, and the name of my
fathers Abraham and Isaac." 2 It was the-faith
of Moses, and God himself teaches him to believe
it. " Behold I send an angel before thee, to keep
thee in the way, and to bring thee into the place
which I have prepared. Beware of him, and obey
his voice, provoke him not; for he will not pardon
your transgressions: for my name is in him. But
if thou shalt indeed obey his voice, and do all that
I speak; then I will be an enemy of thine enemies,
and an adversary unto thine adversaries. For mine
angel shall go before thee, and bring thee unto the
[land]." 3 Again, "And the Lord said unto Moses,
1 Gen. xxiv. 7.   2 Gen. xlviii. 16.   8 Ex. xxiii. 20 - 23.




54         OUR ETERNAL HOMES.
Whosoever hath sinned against me, him will I blot
out of my book. Therefore go now, lead the people unto the place of which I have spoken unto
thee: behold, mine angel shall go before thee: nevertheless, in the day when I visit, I will visit their
sin upon them."' Again we read, "And I will
send an angel before thee; and I will drive out the
Canaanite, the Amorite, and the Hittite, and the
Perizzite, the Hivite, and the Jebusite." 2 Joshua
must also have cherished this faith, and could not
help believing that the Lord had permitted him to
behold such an angel, commissioned to aid Israel
in their warfare. "And it came to pass, when
Joshua was by Jericho, that he lifted up his eyes
and looked, and, behold, there stood a man over
against him with his sword drawn in his hand:
and Joshua went unto him, and said unto him,
Art thou for us, or for our adversaries? And he
said, Nay; but as captain of the host of the Lord
am I now come. And Joshua fell on his face to
the earth, and did worship, and said unto him,
What saith my lord to his servant? And the
captain of the Lord's host said unto Joshua, Loose
thy shoe from off thy foot; for the place whereon
thou standest is holy.  And Joshua did so." 3
The Israelites, in like manner, must have treasured
this sublime faith; for these declarations were written for their instruction, and revered by them as
the sacred oracles of God. Jehovah by his angels
1 Ex. xxxii. 33, 34.   2 Ex. xxxiii. 2.   3 Josh. v. 13 - 15.




GUARDIAN ANGELS.                55
wrought their deliverance; and gratitude to Him
and tenderness for them must have filled their
souls. This was the message " sent from Kadesh
unto the king of Edom, Thus saith thy brother
Israel, Thou knowest all the travel that hath befallen us: how our fathers went down into Egypt,
and we have dwelt in Egypt a long time; and the
Egyptians vexed us, and our fathers: and when,
we cried unto the Lord, he heard our voice, and
sent an angel, and hath brought us forth out of
Egypt: and, behold, we are in Kadesh, a city in
the uttermost of thy border." 1 Even to the heathen the Israelites were monuments of the providence of God, and of the ministry of angels. The
supernatural incidents in their history are attributed
to a machinery that is supernatural too, the instrumentality of angels, who are supernatural beings.
" In all their afflictions he was afflicted, and the
angel of his presence saved them." 2
The cumulative force of these testimonies is irresistible as to the Israelites being the subjects of
angelic assistance. But it may be properly urged
that these were exceptional persons and that those
were exceptional times. As the Lord had providential purposes which the Israelites were intended
to fulfil, so He made use of extraordinary instruments for the realization of His designs: that we
must not argue from the exception to the rule,
from the individual to the universal: that it is
1 Num. xx. 14 - 16.       2 Isa. lxiii. 9.




56         OUR ETERNAL HOMES.
therefore assuming too much to assert that because
such was the method of Divine operation in respect
to Israel, such also must be the method of Divine
operation in regard to all mankind. The force
of these objections we admit; and were the testimonies of angelic interposition in human affairs
limited even to the strong instances already cited,
we might admire the grandeur of the agencies
employed in the case of the Israelites, but should
not feel warranted in affirming them to be particular illustrations and open exhibitions of a general method. Fortunately for our argument and
for our conviction, such testimonies stand not alone
as referring to Israel exclusively. Although the
number of the appearances of angels in Israelitish
history affords the basis for a presumptive inference
in favor of universal angelic guardianship and guidance of man, yet in such a matter we need more
than a presumption, however probable it might
seem. And the Bible furnishes us with explicit
declarations in the matter.
Not only did angels openly appear, and thus
manifest their agency to Abraham, Jacob, Joseph,
Moses, Joshua, Manoah, Gideon, Elijah, Elisha,
Isaiah, and the other prophets, but even to Balaam,1 who appears to have known something of
God, but yet to have been a bad man, and certainly
not an Israelite. Yet this instance is open to the
objection stated above, inasmuch as this appearance
1 Num. xxii. 22- 835.




GUARDAL4N ANGELS.,             57
of an angel had still to do with the Israelites,
although indirectly. The cases described in the
New Testament certainly supply additional illustrations of the open ministry of angels. Zecharias,
Mary, Joseph, the shepherds, Peter, James and
John, Paul, Philip, and the other disciples, were
permitted to behold angelic beings.  They appeared at the temptation, the transfiguration, the
agony in the garden of Gethsemane, at the resurrection, and at the ascension of the Lord. The
Apocalypse also is full of descriptions of such
appearances. Still, in relation to the appearances
of angels as recorded in the New Testament, it
may be objected, that, as the Lord had then a
special purpose to accomplish in the establishment
of a new dispensation, in the revelation of himself
in the flesh, and in the completion of His inspired
Word, the peculiarity of these objects may have
rendered necessary the adoption of peculiar instrumentalities, as special means for a special purpose;
and that therefore it is again assuming too much
to argue from the extraordinary to the ordinary,
from the special to the universal. While this may
be conceded, yet one general conclusion is evident,
- that whenever God has had special designs to
accomplish, angels have been His messengers and
instruments.  This affords us a glimpse, which
is full of interest and significance, of the mode
adopted by the Lord for the special operations of
His Divine providence.
3 *




58         OUR ETERNAL HOMES.
There is, however, a more correct method of
stating the proposition above indicated, which is.
indeed the only logical conclusion from the facts.
The corollary as stated above indicates a presumption that only on special and extraordinary occasions
do angels minister unto man, which presumption
we believe to be false. The more exact conclusion
is, that only on special and extraordinary occasions
have men been made conscious of angelic ministrations, by being permitted to see the angels. The
specialty of the cases did not consist in the ministration itself, but in the openness of the ministration. At other times invisible, the angels on these
particular occasions were suffered to appear visibly
before the subjects of their ministry; and such
visible appearances were rendered possible by the
opening of the spiritual sight of the beholders.
There -is an important difference in the results of
the two methods of stating the proposition. In the
one case the ministration is extraordinary, and in
the other it is only the openness of the ministration.
It is surely more conducive to the dignity of
God, and better exemplifies the invariableness of
His operation, and the impartiality of His love for
man, as well as more accordant with the argument
from the nature of angels, to believe that angelic
ministrations are constant and universal, and that
the extraordinary nature of the Scriptural narratives of such ministrations consist in their openness and visibility, than it is to believe that angelic




GUARDIAN ANGELS.               59
ministrations are unusual, extraordinary, and special, -a marvellous derangement of the economy of
existence, a phenomenon unprecedented previously,
and without parallel afterwards. This proposition,
which is so consonant with reason, is also sufficiently
intimated in the Bible. The Psalmist declares,
" The angel of the Lord encampeth round about
them that fear him, and delivereth them." 1 This
statement is as universal, at least as far as those who
"c fear the Lord " are universal. Wherever such
may be found, they are, by this declaration, justified in believing that the angel of the Lord is near
them, to be to them, as to Israel of old, " the angel
of their deliverance." The Psalmist again affirms,
"Because thou hast made the Lord, who is my
refuge, even the Most High thy habitation, there
shall no evil befall thee, neither shall any plague
come nigh thy dwelling. For he shall give his
angels charge over thee, to keep thee in all thy
ways." 2 In view of Matthew iv., and the fact of
this passage being partly cited in the temptation
of Jesus, we must conclude that this promise bears
primary reference to the Lord Jesus Christ; yet
is its meaning to be no more limited to Him, than
is the application of the other declarations of the
Psalms. We regard it rather as the assertion of
a universal fact, in which the Divine humanity of
the Lord, the Son Jesus, was included, as well as
every other being who makes " the Lord his habi1 Ps. xxxiv. 7.          2 Ps. Sxi. 11.




60         OUR ETERNAL HOMES.
tation."  It refers to Jesus primarily, because
Jesus is the pattern of His disciples, the glorification of the human nature assumed by Him being
the exact pattern or type of the regeneration of
His people.  "The children of God " are "heirs
of God, and joint-heirs with Christ," and' if so
be we suffer with him, we may be also glorified
together." 1 While, then, they are "heirs according to the promise," 2 and therefore heirs of all the
promises made by God, this blessing of angelic
ministration is theirs by right of inheritance; and
their faith falls short of their birthright if they do
not believe and cherish it.
The perception of these truths vastly widens
the sphere of angelic ministrations, showing them
to extend, at least, to all Christians.  But the
Lord Jesus has affirmed them to be more universal
still. He declares of all children, " Take heed
that ye despise not one of these little ones; for
I say unto you, That in heaven their angels do
always behold the face of my Father who is in
heaven." 3 What is the meaning of this statement,
if it be not that every child is under the guardianship of an angel, and that these angels are of the
highest and holiest order, "always beholding the
face of God in heaven "?  Mothers, at least, may
know, and joy in the knowledge, that the dear
objects of their tender love are beloved by higher
and better beings than themselves; that not only
1 Rom. viii. 17.  2 Gal. iii. 29.  8 Matt. xviii. 10.




GUARDIAN ANGELS.               61
is God's merciful providence continually over their
darlings, but that, as instruments of that providence, there are angels who love them with more
than human devotion, who watch over them with
more than human vigilance, and who may guard
them with an intelligence which likewise is more
than human. These helpless babes are eternal
beings, born into the spiritual as well as into the
natural world, surrounded by the inhabitants of
both worlds, to be subject to the influences which
both worlds can bring to bear upon them: and the
results of all these various influences and agencies
will be eliminated and fixed in the final state the
infants make their own. It is a consideration which
enhances the mystery of life, even while it elucidates -it; which exalts the majesty of existence,
and enlarges the place which every human creature fills in the vast economy of being. Human
relations lay hold on universal existence, and the
dwellers in both the spiritual and natural places
are gainers by every child that is born.
Children are certainly, therefore, under the especial protection and guidance of angels; but the
question forces itself upon our minds, When do
the angels forsake the child? Is it in the struggles
and commencing temptations of youth? in the
deeper trials and severe mental conflicts of young
manhood? in the fiercer strifes and more desperate
encounters of maturity? or is it in the decrepitude
and second infancy of old age? Having been the




62         OUR ETERNAL HOMES.
subject of angelic care, and the object of angelic
tenderness for so long, do the angels weary of their
mission, or does man become incapable of receiving their aid? The changes which take place in
man's state and spiritual condition may affect the
order and class of angels attending him, and this
may be the meaning of the limitation expressed in
the Lord's words, " Their angels do always behold
the face of my Father"; but as He separates
himself from these, may not others continue their
loving cares and their unfailing attendance? Separated by a change in his necessities - the result
of his mental and moral development -from this
order of angels, man still continues to be the heir
to the promises of "angels of the Lord having
charge over him, to keep him in all his ways."
The question, When are they present? is better
put, When are they wholly absent?  The number
of such angels is countless, and Paul asserts a
great principle in the form of a question," Are
they not ALL ministering spirits, sent forth to
minister unto them who shall be heirs of salvation? "1
There is, further, afforded in the Bible a glimpse
of a very remarkable fact. The Prophet Daniel
has been praying "and mourning three full weeks;
he ate no pleasant bread, neither came flesh nor
wine into his mouth, neither did he anoint himself
at all till three whole weeks were fulfilled. And
1 Heb. i. 14.




GUARDIAN  ANGELS.              68
in the four-and-twentieth day of the first month,
as he was by the side of the great river, which is
Hiddekel, he lifted up his eyes and beheld a certain
man clothed in linen." This man was exceedingly
glorious. He was seen by Daniel alone, and the
men who were with him fled away to hide themselves. This man was an angel of God, who
touched Daniel, and said, " O Daniel, a man
greaty beloved, understand the words that I speak
unto thee, and stand upright: for unto thee am
I now sent..... Fear not, Daniel: for from the
first day thou didst set thy heart to understand,
and to chasten thyself before thy God, thy words
were heard, and I am come for thy words. But
the prince of the kingdom of Persia withstood me
one-and-twenty days: but, lo, Michael, one of the
chief princes, came to help me; and I remained
there with the kings of Persia. Now am I come
to make thee understand what shall befall thy people in the latter days." 1 After sundry other incidents, the angel continues, " Knowest thou wherefore I come unto thee? and now will I return to
fight with the prince of Persia: and when I am
gone forth, lo, the prince of Grecia shall come.
But I will show thee that which is noted in the
scripture of truth: and there is none that holdeth
with me in these things, but Michael your prince." 2
This remarkable passage indicates several things:
first, that angels are employed to answer prayer;
1 Dan. x. 2 - 14.  2 verses 20, 21.




64         OUR ETERNAL HOMES.
secondly, that in the case of the prophet this ministration was not only real, but also visible; thirdly,
that the angels have other employments which may
prevent their immediate performance of any one
duty assigned to them; fourthly, that not only did
Daniel, but that also others do, enjoy such angelic
ministrations, although the angels may remain to
these other persons invisible; fifthly, that the nature of angelic employment may include even opposition and conflict with superhuman beings of a
totally different character, who seek to impede or
frustrate the merciful intentions of God; —such
beings here alluded to as " the prince of Persia,
and the prince of [Javan or] Grecia"; sixthly, that
these angels are associated together, and mutually
assist each other in the performance of the missions committed to them; seventhly, that such a
one was Michael, here called "a prince," and in
Jude called "an archangel" (Jude 9), and again,
in Dan. xii. 1, described as "Michael the great
prince who standeth up for the children of thy
people."
"I Most commentators suppose this passage to
contain an intimation of the existence of tutelary
angels, good and bad; and that the' prince of Persia' and the'prince of Grecia' represent superhuman beings acting as patrons of those nations,
and devoted to their interests." 1
The general conclusions which in this place we
1 The Tract Society's Annotated Bible, Comment on Dan. x.




GUARDIAN ANGELS.                65
seek to enforce from this passage are, that all men
are attended by angels;-that such attendance
is according to the state and necessities of the
individual so attended, - in fine, that angelic ministrations are not merely special and extraordinary,
but ordinary and universal. The cases of such
ministrations described in Holy Writ are only illustrations of a universal fact, and the specialty of
those cases consists, not in the special and exceptional permission of the ministration, but in the
special and peculiar character of the messages they
communicated, or in the missions they performed.
This glorious picture has, however, an obverse
side. The Bible intimates the ministration or attendance of malevolent spirits, whose feeling toward those whom they attend is the attraction of
hatred, and whose effort is for their destruction.
This is indicated in the passage cited above from
Daniel, where the princes of Persia and Grecia
have to be combated against by the angel. It is
further shown by the Psalmist: " He cast upon
them the fierceness of his anger, wrath, and indignation, and trouble, by sending evil angels among
them." 1 It is illustrated in the Gospel histories, by
those unfortunates who "were possessed by devils."
It is confirmed by the parable of the Saviour, of
the man out of whom "the unclean spirit hath
gone, who walketh through dry places, seeking rest
and finding none, who goeth and taketh with him1 Ps. lxxviii. 49.




66         OUR E TERNAL HOMRES.
self seven other spirits, more wicked than himself,
and they enter in and dwell there: and the last
state of that man is worse than the first." 
A strong argument in confirmation of this view
of superhuman ministration might be adduced from
the common assent of mankind, from the reasonings of philosophers, and the intuitions of ancient
and modern poetry; but as these glimpses of the
spiritual world are designed to be drawn from the
Bible revelation, we forbear from citing them.
The individual experiences of Christian believers
furnish us also with perhaps a more pertinent source
of illustrative information. Whence come strong
impulses, prophetic dreams, verified presentiments
of danger, singular deliverances?  Does it not
seem reasonable to attribute some of them to impressions produced on the minds of their subjects
by spiritual agents? Does not this comprehensive
conception further enable us to understand what
may be the secret of such men's lives as William
Huntingdon, the author of the " Bank of Faith," as
Miiller, the extraordinary philanthropist of Bristol,
as Oberlin, the heroic pastor of Ban de la Roche,
as Jung Stilling, as Martin Luther, particularly in
respect of his remarkable communions with spiritual beings, as well as a host of others whom we.
might name? To deny the statements of such men
is only learned trifling. Far apart from each other,
they affirm similar facts; facts, too, which, had they
1 Luke xi. 24- 26.




GUARDIAN ANGELS.               67
listened to self-interest or prejudice, they would
have concealed; and facts which, coming to us so
sufficiently substantiated, compel our credence and
demand explanation. Unless we admit such spiritual ministrations, it has been found impossible to
offer any explanation at all.
The interposition of Divine providence by the
mediumship of loving, intelligent, mighty beings,
spiritual men in the spiritual world, does appear
to be of easier apprehension than interference without such agencies; while also its nature involves
nothing unworthy of God, and nothing contradictory to the declarations of the Bible. A man may
be to his fellows an instrument of help and comfort,
of succor and rescue, and we call his intervention
a manifestation of providence; surely, then, if similar interventions are effected through the instrumentality of angels, they also will deserve to be
regarded as a manifestation of providence. The
fact of the Lord's employing men as His instruments does not derogate from His dignity; and
the further fact of His making angels His ministers
or agents cannot detract from His glory, nor diminish our gratitude and praise. Whatever other
vast and untraceable modes of operation the Divine
providence adopts, more potent and more immediate than even angelic agencies, yet we must conclude that among His modes of operation the
agency of angels and spirits occupies a prominent
and important place. We seek not to limit the




68        OUR ETERNAL HOMES.
modes of Divine operation, which may be as illfinite in their variety as He is infinite in His love
and wisdom, or, at least, as varied in their forms
as the necessities and capacities of His creatures
are diversified in their character; but we do seek
to explore what it hath pleased Him to reveal, and
not to narrow by prejudice or ignorance our knowledge of the full range of His Divine operation
through the agency of spiritual beings.
We may be sure of this, that in the sight of
God and in the laws of His Divine government,
the natural and the spiritual worlds are as one.
They are inextricably interlinked and indissolubly
interblended, pervaded by an intelligence variously
received, yet received by all alike from one common source, — Himself. These two worlds are
neither remote nor inert, neither distant from nor
inactive towards each other. There is a blessed
and continual "communion of saints" consisting,
on the one side, of "the spirits of just men made
perfect," who have "entered into their rest," and
who dwell in "eternal habitations, houses not made
with hands," and, on the other, of those who are
still fighting the fight and toiling in the mundane
pilgrimage of faith. The militant church below
and the triumphant church above, in the sight of
God compose but one church; however separated
they may be in the spheres of their existence,
they are yet united by the bonds of fellowship and
the cords of love. Those above are with us here




GU'ARDIAN ANGELS.              69
below, and so intimate and so sympathizing are
they with our real conditions, that the contrition
of the penitent, when full of godly sorrow, diffuses
a richer joy among the angels, and even enhances
the felicity of heaven. "There is joy in heaven
over one sinner that repenteth." The poet has
only thrilled a deep and true-sounding chord, and
caught the gleam of a glorious fact, in the conception that the tear-drop of penitence finds favor and
acceptance in heaven.
We need not say how strengthening to our faith
in God, how comforting in our states of affliction,
how confirmatory of our hopes of the future, are
such convictions. Life is a grander thing than we
had before thought it; for it is provided with a
nobler promise, and is supplied with an object that
is more august. Angels are men perfected, and
we are angels in embryo, who may confidently
look forward in hope, knowing the dignity of our
destiny and the mercy of the Lord. Those angelbrothers of ours are only the illustrations of what
every Christian may aspire to be, - spiritual men,
gifted with deeper love, endowed with clearer intelligence, recipients of grander powers, having
intrusted to them higher missions, nobler duties,
sublimer enterprises; —all creation the fields of
their labor, all humanity the objects of their love,
human salvation the purpose of their existence,
and the will of their and our Divine Father their
source of joy and their abiding glory.




III.
HEAVENLY SCENERY.
" And he showed me a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding
out of the throne of God and of the Lamb. In the midst of the street of it,
and on either side of the river, was there the tree of life, which bare twelve
manner of fruits, and yielded her fruit every month." - REV. xxii. 1, 2.
THE ORDINARILY ENTERTAINED CONCEPTIONS OF HEAVEN. -TRUE
SUBLIMITY.- THE MAINTENANCE OF UNITY IN VARIETY THE
LAW OF DIVINE OPERATION. - THIS LAW OPERATIVE IN HEAVEN.
- THE ARGUMENT FROM MAN'S NATURE. - AESTHETICAL LOVES,
AND THE WANTS THEY INSPIRE. - MAN TAKES THEM WITH HIM
INTO THE OTHER LIFE. - SCRIPTURE CONFIRMATIONS. - MUSIC
IN HEAVEN, AND ITS CONSEQUENCES BY ANALOGY. - DESCRIPTIONS OF HEAVEN IN THE BIBLE. - THE PRINCIPLE OF HARMONY
THE PREDOMINATING LAW IN HEAVEN. - THE LAW OF CORRESPONDENCE BETWEEN THE OBJECTIVE WORLD AND SUBJECTIVE STATES OF THE SOUL. - THE BEAUTIFUL IN HEAVEN. - THE
REDEEMED IN HEAVEN REGENERATED AND SANCTIFIED, NOT
TRANSFORMED. —THE VARIETIES OF INDIVIDUAL GENIUS RETAINED IN HEAVEN. - HEAVEN HUMAN, AND FITTED FOR MAN
AS MAN IS FITTED FOR HEAVEN. - THE OBJECTION, HEAVEN
ONLY AN IDEALLY BEAUTIFUL EARTH, CONSIDERED.- HEAVEN,
" THE GARDEN OF GOD."
OST  vague  and  unsatisfactory have
been the conceptions entertained by
Christians as to the nature of heavenly scenery and heavenly habitations.
To judge from the expressions of some writers, it
would appear as though they imagined heaven to be
a vast plain, or an immense temple, where were




HEAVENLY SCENERY.              71
grouped harping multitudes, "loud in their praise,
unceasing in their hymn." Many have thus depicted
heaven, even while declaring that they would forbear the attempt to idealize any picture of what it is.
If, however, they speak of heaven at all, they are
compelled to contradict themselves; for it is inevitable that we must form some conception of anything of which we speak. -Notwithstanding the
reverential awe with which every one must approach the subject, and despite any disclaimer we
may make, the very process of thought necessitates
some idea, and the grander that idea, the more
satisfactory has it been. Whatever some may seem
to conjecture, vagueness does not really enhance the
sublimity of heaven; its attractiveness does not increase with its incomprehensibility. The truly sublime must ever possess some characteristics which
lie beyond the competent grasp of the mind, although not altogether beyond the range of imagination. But unless we can see some characteristics,
and unless those characteristics which we do see
are worthy to be associated with those other and
higher characteristics which lie beyond sight, and
which, therefore, can only be imagined, there is
neither sublimity nor anything. Partial concealment with partial revelation is the great secret of
sublimity.  The ideas of vastness and grandeur
necessarily enter into our conception of the sublime.
But these.are only terms of relation, and imply
comparison. The standard of'comparison which




72         OUR ETERNAL HOMES.
we are compelled to employ is ourselves. But yet,
while the far-off may be indistinct, we can only
believe in that indistinct distance by comparing it
with the more distinct objects that fill the foreground.
Heaven is promised to the faithful as an object
of hope, and is designed to act as an inducement.
While it is sufficiently revealed to show that its
existence is a certainty, it is sufficiently concealed
to require diligent consideration and research to
learn something of its nature. More even than
this, it is so concealed, that what we can learn
forms but the very smallest part of heaven: the rest
is yet inconceivable. The hope that it promises
and the inducements that it presents, however, can
only become stronger as our apprehension of its
nature becomes clearer. It is not presumptuous,
consequently, to endeavor to learn something of
the character of heavenly scenery. We can, at
most, only learn what is possible to be learned,
and what the Lord, therefore, designed us to
know.
So far as we can learn the plan of Divine operation in the material universe, it seems to be the
preservation of an unchangeable UNITY in a constantly changing and endless VARIETY. Creation,
though manifold, is yet one. The classifications
of natural objects into kingdoms, groups, orders,
divisions, genus, and species, is the effort to chronicle both these great features.  Both the Unity




HEA V      ENLY SCENERY.        73
of God and His Infinitude find here their exemplifications. Such a variety in unity on earth
only enhances our reverence for God. Both are
necessary to enable us to form anything like an
approximate perception of His Divine Perfection.
Were earth an unvaried and monotonous plain,
were the firmament a dark expanse, unbrightened
by a star, were animated nature only of one order,
and vegetation of only one species, our perception
of God's marvellous wisdom and power would be
dwarfed and stultified. Inadequate as it is at best,
it would then shrink into a still sadder inadequacy:
the universe would not so well manifest its Creator,
and man would know less of God. But if earth
by its variety exhibits so much of the Divine nature, so far as the workmanship exhibits the workman, then heaven must exhibit such a various
proof of God still more markedly; that is, heaven
must be a more illustrative portraiture of God.
His Divine Unity must be evinced in the unity
that prevails there, and His Divine Infinitude in
the immense variety which must prevail there too.
We have before seen that there is variety in
the heavens themselves; that there are distinctions
between the angels, according to their capacities
of receiving the Divine gifts, or of exercising their
derived powers; and we may further see that
such a variety must and does extend to the places
of their abode, and the scenery that surrounds
them.
4




74         OUR ETERNAL HOMES.
We have, first, the argument from man's nature.
God has implanted in man the love of the picturesque, of the beautiful, of the sublime. These
loves are not of mere abstract qualities, -not of
beauty, or sublimity, as abstract or general ideas,
but of objects that are beautiful or sublime. Loving such things, we desire to behold objects that
may minister to the gratification of those loves.
Those persons are the most fully human, that is,
they are most fully endowed with the noblest human qualities, in whom such loves are the most
largely developed. There is a double evidence of
Divine goodness in the bestowal of such tastes:
first, that man may derive enjoyment from the
works of His hands; and, secondly, that in perceiving the beauty and sublimity of His Divine
productions, they may conceive of the beauty and
sublimity of the nature and character of their
Divine Producer. They show the adaptability of
nature to the constitution of man, and, further, the
sufficiency of nature to be the mirror in which
man may dimly see God.
These esthetical loves certainly belong to the
spiritual side of man's being, and, consequently,
it is only just to conclude that man will take them
with him into the other life. It would be contrary
to all that we are obliged to conceive of the nature
of angels, to suppose that they are incapable of
experiencing delight from such aesthetic gratifications. More lovely than man, they must share




HEAVENLY SCENERY.                75
more largely than he in the love of the beautiful.
Sublimer existences, their power of perceiving and
appreciating the sublime must be far superior to
what man possesses. But the love will engender
the desire; the appreciation of the beautiful will
instigate the craving to behold the beautiful. In
permitting the desire to be felt, God has manifested
His purpose of ministering to that desire by the
supply of the object desired. A holy want is the
prophet and precursor of its own fulfilment. To
admit that such a love, such an appreciation, such
a desire can exist in heaven, is, therefore, virtually
to admit that in heaven there must exist the beautiful, the picturesque, and the sublime in scenery.
The angels themselves are surpassingly lovely.
God gratifies the love of the beautiful implanted
in the angels by making the angels fair and lovely
to look upon; and does not this suggest that all
that surrounds them must be beautiful also? Ministering to this aesthetic taste in relation to the
features and persons of each other, is it not reasonable to conclude that God further ministers to this
want in the scenery by which they are environed?
The Psalmist declares that "in heaven there is
fulness of joy "; not only because the joy will be
full as to the gratification of some one particular
disposition of the soul; but because heaven is full
of objects that can delight every pure and holy
desire. The fulness there must supply man's full
and complete nature, and make of every separate




76        OUR ETERNAL HOMES.
faculty implanted within him a various recipient
of the Divine mercies. No want that is pure
and holy can there remain unsatisfied; and as his
aesthetic wants are pure in themselves and holy in
their influences, and as they will remain to man
after the transit from time into eternity, we must
conclude that heaven will present " of its fulness"
to their ample gratification; and that, therefore,
beautiful scenery must exist there.
To this eminently reasonable view the Word of
God adds strong confirmation.
The Apostle asserts that "eye hath not seen,
ear hath not heard, neither have entered into the
heart of man, the things which God hath prepared
for them that love him." 1 This declaration is
often applied to the things of heaven, though the
context will show that the Apostle understood the
words as rather referring to the advent of the
Lord into the flesh. But even as commonly applied, the passage only declares that the things prepared are above human conception, not that they
are contrary to what we can conceive of heaven.
They may infinitely surpass the highest idea in
degree, and present-kinds of enjoyment which at
present are altogether unknown to us; yet what
we know of man's mental constitution, and what we
can learn from the Bible of the mental constitution
of angels, serve to indicate to some extent the nature of some of the heavenly things prepared for us.
1 1 Cor. ii. 9.




HEAVENLY SCENERY.               77
One of the most frequently repeated details of
heavenly enjoyment is music. And what we know
of the marvellous power and exquisite beauty of
music eminently fits it to be regarded as suitable
for heaven. The idea of " quiring symphonies of
young-eyed cherubim " is so accordant with man's
noblest nature as to be altogether in harmony with
his conception of heaven. It is also an indication
of a great principle. We can appreciate and love
music heM. Even though limited by the restrictions which time and matter impose upon us, yet
this love of music is the inception of a heavenly
taste, and our enjoyment of it is a foretaste of a
heavenly enjoyment. The love of music, however, is but one of a wide group of loves. Music
is the beautiful in sound, as scenery is the beautiful
to sight; and if the love of the beautiful as heard,
is to be delighted in heaven, why not the love of
the beautiful as beheld? The music of earth to
the harmony of heaven may be as the glimmer
of moonlight to the glory of the sunshine, yet
though different in degree, it is still similar in kind.
Our knowledge of the kind of delight afforded by
our experience of earthly music may enable us to
form a conception of the higher degree. The conception may be inadequate, and yet, so far as it can
reach, it may be an approximation to the reality.
And so in like mariner with the beautiful in scenery. It would be folly to attempt to describe the
details of heavenly scenery, but the general idea




78         OUR ETERNAL HOMES.
stands sufficiently out to justify belief. The most
glorious bursts of harmony that ever thrilled and
quivered through the brain of Handel, the pealing
triumphs of the " Hallelujah Chorus," the glowing
snatches of Mozart, the gorgeous sonatas of Beethoven, the almost speaking melodies of Mendelssohn, and all the exquisite conceptions of the most
gifted masters, may be only faint and far-off echoes
to the grander performances above; yet as echoes
they bring down something of heavenly music to
the conceptions of men on earth, and make us
yearn and bend before the thought, " If these be
echoes, what must the realities be!"  So again
with heavenly scenery. If all on earth be only
the shadows of the real in heaven, yet as shadows
they may afford us a foreglimpse of the reality;
and what must those realities be!
To the same general conclusions tend all the
Bible visions of heaven, and the descriptions therein
given to us. The inhabitants of heaven are ever
represented as possessing senses, and senses imply
objects of sense. Eyes imply things to be seen, as
sounds to be heard presuppose the sense of hearing.
Hence the prophets have been permitted to behold
some of the objects of sight there. Take only the
Book of Revelation. There are mentioned cities,
the splendor of which dazzles the imagination;
mountains varying in loftiness,'and with mountains
the idea of valleys is inevitably associated; rivers
flowing on under a glory excelling the sunshine,




HIEA VENLY SCENERY.                 79
and rippling out music as their waves dance along;
trees with leaves and fruits more lovely to view,
and more delicious to the taste, than the fabled apples of the Hesperides; waving palms, and temples transcending in magnificence all the most gorgeous fanes of earthly history, - the solemn colonnades of Egypt, the golden pomp of Jerusalem,
the sombre vastness of India, the palatial splendor
of Nineveh, the severe symmetry of Greece, the
luxurious tinsel of Moresco, or those almost miracles in stone, wherein the Goths imitated the interlacing branches of their own forest trees. The
Lord himself spoke of mansions in heaven.
"There everlasting spring abides,
And never-fading flowers.
Death, like a narrow sea, divides
That heavenly land from ours.
" Sweet fields, beyond the swelling flood,
Stand dressed in living green;
So to the Jews their Canaan stood,
While Jordan rolled between."
Scripture abundantly warrants the comparison
adopted by the poet, that Canaan may be regarded
as, to some extent, a symbol of heavenly scenery.
Surpassing in beauty, in verdure, in spontaneous
fruitfulness all other lands, — a garden-land that
flung back the dewy freshness of the air and the
sweet radiance of the skies, in delicious and lovely
flowers, Canaan was a sort of second Eden, which
is also most impressively styled "the garden of




80         OUR ETERNAL HOMES.
God." The Prophet Ezekiel also beheld there
hills, and mountains, and valleys, and rivers, and
fountains, the holy city, and the temple of God.
The Prophet Zechariah beheld olive-branches, and
rivers, and lakes, and seas, and mountains, and
groves. All these visions assert and justify the confidence that in heaven there are "fields forever
fresh, and groves forever green." The great predominating feature of heavenly scenery must be
harmony with the states of the angels. Because
they are lovely from goodness, everything about
them must be beautiful; because they are bright
from wisdom, everything about them must be
bright; because they are various among themselves, as being different from each other, so must.
there exist a variety equally diversified in the surrounding scenery; and because their individual life
cannot be a wearisome monotony, because they must
pass through such mental changes of state as are
represented in the Scriptural expressions, morning,
noon, and evening, therefore the scenery about any
one of them must be susceptible of various changes.
The only possible law, or universal principle,
which can obtain in heaven, whether it be in relation to heavenly scenery or the garments of the
angels, is subjective in its nature. On earth, the
fixity of matter presents the same external landscape to the beholders, however diverse in character, or however varying in state. We are conquered by the changeless objectivity of the natural




HEA VENLY SCENERY.                81
plane; we are slaves to things external to ourselves.
But in the things of the mind, our mental scenery
is in harmony with, is indeed the outbirth and
outgrowth of, our mental. states.  In heaven, this
harmony is universal, and is the only law. Nearness and remoteness, sequence and order, are there
spiritual states rendered into visible facts.  The
angels are as objectively near to each other as they
are subjectively near; that is, they are near to, or
remote from, each other in a double sense.  Their
spiritual nearness, or similarity, produces nearness
of their spirits; their spiritual remoteness, or difference, produces remoteness of their spirits. Those
who love God most are nearest to God, and the
objective fact is only the manifestation, the consequence of the subjective state.  Here, time and
space are fixed facts, often strangely militating
against subjective states of mind. Both time and
space separate the lover from the beloved, the desire from its realization, the thinker from the subject of thought, and the result is restlessness,
weariness, and pain. There, to wish is to have,
to think of is to behold, to love is to be, and in the
full consummation of the desire and the thought,
joy unceasing and peace untroubled flow in upon
the soul.  Tears are wiped away in the extinction
of sorrow, sighing is abolished in the realization of
the wishes, peace reigns because the struggle is over,
and joy is full because every affection that can be
there cherished is the herald of its own gratification.
4*                         F




82         OUR ETERNAL HOMES.
All the objects outwardly beheld in heaven are
only the illustrations and manifestations of the actual inward state of the beholder. This, however,
may not be fully understood without a previous
comprehension of the fact that there exists a correspondence between all objects of sight and the affections and thoughts of the soul; so that the one
is the complete and efficient symbol of the others.
Even here on earth, the spiritual and natural planes
are co-related. Man is the meeting-place, the common ground of both. He is at once both a microcosm and a micro-ouranos, a miniature of the world
and also of heaven. He is at once both a spiritual
and a natural being; the objects of sense come to
his consciousness through the gates of his senses;
and the affections and thoughts which belong to
him as a spiritual being come to his consciousness
through the spiritual avenues of his will and understanding. There is a harmony between them,not only of suggestion, but further of correspondence. Objects of sense are the effigies, the symbols of affections and thoughts; types and antitypes,
mutually representative of each other. All creation
is a picture-language, expressive, firstly, of the affections and thoughts of the Divine mind, and also
of such affections and thoughts as human minds
may receive from the Divine fountain of all thought
and affection. Because they represent the Divine,
they must represent human thoughts and affections; for man is the finite miniature of the Infi



HEA VENL Y SCENERY.              83
nite. Because the objects of sense are thus essentially representative, they can be, as they have
been, used as the/ ements of picture-languages,
as hieroglyphs.  Were this the proper place, it
might be satisfactorily shown that the Bible abundantly confirms and exemplifies such a correspondence of natural things to things spiritual.  The
general law is certain; and from this general law,
controlled by its principle, and exhibiting its operation, proceed all the particulars of beauty and
brightness in heaven, and all the varieties of darkness and horror in hell. They are correspondent
to the diversity of states in the angels or the demons. Hence we may conclude that the revelations given in the Bible, of there being mountains
and valleys, gardens and groves, rivers and lakes,
forests and fields, gorgeous temples and resplendent mansions, and magnificent cities in heaven,
are revelations of facts,- facts objectively visible to
the dwellers in the everlasting habitations, "houses
not made with hands."
The fine arts afford us only the adumbrations of
heavenly things; here earthly, perishing, diminished, and dwarfed; there in all their godlike
beauty, permanence, and grandeur. Are we lovers of the beautiful as fixed in the human face'?
Faces transcending all earthly conceptions of loveliness shall meet us there. Are we lovers of the
beautiful as illustrated in the human form? Forms
surpassing the most exquisite and the most majestic




84         OUR ETERNAL HOMES.
conceptions of Phidias, of Michael Angelo, or Raphael may there be seen. Are we lovers of the
beautiful as exhibited in landlapes? Pictures to
which the gorgeous dreams of Turner, or the mellowed sweetness of Claude Lorraine's conceptions
were only faint shadows, shall there be beheld. The
beauty of earth, if it is possible to remember it in
heaven, shall seem only dim glimpses of a higher
loveliness, caught by a few choice spirits, and copied
in stone or on canvas by facile hands. Are we lovers of the beautiful as expressed in sound? Music
as superior to the best below as heaven is higher
than the earth, shall melt and peal among the " everlasting hills," and the ravished listeners shall with
it drink in ecstasy. Are we lovers of the sublime in
science? Truths of more than mortal range shall
shine pellucid in heaven's spiritual light, and the
soaring soul may ascend the starry stairway that
leads up to the grander comprehension of God, the
more adequate perception of His works, the deeper
knowledge of His nature. Are we lovers of the
sublime in eloquence? Angels' tongues shall pour
forth the living streams of superhuman poetry, and
the thirsty mind and hungry heart feed at the banquet of love and light. Man's noblest gifts are the
incipient manifestations of a nature to be fully developed in heaven, and man's best wants are only
the preparatives to the blissful realizations that
await him there. God has portrayed the constitution of the heavenly man in the purest and noblest




HEA VENLY SCENERY.              85
elements of our human nature, and written the
secret of human destiny in the deep promptings
of human hopes.
Heaven is not to be so utter a transformation of
human character as shall obliterate all that is human from it, not the creation of an altogether new
type and genus of being.  That were to render
unnecessary and useless the preparation which our
earth-life was designed to afford; to destroy the
connection between man on earth and the same
man made heavenly; to abolish the indentity of
the individual, the continued existence of the being. The truer thought is expressed in the phrase,
" Man made heavenly," that is, the purification
and sanctification of the individual. These processes exalt the chara~er, not obliterate it; purify
and sanctify the soul with all its individual aptitudes, and its idiosyncratic tastes. These latter
adapt it to be useful in a way and for a purpose
to which none other is so fit. They indicate and
constitute the man's mission among men, and his
angelic mission among the angels.
"No compound of this earthly ball
Is like another, all in all."
The variety which such individualities produce
on earth only renders human society the more
complete, and the variety of such individualities
in heaven shall only render the angelic communion more full and perfect too. Heaven must be
regarded as a state of development rather than of




86         OUR ETERNAL HOMIES.
transformation. Individuality must survive in the
preservation of identity, as identity must continue
for the perpetuation of the man's existence. Individuality surviving, regeneration, then, can only
be such a process as shall make heavenly all those
various human characteristics which were in the
beginning divinely implanted for the wisest of purposes. The redeemed ones shall be men with all
the variety of powers, aptitudes, tastes, idiosyncrasies, and faculties which they possessed on earth,
but in heaven to be devoted to holiness and consecrated to God,- upon the very "bells of the
horses, HOLINESS TO THE LORD." 1
Thus may mankind be relieved from the paralyzing fear that in heaven there is no room for
human genius to expand, 1W range for the investigations of the scientific, no sphere for the meditations of the philosopher, no field for the delectation of art-lovers; but that all shall be reduced
to a sombre uniformity of singers and harpists,
and life to become a weary monotone. This last
and commonly received idea, if not quite the Nic
Ban of the Bhuddists, sufficiently resembles it to
absorb all the marked lines and gradations of character and individuality; and from such a vision
of heaven the mass of human strugglers intuitively
recoil. Heaven is far more human than this; better adapted to seize hold on human thoughts and
affections, because better adapted to human minds
1 Zech. xiv. 20.




HEA VENL Y SCENERY.             87
and hearts. Heaven is not so different from earth,
but that holy men and women may already, even
while here, catch a foregleam of its brightness,
and receive the inchoation of its beauty and peace
into their souls; and this, instead of obliterating
their tastes, only purifies them; instead of absorbing their powers, sanctifies them; and instead of
transforming them into a new genus and order
of existences, renders their individulities more
distinct than ever: distinct for the performance of
spiritual uses, and defined by the devotion of every
power or faculty to the worship and service of
God. Regeneration defines human faculties, because it teaches men to discover them, in order
that they may dedicate them; and to dedicate
their faculties requires that they should exert them;
and to exert their faculties only renders them more
distinctly marked ahd more prominently developed.
The good seed springs up within them, "in some
thirty-fold, in some sixty-fold, and in some a hundred-fold"; but the richer they become in the
gifts of the Lord's increase, the more mighty they
become for manifold uses; and the manifold uses
they can accomplish only establish within them
some peculiar quality, some individual excellence,
some especial grace possessed by no other soul. All
that can minister to their development, and all
that can make that development a never-failing
joy to themselves, as well as an instrument of
God to enhance the joy of all others, abounds in




88         OUR ETERNAL HOMES.
heaven. The variety of the angels has a corresponding variety in the scenery that surrounds
them. The former adds an endless diversity of
grace, of use, and of joy to the sum of happiness
experienced in heaven as a state; and the latter
variety adds a diversity equally endless to the
beauty and sublimity of heaven as a place. Both
are equally adapted to man's highest wants, and
conformable to man's noblest conceptions; our
earthly life of preparation can fit man for such a
heaven, and the revelation of such a heaven is
sufficient to prove its fitness for man.  It furnishes an incentive to the cultivation of all that
is pure and good in our nature, because it promises to that nature a development that shall be
holy, and to that cultivation a success that shall
never pass away.
We are aware it may be objected to these
views, that they render heaven something like an
ideally beautiful earth.  The charge is admitted.
It has grown by far too fashionable among certain classes to decry and declaim against the earth.
To hear them, one would be led to the supposition that this beautiful world was an abomination
in the sight of God and His angels; that loveliness had forsaken its vegetation, sublimity its scenery, freshness its meadows; and that an irradiant
sun gloomily scowled on a panorama of desolation.  There are deformities and disfigurements
enough in the world; but these are the results




HEA VENLY SCENERY.                89
of moral evil, and they are chiefly manifested in
man. So long as distant ridges can melt away
into the blue mists that surround them, so long as
placid lakes can double the fleecy clouds that float
over them, so long as brooks can flash in the sunshine from out of dusky bowers and green leaves,
so long as the uncultivated prairies, and pampas,
and savannahs shall continue carpeted with fresh
grass and bright flowers, so long as lordly trees
nod their proud heads to the kisses of the evening
zephyrs, so long as the maiden spring adorns herself with chaplets of leaf and garlands of flowers,
and summer spreads out its fields of waving corn,
and ripe autumn lavishes its treasures in tawny,
and golden, and ruddy glory over the bosom of
the globe, —so long shall beauty offer herself to
the gratitude and love of the gazers. It is to dishonor God to affect to despise His creation.
" The spicy breezes
Blow soft o'er Ceylon's isle,
And every prospect pleases,
And only man is vile."
Heaven is oftentimes spoken of as the " garden
of God," the garden of Eden, Paradise. There
is a double reason for this, and a double meaning in it. The reasons are, first, a fact in relation to mind, that all our conceptions must be
based on our perceptions. We can only conceive
of the unknown by recalling things that are known,
and then enlarging or heightening their qualities;




90         OUR ETERNAL HOMES.
or uniting together qualities we have perceived
separately.  Our conception of heavenly beauty
must be an enlargement and an exaltation of our
perception of earthly beauty, or it is formless,mere words, and no more. The second reason is
the fact in relation to heaven itself, that there are
groves and gardens, flowers and green pastures,
still waters and gushing fountains there. What
we have perceived of beauty here was designed
to aid us, and does aid us, in the conception of the
beautiful in heaven; and this conception is justified atonce by our mental constitution and by
the fact. The double meaning in the description
is that the loveliness below is an adumbration
of the loveliness above; and that our tuition in
delight derived from its appreciation here is the
preparation to our fuller appreciation of its grander
manifestations hereafter.
"TE DEUM LAUDAMUS!"




IV.
DEATH THE GATE OF LIFE.
"Our Saviour Jesus Christ, who hath abolished death, and hath brought
life and immortality to light by the Gospel." —2 TIM. i. 10.
MAN LIFE'S GREAT PARADOX. - THE PRESENCE AND UNIVERSALITY
OF DEATH.- IS DEATH A CURSE? —DEATH THE INEVITABLE
CONSEQUENT OF PHYSICAL LIFE. -DEATH AS THE PENALTY OF
SIN EXAMINED. - DEATH IN RELATION TO MAN. - EXAMINATION
OF SCRIPTURE-TEACHINGS ON THE SUBJECT OF DEATH. - DEATH
A BENEVOLENT NECESSITY. - WHAT IS DEATH? - MAN'S NATURAL AND SPIRITUAL BODIES. - PAUL'S THREE TERMS OF COMPARISON BETWEEN MAN AND GRAIN.- THE RESURRECTION OF
THE NATURAL BODY CONSIDERED.- THE THREE KINDS OR DEGREES OF SUBSTANCE. - CONCLUSIONS AS TO THE REDEEMED IN
HEAVEN. - SCRIPTURE TESTIMONIES AS TO THE LIFE AFTER
DEATH. - DEATH SWALLOWED UP IN VICTORY. - LIFE A JOY.DEATH A BLESSING.
AN  is life's great paradox.  Animals
enter without instruction into the full
possession of all their instincts.  The
present generation learns nothing from
the past, and can transmit no new intelligence to
the future. The first beaver was as clever a builder, and the first bee as astute a mathematician as
the last, and such they will continue forever. Life
with the animal races means a certain defined
condition of instinctive intelligence, from which
circumstances can take little away, and to which




92         OUR ETERNAL HOMES.
circumstances can add as little. To defend themselves from danger, to supply their hunger, to
propagate their species, to protect and provide for
their young, and then to die, when the perpetuation of the species by procreation has been attained,
seem to be the sole objects of their existence in
relation to themselves; and to enable them to
accomplish these, they are gifted with instincts,
and enter without effort into their use.  Man is
destined to the highest greatness, and born into a
state of the lowest helplessness. He has received
the grandest intellectual power of all earthly creatures, and is born into the completest ignorance;
- the only being possessing hopes of immortality,
and the only being conscious of the certainty of
death. His development is the slowest, and yet
that development is to be unceasing.  Through
the gates of weariness and pain he ascends to
knowledge; and buys, by an experience of suffering, the prudence that shall prevent suffering.
Toiling in the present, yet the past and the
future belong to him; —the past by the rich legacies of its wisdom, - the future by blooming aspirations and promises. Study takes hold of and
appropriates the one, and vigorous hope already
seizes upon and partially makes its own of the
other.  Whatever the past has treasured, and
whatever the future can promise, belongs to him,
the heir of all the ages. But for him to inherit the
past his predecessors have had to die, and to inherit




DEATH THE GATE OF LIFE.            93
the future he will himself have to die.  Thus
DEATH stares him in the face whichever way he
turns.  Experience and expectation alike reveal
to him the inexorable necessity of human life.
There is no escape from it. Death, as a friendly
guardian, hands over to him what has been preserved of those gone before; and death, as a warden, shall unlock the portals that at present bar
his attainment of what shall come after.  Man
stands on a narrow isthmus, with an ocean of death
on either hand; his life is spent in traversing its
restricted limits; and from death, learned as a
certainty by what he has witnessed in others, he
plunges into death, as a consciousness to himself.
However appalled by the vision, his life still must
relentlessly march on, and day by day the vision
grows more palpable in the perception of how
inevitable it is.  A  mysterious fascination compels him to regard it, and to regard it the more
the more he shrinks from it.
The illustrations of death surround him on every
hand.  Every hour dies that the next may be
born; each day dies and sinks into the cold, silent
tomb of night that its successor may come forth:
the tomb of the past is the womb of the future;
the years tremble through a winter, snow-shbrouded
and ice-stiff, that the blue-eyed babe of spring may
smile on the world that shall laugh out its glad
sympathy in flowers; dust rises around him, and
dust is the concrete emblem of dissolution. The




94         OUR ETERNAL HOMES.
soil he cultivates and the fuel he burns, the solid
globe on which he treads, the clouds that float
above him, are all vast cemeteries, - charnel-houses,
transformed from'death into new forms of life.
Chemistry reveals to him the death of matter in
its various decompositions; geology speaks to him
out of the stony archives of the far-off past of the
extinction of races; and history's long corridors
and portrait-galleries are made melancholy with the
mournful knell of nations, dynasties, and men past
and gone. Should the lonely student of these mysteries, the solitary worshipper in these huge temples and before these high altars, cherish the wish
to leave his name as one of the lights and landmarks of his times, the pallid mist of death dims
the statue that ambition dreams it beholds, and
the vision of greatness grows faint through the
sorrowing rain of tears.
Mankind has made a great mistake in its contemplation of death, and this mistake, while being radically pursued into false assertions as to the
past, has as falsely gloomed over the prospects of
the future. Some have thought that death was an
imperfection,- a blot on the fair face of creation,
-— a derangement that has entered into an otherwise perfect plan. They have believed that the
primal scheme of creation comprehended no such
necessity as man's dying, and that physical dissolution was only an afterthought of Divine vengeance, and inflicted as the penalty of sin. Earth,




DEATH THE GATE OF LIFE.             95
according to them, was to have been the eternal
scene of man's existence, and material being the
unchanging necessity of human life. From this
opinion we altogether dissent. If death were not
exactly coeval with life, it was life's immediate
successor. For ages prior to the advent of man
these two co-accessory agencies- life and death -
were busy preparing the earth for that advent.
There have been six grand groups or periods of
animated existence, and five of these have altogether passed away, and they passed away, too,
before man was created and died. Many of our
rocks are solid sarcophagi. One seventh of our
earth's crust is composed of limestone, and limestone is but the imbedded sepulchre of once living
creatures. Whatever of this rock was beheld by
the first man, was actually a monument of death.
Death in inorganic nature was change, and change
in the animated kingdoms was death.
Not only was there death prior to man, but
there was also violent death.  The larger races
preyed upon the smaller, and, to build up their
living tissues, the death of subsidiary races was
indispensable. And what the evidence of observed
facts declares to have been the case, reason can
demonstrate must have been the case. Where
space is limited in extent, material organizations
can only increase in number up to a certain point,
and then the space will be full. If increase is to
continue, the decease of the old must take place to




96         OUR ETERNAL HOMES.
afford room for the existence of the new. Where
matter is limited in quantity, and organisms are
composed of matter, then, also, increase, or even
continued existence, can only reach a certain point,
and death must ensue; not only to furnish material
for an increase of numbers, but to supply material
for the continued existence of those which already
exist. On the debris of a dead past the living
present can alone stand, and the present must die
to permit the existence of the future. Vegetables and animals are endowed with marvellous
powers of reproduction, and were so endowed from'
the beginning. These powers are so prolific that
any one race under favorable circumstances could
speedily people the world. The fertility of reproduction is an evidence of Divine prevision that
death must and would occur, and it is, too, a proof
of Divine provision to guard against the extinction
of species resulting from the death of the individual. The bestowal of the fertility was the prophet
of death.  Death, therefore, was in the world
before man. Man eating the fruits of the earth
and the herbs of the field entailed upon them vegetable death as the necessary consequence of his
existence. Death existed before him, death came
with him and by him, and it is only absurd to
regard physical death as the consequence of his sin.
It may be urged, that while it is certain that
other creatures died prior to man's advent, yet man
would not himself have physically died, unless he




DEATH  THE GATE OF LIFE.             97
had sinned.. It is impossible so to state this objection as that it will not involve its own contradiction.
In common with all animals, man possessed at first,
and still possesses, a material body. This body is
subject to all the accidents and necessities to which
other material bodies are subject.  It must eat,
or appropriate fresh matter to supply material, to
repair the waste and destruction that life occasions.  Life is as a fire, and the tissues are as
its fuel; they must consume, and fresh substance
must be appropriated to compensate the consumption. Sharing the necessities common to all material existences, man's body shared death.  The
reproductive powers of man, and the command to
reproduce, were infallible indications of the Divine
will in his case, as are these things in the case of
all other animals. Reproduction was intended to
be unceasing, because in the fact of each kind
bringing forth their like, man's offspring would
be similarly endowed with these powers. Reproduction being unceasing, in order that it might continue, death must ensue, or there would be neither
space in which their offspring could exist, nor matter of which they could be composed. From the
consideration of man as a physical material being,
death therefore was a necessity to life, and physical
death is not to be regarded as the consequence of sin.
Man is superior to the animals, not merely from
the form and beauty of the body, but in the possession of spiritual being. This spiritual being is
5                         G




98        OUR ETERNAL HOMES.
his immortal part. But for the full development
of this spiritual being earth is an incompetent, and
would ever have been an incompetent plane. It
is only adapted for being, and was only designed
to be, the school of his preparation, the lower forms
where he might become fitted for the more glorious universities on high. If death were the end
of existence, and life were dwarfed down to the
twin boundaries of the cradle and the grave, then
death were indeed a disorder, a derangement of
a wise plan. Regarding death as only the introduction to a new state, man is still life's great paradox; but if we were to regard death as the fatal
terminus of life's toilsome journey, then man would
be nature's most insoluble problem. He would
alone be the startling exception to what all observation teaches us, —that indications of universal
fitness in things are the evidences of a universal
design.  The disproportion which exists between
man's capacity for improvement, and the small
opportunities his earth-life affords him for improvement,- between his ability to acquire knowledge,
and the brief term allowed here for its acquisition, — between his almost boundless desires and
their limited satisfaction, -between his hopes and
his destiny, if death be the cessation of identity;
this disproportion is so immense, that it would
be out of harmony with all the chorus of testimony to the existence of design that swells up
from all other created things. It would teach us




DEATH THE GATE.. OF LIFE.           99
at once to doubt of there being any Divine wisdom presiding in the universe; or, rather, the
perception of the disproportion would overmaster
doubt as to man's future existence; and even
though it were false that man would continue to
live after death, it would yet compel us to believe the falsehood despite of the evidence that it,
was such.
Many have adopted the notion of natural death
being the penalty of sin, from the literal language
of the word of God, and their belief in it may
be unassailable while their mistaken reading of
the Bible remains uncorrected. On this head, the
following brief considerations are suggested.  1,
The Bible does certainly use the words "death"
and "dead" in two senses, -the one meaning natural decease, the death of the body,- and the
other signifying spiritual death; not the dissolution
of the soul, but such a state of antagonism to
God as to render the soul non-receptive of God's
blessings, and which perverts into everlasting misery the life which the Creator designed to be an
everlasting joy. Only in this way can be understood the promises, " He that liveth and believeth
in me shall never die "; 1 " He that believeth in
me shall not come into condemnation, but is passed
from death unto life"; 2 " If a man keep my sayings, he shall never see death":3 and such statements as, "for this my son was dead, and is alive
1 John xi. 26.  2 John v. 24.    8 John viii. 51.




100         OUR ETERNAL HOMIES.
again"; or, " Ye who were dead in trespasses and
sins, yet hath he quickened";1," The soul that
sinneth it shall die"; 2 "I know thy works, that
thou hast a name to live, and art dead"; 3,, Enlighten mine eyes, lest I sleep the sleep of death";4
etc. II. Jesus came to annul the penalty of sin,
and redeem  man from  the curse: "Jesus Christ
hath abolished death, and brought life and immortality to light by the Gospel." 5  The death
that he abolished was the death of the curse. He
did not abolish natural death, therefore natural
death was not the death of the curse. The death
that He hath abolished is spiritual death, therefore spiritual death, the death of the soul, was
the death of the curse.  "As in Adam  all die,
so in Christ shall all be made alive";6 the life
we may have in Christ is not the perpetuation
of our natural existence, therefore the death we
suffer in Adam was not natural decease. "The
wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is
eternal life, through Jesus Christ our Lord." 7
The death and life here contradistinguished are
mutual opposites: the life we are to receive through
Christ is spiritual life; and the death we have undergone through Adam  is spiritual death.  III.
The same- conclusion must be arrived at from the
consideration of the narrative in Genesis: " In the
1 Eph. ii. 1.     4 Ps. xiii. 3.  6 1 Cor. xv. 22.
2 Ezek. xviii. 4.  6 2 Tim. i. 10.  7 Rom. vi. 23.
8 Rev. iii. 1.




DEATH THE GATE OF LIFE.    101
day that thou eatest thereof, thou shalt surely die."
That Adam did not naturally die that day, the narrative asserts; nor can the words be interpreted
that he "became subject to death from that day."
If natural death was the penalty, nine hundred
and thirty years of life is rather a long interval
between the announcement of the penalty and
its fulfilment.  Either the word "day," or the
word "death," must be understood in a non-literal sense. "The soul that sinneth, it shall die,"
seems to indicate that the death of the soul, and
not the decease of the body, is and was the penalty of sin.  This conclusion, confirmed as it is
by the narrative itself, is the only one that is
consistent with the whole tenor of the Scriptures,
and it renders the whole tenor of the Scriptures
consistent with the facts of science and the deductions of philosophy. Natural death, therefore,
is not the penalty of sin, but the necessary condition of a continued material existence.
While death is a necessity of life, yet it is a
benevolent necessity.  In its establishment God
has only proven Himself a more beneficent Father as well as a wiser contriver. To learn-the
reasons for the appointment of death, and the
consequences resulting from it, will only exalt
His claims upon human gratitude, as it will also
afford us a grander spectacle of His more comprehensive design. Earth will be seen to be the
seminary of heaven; and the decease of former




102        OUR ETERNAL HOMES.
generations was only contrived to admit of the
existence of new generations, whose home and
abiding-place is above. Thus, and thus only, is
secured the accomplishment of the promise, " Of
the increase of his kingdom there shall be no
end."
A  man dies:
"Life and thought have gone away
Side by side,
Leaving door and windows wide:
Careless tenants they!
All within is dark as night:
In the windows is no light;
And no murmur at the door,
So frequent on its hinge before."
In this wreck and desolation, what is it that has
died?  Evidently only the  body.  "Ashes to
ashes, and dust to dust," is the solemn requiem
uttered as to that. It was a marvellous combination of earthly substances, held together by a
still more wondrous thing that we call "life";
the bond that held them together is broken, so
back to their original elements the substances of
the body return.  Decomposition shall prepare
them for recomposition, in order that the vast
cycle of human existence may ceaselessly go on.
The body dies because the real man is withdrawn
from it.  The body was an accident; - however
necessary to his birth as an individual, yet not necessary to his continued existence. Through all the
manifold and perpetual changes of the body, the man




DEATH THE GATE OF LIFE.    103
continued the same being, and he continues the
same being despite the last great change of death.
Then, what survives death? The Apostle answers the question, "We know that if our earthly
house of this tabernacle be dissolved, we have a
building of God, a house not made with hands,
eternal in the heavens.  For in this we groan,
earnestly desiririg to be clothed upon with our
house which is from heaven..... Not that we
would be unclothed, but clothed upon, that mortality might be swallowed up of life..... Knowing that while we are in the body, we are absent
from the Lord; and we are willing to be absent
from the body, and to be present with the Lord." 1
Absence from the body does not, therefore, destroy the identity or the consciousness of the man.
But the preservation of our consciousness and identity necessitates the preservation of our human form,
and even of our individual human forms. The
man whose body is dead must still remain a man;
not a mere spark of life, a flickering flame of
being, but an actual and distinct existence, a human being conscious of his own identity, responsible for his previous conduct, and cognizant of
God's presence. But form implies substance, for
form is but the limitation of substance: and substance in form implies body. Man must, consequently, possess two bodies, one the material, which
dies, —and one a spiritual body, which survives
the dissolution of the other.
1 2 Cor. v. 1- 8.




104        OUR ETERNAL HOMES.
We have previously seen that spirits are substantial men, not composed of earthly, but of spiritual and never-dying substance; and the Apostle
has devoted a large portion of his First Epistle
to the Corinthians to elucidate this subject. In
it he declares, " There is a natural body, and there
is a spiritual body,"  and further asserts that " the
natural body is sown, and the spiritual body rises."
He very felicitously compares the sowing, death,
and rising of man, to the sowing, death, and germination of grain. This comparison is so complete
that it deserves minute consideration. The Apostle makes use of three terms in relation to both
man and grain; and to fix the analogy it will be
necessary to determine the resemblance of each
term. We begin with the middle phrase. The
death of the grain symbolizes the death of the
man. Both must die before they can rise. But
the sowing, the first term, must take place before
the death of either. This shows that the sowing
of the grain cannot be analogous to the burial of
man's dead body; and this for several reasons;
first, the man is not present in the body when
that is interred, —we inter it only because he is
no longer there; and, secondly, the sowing takes
place before death, according to the Apostle, whereas
interment does not take place till after death. A
further reason why the Apostle cannot have designed to compare the sowing of the grain to the
1 1 Cor. xv. 35 - 0.




DEATH THE GA TE OF LIFE.            105
interment of the dead body, is that many dead
bodies are not interred at all. And a still further reason is, that the third term of the comparison will be altogether frustrated by the assignment of such an interpretation to the first.
What portion of man's history is it, then, we
ask, which is analogous to the sowing of the grain?
The Apostle is speaking of man's being sown, not
of any sowing of man's body. We answer, man
is sown into the world when he is born into the
world, just as the grain is sown into the earth
when placed there. The man is sown by birth
into the world in order that he may die, just as
the grain is sown into the earth, its world, in order
that it may die. The whole of the description
is strikingly apposite to this interpretation. In a
far higher than a mere gross, material sense, man
is sown in "corruption, dishonor, weakness," when,
as a natural body, he enters by birth into the
world. The "sowing" is the beginning of man's
earth-life, or life on the earth; and the hereditary propensities to evil, the lusts of sense, and
the frivolities of time, render it far too often and
too much a whole scene of corruption, dishonor,
and weakness.
Man's death is compared to the death of the
grain.  This comparison is exactly accurate.  In
the grain it is only the husk that dies. With the
man it is only the husk —the natural body, the
physical envelope - that dies. When the husk of
5 *




106        OUR ETERNAL HOMES.
the grain dies, the germ of new life has sprouted
forth; and when the physical envelope of the man
dies, the spiritual being is released from it and
ascends. It is necessary that the grain should be
sown that it may die, and it is necessary that it
should both be sown and die that the germ of new
life may ascend into the bright light and warm sunshine above its earthly resting-place. And, in like
manner, man must be born that he may die, and
both be born and die in order that he may rise
a spiritual, immortal being. The providential purpose in the implantation of the germ of life within
the grain was, that by dying a more munificent
life might be developed; and the great design in
the birth of man was, that by dying a nobler existence might be attained.  The enlarged multiplication of the species, as the result of the death
of the grain, is the symbol of the enhanced development of the powers and privileges, the gifts
and the glory of human existence, to be realized
in the other life.
The third term requires consideration. Not only
are they alike sown and do they die alike, but
there is a further resemblance in the quickening
of the man and the germination of the grain. The
dead husk and starchy substance of the grain do
not rise; but the living germ, from the husk, the
living principle, from the body of the seed. So,
in like manner, man's spirit rises from the dead
body; its ascent from the body is the cause and




DEATH THE GATE OF LIFE.    107
sign of death. The dead husk wastes away in the
soil, and the dead body moulders back to dust.
The life-germ in both cases has no further need
of the outer envelope it wore, and can put it to
no further use.  Without it, both the sprouting
stem of wheat and the risen spirit of man are more
glorious things than they were before.
Sometimes this comparison of the Apostle is regarded as illustrating a fancied resurrection of the
dead body; but this view is evidently wrong. It
illustrates most felicitously the resurrection of the
living man from the dead body; but to attempt
to interpret it otherwise renders the comparison
singularly inapt. The germination of a seed is not
the resuscitation of the dead husk, the covering of
the germ; and the resurrection of the man is not
any resuscitation of the body.  The germination
of the grain is the bursting up of its inner living principle into a more beautiful and a new form
of existence; and the resurrection of the man is
the rising up of his living principle, his spirit, into
a new and grander existence. Consequently, the
Apostle has been really treating of the resurrection of the man from the dead body, not of the resuscitation of the dead body itself.  The impersonal pronoun "it," used in our translation of the
passage (1 Cor. xv. 42-44), is not used or implied in the Greek. The man has been clothed
with a mortal, a natural body, "the earthly house
of this tabernacle," and the man is raised an " in'




108        OUR ETERNAL HOMES.
corruptible, immortal, spiritual body," or has put
on "the house not made with hands, the building of God, eternal in the heavens."
Addressing some who believed in the old Hebrew and Egyptian idea of the resurrection of the
dead body, the Apostle declares in the same chapter, "Thou fool; that which thou sowest, thou
sowest NOT that body that shall be ";1 for, as he
asserts again, " Flesh and blood cannot inherit the
kingdom of God, neither doth corruption inherit
incorruption ";2 or, as he more emphatically expresses it, "the natural body is sown, and the spiritual body is raised."3  He no more means that
the dead natural body shall at some future day
be sublimated and transformed into a spiritual body,
than he intends to teach that the dead husk of the
grain shall be transformed into the living plant.
That is dead and done with, and dead because
done with; and up from the dead husk or body
the living principle rises. The birth, death, and
resurrection of the man, and the sowing, death,
and germination of the grain are thus mutually
representative; and the comparison of the Apostle
is justified and borne out even into details. In
both, death is, therefore, the gate of life.
What intermission, asks the soul yearning after
life, is there between our conscious existence in this
world and the commencement of our consciousness in the next? Believers in the dogma of the
1 1 Cor. xv. 36, 37.   2 ver 50.   8 ver. 44.




DEATH  THE GATE OF LIFE.            109
resurrection of the dead body have had to invent
what the Word of God does not justify them in
the invention of, a strange sort of nondescript middle state, filling up the period elapsing between the
decease of the body and its future resurrection;
while yet they were baffled by many passages of
Scripture that would not harmonize with their hypothesis. Much extravagant speculation has been
wasted upon this middle state, and the wildest notions have been hazarded, when nothing is simpler
than the formula, " a natural body for the natural
world, and for the spiritual world a spiritual body."
The root of all errors on this subject has been
in the definition given to spirit. It has been so
long called immaterial, that almost all idea of substantiality has been banished from ordinary conceptions of it. We can, however, have no idea of
the existence of something that is not substantial.
There are three degrees of substance, each discretely different. from the others, different as to
qualities and properties, but still substance. These
three are, — material substance, which forms the
lowest class in existence; spiritual substance, which
forms the middle link in the chain of being; and
Divine substance, which is God.  The spirit is
immaterial, that is, its substance is altogether discrete from matter; but it is only a lax use of words
which confounds the idea of immateriality with that
of unsubstantiality.  That which has form  must
have substance, as that only which is substance can




110        OUR ETERNAL HOMES.
possess form.  Without form, existence is impossible; for existence is only the form which the
essence assumes. To say that a spirit is without
substance, is to say, therefore, that a spirit has
no existence, that it is not; or, as an acute writer
expresses it, "that it is NO-THING, existing NOWHERE and NO-WHEN."I
The Word of God unmistakably conducts us to
the conclusion that spirits are bodies, substantial,
and possessing form; and leads us most satisfactorily to believe that there is no such thing as
disembodied spirits, and no such place as the middle state of existence, such as that surmised between the death of the material body and its resuscitation. Moses was certainly dead, and yet on
the Mount of Transfiguration the three disciples
beheld him ministering to the Lord Jesus.' The
two angels who appeared to John, and who declared themselves to be prophets,2 were substantial beings possessing form. The thousands rescued
out of every "kindred, and tongue, and people,
and nation,"a were substantial beings in the human
form. These had certainly lived on earth, they
had as certainly died on earth, and yet as certainly
they possessed substantial bodies, which the Apostle could see, just as they also could behold each
other, and together praise the Lamb.
Two important conclusions, however, result from
the foregoing observations. First, there are only
1 Matt. xvii. 3.  2 Rev. xix. 10; xxii. 9.  8 Rev. v. 9.




DEATH  THE GATE OF LIFE.    111
two kinds of bodies spoken of in the Bible, the
one kind natural bodies, which remain on earth,
matter to matter, or dust to dust; and the other
kind spiritual bodies, which belong to the spiritual
world. There are no others than these. These
beatified men did not possess natural bodies, for
these they had left behind when they quitted the
material world; therefore, the only conclusion remaining to us is, that they were spiritual bodies.
Their substantiality was spiritual substance, or, in
other words, they were spiritual bodies.
But, secondly, the existence of man as a spiritual body is spoken of as being the result of
resurrection. Hence, as these did possess such
spiritual bodies, their resurrection must have already taken place. Consequently, the resurrection
rightly understood is not the resuscitation of the
dead material body, but the raising of the spiritual
body from the dead natural body. There was to
them no middle state of existence, they had already
entered into their "eternal house," "absent from
the body" they were "present with the Lord,"
and had joined the " spirits of just men made perfect." To precisely the same conclusion are we
led by the parable of Dives and Lazarus.' Both
Lazarus and Dives were spiritual bodies, substantial beings in the human form, and at once, without
any middle state, Lazarus went to his own place,
and Dives to the place he also had made his own.
1 Luke xvi. 19 - 30.




112       OUR ETERNAL HOMES.
The great impassable gulf was eternally fixed between them. There was to be no common ground
on which they might in future stand together; their
resurrection had been realized, and henceforth were
they to continue to exist spiritual beings in the
spiritual world, the one in heaven and the other
in hell.
Exactly similar is the declaration made by the
Lord: "Now that the dead are raised, even Moses
showed at the bush, when he called the Lord the
God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God
of Jacob. For he is not a God of the dead, but
of the living: for all live unto him." 1 This magnificent statement declares several things. 1. That,
as seen by the Lord, there is no such thing as
a dead mae; or that the death of the body is not
the decease of the man. 2. That the dead are
raised; not that they shall be, or may hope to be
raised, but that the resurrection of the dead is a
fact now taking place, - the raising of the man
from the dead body. 3. That this resurrection was
taking place in the days of Abraham and Isaac and
Jacob, for they had then been " raised." 4. That
Moses was, to some extent, conscious of the certainty of this fact. 5. That the apparently simple
expression of God being the God of Abraham, Isaac,
and Jacob, is at the same time a divinely-given testimony to the fact of their continued existence, and
a prophetic declaration that the " heirs to the prom1 Luke xx. 37, 38.




DEATH THE GATE OF LIFE.            113
ises" shall in like manner be raised, when it shall
please the Divine Wisdom to call them home to
Himself.
Some of those thus raised are spoken of by the
Apostle as " the spirits of just men made perfect." 2
Now if they were already perfect, it must be folly
to presume that they are enjoying only a moiety
of existence, pining in longing anticipation for a
reunion with their to-be-resuscitated material bodies, which in their old earthly state they rejoiced
to cast away.
The term resurrection, or "rising again," no
more implies the resuscitation of the dead body
than does being "born again" imply the re-entrance into the world through the womb of the
mother. Nicodemus misunderstood the one, and
many persons appear only able to misunderstand
the other expression. Man rises from the dead;
it is only the body that is dead; and resurrection,
therefore, is man's rising from the dead body.
This view of the resurrection renders it universal, immediate, and certain. It abolishes the intellectual nightmare of a middle condition of disembodiment; it strips death of all the dark imaginations with which it has been invested: as the
Scriptures teach us, "it abolishes death," for " death
is swallowed up in victory"; and through the Gospel "life and immortality are brought to life."
The babe born this morning has entered upon
I Heb. xii. 23.
H




114        OUIR ETERNAL HOMES.
the possession of a life which can never be destroyed. God has formed it so far in His image
as to have endowed it henceforth with the attribute
of eternal being. Its existence for weal or woe
is now an unalterable fact; it is now a pillar that
can never be thrown down; a flame that can never
be extinguished.  Mutations may and must pass
over it in the career of its pilgrimage below; the
great mutation of physical death must be endured
at the end thereof; but the being still lives on,
and will live on forever, an identity never to be
merged into that of any other being, and a consciousness that shall never be lost.  That little
babe struggling with feeble cries, with the breath
for the first time distending its lungs, is a marvellous thing, a sublime spectacle, a stupendous
and eternal fact.
Life is a joy, and the culmination of the joy
of life is the certainty that it is indestructible. In
this joy of life we may feel strong and buoyant;
and, though there are dark riddles that we cannot read aright in this lower plane of life's manifestation, tortuous mazes among which we wander,
mysterious problems we cannot solve, sorrows we
cannot soothe, wrongs we cannot redress, and misery that we can do so little to alleviate, yet the
certainty of eternal life being within us, nerves the
pinions of hope to sweep forward to the realities
of the second chapter of the book of being, to
unriddle and set right the problems and wrongs




DEA TH THE GATE OF LIFE.           115
of the first. He in whom this sublime consciousness is awakened can confide in the compensations
that must be provided, and the workings of which
we shall one day be able to comprehend.  The
veil that covers the face of Isis, the mysteries of
Divine Wisdom in mundane things, may not be
removed by the hand of mortal, but this mortality
shall put on immortality; our life shall robe itself
in garments as immortal as itself, and then the veil
shall melt away from before the vision of the soul.
Life is a joy, and the more fully conscious we become of our life, the greater becomes the joy.
Earth's "muddy vestments of decay," this "mortal coil," frustrate and diminish this consciousness.
Only at rare intervals, and for brief periods, do we
enter into the higher potencies and principles of
our own nature, and even then the body with its
material necessities and weight and feebleness bears
us down. Our souls are in a double sense chained
to earth, both as a physical and mental fact. Death
is the deliverer, which enfranchises the spirit from
its prison-house. Then death is a blessing.
We solemnly ask ourselves the question, What
does death in reality do? And Death, rightly
heard, answers us, "I find the body feeble and
worn-out, crippling the young limbs of the soul,
fettering its higher soarings, blinding the soul's
eager sight, benumbing the stretched ears that
strive to catch the inner harmonies of creation,
wearying the laborious thought, congealing the




116       OUR ETERNAL HOMES.
struggling utterance, and investing the warm affections with the impotence of dust, and I strip
the gyves away. I burst the bars of the prison,
and throw down the doors, that the soul may ascend to liberty. Man in the body is as the chrysalis concealed in the grub. I rend the pupa case
that the psyche may come forth. My work is only
the pulling down of the scaffolding, that the building may be discovered, -only the breaking of the
ground-glass globe, that the light may shine forth
in its undimmed brightness,- only drawing the
dazzling blade from the hiding sheath that it may
be kissed by the sunbeams which it reflects back
to heaven,-only the opening of the green bud,
that the full-bosomed flower may appear.  Men
have feared me and slandered me. They have
painted me as a grizzly wreck of being, a dartarmed monster revelling in the misery I make, my
coming a horror, and my work a cruelty. They
have slandered me! A reaper among the young
flowers, the blossoms which I gather I bear upwards
to heaven. A gleaner among the ears that are left
on the ground, and I garner the grain to God! "
And our hearts reply that death is a warder,
flinging open the gates that barrier the path of
mortality to immortality; a white-wanded usher,
introducing man to the sublimer associates of the
heavenly assembly; our guide over the slender
bridge that spans the gulf between this life and the
next; the great revealer, lifting the dark screen




DEATH THE GATE OF LIFE.   117
that has long concealed what we have so eagerly
desired to behold; the angel of loving mien, bidding
the sorrowful to weep no more, and whispering
to the weary to rest.  Because life is a joy, and
because death is only the introduction of man into
a higher and fuller life, therefore death is a blessing.*
* For a further elucidation of the subject of the Resurrection, the
reader is respectfully referred to a lecture entitled, " Will the Natural Body Rise?" Third Edition. Pitman: Paternoster Row, London.




V.
DO THE DEPARTED FORGET US?
"Then he said, I pray thee therefore, father, that thou wouldest send him to
my father's house: for I have five brethren." - LUKE xvi. 27, 28.
HUMAN NECESSITY TO LOVE AND BE BELOVED. - THE LAW OF LOVE.
-THE QUESTIONS THAT LOVE ASKS AS TO THE BELOVED WHO
HAVE GONE. - THE EARTH-LIFE THE BEGINNING OF MAN'S EXISTENCE. - WHAT MAN TAKES WITH ItIM INTO THE OTHER LIFE.
- NO NECESSARY FORGETFULNESS IN THE OTHER LIFE, NOR CESSATION OF LOVE FOR THOSE LOVED WHILE ON EARTH. - SCRIPTURE TESTI'MONIES. - NEED OF DEEPER VIEWS. - TEMPORAL
UNIONS AND TEMPORARY ATTACHMENTS. - ONLY REAL AND
PROFOUND LOVE PERMANENT. - LOVE THE CAUSE OF REMEMBRANCE. - THE BLESSINGS OF FORGETFULNESS. - THE ARGUMENT FROM EXPERIENCE.- THE FULNESS OF HEAVENLY JOY.
0  human heart is satisfied with loving
without being beloved in return.  The
more sensitive the heart, the stronger
will be its craving to love and to be beloved. The depth of the devotion which it feels
may be measured by the urgency of its need for
the reciprocation of its love. It is only because
of the infinitude and universality of the Divine
love that God desires an instituted and universal
love from man. Jesus was hungry for the devotion of those for whom He proved His love by laying down His life. In every act of the Divine




DO THE DEPARTED FORGET US? 119
providence God exhibits His love, and therefore
seeks that man's love for Him may be shown in
all that he does.
Man is so formed that loving shall constitute his
real happiness. He may be happy because he may
love. All joy is so much the result of love, that
the one may be measured by the other. Delight
is experienced in the manifestation of the love
previously felt as an emotion of the soul; because
for love to express itself is to add a more sentient reality to the consciousness of loving. Therefore the reciprocation of love is necessary to human
happiness. Unless our love be returned, our love
itself cannot grow and be developed. It will be
dwarfed and stultified, and will perish of inanition.
The intensest human affection cannot continually
withstand utter indifference. Love's manifestations
must be accepted by the object of its devotion,
and their acceptance promotes the increase of those
manifestations. By becoming more and more active in its expression, love becomes increasingly
active as a passion in the lover.
It is the very nature of love to desire that the
beloved should be happy. Not only that they shall
be happy, but love also desires to promote that happiness; that is, to be active in contributing to their
increased happiness. Our love yearns to be the
cause of additional delight to our loved ones, of
delight that they could not have experienced without the love of the lover.  This is the craving




120        OUR ETERNAL HOMES.
of the truly loving soul. But without the reciprocation of our love, this craving can never be satisfied; for the love fades and withers under the
consciousness that it is not a means of imparting
enhanced felicity to the beloved.  Then it is like a
potent spring, that might have become a joy-giving
river, caverned at its source; a pent-in fire that
must needs smoulder and be extinguished for lack
of the free winds to blow upon it.  The choice
food on which love lives is its delightful manifestations, and without these, love languishes, starves,
and dies.
But some, many, of our loved ones have departed from this world, and yet we cease not to
love them. We desire to continue to love them,
though they have gone out from our presence. We
desire, too, that they should love us still, in order
that our own love for them may not droop and pass
away. Therefore there is a tender melancholy and
a deep yearning of the soul as we ask ourselves, Do
the departed forget us? Our love for them is eager
for the answer. Do they love there still? Not
only can they reflect, anA can they love, but do
they remember us? and do they love us still?
The continuance of the departed as rational and
free beings proves their possession of the power
to think and their power to love; but what we
long to know is, whether death, that removes them
from our sight, also removes us from their recollection. Life is sweetened and made delicious by




DO THE DEPARTED FORGET US? 121
love and friendship, and, although God is very merciful in providing us with objects whomn it is our
happiness and privilege to hold in tenderest affection, yet we cannot so far estrange ourselves
from our bygones as to forget those whose passage
has preceded our own into the spiritual world.
The joy which our remembrance of such friends
occasions us compels us to believe that their remembrance of us would cause joy to them, if our
positions were reversed, were we departed and had
they remained. The purer and better we become,
the deeper and tenderer is the delight that our consciousness drinks in from the fountains of memory.
By their transit into that other world they have
become purer and better, and we are forced to
inquire how much of their joy consists in mentally
retraversing the scenes they knew and once loved,
and re-collecting the reminiscences of those whom
once they knew and cherished.
Some have contended that as our entrance into this world was " a waking and a forgetting," so
our entrance into the next may be similarly an
oblivion as to this; and that therefore we are as
absent unto them as they are unto us. But to say
they forget us is to render us still more absent unto
them; for we can still remember and love them.
In reply, we may state that no argument worthy attentive or serious consideration has ever been
produced in favor of the existence of man as an
individual identity prior to his birth into this world.
6




122        OUR ETERNAL HOMES.
The idea itself has only had life enough in it to become reproduced as a sort of a vague allusion by
a few poets. It is the corollary of the doctrine
of metempsychosis, and the reductio ad absurdum
of Monboddo's theory of the " origin of species,"
or Darwin's hypothesis of " natural selection."
Every consideration tends to show that our earthlife is the beginning of our identity. Whatever
may have been the condition of the spiritual particles which enter into the constitution of MYSELF,
their aggregation as MYSELF was not realized until
my birth into this, the lowest plane of rational existence. That ME has remained unchanged, notwithstanding all mental developments by exercise,
and improvement by education. Though that ME,
or my consciousness of identity, has passed through
manifold alterations as to intellectual forms of
thought, conceptions of manners, principles of
morals, or doctrines of religion, yet this consciousness of identity has continued unaffected by all
such subsidiary changes.  They were changes
taking place within my consciousness of identity,
but not of that consciousness. Nor has the displacement of the particles that formed my physical body in my infancy and youth, and their replacement by the particles which constitute my
present body, at all affected my consciousness of
identity. Revelation and reason teach me that
after death I shall still continue to exist.  The
continuation of my existence is the continued ex



DO THE DEPARTED FORGET US?  123
istence of the ME, this consciousness of my own
identity; for, to remain the same being, I must
preserve this consciousness of the same identity.
There is, therefore, no parallel between our birth
into this, and our entrance into that world.  Into
this I entered physically and mentally a babe, —
into that I shall enter substantially and mentally
a man.
There are many important consequences resulting from this difference, and some of them bear
a direct relevancy to our immediate subject. Man
takes into the other life all his intellectual and
affectional nature, such as, by his inner and outer
life, he has made it. Not only is the spirit, newly
entered into the spiritual world, the same being
as to his consciousness of identity, but he is also
the same being in his loves and thoughts there
as he was here. Changes, and those vast ones,
must necessarily await him in the unveiling processes of eternity; but such as he is when he
leaves this plane of existence, such is he when
he enters that.  Now the love for friends, and
remembrance of them, are things of the soul, and
they are no more destroyed by the transition from
this into that state, than are the other faculties
of the spirit and the mental results of their exercise. We may conclude then, that at first our
departed cease not to remember and cease not
to love us. There is no immediate obliteration of
recollection, and no necessary cessation of love.




124        OUR ETERNAL HOMES.
If there be, and no doubt there is in many cases,
an oblivion that will enwrap their memories of
their earth-friends, and with this, of consequence,
an expiration of love for them, it will result from
the operation of other laws, and the coming into
activity of other principles in the natures of those
who have gone before us.
The Word of God clearly intimates that there
is no necessary forgetfulness, and at least suggests
the universality of the fact that recognition of
friends in the other life may be possible. In the
parable of Dives and Lazarus, which has frequently
been referred to in the course of this little work,
because it is so full of instruction on these subjects, the Lord describes Dives as remembering
the fact of the existence of his five brethren, and as
still feeling sufficient love for them to induce him
to pray Abraham to send Lazarus to his father's
house.1 This instance is rendered still more remarkable by the fact that Dives is described as
being, not a happy and blessed spirit, but as being in hell, and there lifting "up his eyes, being
in torment," as showing that not even his dreadful
condition could obliterate the remembrance of, or
destroy his interest in, and anxiety concerning,
his five brethren on earth.  Not only did he
remember the fact of his having had five brethren,
but the further fact that they were all still remaining in the world he had quitted, and the yet further
1 Luke xvi. 27, 28.




DO THE DEPARTED FORGET US?  125
fact that they would be found in his "father's
house." The answer of Abraham to a prior request of Dives is equally illustrative of the fact
that those on the other side are certainly, on their
first arriving into the spiritual world, able to remember what took place in this.  " Son, remember
that thou in thy lifetime receivedst thy good things,
and Lazarus evil things." 1 And a similar testimony to the general remembrance possessed by
those in the spiritual world may be found in the
fact that Abraham knew that men in the world had
"' Moses and the prophets," 2 although this fact
could only have been communicated to him. It
assuredly is not too much to assert that this parable justifies us in these inferences, which it is
so calculated to suggest that the marvel would be
if they escaped us.
The belief of recognition of the departed is also
intimated in those tenderly sad words of David,
as to the little son whom he had so loved, so
mourned, and temporarily lost, —"I shall go to
him, although he shall not return to me." 3 The
inference is at least warranted by a rational consideration of the Scriptures, that Moses and Elias,
who ministered to the Lord on the Mount of Transfiguration, as well as the two prophets, who had
become angels, and who ministered unto John the
Revelator, had not forgotten, nor had ceased to
feel a loving interest in the earth upon which they
1 Luke xvi. 25.  2 ver. 20.  8 2 Sam. xii. 23.




126        OUR ETERNAL HOMES.
had lived, the scene of their former labors, revisited
on these occasions in glory. It must be a source
of consolation to all earnest lovers of their race
to think, that as angels they may not only preserve their recollection of and their interest in
mankind on earth, but that they may be in a position to promote their welfare, and to render them
loving aid and comfort.
Yet we must take deeper and more comprehensive views than those indicated above. On earth
there is necessarily much association between persons strangely dissimilar in tastes and dispositions.
There are incongruous friendships, superficial and
physical attachments, and connections whose only
basis and motive is convenience or worldly gain.
Many seemingly ardent affections are only seeming,
affectations of love from which the deeper feelings of the heart wander away, and into which the
secret thoughts never enter. Oil and water have
met but have never blended, and can never blend.
As external circumstances alone brought such into
association, so a change even in external circumstances would sever the transient attachment, and
estrange the superficially united lovers.  The affinity was but partial, and the union could only
be temporary.  Between married partners this is
far too often the case. The love of such was no
more than a transient feeling, a fancy, the charm
of which has fled, leaving only the thrall of a
bondage that was endured with impatience, till




DO THE DEPARTED FORGET US?  127
the death of one of the twain that terminates it
becomes welcomed with a sense of relief.
Between brothers and sisters their affection is
often only of this external kind, the consequence
of association and a vague expression of the love
which all are created to feel and desire.  Any
other person would have formed an object of regard equally attractive, and for whom their love
would have been equally deep, or rather equally
shallow. Unfortunately, too, for man, soul-friendships are similarly rare. The story of Damon and
Pythias has but few originals and few imitators.
Even in families, although the parents may strive
to evince no partiality in their conduct to their
children, yet it is the inevitable law of soul that
they like best those who are most like them; and
perhaps the more spiritual the affections of the
parents, the more operative in them will this law
be. The general feeling of love for their children,
as such, will enable them to love them generally
alike; but with some there will be a closer intimacy, a fuller communion of spirit, and a tenderer
sympathy. We need not regret this, and we cannot prevent it; for there is a law of spiritual consociation to which we are subject, and over which
we can have no control. Every Abraham has his
Isaac; Jacob is not alone in his love for Joseph;
nor was David the only father who has mourned
over his Absalom. It is only the spiritual side of
the world-wide fact of chemical affinity. The lat



128        OUR ETERNAL HOMES.
ter is the physical expression, and the former the
spiritual expression of the same universal law of
"like cleaving unto like."
Love, then, is of an internal or an external kind;
the one is the creature of circumstances, but the
other no circumstances can altogether overcome.
Even here on earth we can see illustrations of this
fact.  Two sons will leave their home and journey
to foreign lands, one will forget the old roof-tree
and those it may shelter, while the other will wander back again to watch and guard the declining
days of his parents, to be the family stay, their
comfort and their hope.  In the other life the
same law must have place, and operate yet more
markedly. The external, the shallow, the transitory affection must and will pass away, and with
it the recollection which love alone could keep
fresh. Only the internal, the real, the permanent,
will remain.  It seems almost like a mere play
upon words, but it is not a repetition. The words
form a series, and each is the effect of the former:
because the love is internal, it is real; because
real, it is necessarily permanent, and therefore must
remain; because it is interwoven with the very
life, and is the inevitable consequence of the very
nature of the individual, it will endure.  Only
those who are really lovers, therefore, will continue to love, and their love will be the source of
their remembrance.
There are conjunctions which embrace, or are




DO THE DEPARTED FORGET US?  129
common to, many, and there are soul-unions that
are limited to a few.  Within the wider circles
of these common conjunctions there may exist many
smaller circles of such soul-unions. It is only another illustration of the proverb, "wheels within
wheels," another exemplification of the great fact
which can also be seen in all society, and of which
the sublimest natural symbol is the inter-movements of the heavenly bodies; each planet with
its statellites performing their mutual and lesser
orbits, amid the regular and orderly processions
of all the suns and planets of the universe. These
conjunctions that are common revolve around some
common centre, - political parties round political doctrines, philosophic sects round philosophic
schools, or religious denominations around some
one great Teacher. So far as these objects are
limited to earth, so far such conjunctions are equally
restricted.  So far as such consociations really
enter into, mould, and lay hold of men's inmost
natures, only so far can such conjunctions be permanent in the other life. Like will seek for its
like, and what we are will rule our love for what
is like to ourselves. Hence real conjunction can
only exist between those who genuinely love each
other; and such love is the result of our actual
natures, such as they were originally by parentage,
and such as they have subsequently become by the
moulding processes of education.  Where such
conjunction exists, forgetfulness is impossible. As
6*                        I




130        OUR ETERNAL HOMES.
the panting hart seeks the water-brooks, so the
soul will yearn for its beloved. With such, recognition is inevitable. As the gazer recognizes his
reflected image in the mirror, so the soul will recognize its like. With such, separation is equally
impossible. The thought of the mind will speed
the willing spirit to the side of the being thought
of, and their changeless love will conjoin them forever.
Love is the mystery of man's nature half revealed to him. Heart-unions are marvellous things,
and potent for good and evil. There is no more
expressive word in our language than attachment,
which literally means binding together.  Hearts
attached are blendings of the springs of life, the
waters from which must ever afterwards seek to
form an undivided stream. The more those attachments are genuine and profound, the more
indissoluble are the ties that they establish. When
they are the most real and most profound, they
are wrapped up with human destiny, to be parts of
us forever. Such beloved ones have, and everlastingly will have, power over us, and over such
loving ones shall we forever have power. Their
love for us will draw them near to us, as our love
for them will impel us toward them; and being made one with us by love, as angels we may
together be made one in the Lord by our common
love for Him. There is an individual application
as well as a societary and general signification in




DO THE DEPARTED FORGET US?  131
the words, " They went out from us because they
were not of us."
It must be understood that nothing in the foregoing asserts more than the immutability of the
soul's affections after death. During this life the
whole bent and purpose of a man's soul as to good
and evil can become changed by regeneration. The
deformed may become reformed, and the malformed
may become transformed by this mighty process,
afforded and effected by the mercy of the Lord.
It is the vast engine permitted to man by which
he can determine his own destiny, and, within
certain limits, change his character. Though, as
previously shown, regeneration accomplishes the
removal of defects of character, not of differences;
for differences are not defects. Man has attachments that more or less profoundly unite him to
their objects; and what is here asserted is, that
only those that are profound can be permanent.
This law of remembrance, recognition, and association in the future life is altogether merciful. It
is to be regarded as a fact, unhappily too possible,
that heaven may become the abiding-place of some
members of a family, of one of a married couple,
of one of a pair of friends; while the desolations
of hell may be the condition of the others. If
recollection of our earthly associations were universal and permanent, heaven would not be a tearless and sorrowless abode, while the mother could
remember her lost child, the wife her lost husband,




132        OUR ETERNAL HOMIES.
the child its parents, the friend his friend. The
warmer their love for the lost ones, the more intense would be the pang of misery caused by their
absence from them; so that the highest qualities
of the saved would thus become to them the source
of their deepest anguish.  The more worthy of
heaven by their tenderness, the less of a heaven
would they possess, were it not for this blessing
of forgetfulness, because of love seeking its beloved
and lost, or wasting itself in sighs when all its researches were vain. There would again be " Rachel weeping for her children, and would not be
comforted because they are not." No; it is better
to think that such love as shall not be made permanent in heaven was only of a temporary, transient, superficial kind, - only the result of earthly
association, and therefore only the creature of time,
to be quenched in the brightness of heaven's glory,
to be fused away as dross from the pure gold of
the nature of the glorified man, who then will love
only that which their clearer perceptions show to
be worthy of their love, and in devotion to which
they will find an ever-increasing joy.
Perhaps this thought may sadden at first sight,
but it will be only at first sight. Even if it be
otherwise, it would still be better that our brief
earth-life should be darkened by a mournful cloud
than that such a cloud should wrap us with its
shadows forever. But it need not thus afflict us.
Could we see the inmost natures of those whom




DO THE DEPARTED FORGET US? 133
we think that we love here, we could only really
love our like.  As they approached more or less
nearly to our own natures, the spiritual conjunction
between us and them would be more or less intimate, and more or less remote. Pity for them,
interest in their welfare, and the desire to help
them, might still prompt our tender offices, as these
emotions prompt the tender offices of angels toward even the hapless infernals; but such emotions
would not be love.  Defect of perception may,
therefore, deceive us, or suffer us to deceive ourselves, into believing that the feeling we experience is genuine love, when in reality it is only its
semblance. As our knowledge of others, and our
acquaintance with ourselves, enlarges even here,
we sometimes wake up to the perception that what
we have, in boyish days, fancied to be the profoundest affection was not such. Those who were
the heroines of the romantic dreams of our childhood are not now able to stir the pulses to a
quicker beat, nor to inspire the soul with a single
feeling warmer than respect. Such small experience is only the foregleam of what we may anticipate will more fully come hereafter, when only
love shall be the fount of memory and the law of
association.
In this life the discovery of such facts may have a
tendency to make us " sadder although wiser men,"
and to incline us to feel " I'm aweary, aweary";
but in this case the sadness is caused by our learn



134        OUR ETERNAL HOMES
ing here only the negative portion of the truth.
Our air-castles are mournfully blown about by the
rude winds of experience, which seem to moan
out a requiem over things past and gone; while
as yet we do not find the places once filled by
these visionary buildings supplied by other, brighter,
and more enduring ones. We see only the ruins,
and have not yet seen the more glorious edifices
that shall be; of which, indeed, those old and
early structures were but harbingers and adumbrations. But hope, which is but faith in the future,
-and spiritual faith, which is but hope stretched
out to the embrace of the other and higher state
of existence, — both assure us of love that shall
satisfy our hearts, and of objects of love that shall
fill in the sphere of our desire to help them and
make them happy from ourselves. Partially, as
facts of thought if not as facts of experience, we
can already realize this delightful certainty, which
only teaches us to live for heaven, and "so to run
that we may obtain." These considerations impress upon us the necessity of another life as the
complement of this; and are only instances which
point us to trust in the compensations of that hereafter.
There is one more question suggested by our immediate subject, - How shall we recognize those
who have gone before us, and whom we truly
love?  The consideration of this interesting inquiry we must defer, until we come to treat of




DO THE DEPARTED FORGET US?  135
the recognition of our children who have been
removed in infancy into the other life.
From the review of the contents of this chapter
we may see that two immutable truths confront us.
These are perfectly consistent with each other, and
with all other truths. One is, that in heaven there
shall be a fulness of joy; and the other is its consequent, that all those whom to remember and
recognize and rejoin would enhance our or their
felicity, will be remembered, recognized, and reunited. If there be any of those whom we may
have loved here, but the recollection of whom may
be there obliterated from our memories, we may
rely upon it that they would not contribute to our
happiness, nor should we to theirs. Earth, with its
seemings, deceptions, and incongruities, will have
faded away from the dwellers in that sphere of
realities, and only the true, because the eternal, will
survive.




VI.
MAN'S BOOK  OF LIFE.'And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God; and the books
were opened: and another book was opened, which is the book of life: and the
dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according
to their works." - REV. xx. 12.
AN ANALYSIS OF MEMORY. - ITS MARVELLOUS CHARACTERISTICS.DO WE EVER FORGET? - THE SECRET OF REMEMBRANCE. - THE
PHILOSOPHY OF MEMORY. - THE CONNECTION BETWEEN MAN'S
MEMORY AND HIS REAL NATURE. - MAN'S TWO MEMORIES, THE
EXTERNAL AND THE INTERNAL. - MAN'S MEMORY HIS "' BOOK
OF LIFE." - THE IMPOSSIBILITY OF SECRECY. - REWARDS ACCORDING TO WORKS. - THE GREAT ASSIZE. - COMPENSATIONS.
- THE RECOLLECTIONS AND THE FORGETTINGS OF THE HEREAFTER. - HUMANITY'S HOPE IS REGENERATION. - THE DOUBLE
MEANING OF FORGIVENESS OF SINS. - THE VALUE AND IMPORTANCE OF OUR PRESENT LIFE IN THE WORLD.
f~ X'~!' HE consideration of the foregoing properly introduces us to a more full and
particular investigation  of the nature
I, v      t  v. of man's memory, as it refers to this
and the future  state of existence.   This is the
more necessary as we have spoken of one kind
of memory that will forever endure, and of another kind of memory that may fade away, pale
before the effulgence of spiritual light which must
hereafter shine upon our souls.




MAN'S BOOK OF LIFE.            137
From whatever point we commence to reflect
upon our mental constitution, whether as to our
power to think or our power to will, we are forced
to confess, with the Psalmist, "I am fearfully and
wonderfully made; marvellous are thy works, and
that my soul knoweth right well." Of all our intellectual faculties, memory is certainly one of the
most marvellous. By remembrance alone can we
have any idea of duration. As by perception we
are conscious of things that are present, so by recollection we are cognizant of things that are past.
Things remembered are things that have been,
and "we cannot conceive a thing to be past without conceiving some duration, more or less, between it and the present." Memory is also the
sole proof to consciousness of our identity. We
are consciously the same beings to-day that we
were yesterday, because we remember the things
which occurred yesterday.  The destruction of
memory would not, however, destroy our identity;
for we should continue to be the same individuals,
even though memory were obliterated.  It is a
certain fact that we do forget many things, yet
our identity is not thereby rendered questionable.
The fact of identity is one thing; the fact of our
being conscious of that identity is quite another and
different thing. The power of remembering proves
our identity, but the proof is not the thing proved.
Thus memory is dependent on identity, and is an
evidence of it, but not contrariwise. Memory also




138        OUR ETERNAL HOMES.
is the foundation of experience, for experience is
only the sum of our recollections. The wisdom
which experience teaches is the previously observed, and now remembered, relation between
certain causes and the results they produced.
This power of recalling to our consciousness the
scenes we have beheld, the circumstances in which
we have mingled, the trains of thought which we
have indulged, the actions we have performed or
submitted to, and the motives which impelled us to
the performance of, or the submission to, those
actions, is certainly a most wonderful power. It is
capable of a development more extraordinary still,
as is evinced by those persons who have been unusually endowed with this faculty, or who have
most industriously cultivated it. Such rememberers of words as Cardinal Mezzofanti, or Sir William Jones, or Dr. Leyden, and others, or of facts
such as Lord Macaulay, or Lord Brougham, and
many others, afford us illustrations of what memory can be and do. The capabilities of this faculty
appear to be limited only by the limitations of application and experience.
It is a question worthy serious consideration,
whether in this life we can ever absolutely forget.
Thousands of events which seem to have altogether faded away from the memory, or which are
totally hidden behind more recent or more striking
recollections, need only a suggestion, a small incident, a word, or a face, to recall them vividly




MAN'S BOOK OF LIFE.            139
to our consciousness. The recollection was there
in the mind, although temporarily covered over,
concealed from our consciousness, but not obliterated. Some persons can remember with distinctness events which occurred many years previously,
although unable to recall circumstances of more recent occurrence.  This peculiarity of memory is
more especially observable after the persons have
passed the middle term of life. Old age, sinking
into a state of second childhood, recalls the recollections of the games of boyhood, and the tastes
and dispositions of infancy. A thousand relatively
insignificant remembrances flow back upon their
consciousness, and the apparently altogether forgotten grows to be the most vividly perceived.
This seems to confirm the idea that, though memory lapses, it never absolutely forgets. The experiences of persons undergoing the process of drowning, which have been remembered subsequently
to their rescue, and described by Dr. Adam Clarke,
and several others, tend in the same direction. Under such circumstances, memory appears to have
been marvellously quickened, and their histories
seem to have flashed in review before them, the
recollections of many and long years being condensed into a moment of time. The impressions
have been photographed upon the sensitive plate
of memory, and they are probably ineffaceable.
While, however, there is a difference between
various persons in power and coherence of mem



140        OUR ETERNAL HOMES.
ory and a second difference in the mode in which
memory seems to operate in such various persons,
there is also a remarkable difference in the memory
of any one person at different times, or as to different subjects. Some memories are naturally more
susceptible than others, or the impressions they
receive appear to be invariably more vivid. In this
there is only a similar disparity to what we may
perceive in all other intellectual faculties. The
perceptions of some may be more lively, and their
conceptions may be more clear, than those of others; or some perceptions and some conceptions
may be more lively in any one mind at some times
than at others.  The general rule, perhaps, may be
asserted, that whatever most enlists the sympathies,
or whatever most deeply involves the affections, is
best remembered. This not only as to the absolute
fact of such things being imprinted on the recollection, but also as to the relative and subordinate fact
of our being conscious or cognizant of their presence in the memory. To say the same thing more
simply, what most moves us we best remember.
The emotion may be one of fear, of dislike, of remorse, or of love; but, in all cases, those events,
which, as facts, most excited us at the time of their
occurrence, remain as the most vivid recollections.
Hence it is that cultivation of the memory is possible; for the sum of emotion produced by continuous reflection on a subject, which without that
reflection we might forget, may be made to equal




MAN'S BOOK OF LIFE.              141
the sum of emotion which another subject excited
at its first occurrence. The will of man is the
inmost principle of his being. The affections or
emotions of a man are, therefore, the inmost things
of his life, the subtle waves of the ethereal and
spiritual substances that constitute his soul. However various may be the thoughts into which they
flow, the words by which they are described, or the
actions by means of which they struggle into expression, these thrills of life which we call emotions
are the primary consciousnesses of life. According
to the depth, extent, and continuance of these
emotions are the impressions produced upon our
memories, and these impressions become, as it
were, parts of our mental organisms.  Memory, as
a record, may thus be almost regarded as our real
selves, such as the past has made us; and memory,
as a consciousness, may be viewed as the revelation of our real natures to ourselves.
But this may seem obscure without a little dilation. Life is incessant activity. But the activity
of life is of a twofold character. It is constituted
of what we do, and of what we receive.  What
we do is our voluntary life of action; what we
receive is our passive states of reception; or, more
properly, it is the reflex action of life in us, produced by objects and causes external to ourselves.
To illustrate these ideas:-A man beholds an
object of charity, a suffering, needy family. Iie
receives a host of impressions which they suggest,




142        OUR ETERNAL HOMES.
or call up within him. Thus far they produce
in him a state of reflex action, or thus far he is
receptive. He pities them. Here commences the
direct and voluntary action in him. This emotion
assumes form in his intellectual part as a thought
of how he may relieve them. The emotion of
pity prompts, and the thought to relieve directs
the external action by which he does relieve them.
The inmost ground of this external action was the
emotion of pity. Whatever was the moral quality
of this emotion, such was the true moral quality of
both the thought and the external action. The
moral quality of this emotion indicates the real
moral quality or nature of the man.
All actions performed by man may be thus traced
back from the act itself, through the thought which
directed, to the emotion which prompted, both the
thought and the deed.  Between all three there
is an intimate and exact correspondence. He acts
for the accomplishment of a particular object, and
according to a particular judgment.  Even those
actions which are ordinarily viewed as almost instinctive, and the least voluntary, have yet a motive, or an emotion, behind them, which may be
traced by the person who has acted, and which,
when clearly traced, will be clearly remembered
by him. Indeed, the conscious remembrance will
be either vivid or dim, confused or clear, as our
perception of the motive or emotion was vivid or
dim, confused or clear; shallow or profound, ac



MAN'S BOOK OF LIFE.             143
cording to the superficiality or profoundness of the
emotion itself.
It will be observed that we lay considerable stress
on the distinction between memory as a fact, and
the consciousness of that recollection. These two
should not be confounded.  Memory is no more
dependent on consciousness of recollection than
life is dependent on consciousness of living. In
states of insensibility, produced, for example, by
sound sleep, or injury to the brain, or a fit, we
still live, albeit unconsciously; and in like manner
memory may exist as a fact, while, as to our consciousness, recollection may have passed away. In
such states memory sleeps, but is not dead.
In the illustration cited above, another fact may
also be discerned.  The man's act of charity, in
reality, forms two distinct classes of impressions
on his memory: one, of the persons whom he
relieved, and the external circumstances under
which he relieved them; and the other, of his own
emotions and thoughts by which he was actuated
and directed in relieving them. The latter is evidently more internal than the former, and belongs
especially to the man; the former are but incidental
circumstances associated with the act of charity.
These incidental circumstances suggested the act
to the impulses of his will, or they supplied them
with an opportunity for action.  The deed itself
was only the outward expression of his emotional
and intellectual life. The memory of the internal




144        OUR ETERNAL HOMES.
life is not only more interior, but it is also more
permanent than the memory of the external circumstances.  It is more permanent because it
enters more deeply into our real natures.  Our
real natures, indeed, are changed and modified by
the internal life we live. To practise charity as a
habit is to render us charitable in our nature. To
habituate one's self to selfishness will render one's
nature selfish. What we feel modifies our will;
what we think modifies our intellect; what we do
modifies our external life; because our affectional
nature is as the sum of our affections, our intellect
is as the sum of our thoughts, and our external life
is as the sum of our actions. But the real nature
of the man accords far more with the character of
his internal life of affection and thought, than with
his external actions.  All men have, and many
men cherish, secret wishes and private thoughts,
which, while they mould and modify their souls,
are rarel? exhibited by action or expressed by
speech. We live an inner life which shrinks from
the glare and exposure of day.  This inner life
may be good or it may be evil, nestling violets,
or poisonous fungi, and humility may hide the one,
and fear of consequences may conceal the other,
but the fact of the inner life remains. The records
of this inner life are graven in the inner memory.
The inner memory of the man is far more operative
upon his nature than is his external memory, and
its results are more visible to his consciousness, and
necessarily more permanent.




MAN'S BOOK OF LIFE.             145
In our consciousness of memory, these internal
recollections may be, and to some extent they
must be, associated with our external memory, or
our recollection of external events. Perhaps the
reason of so many vague and shadowy recollections
floating mistily before our consciousness, which like
nebulous stars resist all our efforts to define them,
and yet refuse to be dissipated, may be found in
this, -the presence and permanence of the recollections of our internal memory, which yet are destitute of sufficient external associations by which
to fix them as to locality and time. They are like
bodiless ghosts of recollections restlessly roaming
through the chambers of consciousness. We cannot clothe them, and we cannot drive them away.
Their spiritual results continue, although the process by which they produced their results, as well
as the circumstances under which they operated,
are forgotten.  However this may be, the fact
remains of man's possessing "an exterior or corporeal memory proper to his bodily life, and an interior memory proper to his spirit." There is a
universal language in which all men think, however
different may be the natural languages in which
they outwardly express their thoughts. The natural languages belong to the exterior memory, the
universal language belongs to the interior memory
which is common to all men. Hence is it that
in the other life all spirits and angels can discern
each others' thoughts and communicate their own.
7                        J




146       OUR ETERNAL HOMES.
It surely is not too extravagant a figure to describe man's double memory as the living pages
of a written book.  Man's memory of his own
life is his "Book of Life."  All that he has done,
thought, willed, is inscribed therein. The inscriptions are correct; for he himself is his own biographer. Neither fear of loss nor hope of gain can
enable him to set down any of his actions in that
book wrongly.  Indeed, what he most strives to
conceal from all others is most legibly written in
his book of life. To conceal, he must remember;
to conceal constantly, he must constantly remember; and to conceal effectually, the thing he strives
to conceal can never leave his thoughts. In this
living book which he has, and which also he is,
the history of the whole man is written. It includes the histories of the three separate elements
of his being; that of his will, his intellect, and
his actions. As before said, the histories of the
two former are not only inscribed in his memory,
but also inscribed in his character. They form the
limitation of his genius, the boundary lines of his
dispositions; they make him what he is; and the
more fully his consciousness is opened to the knowledge of himself, the more full will be the revelation
to himself of his internal life, -of what he is.
He may have performed actions which he is quite
willing that all the world should behold, while the
secret motives and hidden thoughts expressed in
those actions he would not so willingly reveal.




MAN'S BOOK OF LIFE.             147
Even while relying on the known inability of his
fellows to discern all his true motives and thoughts
in his performances, he cannot hide them from
himself. Even those of which he is the least conscious still remain in his memory, and by reflection,
or by other processes, he may become more largely
conscious of them.  If by neglect of reflection
he does not become acquainted with them here,
in the unveiling processes of the hereafter he will
learn to " see himself as he is seen, and know himself as he is known." 1 From the tablets of his
book of life he will learn his own history, and
stand self-manifested to himself.
There is no such thing as complete secrecy as
to the life of a man. He cannot, firstly, hide his
life from himself. Even while here, this, to a great
extent, is impossible.  The voice of conscience
will not be made dumb, and it is only by long
and dire courses of evil that a man can deafen
his soul to its reproaches. He cannot, secondly,
hide his life from the angels. They can read the
pages of his book of life, and they see him, often
cowering behind the veils of hypocrisy and the
disguises of custom, not as he would fain appear
to be, but as he really is. " Thou God seest me "
is, thirdly, the declaration of an unquestionable
fact.  "Whither shall I go from  thy spirit? or
whither shall I flee from thy presence? If I ascend up into heaven, thou art there; if I make
1 1 Cor. xiii. 12.




148        OUR ETERNAL HOMES.
my bed in hell, behold, thou art there. If I take
the wings of the morning and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea; even there shall thy hand
lead me, and thy right hand shall hold me. If
I say, Surely the darkness shall cover me; even
the night shall be light about me. Yea, the darkness hideth not from thee; but the night shineth
as the day: darkness and light are both alike to
thee."l  He who trieth the reins, and understandeth all the secret thoughts of the children of men,
unto whom all hearts are known, and from whom
no thoughts can possibly be hid, He discerneth
all our ways. At best we can only mask our real
faces before those whose perceptions are limited
by time and flesh, our competitors in the race and
the struggle of physical existence, fellow-actors on
this crowded and tumultuous scene; but with ourselves, the angels, and our God, all efforts at concealment are futile; "for in the other life the
face will be the image of the mind."
If only partially effectual here, attempts at concealment will be altogether impossible in the other
life.  "The books shall be opened," and prominent among these, "the book of life." 2 To prepare for the great assize which shall determine
our final lots, the future state, and the companions
we shall have made our own while in this lower
earth-life, the memories of man, both his internal
and external memories, shall be opened, and he shall
1 Ps. cxxxix. 7-12.     2 Rev. xx. 12.




MAN'S BOOK OF LIFE.            149
be judged according to the things written in those
books.  This judgment-day happens to all, and
follows upon man's death. Not only do angels behold the book of life of the person undergoing
judgment, but also the man himself.  There is
opened to his consciousness all that he is, and all
that he has done, thought, and wished.  The
shams and affectations of time are melted with
the mists that temporarily made him unconscious
of his memories. Here on earth "we see through
a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know
in part; but then shall I know even as also I
am known." 1 "Nothing that was covered here,
but shall there be revealed; nothing that was hid
here, but shall there be made known."2 That
which was here " spoken in the darkness shall there
be heard in the light; and what was here spoken
in the ear in closets shall there be revealed on
the housetops." 3 The seeming and the mistaken
shall be dissolved in the light of truth, and the
realities of life shall there stand forth made manifest. The one talent of knowledge which has
been hidden in the napkin shall be taken from the
unprofitable servant, who shall be driven into outer
darkness, and "unto him  who hath (by having
practised and improved upon his gift of wisdom
and power) shall be given more abundantly; while
from him who hath not shall be taken away even
that which he seemeth to have." 4
1 1 Cor. xiii. 12. 2 Matt. x. 26. 8 Luke xii. 3. 4 Matt. xxv. 28 - 30.




150        OUR ETERNAL HOMES.
At the bar of this universal judgment-seat the
accused will stand.  The accusations are written
in his own memories. The witnesses are within
himself.  "At the mouth of two or three witnesses shall every truth be established."   "At
the mouth of two witnesses, or three witnesses,
shall he that is worthy of death be put to death;
but at the mouth of one witness he shall not be
put to death." 2  The three witnesses who will
give evidence are his will, his understanding, his
life. According to their testimony will he be rewarded or condemned.  His understanding may
llave been darkened by errors, and, cross-examined  by  truth, may give evidence against
him; but if his heart and life are right in the
sight of God, "at the mouth  of one witness
shall he not be put to death."   His understanding may have been enlightened by Divine
truth, he may have believed in the Gospel as
a matter of intellectual acquiescence; but if his
heart and life condemn him, these are the two
witnesses whose evidence should be sufficient to
condemn. "Their hands shall be first upon him
to put him to death, and afterward the hands
of all the people."3  The first ministers of justice will be the very witnesses who have testified against him.  Self-accused, self-condemned,
self-destroyed, he will come under the mournful
denunciation, " O Israel, thou hast destroyed thy1 Matt. xviii. 16.    2 Deut. xvii. 6.    3 Deut. xvii. 7.




MAN'S BOOK OF LiFE.              151
self," 1 or under the operation of that eternal principle, "Evil shall slay the wicked." 2
There is a principle of compensation at work even
in this life. Though by no means so universal as
some writers strive to represent, nor so reliable in its
operation, yet sufficient to furnish an earthly shadowing forth of what in the spiritual world will
be full and complete.  Men are "rewarded according to their works" by their fellows. It is shown
in the adoption of their inventions, in the diffusion
of their thoughts, in the imitation of their modes,
and in the effort to secure their results. I take
not into account any pecuniary or social reward
of the inventors or of the thinkers. While heartless ingratitude may be manifested to the men, the
sincerest praise may be given by the acceptance
of those ideas which they loved better than themselves. The heroes of the world have too often
been the world's martyrs, and yet truth is never
so sure of securing its triumph as when men hate
it sufficiently to be induced to offer violent opposition thereto.  In the widest sense, "the blood
of the martyrs is the seed of the Church." The
rack and the fagot, dungeons and torture, Gethsemane and Calvary, the world reserves for its sublimest teachers, and yet, despite them all, the Gospel has flourished, and truth finds the ever-increasing few who, loyal to truth, enforce its claims by
their precepts, and illustrate its influence in their
1 Hosea xiii. 9.    2 Ps. xxxiv. 21.




152       OUR ETERNAL IIOMES.
lives. Torture may have weakened the force of
the teacher, and death may have decimated the
number of the taught, but they have only rejoiced
in the certainty of their principles triumphing, —
a certainty their sacrifices only rendered the more
secure.
As human works approach a human standard
of excellence, so they are adopted and valued by
man. The standards change from age to age, and,
since the coming of the Lord into the world, with
an ever-increasing approximation to the perfect and
the true.  Not in vain has the "world swung
adown the rattling grooves of change" for the
last twenty centuries.  But by man human productions are measured by an earthly standard. In
the great judgment-day that comes to each individual who has passed out of the world, their
works will be tested by a standard which is eternal and Divine. That standard of excellence will
be the Word of God, the law revealed by God
for our guidance.  The Word will be opened;
it is the great law-book, according to which man
shall be judged concerning all those things written
in his "book of life," his interior memory. Here,
then, are all the necessary elements of a judgment:
- God, the supreme judge; our own memories,
the witnesses; angels and spirits, the attendant
audience; the Bible, the great law; the recompense, " Well done, good and faithful servant, enter
thou into the joy of thy Lord"; and the dread




MaAN'S BOOK OF LYIFE.           153
penalty, "Depart from  me, ye cursed."   Well
may we exclaim with the prophet, "Who may
abide the day of his coming? and who shall stand
when he appeareth? for he is like a refiner's fire,
and like fullers' soap: and he shall sit as a refiner
and purifier of silver: and he shall purify the sons
of Levi, and purge them as gold and silver, that
they may offer unto the Lord an offering in righteousness." 1  Or with the Apostle, "For other
foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which
is Jesus Christ. Now if any man build upon this
foundation gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay,
stubble; every man's work shall be made manifest:
for the day shall declare it, because it shall be
revealed by fire; and the fire shall try every man's
work of what sort it is. If any man's work abide
which he hath built thereupon, he shall receive
a reward. If any man's work shall be burned,
he shall suffer loss: but he himself shall be saved,
yet so as by fire." 1
Judgment being completed by the man becoming altogether outwardly what he is inwardly, his
interior memory will become his only memory.
The recollection of truth which dwelt in his exterior memory because acquired, but which never
entered into his interior memory because not loved
and practised, will be closed up, taken from him,
as we learn in the parable of the talents; so that
to his evil shall be added falsity, or, rather, the
1 Mal. iii. 2, 3.     2 1 Cor. iii. 11 - 15.
7*




154        OUR ETERNAL HOMES.
evils of his will shall assume their corresponding
form of falsity in his understanding. Just as the
Divine Love and Wisdom are one in God, so
Goodness and Truth are one and the same thing
in their absolute reality. They appear to be different things, because the unity is viewed by two
different faculties. The will-side of truth is goodness; the understanding-side of goodness is truth.
Every good rationally perceived is a truth; and
everv truth felt in the will is a good. Those who
are in goodness shall receive truth, or shall be
enabled to rationally perceive and apprehend the
good that they love; and, contrariwise, those who
are in evil must sink into falsities. The evil and
the false are similarly co-related, as are goodness
and truth. The will-side of falsity is evil, and the
understanding-side of evil is falsity.  He that is
filthy shall become altogether filthy, and he that is
righteous shall be "clothed with white robes."
The man, both as an angel and a demon, must
become homogeneous; the angel will no longer
have to cope with errors, or to struggle with ignorance, -the love of the good will be robed in
its appropriate apprehension of truth; and the
demon will have wholly given himself up to a
lie, and become as perverted in perception as corrupt in heart. From both the exterior memory
will be sunk out of sight, and the interior memory will alone remain.  On this great principle,
then, will be determined the recollections and the
forgettings of the hereafter.




MAN'S BOOK OF LIFE.            155
This does not contradict the previous assertion
of distinctions and differences both in heaven or
hell. The demons as well as the angels are in
various degrees, and possess various specialties.
Individuality is preserved, and preserved, indeed,
the more thoroughly, by each becoming manifestly, externally as well as internally, what he really
There are, however, questions of vast practical importance that grow out of the foregoing considerations. It may be said that this seems to be
rather the revelation of despair than a gospel of
hope to the sinner.  "Weighed in the balances,
and found wanting," would have to be the dread
verdict found against every child of Adam. Where
then is there hope?
The only hope for humanity is contained in the
Gospel injunction to become "new creatures." The
old evils of the "old man" must be purged away
by the operations of God's Spirit in the soul. This
purgation is of a double kind. It is, first, from
man's consciousness, the blessed consequence of
sincere and contrite repentance; and, secondly,
from man's inmost and real being, by a life of
holiness. The first removal of sins from our consciousness is depicted in the consolatory words of
the Lord, "Son, be of good cheer; thy sins be
forgiven thee ";1 and the final removal of evil
from  our being is intimated in the words, "Sin
1 Matt. ix. 2.




156        OUR ETERNAL HOMES.
no more, lest a worse thing come upon thee."'
There are relapses into sin, and there are more
complete triumphs over sin; the middle term of
both states is the first forgiveness of sin, or its
removal from the consciousness.  Because there
are two degrees of remission of sins, there are two
classes of passages in the Word of God, - the one
avowing the irrevocable promise of forgiveness as
the result of repentance, and the other indicating
the necessity of personal victory, growing in grace,
and being "nearer unto salvation than when we
believed." 2  Referring to both, that most magnificent exhortation of the Prophet is given to
us, "Wash you, make you clean; put away the
evil of your doings from before mine eyes; cease
to do evil; learn to do well; seek judgment, relieve the oppressed, judge the fatherless, plead for
the widow. Come now, and let us reason together,
saith the Lord: though your sins be as scarlet,
they shall be white as snow; though they be red
like crimson, they shall be as wool.  If ye be
willing and obedient, ye shall eat the good of the
land." 3 The forgiveness that follows repentance
is the Christian life begun; the fuller eradication
of the very dispositions that previously led us to
sin is the Christian life made perfect. It is the
confirmation within us of the first remission, as is
sublimely intimated in the epistle, "Whoso keepeth his word, in him verily is the love of God per1 John v. 14.  2 Rom. xiii. 11.    3 Isa. i. 16-19.




MAN'S BOOK OF LIFE.                157
fected: hereby we know we are in him"; 1 for as the
Apostle also instructs us, " If we walk in the light,
even as he is in the light, [then] we have fellowship one with another, and [then] the blood of
Jesus Christ cleanseth from  all sin..... If we
confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive
us our sins, and [further] to cleanse us from  all
unrighteousness." 2 By the grace and mercy of
the Lord Jesus Christ, therefore, we can in verity
become " new creatures; old things shall pass away,
and all things become new." 3 Herein is the true
power and glorious operation of regeneration, so
that in the judgment we may stand and be accepted
of Him. Christ will have " blotted out our transgressions for his own sake, and will not remember
our sins." 4 -He will have turned his "hand upon
us, and have purged away our dross, and have
taken away all our tin." 5 Troubled as we have
been, and still are, by our old heart, and bewildered by the musings of our old spirit, our life's
prayer should be, "Create in me a clean heart,
and renew a right spirit within me." 6
As regeneration is a great fact in human experience, so it, too, will be inscribed on the tablets of our "book of life," and the lustre of this
new inscription will eclipse and efface the sins
which the "old man" committed, and the evils
which the "old man" desired. It will create a
1 1 John ii. 5.  8 2 Cor. v. 17.   5 isa. i. 25.
2 1 John i. 7.   4 Isa. xliii. 25.  6 Ps. ii. 10.




158        OUR ETERNAL HOMES.
new  will, and a new internal memory, and the
old memory and its records will be hidden out
of sight.
But alas for the unregenerate dead!  As we
live, so we die; and as we die, so shall we live
hereafter.  We cannot put back the hands on
the broad dial-plate of existence.  "The filthy
shall be filthy still; the unjust shall be unjust still;
the righteous and the holy shall be righteous and
holy still." l  The allotted term for our preparation will be completed, and eternity shall only seal
the balances of time. On the everlasting tablets of
their memories men will have written the records
of their lives. The secret wishes that they dared
not whisper are all there. All there the dark and
evil thoughts that wound themselves through the
labyrinth of their minds. The hidden acts by which
they sought to realize their wish, and express their
thought, are all there. All there, too, in a state
where secrecy and solitude have no power, where
the brand burned in by the effort to conceal it
here, shall stand livid, conspicuous, ineffaceable.
There, too, graven on imperishable tablets, will
be the kind charities, the tender affections, the
earnest efforts to help and bless others, which the
good may have made. Hypocrisy cannot hide
those, and these modesty cannot veil.
Now, too, in this life, are the possibilities of reformation, and the opportunities for repentance.
1 Rev. xxii. 11.




I.4ATN'S BOOK OF LIFE.        159
Happy they who, hearing the "Mene, Mene, Tekel, Upharsin," determine to change. Woe to
them against whom the "Mene, Tekel," is pronounced as the dread summing up of their account,
the final sentence of their misery and doom!




VII.
INFANTS IN HEAVEN.
"It is not the will of your Father who is in the heavens, that one of these
little ones should perish." - MATT. xviii. 14.
GOD'S LOVE TO LITTLE CHILDREN.-THE MOTHER'S LOVE. —THE
SANCTITY OF PATERNITY.-GOD'S MERCY MANIFESTED IN ITS
PERMISSION. —THE SPIRITUAL USES OF PATERNITY. —JOY IN
HEAVEN OVER THE BIRTH OF OUR LITTLE ONES. -DEATH OF
CHILDREN. - ALL WHO DIE IN INFANCY ETERNALLY SAVED. -
HEREDITARY EVIQ AND ACTUAL SIN. —THE EPITAPHS OF INFANTS. - MOURNING FOR BABES THAT HAVE DIED. - WHY DO
CHILDREN DIE? - RECOGNITION OF OUR CHIILDREN IN TIHE OTIIER
LIFE. - WILL THEY FOREVER REMAIN INFANTS? - GROWTH IN
HEAVENLY WISDOM AND GOODNESS.- ANGELS THE TUTORS OF
OUR ANGELIC BABES. - CONCLUSIONS ON THE TOPIC. - GENERAL
PRACTICAL LESSON OF THE WHOLE WORK.
OD is a dear and loving friend of little
children.  In His watchful and tender
providence He has so ordered it that
the cradle of incipient manhood should
be surrounded with an atmosphere of love. Offsprings and effigies of love, love receives, welcomes,
tends, and toils for the little ones intrusted to human care.  The maternal instinct, as it has been
termed, is certainly one of the strongest feelings
implanted in all animals. Human mothers share
this feeling in common with all animals, and in them




INFANTS IN HEA VEN.            161
it is also ennobled by being humanized, - that is,
filled with a deeper tenderness, prolonged during
ampler periods, elevated by spiritual anxieties, and
purified by unselfish care. No delight can equal
that of the young mother as she clasps for the first
time "her miracle" to the sanctuary of her love,
and the font of its sustenance, - her bosom. Her
delight is enhanced by the consideration that her
babe is an immortal being, the offspring of her life,
but destined to an existence as eternal as her own.
She has been one of the instruments used by God
for the fashioning of an imperishable structure, and
in its babyhood the little one seems all her own.
It draws the sustentation of its life from her heart
as it drew its life thence. She is its parent and its
sustainer. God evinces His love for humanity in
having prepared the mother's body to bear and the
mother's devotion to welcome the babe. He has
exquisitely chosen the known tenderness of a mother's love to lend force to His inspired description
of His own love for mankind, "Can a woman forget her sucking child, that she should not have
compassion on the son of her womb? yea, they
may forget, yet will I not forget thee."l
But a human father shares this affection, and an
additional source of love to welcome the child is
furnished in the fond impulses of his heart. Though
the feeling of the father toward the little one must
necessarily be different in kind and degree from
1 Isa. xlix. 15.
K




162        OUR ETERNAL HOMES.
that experienced by the mother, yet it will not yield
in strength, although, perhaps, surpassed in tenderness. When infancy begins to take tottering and
feeble steps, and strives to break out into half-articulated words, the mother's treasure becomes as
much the man's. To labor for its wants, and to
strive to form its little and eager mind, - the memory of its smiles, and the lingering happiness of its
kiss, become new cheerers of existence, and fresh
incentives to effort.  "When I come home," grows
to be a sweeter thought, from the hope of meeting
the little ones that shall cluster about his knees,
cling to his neck, and call him " Father." In permitting to man this sacred and solemn name, God
has portrayed in every family circle the relationship which exists between His universal children
and Himself. Paternal love is the mirror in which
we may see the reflection of His Divine love for
us; for language has no sublimer appellation of the
Deity than "OUR FATHER."  In supplying our
little ones with a representative of Himself, God
thereby manifests how truly He loves His little
lambs.
Babes are surrounded with a still wider circle of
lovers. Brothers and sisters, relatives and friends,
are ready to welcome it, and who can tell what influences of joy are brought to bear upon the little
new-comer by the thrilling heart-throbs and lingering kisses that strong men, and tender women, and
delighted children feel toward, and press upon, the




INFANTS IN HEA VEN.             163
pink lips and round white cheeks of the baby?
Incapable of estimating their worth or of expressing its appreciation, yet so far as it is conscious at
all the infant must derive happiness from such
sources. Loving hearts are blessings to the babe,
and none the less because it may be unconscious
of their presence and ignorant of their tenderness.
God also manifests His love toward His creatures
by confiding to their care these helpless pledges of
human affection. If by some strange, and to us
inconceivable process, children should start into
life full-grown, wholly independent of our anxieties, how much of the delight of life, as well as the
uses of life, would thereby vanish away I! Life has
no more efficient schoolmaster for training us in
unselfishness, devotion, and kindness than our having to provide for the wants, and being permitted
to foster and reciprocate the attachments, of our
offspring. The fondness that exists between friends
is based on sympathy, the giving and receiving
intellectual and emotional gratification. The love
that exists between married partners is necessarily
founded in reciprocal attachment, the desire of giving and receiving- and too often of receiving
rather than giving —mutual aid, mutual comfort,
mutual delight. In both relations we look for, and
are right in looking for, a return of our devotion,at least, the consciousness in them of the self-sacrifice we make, and a return in tenderness toward
ourselves for the tenderness we exhibit. There is




164       OUR ETERNAL HOMES.
something of selfishness underlying the purest
friendship, or conjugal fondness, which we can
feel; but the love of infants is the most unselfish
feeling of our nature. From them we can hope
for no immediate return. They may pass away
from this state of being long before they have
learned to recognize our features, our voice, or our
touch. We cannot hope in many cases that the
little ones will repay back even love for love. Even
with the worst men and women this love is therefore the most disinterested, -the most like God's
love.
Children are the most helpless of beings, and we
love them because we can help them; they are the
most dependent, and we toil for them the most
willingly. The love of children brings us nearer to
innocence; nearer to Paradise, the state of innocence; nearer to God, the absolutely holy and pure.
Conjugal love is one of the sublimest affections
and richest privileges permitted to man, the pure
and holy love of the husband for the wife, and of
the wife for her husband. Nothing, however, so
strongly cements this marriage union between two
sympathizing souls as the birth of children. Not
only do the little ones bring love for themselves as
they come into the world, but they bring deeper
and holier love, a richer and ampler joy, a closer
and sweeter union, a wider and stronger peace, to
the lives of their parents. They are the blossoms
on the tree of human marriage, and a babe renders




INFANTS IN HEAVEN.               165
its parents more thoroughly one in the common interest which they acquire by their common possession of it. Wisely and well spoke the Psalmist in
asserting, "Lo, children are an heritage from the
Lord: and the fruit of the womb is his reward.
As arrows in the hand of the mighty, so are the
children of youth. Happy is the man that hath
his quiver full of them." 1 " Thy children shall be
as olive-plants round about thy table.  Behold,
that thus shall the man be blessed who feareth the
Lord."2 If in the present states of human existence these blessings are not altogether realized by
the possession of families, it is only an evidence of
disorder. It is only because of the greatness of the
joy which having children in states of order would
procure, that greatness of misery results so often
from having families in states of disorder. From
the loftiest height we experience the severest fall.
The joy of the blessing, and the pain of its perversion, are equal and contrary. Through the same
wide-open avenue along which joy might have
flowed in upon us, sorrow also comes, and the intensity of the sorrow is only the proof of how deep
should have been the joy.
The surest evidence of the unselfing operation
of children on married partners is to be found in
the merely selfish reasons which the childless urge
for being satisfied with their lot.  They are spared
pain, care, anxiety, disappointment, many burdens,
1 Ps. cxxvii. 3 -5.   2 Ps. cxxviii. 3, 4.




166        OUR ETERNAL HOMES.
and much possible disappointment.  True; and
well is it for them if some other beings than themselves are the better for their preservation from the
cares and troubles of parentage.
The birth of a child is, however, provocative
of more than human joy. According to the words
of the Lord, "there is joy in heaven over every
sinner that repenteth ": human joy, when pure
and holy, reaches beyond the narrow limits of our
own private circles. The earth is the seminary of
heaven. God's purpose concerning every man is,
that he shall become an angel in heaven. It is
only by dint of doing despite to the mercy and
Spirit of God, that man can frustrate the Divine
purpose. Against the possibility of man's final loss
are leagued God, His angels, His purposes, the
Redemption which He came to effect, and the operations of His Spirit which He continually bestows.
Only the comparative omnipotence of the human
will can prevent man's salvation. The angels know
when we repent, the angels must also know when
we are born. They must know when we are born,
also, because every human child has guardian angels, - " their angels," as the Lord beautifully
described them, to which reference was made in
the second chapter of this work. If the angels
rejoice at another human being becoming, by repentance, potentially " an inheritor of the kingdom
of heaven," equally must they rejoice at the accession to existence of a new living creature, who




INFANTS IN HEA VEN.              167
is also potentially "an heir of glory, and a co-heir
with Jesus Christ." The angels rejoice over the
repenting sinner, because he has entered upon the
initiative process by which he may become one
of themselves. This were charity, large enough
to be angelic. But as they are "all ministering
spirits, sent forth to minister unto those who shall
be the heirs of salvation," 1 they rejoice to have
a new patient upon whom to operate, a new object
of their love, a new subject to whom to offer their
tender uses. And so, too, with our children. God
intends them for heaven, and this merciful design
they can realize, if they so determine. Therefore
do the angels love them much. They form also
subjects for angelic ministrations, and the ever-burning flame of angelic love desires an ever-increasing
activity, whereby they may manifest it. Therefore
do the angels love them the more. The chorus of
gladness that wells forth from the hearts of the
parents is caught up by the angelic choirs, and
its echoes are resounded in heaven. The brotherhood and sisterhood of the skies hail the advent
of the little stranger, who is as much a new-comer
into their world as into ours. We welcome it from
love, and their love for it surpasses and exceeds our
own.  The multitude of the heavenly host, who
sang their song of praise and adoration at the birth
of the Saviour,2 were only more rapturous, and
their song was only set in more lofty strains than. Heb. i. 14.     2 Luke ii. 13, 14.




168          OUR ETERNAL HOMES.
the song that heralds in the advent of every child
which is born.
Yet children die!  It is estimated that one third
of the human race passes away from the world
while they are yet infants. Not more than one
half live to attain manhood or womanhood.
"There is no flock, however watched and tended,
But one dead lamb is there;
There is no fireside, howsoe'er defended,
But has one vacant chair.
"The air is full of farewells to the dying,
And mournings for the dead;
The heart of Rachel for her children crying,
Will not be comforted! "
The little ones, who are like "rainbows on our
dark of life," too often seem as
" those
Who come with pledge and promise not to stay ";
and just as the soul has learned to feel all the sweet
intoxication of their presence,
"In Death's face hers flashed up and smiled,
As smile the young flowers in their prime
I' the face of their gray murderer Time,
And Death for true love kissed our child."
Heart-bruised, vacant, and yearning, and weary,
what shall we say of the little ones who have departed? I know nothing more beautiful and true
than those sweet words of Gerald Massey:"Through Childhood's morning land serene,
She walked betwixt us twain, like Love;
While, in a robe of light above,
Her better Angel walked unseen,




INFANTS IN HEA VEN.               169
"Till Life's highway broke bleak and wild;
Then, lest her starry garments trail
In mire, heart bleed, and courage fail,
The Angel's arms caught up the child."
We must say of them, that God needed them for
His kingdom, and He, who lent them to us for a
little while, hath recalled them to Himself.
Never was a doctrine taught that is more abhor.
rent to the heart and intellect of man, than that
some little children are everlastingly lost. Fatuity
and falsehood never culminated into a more monstrous form than this. It is only calculated to make
man fear God as a ruthlessly partial God, and an
inexorable tyrant. No amount of reasoning can
overcome the invincible repugnance such a doctrine must excite in the least susceptible. It is
the frightful progeny of mercilessness and error,
spawned by callous hearts in an age of iron cruelty
and densest darkness. The moral tendency of such
a doctrine is only to partiality the most iniquitous,
and to wanton vindictiveness. To assert that God
has reprobated some to everlasting perdition, and
no matter how young they may be when they enter into eternity, everlasting perdition must still be
their lot, is the sufficient confutation of the whole
theory of election. It would robe the Deity in
the lurid vestments of a demon, and the worship
of such a being would degenerate into horror and
dread.
In the Word of God, children are named as
8




170        OUR ETERNAL HOMES.
types of innocence, holiness, and purity.'" At the
same time came the disciples unto Jesus, saying,
Who is greatest in the kingdom of heaven? And
Jesus called a little child unto him, and set him in
the midst of them, and said, Verily I say unto you,
Except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven." 1  More explicitly still than even by this
implication, did He declare, "Suffer the little ones
to come unto me, and forbid them not; for of such
is the kingdom of heaven." 2 Not only must children in these passages be regarded as the types
of the "babes in Christ," the true "babes and
sucklings out of whose mouths God has perfected
praise ";3 the symbols of the "little flock," who
were exhorted not to fear, because it was "the
Father's good pleasure to give them the kingdom";4 but we must understand these passages
to be declaratory of an actual fact in relation to the
children themselves, -" Of such is the kingdom of
heaven." Babes are God's little ones, and when
He calls them away from earth He gathers them
to Himself.
The contrary opinion has originated in a failure,
which has been only too prevalent, to perceive
an important distinction. All who come into the
world are infected with the moral virus of hereditary evil; but this hereditary evil, sometimes mis1 Matt. xviii. 1 -3.    8 Matt. xxi. 16.
2 Matt. xix. 14.        4 Luke xii. 32.




INFANTS IN HEAVEN.               171
named "original sin,"'does not become actual sin,
until the child attains such an age as to knowingly
and wilfully commit sin. Under the curse is every
man's child, because receiving this fearful entail of
hereditary predisposition to evil; but no such child
can be a sinner, until by actual and conscious indulgence he makes his involuntary hereditament
his own, by willing and doing evil.  "Sin is the
transgression of the law," and till the law is known,
it cannot be transgressed. Only sinners, the voluntary transgressors of the law, are amenable to
the penalties attached to transgression. However
hereditarily evil, yet children are not sinners, and
cannot therefore be condemned.  The great and
just law of condemnation is thus emphatically set
forth in the sacred Scriptures: "The soul that
sinneth, it shall die. The son shall not bear the
iniquity of the father, neither shall the father bear
the iniquity of the son: the righteousness of the
righteous shall be upon him, and the wickedness of
the wicked shall be upon him." 1 Yet in the frightful entail upon the children of predispositions to
evil, fearfully increased by the indulgences of the
parents, is the warning of the Lord fulfilled; He
4"visiteth the sins of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them
that hate him." 2 In this life does the latter sentence receive its dread execution; but in the next
life, a human being stands or falls, according to
1 Ezek. xviii. 20.       2 Exod. xx. 5.




172       OUR ETERNAL HOMJIES.
the deeds of his own life, as is conclusively shown
in the whole of the eighteenth chapter of Ezekiel.
However hereditarily evil, therefore, a child who
dies in its infancy is saved. Their evils have never
been made sins in them by indulgence. Their voluntary life is a blank page. They are types of the
innocence of wisdom, because they are absolutely
in the innocence of ignorance; and "of such is
the kingdom of heaven."
The God-written testimonies implanted in the
deep heart-wisdom of loving parents who have lost
their little ones, add only confirmation to this comfort-inspiring view. The epitaphs inscribed on the
little headstones, that coldly mark the spot where
their " earthly house of this tabernacle" lies dissolving away, touchingly express the words of consolation which God's good Spirit whispers to the
souls of the bereaved ones. Their children are in
heaven, taken by the angels home to God. Speaking in the solemn heart-thoughts of the sorrowing,
the Spirit only bears witness to the truth previously
revealed in the Bible,-" Of such is the kingdom
of heaven."
We need not too profoundly mourn when our
children are removed, or, rather, however much we
mourn our own loss, the bright certainty of their
gain ought to lift us out of selfish grief. We can
follow them in thought into their Father's mansions
on high. To have a child in heaven, is only to
have our own hearts bound about with a golden




INTFANTS INA HEA VEN.         173
cord that is gently drawing our steps upwards,
heavenwards, homewards. It is only an inducement the more for us to " run the race," and pursue the path of our pilgrimage, that we may rejoin
them where loving hearts shall know no parting,
and kindred souls shall dwell together forever.
Angel fingers beckon us onward, angel voices encourage us in the silent hours of trial and gloom,
angel smiles cheer us in the dark valley, and it is
only all the sweeter to remember that some of them
may be the little ones whom we have loved and
given up to God. "I am a blossomless.tree!"
sinks sadly into the loving heart that feels how
much it has lost when its babe was taken from
her arms: " I am the mother of an angel! " may
dissipate the darkness and wipe away the tears,
mingle a smile with the weeping, pour balm into
the gaping wound, and reveal the silver lining of
the frowning cloud.
But doubt comes again with its questions. Why
do not all die in infancy, if to die then is so blessed
and certain gain? The world's work must go on,
and some - a sufficient number- must remain to
do it.  Why are not those alone taken, whom the
Lord foreknows will prove wicked and be lost?
Here we must cover our lips, and the heart must
enjoin "TRUST" on the intellect. Bad men may
have good children, who may derive from their
parents such an hereditary intellectual character as
shall fit them to do work in the world which none




174       OUR ETERNAL HOJMES.
others would be so well able to accomplish, and
who could not have been born into the world at
all had it not been for the preservation of their
parents. A generation of angels, too, may spring
from an ancestry that was evil. We are, however,
met here by the vast subject of the intellectual
adaptation of individuals to be the agents of the
Divine Providence in the development of the human race, and the promotion of its progress. But
even speculation can here only go haltingly, and
we are compelled to confide in the thought, that in
the final summing up of " God in account with His
children," it will be seen that the lesser evil has
been permitted in order to secure the greater good;
and that, in view of the immensity of that good, the
evil will be no more than spots on the sun of its
brightness. Yet, why should there be spots on the
sun at all? The truth must be confessed, - the
whole subject only presents us with an additional
view of the many-sided problem of the permission
of evil. This life only furnishes us with one term
of the problem, we must wait till the next state of
existence supplies us with the second term. This
is but true wisdom after all; for to break our hearts
in striving in the darkness is only the dictate of
folly. We must wait for the light, rejoicing in the
certainty that the day will dawn upon this, and
many other problems, at present insoluble, when
the shadows of our earth-life are lifted. It is at
least a merciful providence that the vast majority




INFANTS IN HE A VEiV.            175
of those who die in infancy are physically the least
fitted to remain; though even to this there seem
some exceptions, so far as our human wisdom
extends, which, however, extends so small a distance after all. Where it has pleased the Divine
Mercy to reveal so little, dogmatism would only
be an evidence of temerity. We believe and
trust.
There are other questions which we must desire
to ask, and to which, from Scriptural and rational
sources, some sort of a reply may be gained. Shall
we be able to recognize our children on the other
side? Will they remain children in the other life
forever?
The mode of recognition in the other life appears
to be altogether of a different nature from that we
are acquainted with here. Here we recognize our
friends only from external signs, and our mutual
recognitions are confirmed by interchanges of recollections. There, perception, and consequently recognition, is of a spiritual or interior character.
An illustration of this idea is furnished in the narrative of the Transfiguration. The three disciples
were able to know the heavenly beings who ministered unto the Lord.  "Lord, it is good," said
Peter, " for us to be here: if thou wilt, let us make
here three tabernacles; one for thee, and one for
Moses, and one for Elias." 1 Although the Apostles could not, of course, have previously known
1 Matt. xvii. 4.




176       OUR ETERNAL HOMES.
these two holy prophets, and, therefore, could not
have recognized them, yet, without any intimation
as to who they were, they obtained an inward perception as to their individuality. They knew them.
The Lord also furnishes us with a further illustration of this remarkable fact in the parable of the
rich man and Lazarus. Not only is the rich man
described as recognizing Lazarus, whom he had
known on earth, but also he appeared to know
Abraham, whom he had never seen. Whatever
may be the changes which residence in the spiritual world will effect in the personal appearance of
those who precede us, the desire to be with them
will produce their presence, and that same similarity of state, from which proceeded the spiritual desire, will enable us to know them.
The second question, whether infants will forever remain infants, is, perhaps, more' difficult of
solution. The difference between a child and ajn
adult, viewed as to their spiritual natures, consists
solely in the ignorance and undeveloped nature
of the infant, and in the superior knowledge and
wisdom of the adult. We cannot presume that
children who enter into the other life will forever
remain ignorant, or childish in the sense of being
ignorant, and incapable of rational thought. As
God is essentially Love and Wisdom, and as the
angels receive more fully of the Divine life than
man, so their reception of the Divine life must
cause an increase of the love and wisdom which




INFANTS IN HEA VEN.            177
they derive from God. They become more like
God by knowing more of His truth, and partaking
of more of His goodness. As they will forever
increasingly receive of the Divine gifts, so they
will forever increase in wisdom and goodness, become more and more fully men, " images and likenesses of God." This universal principle cannot
surely be affected by the circumstance of the age,
or the state of spiritual development of the individual angel at the period when he first enters
upon his angelic condition. Compared with that
future development, the wisest man on earth is
but as a child, only a little larger than his fellows.
Progress is, therefore, as much the destiny of the
child-angel as of the angel who attained manhood
before quitting this mortal sphere. This progress
will be in the perception of wisdom and the reception of love from the Lord. The true idea
of spiritual maturity is spiritual fulness; and as
the child-angel will increasingly receive of this
fulness, so he must increasingly become matured
in the kingdom  of heaven. But it is also true
that an angel is homogeneous; that is, his exterior
appearance of brightness, beauty, and glory is
exactly representative of his inner and real state;
and, therefore, as the child-angel becomes wiser
he becomes brighter, as he grows more loving he
grows more beautiful, he is the more glorious as
he receives of the holiness which is the glory of
God, and he appears more manlike as he becomes
8*                       L




178        OUR ETERNAL HOMES.
more Godlike, for Jesus is the true pattern of a
man. There seems, then, every presumption in
favor of the spiritual form  of the child-angel attaining its proper dimensions, or of its growing
into the appearance of manhood. There may be,
and doubtless is, some difference which will everlastingly remain between those angels who departed from their earth-life during their infancy
and those who attained maturity before their departure; but it is most reasonable to think that
such differences will consist in the special relation
their states sustain to those of others, and the
angelic uses to which they are thereby peculiarly
adapted, rather than in their eternal retention of
an infantile size or form.
While every presumption is in favor of their
growth, there is no rational necessity for the contrary opinion. It is no more necessary that they
should retain their size, than that they should
retain their individual appearances of form or
features. They may have been relatively coarse
or ugly, or malformed or even deformed, and of
course these things are inconsistent with heavenly
beauty and perfection, —inconsistent, moreover,
with the intrinsic beauty of their souls. Some of
the loveliest souls I have known were burdened
with a heritage of physical deformity. Stunted
growth, curved spines, withered limbs, may be the
temporary appanages of the pure and loving, who
live a life of martyrdom here, and are preparing




INFANTS IN HEAVEN.              179
for a martyr's crown hereafter; but when enfranchised from the slavery of flesh, and delivered
from the dungeons of deformity, the pure spirit
shall be bright and beautiful as it is really humble
and good. There exists no reason why the size
of the body or its shape should inexorably mould
the spirit into the same form. This is not even
necessary for purposes of recognition, as we have
before shown; and that they might be recognized,
would furnish the only exterior grounds of necessity. The argument is equally apposite and forcible in the case of children.
Nor is there any Scriptural evidence in support
of the contrary opinion. Cherubs and baby-angels
are conceptions of old painters, but nowhere justified in the Word of God. Even though justified
as to the fact that there had been child-angels,
still the Bible supplies no proof of such continuing
to be children in size and appearance forever.
No: it is more reasonable to presume that they
will mature in form as in wisdom and in holiness,
attaining a sublime manhood of appearance as well
as of perception and of love.  Angels are all
childlike because innocent; an infant is the type
of angels because of its innocence; but though
childlike they are not childish in form of appearance, or in grasp of intellect, or in fervor of love.
The poet Longfellow has caught what seems to us
the true idea, and has exquisitely depicted it in his
poem entitled " Resignation."




180          OUR ETERNAL HOMES.
"There is no death! What seems so is transition:
This life of mortal breath
Is but a suburb of that life elysian,
Whose portal we call death!
"She is not dead, the child of our affection,
But gone unto that school
Where she no longer needs our poor protection,
And Christ himself doth rule.
"In that great cloister's stillness and seclusion,
By angel guardians led;
Safe from temptation, safe from sin's pollution,
She lives, whom we call dead.
" Not as a child shall we again behold her;
For when with rapture wild,
In our embraces we again enfold her,
She will not be a child:
"But a fair maiden in her Father's mansion,
Clothed with celestial grace,
And beautiful with all the soul's expansion,
Shall we behold her face! "
It is easy to conceive of what loving labor it
must be to the angels to train and develop the
infant minds intrusted to their care. It is evidently
a mistake to suppose that immediately on entrance
into heaven the child should comprehend all things.
It is contrary to all we know of the laws of mind.
Though amplified in their power, and quickened in
their perceptions after the separation has taken
place between their spirits and their bodies, yet
from the modes in which mind operates here, we
may see at least an indication of how mind will
operate there. It may be more rapid in its growth,




INFANTS IN HEAVEN.              181
but the idea of growth is inextricably involved
in our conception of the wisdom of angels. The
labor of acquisition is here toilsome and painful;
there it shall become an ever-increasing source of
bliss. Our progress here is at best but slow and
wearisome; there it will be rapid and delightful.
Here the subjects that mostly occupy us are of the
earth, earthy; there they will be Godlike and
heavenly. Here we dare not place implicit confidence in any teacher, for in all there is not only
deficiency, but also defect; there, however relatively deficient in their wisdom the angels may be,
yet they will mingle no falsehood with their truths,
no errors with their instructions.  But in both
states there must exist this double similarity;becoming wise is a process, and, further, that in
this process God will make use of intelligent instrumentalities.
Only infinite capacity can possess infinite wisdom.
Finite capacities, however enlarged, must be finite,
-in two respects, -as to the extent and range of
wisdom they receive, and also as to the necessity
of their advancing from one perception to another
by gradations. Only to the Absolutely Wise is
there neither to-day, yesterday, nor to-morrow in
His wisdom. Time adds nothing to His eternity,
and experience nothing to His knowledge. It is
and must be thus with God only. The law which
obtains in all others is the law of progress. Angels grow wiser by experience, and this necessi



182        OUR ETERNAL HOMES.
tates an increase in wisdom that is gradual, and
this gradual increase is the process above referred
to. In common with all angels, the child who is
taken to heaven will increase in wisdom, and this
from state to state.  "Line upon line, precept
upon precept," is as much the God-declared law
of angelic improvement, as it is the necessary law
of human progress. In the Divine Being alone
is Wisdom absolute: compared with this, the knowledge attained unto by angels will eternally be relative, yet it will hold the relation of more or less:
least when they first enter upon their heavenly
state, but continually growing more and more as
they continue to abide there. How rapid is their
progress non'e can say; but, rapid as it may be,
it is simply irrational to believe that as soon as
a child becomes altogether an inhabitant of the
spiritual world he springs by a momentaneous
impulse into all the wisdom of the angels, and
into the comprehension of all the science of the
skies.
There must also be this further similarity between both states of existence; God will make use
of intelligent instrumentalities for the instruction
of heavenly neophytes.  All truth originates in
God, but truth may flow down from God either by
an immediate or a mediate way, or it may reach us
by both modes. It does reach us by both modes
during our existence here; but what we learn from
others far surpasses in amount what we learn by




INFANTS IN HEAVEN.              183
meditation, or that wisdom which reaches us by
an internal method. It is no denial of God's being
the sole original source of all wisdom, for us to
receive knowledge through the mediumship of
teachers; nor is it at all derogatory to the majesty
of the Divine Providence that He should make
use of instrumentalities.  Indeed, the communication of truth is one of the instrumentalities God
employs for enhancing the delight of wisdom in
His children; for truth seems never so delightful
to its possessor as it does while he makes an effort
to communicate it. The love of truth and the love
of communicating truth cannot be separated; and
we may safely conclude that as the state of the
neophyte angel is one of progress, and therefore
of reception, so the wisdom of the angels will impart new joy to them because of their endeavor
to communicate their gift to the truth-thirsting
souls of those less wise than they.  While, consequently, the new-comers will " see light in God's
light," or derive wisdom immediately from the
inspiration of God, yet will they also receive instructions from heavenly instruments, and thus
derive wisdom from God mediately as well as
immediately. " Kings shall be their nursing fathers, and queens their nursing mothers," in order
that they may be more fully the children of the
great All-Father by "receiving everlastingly of
His fulness." Their brothers, the angels, are their
tutors; heaven is their sublime academy, and God




184       OUR ETERNAL HOMES.
the great master from whom all their wisdom
flows.
To conclude, then, children are the love-blossoms on the tree of human life. They are given
by a God of love, in love to man, committed by
the Divine love, to the bosom of our love. When
He sees best for them to depart from our human
arms they are received by welcoming angels, who
guide their ascending footsteps up to God. We may
treasure our fond memories of them in our hearts, we
may hope to meet and know them in the hereafter.
Death has no real sting, for it reaches not to them.
The grave has gained no real victory, for our separation from them is only a thing which a few weeks
may, and a few years must, terminate. "It is better to have loved and lost than never to have loved
at all"; besides, our departed children are not lost.
They will not come back to us, but we shall go to
them; and if we are like them in the innocence of
our souls, in our love to God, and in our capacities of use, we shall dwell with them for ever and
ever. "Christ hath abolished death " in this high
sense, and thus has brought " life and immortality
to light by the Gospel." And even though our
states may be dissimilar to those of our departed
dear ones, and separation thence result, still our
grateful and adoring spirits, penetrated with submission to the Divine wisdom, and wrought into
unity with the Divine will, shall still rejoice in
the thought that through our human instrumen



INFANTS IJN HEAVEN.            185
tality heaven has received some of its blessed
angels.  Here we may think that whatever is, is
the best that a lapsed humanity will permit to
be; but there we may realize that whatever is, is
right!
Only one more thought before we lay down
the pen from this work, the composition of which
has been to its author productive of much happiness.
The great practical lesson that grows out of our
consideration of the whole subject is full of important moral consequences, and it is this: —God
formed us for heaven, - He has prepared heaveR
for us, - He continually desires to help us heavenwards, - by every operation of His providence He
calls us to Himself, - He is willing to enable us to
realize the commencement of the heavenly state
even while we remain on earth, —He has so ordered it that this realization shall fill us with a perfect joy and a peace that abideth, - He has so constituted the human mind that its conceptions of
Heaven shall be the most "glorious visions of the
soul"; and that the cares of our lower life shall
only force us to yearn for heaven with a longing
that refuses to be extinguished, and with a hope
that alone bears us up on its pinions above the weariness of time, - He has bound humanity together
in this common nature, that, in view of the destiny
of immortality, which is common to us all, we may
love each other as brethren and help each other on.
9




186        OUR ETERNAL HOMES.
in the way of our pilgrimage, — therefore, in all
humility, and reliance upon our Saviour, the Lord
Jesus Christ, we ought to strive to promote the fulfilment of the Divine purpose concerning us, and
hoping for Heaven hereafter, we should LIVE FOR
HEAVEN here.
Cambridge: Stereotyped and Printed by Welch, Bigelow, & Co.