/&***&* LIBRARY OF THE University of California. GIFT OF Mrs. SARAH P. WALSWORTH. Received October, 18Q4. ^Accessions No. Sfr$T7Cf. Class No. HEAVEN OUR HOME. WE HAVE NO SAVIOUR BUT JESUS, NO HOME BUT HEAVEN. BY THE AUTHOR OF "MEET FOR HEAVEN.' SEVENTH EDITION. I^^T^E! j£> op Tins'* BOSTON: ROBERTS BROTHERS, PUBLISHERS, 143, Washington Street. 1869. £Ip0 r CAMBRIDGE : 1TEREOTYPED AND PRINTED BY JOHN WILSON AND SON. PREFACE THE AMEEICAN EDITION. The following work by an anonymous author, al- though but recently published in England, has met with very great favor. In a note to the edition from which this is re- printed, the author states, " that, within the space of little more than one week, the whole of the first edition of ' Heaven our Home' was sold. Within a few months more, sixty successive editions have been called for. He trusts that this will be taken as an evidence that the views which he has presented of our future home have created some interest in the minds of the reading public." Since the publication of " Heaven our Home," have appeared "Meet for Heaven," and " Life in Heaven ; " 4 PREFACE TO THE AMERICAN EDITION. and the united sale of the three works already ex- ceeds one hundred thousand copies. Should this volume meet with similar approval from the American people, the other works will follow in rapid succession. PREFACE. L have often felt, that the views which most divines have given of heaven are so utterly negative in their nature, and also so utterly unsocial in their aspect, that they are more calculated to repel the inquiries and longings and aspirations of the children of God after it, than to allure their thoughts upwards, and fix their affections and desires upon the things that are above. The mechanism of our moral nature — God's own workmanship — fits us for a social heaven. We are social beings. A heaven from which saint-friendship and social intercourse, among those who are in glory, are excluded, is not and cannot be a suitable abode for us, who have received from God's own plastic hand those social affections which we are to possess for ever. A social heaven is, accordingly, the leading idea which I have endeavored to embody and illustrate in the following treatise. [5] 6 PREFACE. Richard Baxter's heaven, depicted in his w Saint's Everlasting Rest," is an eternity of holy repose, free from the sins and troubles of earth. John Howe's heaven, delineated in his "Blessedness of the Right- eous," is a calm, intellectual eternity spent in the beatific vision of God. St Paul's heaven is a being through eternity with Christ. St. John's heaven, exhibited in the Apocalypse, is a great and gorgeous temple crowded with the worshippers of God. The heaven I have attempted to delineate is a home, with a great and happy and loving family in it. The Bible is the orient sun that has dispelled the long, deep night of darkness that once hung over heaven, and in a great measure concealed it from the view of man. The natural sun, by his rising every morning, brings the earth — our present home — into our view, with its variegated scenery, and its living, busy population. The Bible — God's bright spiritual sun that has risen upon us — also brings by its revela- tions into our view an eternal heaven, which we who are the children of God are to enter at death, and meet each other again on the other side of the Jor- dan's floods, and be happy for eternity there, in our Father's home. PREFACE. 7 We need a home. What is our life here? Look at a river upon earth : you see, in its flowing waters, life's symbol. That river is but a little streamlet in its source, welling out from its small and pebbly foun- tain : it gradually increases in depth and in width ; it never rests ; it flows on and on, and still unceasingly onwards, without a moment's pause. So does our life, till at last, like the mighty river nearing the ocean, it flings its waters, with a convulsive and gurgling roll, into the sea that is before the Lord, there to mingle with the living floods of angels and glorified saints, who move and gleam like a great ocean, filling the heavens, and stretching far and wide, and seemingly without a shore. Look at the sun in the sky : you see in it a symbol of life. That sun peeps up into the view of a living world, at his first rising, with but a comparatively dim and feeble shining ; he gradually emerges with an increasing lustre from his chamber in the east ; he goes forth over us in the sky, like a vessel of light sailing along upon the bosom of the great ocean of space ; he reaches his meridian splen- dor ; then he begins to descend gradually towards the western horizon, until at the close of day he passes from our gaze into the expanse beyond, going forth to sail still as a vessel of light over another sea of life 8 PREFACE. in the opposite hemisphere, there to rise and to pour down his beams upon other homes and upon other eyes, but removed from our view. It is the same with our life. Our soul is our sun. The thoughts of our minds are the beams of light that gleam forth in their scintillations and radiancy and illumination upon those around us. There is the first glimmering dawn of reason, then the increasing splendor of brightening faculties, then the meridian sunshine of intellectual and moral powers. The zenith of life is reached : our mental sun then begins to descend the western sky of age ; the evening of death darkens around ; then our soul, if in a state of grace, leaves the sphere in which it moved and shone for a season here, passes over the horizon that bounds eternity and time, the Lord Jesus transferring it to a new firma- ment, — the hemisphere of glory, — there to rise in new splendor before the throne of God ; there to shine as the brightness of the firmament, and as the stars of God for ever and ever. It is computed that one of the human family dies every moment. Thus, every tick of the clock, an immortal spirit, as if with the outspread wings of an angel, is flying over the boundary-line of time, and is entering the great world of spirits on the other side. PREFACE, 9 There is thus a river of living souls continuously flowing from time into eternity. In the bed of that stream, we are all, sooner or later, to take our place, and to pass away ; for " as the waters fail from the sea, as the flood decay eth and drieth up, so man lieth down, and riseth not till the heavens be no more : they shall not awake, nor be raised out of their sleep." How comforting, in these circumstances, is the revelation that God has made to us in his Word, — we have a home for 'eternity, and that home is heaven ! In the following treatise, I look in upon that home of love. I survey the family assembled there. I view their intercourse with each other, and with us who are still upon earth ; and I notice the interest which they feel in what is occurring here. I also show, that, in the gospel view of heaven which I am led to set forth, death, to believers in Jesus, is going home. It is no cold and uninteresting subject which I am thus led to treat. Was it like music in the ears of the Israelites, whilst journeying in the wilderness, to listen to the accounts, which were orally and through tradition handed down to them, of the land promised 1* 10 PREFACE. to their fathers, — a land flowing with milk and honey, and towards which they were advancing ? And will it not be equally comforting to you who are the chil- dren of God, nay, will it not be infinitely more so, in the midst of your present wearisome journeyings, to read a gospel description of your Father's home in the heavens, which many of your friends from earth have already entered, where you are again to meet them at your death, when time with you is past, and the world is left ? The descriptions which I have given of heaven have a deep and personal interest about them ; for heaven is to be your home for eternity who read these, if ye are the children of God. The emigrant, who is about to sail to a foreign land, feels that he has a personal interest in the accounts which he reads about it in the newspapers or otherwise : for he is soon to sail to it, to land upon its shore ; and he is to spend there the remainder of his life. The bride, who is about to go to her new home, feels that she has & personal interest in the descriptions which her friends give her of its site, of its appearance, and of its furnishings ; for she has upon her soul the sunshine of the gladdening hope, that she is to spend her future life beneath its roof. You have a similar interest in heaven. The sea, the PREFACE. 11 deep-blue sea, is not far off, over the bosom of which you will soon set sail, that ye may land in eternity. The vessel is in the harbor ; it is preparing to go forth to plough the bosom of the unseen deep, as Columbus launched forth upon the Atlantic, whilst America, on the other side, was all unseen; the sails are already spread; the pilot is at the helm. You already hear the dash upon the shore, and the roll of the great waters ; and soon you, who are believers in Jesus, will be in the position of the emi- grant, whilst standing upon the deck of the vessel that is already under sail, — you will look back, and you will look down upon your weeping, bereaved friends, whom you are leaving in your death-cham- ber ; upon your home, with its dark cloud of bereave- ment lowering around it ; and upon the earth itself, receding from your view, and gradually becoming smaller in the distance, till, like the vessel upon the far-off horizon, it flits away entirely from your gaze. You will then rise upwards to heaven, your home; you will enter, and join for eternity, God's family now assembled there. In the anticipation of that abundant entrance into heaven, you can even now look up to Jesus upon the throne, and you hear him thus addressing you : " In my Father's house are many 12 PREFACE, mansions : if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And, if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and re- ceive you unto myself; that, where I am, there ye may be also." CONTENTS. PART I. f^eafcen our ^ome* CHAPTER I. Pagb Heaven a Locality 19 n. Types op Heaven. — Eden and Canaan 38 HI. Types of Heaven. — A Temple 44 IV. Types of Heaven. — A City 62 V. Types of Heaven. — A Home 77 VI. The Family in Heaven 90 [13] ] 4 CONTENTS. vn. Pagk Communion of Saints in Heaven 104 VH1. Communion of Saints in Heaven (continued) . . . 116 IX. Communion of Saints in Heaven (continued) . . . 132 X. Communion of Saints in Heaven, a Source of Instruction and of Joy 142 PART n. 2te0|jttttt0tt of Juntos fix 3^eafatu CHAPTER I. Recognition of Friends in Heaven 149 II. Recognition of Friends in Heaven (continued) . . 160 m. Recognition of Friends in Heaven (continued) . . 169 CONTENTS. 15 IV. Page Recognition of Friends in Heaven (continued) . . 175 V. Recognition of 1'riends in Heaven (continued) . . 188 VI. Recognition if Friends in Heaven {continued) . . 191 VH. Objections answered 201 PART in. <£{je Interest tfjose m Pfeafan feel in GEartfj. CHAPTER I. The Interest those in Heaven feel in Earth . . 219 n. Philosophical Evidences for this Interest . . 22fi in. Scriptural Evidence of this Interest 233 IV. Scriptural Evidence of this Interest (continued) . 243 16 CONTENTS. V. Page Events showing Heaven's Interest in us . . . . 253 VI. Events showing Heaven's Interest in us {con- tinued) 268 VII. Events showing Heaven's Interest in us (con- tinued 282 vm Events showing Heaven's Interest in us (con- tinued) . 295 PART I. \mbm oxxx Jfome. 44 IN MY FATHER'S HOUSE ARE MANY MANSIONS." CHAPTER I. HEAVEN A LOCALITY. HE subject of the following treatise is one that ought to arrest the attention and en- gage the interest of every member of the human family, and especially of believers in Jesus. Heaven is the locality around which are clustering the highest and the holiest hopes and associations of the people of God. It is to be their home for ever. Thus all who are Christians must surely feel a holy desire to hear about the dwelling-place in which they are to spend their immortal existence when life with them here is finished, and when, at death, they have bidden adieu for ever to the home in which they now dwell. The exile's heart exults with joy as he peruses a description of the land of his nativity, either in the newspaper or in the more elaborate treatise ; for he knows the day is coming when he will set sail for it : [19] 20 HEAVEN A LOCALITY. such a description leads him often to look across the deep-blue sea, and longingly and pensively to gaze in the direction where his future home is lying. The pilgrim, in the midst of his desert-journey, opens and reads, with the glowing emotions of a lively interest, the letter which has reached him from his home, and which gives him an account of the dear ones who are there, — his affectionate partner and beloved children, — whom he has the prospect of joining when his journey is finished ; and to whom, sitting in the comfortable parlor, he will joyfully recount the incidents that happened to him by the way. The mariner who is afloat upon the bosom of the ocean, and on his voyage homeward, not only consults the compass habitually and carefully, which points out the course in which he is to sail that he may reach the desired and sheltered haven, where he will cast anchor, and be safe and secure, for the billows will then be rolling far away in the distance behind him : he also delights to read the narrative which gives him an account of the country to which he is sailing. In like manner, you, who are the children of God, must feel your hearts' best affections and purest desires enlisted when you think of your eternal home ; and you must surely feel some interest in an attempt to give you a description of it, what it is, and what you are to experience when you enter it. This is the task which I now endeavor to execute. HEAVEN A LOCALITY. 21 What, then, is heaven ? This is no trifling or un- important question. If I am immortal, and if heaven is to be my home for ever, it is of the utmost importance that I should form a right and scriptural view of it. Much of my present happiness will depend upon the particular conception of it which I now imbibe and cherish; and this, again, will exert an influence upon my conduct, leading me to prepare and make ready, that I may enter it at death. Before, however, I proceed to consider what heaven is, I will, in this chapter, make a few reflections upon the question, Where is heaven ? I believe that the views of many Christians about the " locality " of heaven are quite as indefinite and vague as are the musings of a little child two or three years old respecting the position of India, or of Australia, or of the Cape of Good Hope. With many Christians, all is dark and visionary and dreamy respecting the fact that heaven is verily a locality, and not merely a state. I believe that the young, generally, have a far more vivi d though an erroneous view of the exact place where the eternal home of the people of God rears its walls than that possessed by those more mature in years. In youth, the heart's affections are warm, curiosity is strong, the imagination is lively ; and fancy paints heaven as situated just above the blue arch of the visible sky. Ask a child, "Where is heaven?" Is there any dimness or doubt existing in the mind 22 HEAVEN A LOCALITY. whilst giving an answer to your question ? No : the finger is instantly lifted up ; and, looking and pointing to the overarching sky, the answer is, "Up there." Advancing years, however, and increasing know- ledge, effect a complete revolution in our view of this locality. A knowledge of astronomy does this by ennobling and elevating the mind. Astronomy not only exhibits to us the greatness and the splendor of the material universe, but the greatness also and sovereignty of Him who made it ; to whom it is a great palace, with its lighted chandeliers burning in every apartment ; and through which he walks in his glory and in his majesty. A similar change of view about the exact position of a departed friend sometimes comes over our ima- ginings. Have you not sometimes dreamt, that you saw in the visions of the night some such valued one meeting you in your home, and smiling upon you with the love and friendship which he showed to you whilst he yet lived with you ? You awoke in the morning, and saw, amid the light of awakened rea- son, that you mistook in that dream the dwelling- place of him who stood before you. Would it be right reasoning, in these circumstances, for you thus to conclude : " Because I had a wrong view in the visions of the night respecting the place of his pre- sent abode, therefore my friend has no habitation at all ; or, in other words, has no existence "? It is HEAVEN A LOCALITY. the same with the hereabouts of heaven, dream of childhood about its localizatioi ished amid the descending light of increase( ledge, would it be right in us hastily to jump to the conclusion, "Oh, heaven is nowhere! It is not where we once thought it was, and therefore it has no exist- ence at all : it is in no region at present " ? Some divines have attempted to get over the diffi- culty of fixing the present locality of heaven by representing it as a habitation that is not yet formed. These theologians place heaven in the same category as the millennium, the latter-day glory, the judgment- day, the resurrection of the dead ; and, in support of their view, they are in the habit of quoting the fol- lowing words of the Apostle Peter: "Nevertheless, we, according to His promise, look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness." These words, misinterpreted, have prevented Chris- tians from looking up and abroad upon God's great universe in search of a local and presently -existing home. Assuredly there is a heaven, existing just now, into which Jesus, our new-covenant Head, has ascended, — the heavens have received him until the final restitution of all things ; where God has estab- lished his throne, — a throne of glory that is high and lifted up ; in which angels who have kept their first estate have their usual habitation, — "for their angels," says Jesus, " do always behold the face of my Father which is in heaven ; " and in which are 24 HEAVEN A LOCALITY. dwelling " the spirits of the just made perfect ; " or otherwise the revelations of the Bible are so many , myths. There is a heaven, Existing just now : more- over, it is not merely a local but a material habita- tion, into which Enoch and Elijah have ascended, carrying their bodies with them ; and into which the resurrection-bodies of all the children of God are to rise after the judgment is over, and where they are to dwell for ever ; or otherwise the whole Bible is a novel, and its beatific revelations are merely comfortable dreams. There is a heaven, into which patriarchs have entered who lived long ages near the beginning of the world's history ; for they are still alive. At Horeb, God's language to Moses is, "I am" not I was, "the God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob." When these words were spoken, the patriarchs had been dead for several hundred years. God asserts they were still alive : he is not the God of the dead, but of the living ; for all live to him. There is a heaven, into which prophets have ascended, who once acted as the mouth of God upon earth, and made audible in the hearing of the children of men those high and important revelations which the eternal Jehovah for ages sent down from his throne, and from the habitation of his glory, to his children. There is a heaven, into which the disciples of our Lord have entered who once followed Jesus in his mission of love in this world, and who still follow HEAVEN A LOCALITY. 25 the Lamb whithersoever he goeth. There is a heaven, into which martyrs have ascended in their chariots of flame, who -sealed their testimony to Jesus with their blood. There is a heaven, into which believers, from every clime of earth and from every age of this world's history, have ascended ; who have been coming from the east and from the west, from the north and from the south, and have been sitting down with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob. From the throne of his love, in these high places, God has been saying to the north, "Give up;" and to the south, "Keep not back: bring my sons from far, and my daughters from the ends of the earth." The redeemed of the Lord have been for thousands of years returning and coming to the heavenly Zion with songs of praise. They are now obtaining, in God's presence above, the joy and gladness that were promised, and sorrow and mourning have for ever fled away from them ; and these collected and assembled multitudes now stand together in their exaltation, and sing before their God and Saviour the praises of the celestial temple. There is a heaven, presently existing, into which ye are to ascend at your death who are the children of God through faith in Christ Jesus. Where, then, is heaven ? The Bible constantly speaks of it as up, as above. But this language, it is quite evident, is only relative ; in other words, it merely implies that heaven is away from the earth, 2 26 HEAVEN A LOCALITY. and is localized in some distant region of space. The earth, every student of geography knows, is, in form, a sphere, or globe, and has two motions. It has its annual motion along its orbit round the sun : it has also its diurnal motion ; or, in other words, it turns completely round upon an imaginary axis every twenty-four hours. Take the case of an indi- vidual who speaks about heaven, and who, in faith, looks up to it at twelve o'clock in the day. Up, with him, simply means the direction in which he is looking into the great pavilion of space, in a line drawn from the centre of the earth, and the part of its surface upon which he at the moment stands. Let twelve hours pass over that individual's head, whilst meanwhile the earth is revolving in its diurnal motion, and has now brought him into the exactly opposite direction, in reference to that great pavilion, from what he was twelve hours before. Let him now speak of heaven, and let him look up to it, in imagination and in faith : his feet are now, in a line leading from the centre of the earth, towards the heaven to which he looked twelve hours before ; his head and uplifted eyes are in the entirely opposite direction. Is that man right in his view of the direction in which heaven lies from him at twelve o'clock in the night? Either there must be two heavens, or all space is heaven; or he is mistaken in his view of the direction in which heaven lies from the earth at one or other of these seasons. Now, HEAVEN A LOCALITY. 27 because we involuntarily and inadvertently commit this mistake in our view of the situation of heaven, — imagining it localized in one part of space at twelve o'clock in the day, and in the entirely opposite region in space at twelve o'clock in the night, — is heaven nowhere ? The man would neither be a good mathe- matician nor a good logician who would draw such a conclusion from the premises. I believe the Scriptures do not fix the -place : they have not assigned, they do not assign, the exact locality which heaven occupies in the great pavilion of space, no more than they have fixed definitively the exact locality upon earth where Eden was situated. There has been no small controversy among writers on scriptural subjects respecting the site of Eden : one writer has actually placed it in the moon. Suppose I had, in my judgment, fixed upon a particular locality as that of Eden, and had afterwards — either by reasoning, or by observation, or by meet- ing some one inspired, and getting him to point out to me its exact place and its boundaries — been led to see that I was wrong : does it follow that Eden never had an existence because I was wrong in my localization of it? The Scriptures, I repeat, do not attempt to define to us the exact region in the great immensity of space where heaven is situated. I am not sure, indeed, that they could have done this so as to have been understood. Were the earth stationary, and the 28 HEAVEN A LOCALITY. heavens at rest too, I believe this could have been done ; but, looking at the earth's revolution round the sun, and looking at the fact, that, for any thing I can tell, the sun may have a similar revolution through space round the outside of the wall of heaven, — which is said to be great and high, and from the radiancy of which the sun may derive his light, and thus be a merely reflecting body like the moon, — heaven may thus be in one direction from me at one time, and in the directly opposite at another. Even physically, we speak of the sun being up from us ; and nevertheless we are all aware, that, every twelve hours, he is down. An illustration will show the impossibility of assigning the exact celestial' region. If heaven be stationary, and the sun with his attend- ant planets, and the stars with their several family orbs, roll in their courses round about it, survey- ing it like children playing round a fire, its exact position cannot be assigned. Look to that vessel which has cast anchor in the bay, and is at rest at her moorings : it is to be your home whilst you are crossing the Atlantic ; but it has not yet set sail. Suppose you go into a boat at a distance of two hun- dred yards, and row quite round the vessel. Whilst you are making that circuit, in what direction will the vessel bti from you ? It is quite manifest that it will be at different sections of your circle in entirely opposite directions ; and were you to say that the position of the vessel, as seen from your boat, and HEAVEN A LOCALITY. 29 the direction from which it lies from you, is due west, this, it is evident, would be true only whilst you were at one part of your course. I cannot tell the exact position of heaven. I can- not stand in the boat — the earth — in which I am now sailing, and point my finger in the exact direc- tion along the ocean of space in which heaven is, — the vessel of glory in which I am, as a child of God, yet to have my home through eternity. But what if heaven, the vessel of immortality, has weighed anchor, and is also under sail as well as the earth? It is manifest, that in this case the difficulty of fixing the situation is greatly increased. The Scriptures have not fixed the locality ; and, as far as I can see, they could not do so. But heaven has its position in the great ocean of space, just as much as the ves- sel has that is lying at rest upon the waters, kept there by the anchor. It may be, that beyond all that is visible, and beyond all that is existing in God's lower creation, there lies and there expands and there gleams be- neath the light of God's own manifested presence the heaven of heavens, which forms the etherealized , luminous, material habitation in which the children of God are, throughout eternity, to dwell. Heaven may j be to the whole material orbs of God's great universe | what the sun is to the solar system, — a region of brightness so dazzling, that all the light that is in the universe may be flowing out from it ; and thus 30 HEAVEN A LOCALITY. it may be, that all that is luminous in the lower crea- tion is exactly to heaven what the planets are to the sun, — dark, floating masses, till lighted by its beams. Do not say, that this view of the situation of heaven removes it to an almost indefinite distance from the earth. Time has, as it were, no duration in the reckoning of God. n One day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day." Space, upon the same principle, has, as it were, no extension in the measurement of God. There is no such thing as distance, considered in its relation to him. Space is thus annihilated in God. Quickness of transition, to some extent, also annihi- lates space. The speed of angels may be so great in their transitions from heaven to earth, and from earth back again to heaven, that, far as the regions may be asunder, they may make the passage quick as the gleam of the lightning, and rapid as the twinkling of an eye. The invention of the telegraph has almost annihilated space along the surface of the earth. For any thing I can tell, God may have made known, to those who are above, some nobler space-annihilating invention, through which, though situated on the other side from us of the great pavilion of the universe, they may nevertheless feel that they are at earth's very door. Our thoughts almost annihilate space as they roam to and fro through the great creation, and up and down through HEAVEN A LOCALITY. 31 the heavens, and round about the throne of God. Angels, glorified spirits, may move through space much quicker than our thoughts do, and therefore quicker than the beams of light move away from the sun into the regions around, and hence so much more quick than the ball when just propelled from the cannon's mouth. The Temple of Jerusalem was a visible panorama of heaven in its relation to earth. There was the Holy of Holies typifying heaven, whilst the outer courts — where the sacrifices were offered, and in- cense smoked upon the altar, and the worshippers assembled — represented the earth. A veil was stretched, by God's appointment, so as to conceal the Holy of Holies entirely from the view of those who were worshipping without. So is it with heaven. God has stretched a veil of invisibility betwixt us and his throne, which entirely conceals it from our view. Heaven is, indeed, as much out of my sight, and beyond the reach of my eye, as if it had no existence. The prophet's description of God is, "Thou art verily a God that hidest thyself, O God of Israel, the Saviour." God not only hides himself: he hides also from us the habitation of his holiness. For wise purposes, he holdeth back the face of his throne, and spreadeth his cloud above upon it. For wise purposes, God conceals from us the pavilion of light with which he is inhaloed, as he dwells in the midst thereof; because, whilst we 32 HEAVEN A LOCALITY. remain upon earth, we are to walk by faith, and not by sight ; and because a constant and vivid view of the hosts of heaven, and of the great realities of eternity, would so overpower and paralyze us as to unfit us for the duties of earth and of time. But though God does not show us heaven, does not open to us its regions of bliss, so that they may become visible to our view whilst we remain upon earth, he speaks to us, in his Word, about heaven, and tells us, not where it is, but what it is. A little child is in this country, whose parents are living at Calcutta : that child knows not where its parents' home is, nor the way to it ; but the captain knows who takes that child on board ; and angels know where heaven is, who will take you, believers, home. Those who are in heaven possess a knowledge of it, independently of the descriptions of the Bible. They see its heights of majesty towering around them ; its valleys of joy stretching away in all the luxuriance and fragrance of an eternal summer ; its rivers of pleasures rolling through its brightening scenery, and the living streams flowing at their feet, which make glad the city of God. They behold its azure sky arching over them in its meridian splendor, and vouchsafing to them the cloudless expanse of an eternal day, — a splendor of light that never grows dim. There are no stars in the bright firmament that is above them, to dispel, in part, the darkness of night ; for there is no night there. Finally, they see HEAVEN A LOCALITY. 33 the building of God, — the house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens, — the house with many mansions, in winch God's great and happy family meet and live and walk and talk and act and love. Angels have been surveying heaven, and have been contemplating its scenery, for at least near six thousand years ; and by their surveys, and flights through the midst of it, they must have now a know- ledge of what is to us so mysterious. Abel, the first of the human family who entered there, has been enjoying the vision for nearly six thousand years ; and, arrayed in his robes of white, has been walking through it, looking upon its changeless monuments, and exploring wonders that have upon them the impress of eternity. All this is from observation, just as a person travelling through his native land acquires, by viewing it, a knowledge far more accurate than what he received by studying its map or its history. Noah now views heaven from a higher mount than that of Ararat ; and how living is the scenery ! — it is not desolated, as the earth was, by a recently overs weeping deluge. Moses now beholds heaven as he looked from Mount Pisgah upon the Promised Land ; but he is not surveying it as a country which he is never to enter : he is already in it. It is different with us who are yet but pilgrims and sojourners upon earth. We have in the Bible the only inspired descriptions of heaven which ever 34 HEAVEN A LOCALITY. will be put into our hands ; but these descriptions are not heaven, no more than the pattern of the temple which Moses saw on the mount was the mas- sive and gorgeous fabric reared by Solomon, or than a map is the country it delineates, or a book of geography is the earth, or the plan of a house is the material building, or your portrait is yourself. With many, heaven is merely a sound. They see the word " heaven " in their Bible ; they read about it there : but the great heaven into which Jesus has ascended, where God has his throne, where angels and glorified saints dwell together in love, is not at all, or is but dimly, realized by them as a locality, a world, existing entirely apart, and independently of the Bible's descriptions. It is right that such individuals should remember that heaven existed before the Bible was written, and would con- tinue to exist even were there no Bible to tell us what a glorious, holy, and happy place it is. The star that is in the far-distant recess of space, hidden from the view of the bodily eye, exists independently of the telescope that has brought it into view. What does the telescope do to that star ? The star is not in the telescope, no more than your friend, whom you see before you, is in your eye. It has an exist- ence independently of the instrument through which you look, and by the aid of which you behold it shining, quiet and beautiful, in its far-distant sphere. The telescope does not create the star : it merely HEAVEN A LOCALITY. 35 brings it into your view, and shows you how — in regions that have never yet been penetrated by the gaze and exploring eye of man, with all his instru- ments — the heavens are declaring the glory of God, £nd the firmament is showing forth his handiwork. In like manner, the Bible does not create heaven ; but it does to heaven what the telescope does to the most distant star that is invisible to the naked eye, — it brings it into view ; it throws the light of its high revelations over it ; it lifts the veil that conceals the great regions of eternal life from our view ; and it shows us, in its panoramic delineations, a world existing, peopled by prodigious assemblages, and lighted up with its own peculiar joy. Heaven is not a state or a character merely. It is quite true, that it is said by our blessed Saviour him- self, " The kingdom of heaven is within you : " but, in these words, Jesus is not speaking of the kingdom of glory ; he is speaking of the kingdom of grace, — of the reign of grace in the heart of every believer. It is quite true, that character — a gracious state, the soul transformed into Christ's image by the Holy Spirit — is necessary as a preparation for heaven. What would heaven be to you, speaking generally, who have not the character that Jits you for it, were you carried up in your present state of unprepared- ness, and set down in the midst of its assemblies, and deep roll of its eternal praises? It would be what the warm, dry beach, on a beautiful summer 36 HEAVEN A LOCALITY. day, is to the fish that has been dragged up there alive out of the sea, its natural element, and to which the balmy air is quite intolerable ; it would be what a beautiful landscape is to a man who is entirely blind ; it would be what a delightful concert of music is to a man who is deaf; it would be what a rich and sumptuous feast is to a man who is sick, and who nauseates the taste of the most savory and most delicate food ; it would be what the society of the learned and the wise, the noble and refined, is to a man who is profoundly ignorant, whose tastes are depraved, whose habits are such that he feels no pleasure except when in a state of intoxication. Character is necessary as a preparation for heaven ; but what I wish you distinctly to understand is, that character is not heaven, no more than your character is your home, — than the qualification fitting you to be one of an assembly is that assembly. Paul was highly favored in getting a knowledge of heaven in the visions of the Almighty. He was caught up into the third heaven. He looked upon its inhabitants, and listened to the roll of its praises. God, however, conceals heaven from our view ; but, as I have said, he speaks to us about it in his Holy Word. He tells us what it is Like, and what things upon earth bear a resemblance to it. This is the origin of the figures which we find the Holy Spirit in the Scriptures employing to represent heaven to us. These figures are so many lakes, in HEAVEN A LOCALITY. 37 whose clear bosoms we see the world that is above us reflected. They are so many mirrors, reflecting in their polished surfaces the image of the heaven of heavens. These figures are particularly worthy of notice ; for they show that heaven is both a locality and also a place of friendship. CHAPTER n. TYPES OF HEAVEN. EDEN AND CANAAN. DEN was a type of heaven ; and eve/y reader of the Bible knows that it was not only the home, for a season, of our first parents, but also a place of social intercourse. "To-day shalt thou be with me in paradise." "To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the tree of life, which is in the midst of the paradise of God." "What Eden was in its primeval beauty to this world, heaven is to the universe of God. Heaven is the Eden of creation, where unfading flowers bloom, and the glow of an eternal summer unchangingly smiles ; where trees, whose leaves never wither, impart a cooling shade to those who walk through its bowers ; where streams of joy flow everywhere through the valleys, and sparkle and rejoice beneath the beams of an unsetting sun. Does God walk in Eden with our first parents, and hold sweet intercourse with them? God is [38] EDEN AND CANAAN. 39 doing this to all who are in heaven. He walks with the hosts above through the eternal Eden. He com- munes lovingly with all its rejoicing inhabitants from off the mercy-seat, and mingles with them in its bowers of bliss. Did Adam and Eve, previous to their fall, exhibit the bloom and glow and beauty of immortality, and the possession of eternal youth? The inhabitants of heaven stand, in their peculiar beauty as well as in their immortality, before the throne of God. The paleness of decaying health is never seen to over- spread their countenances, as they walk through these bowers of paradise. No inhabitant there ever says, "I am sick," or presses a sick-bed, or suffers death, or is ever laid by mourning survivors in a grave. No funeral was ever seen moving slowly and solemnly along the highways of eternal life to the city of the dead, — the lonely churchyard. No bereaved mourner appears in heaven standing sor- rowfully at the newly filled-up resting-place, and looking down in tears upon the spot where a once- beloved friend lies. The inhabitants there are in possession of a life without end : they will live as long as God himself, as long as Jesus who is upon the throne, as long as heaven itself will exist ; and that will be for ever. Do our first parents in Eden, as previous to their fall, walk now with God in the light of holiness? Heaven is creation's Holy of Holies. It is a holy place, 40 TYPES OF HEAVEN. and all are holy who dwell in it. I believe, so bright, so shining, so glorious in holiness, are all the members of God's great family in heaven, that were I taken up at this moment into it, and set down among them, I could no more gaze upon their faces and forms than the Jews could upon the counte- nance of Moses arrayed in the lustre of God ; than his persecutors could upon the face of Stephen, so like that of an angel ; than I, with unshrinking eye, could look upon ten thousand suns. Saul was struck blind by the outbursting around his path of Christ's manifested presence. What would I feel were Christ at this moment to unveil himself to my view, sur- rounded by all these exalted and resplendent hosts ? I believe that one look would in a moment strike me blind, and thus spread at once, so far as I was con- cerned, a mantle of darkness over all the august personages who now move through these peopled heavens. Do our first parents, as previous to their fall in Eden, dwell together in love? and do they feel their highest and their purest happiness, next to their cove- nant-communion with God, to spring from their intercourse with each other? Are their bosoms two well-tuned instruments of music, that pour forth their melodious tones in sweetest harmony? Are they as two morning-stars beaming forth in their calm sublimity from the deep-blue azure of a cloud- less sky? Are they as two .ZEolian harps played EDEN AND CANAAN. 41 upon by the same holy gale of love ? Heaven ?s the paradise of love. All who are in heaven are living in love. It is the very atmosphere of heaven, — the breath of all its glorious inhabitants, — the language in which they address one another, — the power which lights up the holy eye wherewith they look upon each other. Surely it will be joyful to leave behind us for ever the cruel hatreds of earth, to spend a long eternity in that holy Eden of love, sitting under our Redeemer's shadow, — feeling his fruit to be sweet to our taste, — being led by him into his celestial banqueting-house, — having his banner spread over us for eternity, even the banner of cova nanting love ! The earthly Canaan was not merely the local habi tation of the people of God : it was a place of social intercourse. Was Canaan the Land of Promise? Heaven is this to the whole spiritual Israel of God. It is the Promised Land which your God has pre pared for you who are believers in Jesus : it is ready for your joyful and triumphant entrance ; and when you have crossed the Jordan, and have taken posses sion, you will live in it, — nay, you will never leaAe it, — whilst the endless cycles of a glad eternity are rolling over you. Not merely twelve visitors have left the wilderness of the world to go and spy the Land of Promise, but multitudes, whose numbers cannot be reckoned up, have left the camp of the human family in the 42 TYPES OF HEAVEN. world, have crossed the Jordan of death, have en- tered eternity, and are now in the goodly land. The Holy Spirit is the bunch of grapes which the Lord Jesus has brought out to us from heaven, to give us a foretaste of the fruits which are spread over its vine-clad hills and are enjoyed in its banque ting- houses. Hence says Jesus to his disciples, "I will drink no more of the fruit of the vine with you, until the day that I drink it new with you in my Father's kingdom." Was the earthly Canaan a land flowing with milk and honey? What is the better land, the heavenly? " The Lamb who is in the midst of the throne," throughout eternity, " shall feed them, and shall lead them unto living fountains of waters ; and God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes." They feed upon the fruits of the tree of life ; they drink of the rivers of God's pleasures ; and thus they hunger no more, neither thirst any more. The Lord God is their sun and shield. They are dwelling in a world of unchanging and of unfailing abundance. Was the earthly Canaan something like the light- house of heavenly knowledge to the world, shining in the midst of an ocean of ignorance, over which a night of deep darkness brooded? Was it Goshen filled with light, whilst a darkness that might be felt was filling the various provinces of Egypt ? Heaven is creation's lighthouse. It is a world filled with the uncreated light of God's glory, and in which there is EDEN AND CANAAN. 43 no darkness at all. " They who are in it need no candle, neither light of the sun ; for the Lord God giveth them light." " There is no night there : the Lamb is the light thereof." Did the silver trumpet sound every fiftieth year in Palestine, proclaiming liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison-doors to them who were bound ? Was this the joyful experience of the oppressed in Israel when the year of jubilee dawned ? " Blessed is the people that know the joyful sound : they shall walk, O Lord ! in the light of thy countenance." Heaven is the world of liberty : " Jerusalem that is above is free, which is the mother of us all." Those I