Heaven

A great many people have an idea that we know nothing about the future state, and that we are to be left in darkness. A great many professed Christians will talk as if it was all speculation the moment you begin to talk to them about the future, and about Heaven.

Now, I firmly believe if the Lord had wanted us to be in darkness about the future, there would not have been anything in Scripture about it. If the Lord had not wanted us to study the Scripture and find out anything about Heaven, it wouldn’t have been recorded. I believe that all Scripture is given by inspiration, and that all is profitable from one end of the Bible to the other; and if persons that are in darkness about heaven would just take up a concordance and the Bible and go from one end of the Bible to the other, and see what is in scripture about heaven, I think they would be perfectly amazed.

When I was in Dublin I heard of a man there who never had looked into the Bible, but he had lost his only son, and every night after that that man could be seen in his little cottage with a light searching the Bible. Every hour he could get away from his business he was looking into the word of God. Some one asked him what he was doing it for, and he said he was trying to find out where his Johnny had gone.

I suppose all this congregation have departed friends, and I think we ought to be interested enough to know where they have gone. When I was in Great Britain I up -X fk&urs and n. others that had sons m this country, they wers very anxious to hear about this country, they wouM lister* for houts if I would talk to them about this country, because the) had loved ones here.

A minister lost his „hiid and a brother minister came to the funem to officiate, and when he got through the father got up and said that years ago he used to look out across the rfce? that flowed in front of his house. He looked over on the other side of the river and he said there were petyle there he did not know; he took no interest in that immunity because they were strangers to him; but on-3 day hi& daughter went over there to live; she left the home and was married and settled down, and he said when that child went over there to live he became suddenly interested in that community; and said he “Now I have got another child who has gone over another river, and heaven seems dearer to me to-day than it ever has before.”

The trouble is we are so busy in this world; we have so much to think about, so many cares, so much pleasure, so much of the world, that we don’t stop to think about where we are going or what our future state is to be.

Now, to-day let us remember that it is not all speculation — that it is not all fiction. We have associated with skeptics and unbelievers so much that we even doubt the existence of heaven. We don’t believe that it is real. I don’t think we would have to urge men to let go of the things of time if they really believed that these things were eternally true, and that Christ has really gone to prepare a place for us.

I remember, soon after I was converted, an infidel got hold of me, and he wanted to know how it was that when I prayed I always addressed my prayer as if God was above me. He said that God was in one plact a& much as in another — that God was everywhere. I did not know much about my Bible then, and I must confess I was a little confused the next time I went to pray, and it seemed as if I was praying to space — just to the air; it seemed as if I hadn’t any one to pray to. I could not locate God. But since I have got better acquainted with my Bible, I find that it is right for us when we approach the throne of mercy to locate God. Heaven is a location. This idea that heaven is everywhere and nowhere is coming from the evil one. It is a doctrine that has been taught by those that believe that there is no heaven.

Now just turn for a moment to the twenty-sixth chapter of Deuteronomy, and fifteenth verse: “Look down from thy holy habitation, from heaven, and bless thy people in Israel, and the land which thou hast given us, as thou swearest unto our fathers, a land that floweth with milk and honey.”

Heaven, I believe is as much a place as Cleveland is. I believe that it is located, and that God has a dwelling place. To be sure we say that God is here with his Spirit, the same as wre say the sun has been shining in Cleveland; but the astronomers tell us the sun is ninety-five millions of miles away. But we must bear in mind that God is a person, and if He is a person, He must have a dwelling place. Now, we find here in this chapter we just read that Moses prayed that God would look lown from heaven.

Then we find in the prayer of the Lord Jesus, “Our Father which art in heaven” — not on earth, but “which art in heaven.”

Then we find in Revelation that it is called a city, and we finding Abraham looking for “that city which hath foundation, whose builder and maker is God.” He believed that was real. The well watered plains of Sodom did not have any attractions for Abraham. Why?

Because with the eye of faith he saw a better country — a city that has not any cemetery. Think of that! There is no such city as that on this continent. If there could be a city found in this world that had not a cemetery, what a rush there would be to it. Not only that, but it is a city where sin cannot enter. Think of that! Nothing that defileth shall enter that city. It is a city where sorrow is a stranger, and where tears never flow. A city without tears — think of that! Think of the tears that have flowed in this city! Think of the sorrow that is represented by this audience to-day! If each one could open his own heart and tell out his own sorrows what a dark book it would make, wouldn’t it? How filled with sorrow and with burdens! In that city there shall be no sorrow; there shall be no tears, and there shall be no death there. Death will be a stranger. Ah! What a city! Is not that worth living for? Some general said when he came in sight of Damascus, and the people fled and left the city, “If they will not fight for that city what will they fight for?” And if men will not live for heaven what will they live for?

Let us look a moment at John’s description of that place — R evelation xxi. 21: “And the twelve gates were twelve pearls; every several gate was of one pearl. And the street of the city was pure gold, as if it were transparent glass, and I saw no temple therein, for the Lord God Almighty and the lamb are the temple of it. And the city had no need of the sun, neither of the moon to shine in it; for the glory of God did lighten it, and the Lamb is the light thereof. And the nations of them which are saved shall walk in the light of it; and the kings of the earth do bring their glory and honor into it; and the gates of it shall not be shut at all by day, for there shall be no night there.” On a little gravestone in a cemetery where a blind child was buried was put these words.

“Nc K!ghun She lied in perpetual night ?iere — in perpetual darkness; bat the thought that filled her mind, that animated her and lifted her up out of ter troubles and sorrows was that she was going to a Land where there was no night. “And they shall bring the glory and honor of the nations into it. And there shall in no wise enter into it anything that defileth; neither whatsoever worketh abomination or maketh a lie, but thej* which are written in the Lamb’s Book of Life.

There is a great difference between the heavenS and the earthly paradise. In this earthly paradise we find Adam driven out, but we shall go no more out forever. We find Adam driven away from the Tree of Life, but in this city we shall have a right to the Tree of Life, and we shall eat of that Tree and live forever. We cannot be tempted there. In this earthly paradise Adam was tempted and lost all. The tempter will be shut out of that city. Nothing that defileth can enter there. Thank God for what is in store for those that will put their trust in him!

But I have had this question raised: What does Paul mean about the third heaven? Are there three degrees? Now, the Hebrews in their writings acknowledge three heavens. The first was where the showers come and where the birds fly. The second was the firmament where the sun, moon and stars are. The third was the dwelling place of God. When Paul spoke about the third heaven that is wThat he meant.

Now turn for a moment to Second Chronicles seventh chapter, twelfth verse: “And the Lord appeared to Solomon by night and said unto him *I have heard thy prayer, and have chosen this place to myself for an house of sacrifice. If I shut up heaven that there be no rain, or if I command the locusts to devour the lands or if I send pestilence among my people, if my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven, and forgive their sin and will heal their land. Now mine eyes shall be open, and mine ears attent unto the prayer that is made in this place.’” We find that God says here, “I will hear prayer that is offered in this place.” Ii he brings famine and pestilence upon the land on account of their backsliding and on account of their sins, if they will humble themselves and confess their sins and turn from them, then, He says, i I will hear in heaven, my dwelling place, and I will answer their prayer and I will turn their captivity.” I believe that God has done that all these thousands of years. Every time we have wandered away from God, and the heavens seem to be shut, and we seem to have no communion with God, it is because some sin has come in and God has hid his face. And what we want in the church to-day is to turn from our sins back to God and he will hear our cry; and he will give us abundance of rain. God is not so far away but that he can hear prayer. There has been a good deal of speculation about the distance from this earth to heaven. People often try to find out something about it If we don’t know just the distance there is one thing we do know, and that is that it is not so far but God can hear a poor sinner pray. There is never a tear shed on this earth but God has seen it. There never has been a sigh but God has heard it. When Daniel besought that he might understand his vision, Gabriel appeared in his presence to interpret it before he had finished his prayer. Heaven is not so far away after all. If we are living right, we will be so near heaven that we will get communications from there very often. We find the publican going up into the temple made a very short prayer, but it was long enough to

Glory 6 reach heaven, and he went down to his house justified* We find again, when Solomon dedicated the Temple — First Kings eighth chapter, thirteenth verse — he prays, w Hear Thou in heaven, Thy dwelling place,”

If I was going off to Australia, or Japan, or some other foreign country, to spend the rest of my days, I would want to know all about the climate and all about the society. I would want to know all about the advantages of that country if I did not expect to live there more than ten, fifteen or twenty years. We know we do not live but a little while. Life is but a vapor. It is but an inch of time as eternal ages roll on. A few more rolling suns and we are landed into an other world.

Now, the question is, who are we going to have for society there? We are clearly taught in these passages and a good many others that God the Father is there, and that he is a person, that he has a location, that he lives in Heaven, and that we shall see Him and be with Him, because we find alL through the scriptures that Christ is with the Father, and They are one, and His prayer was that His disciples might be with Him.

In the seventh chapter of Acts and the fifty-fifth verse you will find that Christ is there. The disciples saw Him when He went up. People say we should not look upon God as being above us. Christ went up. A cloud received Him out of their sight; and those men of Galilee stood there gazing up into Heaven. Two men came down, and they said,” Why stand ye gazing up into Heaven, for this same Jesus whom ye seek was taken up from you into Heaven, and so shall he come in like manner.

Now, w7e find in the seventh chapter of Acts that Stephen, the first martyr that laid down his life — that was willing to seal his testimony with his blood — when they were stoning him and he was fighting, as it were,

HEAVEN. gg

the battle of life single-handed and alone, he was testifying and there could not any one resist his testimony — it was so perfectly overwhelming, so powerful; the mighty Spirit of God resting upon him, they could not resist his testimony; and while he was giving a clear testimony for the Son of God, standing up here in this dark world for Christ, he saw heaven opened and he saw Christ sitting at the right hand of God, I can imagine, as I see Stephen righting, single-handed and alone, the Son of God stood up to give him a welcome. He had not forgotten his disciples down here. He is still interested in His church on earth, and when Stephen gave such a good confession, I can imagine that the Son of God stood up to watch the conflict and to give him a welcome. Heaven is not so far away, is it? It was not so far but that Stephen could look from Jerusalem right into heaven. Some people think that this was his imagination, but it was a glorious imagination, was it not? Many men were fired by Stephen’s zeal to go and lay down their lives for the Gospel. Would to God we had men in these days that had such courage for Christ that they would be willing to die, if need be, rather than give up the truth?

Now, we have Christ there. I believe that is what is going to make heaven so attractive. It will not be the jasper walls and the pearly gates, and its streets paved with transparent gold. We know nothing about the kind of gold they have up there. It is transparent gold, and it is very common. But that is not what is going to make heaven so attractive. What will make heaven so attractive will be the loved ones that are there. What is it that makes your home and mine so dear? Is it because we have them well furnished? Ah, that is not it. You go up on this avenue into the most gilded palace there, and you take one, two or three out of the family, and it becomes a gilded sepulcher, and men say; u + don’t want to live there any longer; I have got tired of it” It is not your beautiful grounds and your beautiful pictures on the wall, your beautiful works of art, that make home. That is not it. It is the loved ones that are there. I remember after being away from home sometime, I went back to see my widowed mother and found her not at home. I had longed to get there but home had lost its charms. What did I care for home if mother was not there? She was the loved one. And what is going to make heaven so attractive are those that are there. We shall see God who gave up his son and see the Lord Jesus himself. It seems to me, if God will permit me to get just one look at Him it will pay me for all I have done down here.

There was a friend telling me when I was in Brooklyn of a father whose wife was very sick, and their little child was not old enough to understand about the sickness and it was troubling the mother, so they took the child away to one of the neighbors. The child never had been separated from the mother before that, and it kept teasing to be taken home. The mother kept growing worse and they could not take it home. At last the mother died, and they talked it over and thought it best to let the child remember the mother as she saw her alive, and the mother was buried without the little child seeing her. They then took the child home, and the moment the child got into the house she ran into the parlor and cried “mamma, mamma.” But mamma was not there. And she went from one room to another, all over the house. Went to the closet where her mother sometimes took her to pray, looked in there. Then she began to weep and said, “take me back.” Home had lost all its sweetness, all its attraction. What would heaven be without Christ? What would heaven be without God, who gave up Christ for us? It is the loved ones that are there. That is what will make heaven so attractive.

I think, if we thought more of heaven and those that are there we would not be so earthly minded. We would remember that we are merely passing through this earth; we will only be here a night, as it were; we will soon be in another world.

But not only are we going to see God the Father and Christ the Son there, but we are told that angels are there. I have not got time to call your attention to many passages, but we find in the eighteenth chapter of Matthew and the ioth verse, that Christ says “that in heaven their angels do always behold the face of my Father which is in heaven.” We will have good society when we get there. We will have the society of the angels, not fallen angels, but those angels that are pure and holy. Then in another place it says that the angels of heaven do not know the time that God has appointed. And then Gabriel, when Zachariah doubted his word — Gabriel had never been doubted before; he had come from a world where there were no lies, no deception, no fraud; ana I suppose he did not understand Zachariah when he doubted his word, Zachariah could not believe that he was to be the father of John the Baptist, and he wanted some token. “Why,” says Gabriel, “I am Gabriel, who standeth in the presence of the Almighty.” He had never been doubted before. “You want a token do you? Well, I will give it to you; You shall not speak until that child is born.” Struck dumb for nine months! Some people want some other token, some other evidence that God’s word is true besides the Bible. Let us not ask for any other token, God has said it, that is enough. Has he not said it and shall he not make it good? Take away the Bible from the earth and the earth becomes dark as midnight.

Then not only are the angels there, but I believe that the saints, those that have died pn Christ, are there. There is a class of people who say that the soul becomes unconscious and sleeps until the resurrection. I cannot believe that. There is another class of people who tell us that in fact there is no hereafter at all, and that when we die that is the last of us. I will not take up those things now, but I just want to call your attention to a few passages of scripture that I think will help us. A great many people are anxious to know where their loved ones are and whether we shall know them when we see them again. There is one passage of scripture that always settles that in my mind: “I shall be satisfied when I awake in his likeness.” If I want to know my friends I will know them because He will satisfy me. There will not be one solitary want that God will not gratify then. Moses and Elias were known on the Mount of Transfiguration. They had not lost their identity. I think there is no doubt about our knowing our friends there, and I think we shall love them better there and we shall be forever with them. No separation takes place in that city.

But now let us look at the twelfth chapter of John and the twenty-sixth verse: “If any man serve Me let him follow Me; and where I am, there shall also My servant be; if any man serve Me, him will My Father honor.” Now, I not do think that death is going to separate us. I do not think that I am going to be with Christ and work for Him for twenty, or thirty, or forty years and then be separated from Him. I believe the Apostles are with Him. They may not be satisfied yet, because they have not got their resurrected bodies.

Let us turn to the 17th chapter of John and the 4th verse, that wonderful prayer, the last prayer that he made here with his disciples: “Father, I will that they also whom thou has given me, be with me where I am; that they may behold my srlory. which thou hast given me, i <?r thou lovedst me before the foundation of the world.” Now if a man receive eternal life when he is converted, and that is what God says he receives, how are you going to bury eternal life in the grave? All the undertakers in the world could not build a coffin big enough to bury eternal life. That life cannot go into the grave. That life cannot sleep until the resurrection. It is life without end — eternal life, and that cannot die. Death has had his hands on Jesus Christ once; he never will have his hand on Him again. He tasted death once. He conquered death. He bound him hand and foot He went down into the grave and overcame him. Now, if I have got Christ’s life in me, how is death going to touch that life? It does not say I am going to get eternal life when I die, nor at the general resurrection. “He that believe th on the Son hath life.” I have not got to wait. “He that believeth on the Son hath life” — H-a-t-h; hath — present tense.

I think Paul did not have the idea that his soul was going to be in the grave eighteen hundred years. His body has been in the grave now eighteen hundred years. Do you think that a man that lived with his Master as Paul did, and went through what he did, has been away from the Lord and in an unconscious state these eighteen hundred years? It don’t sound like it when he wrote to those Philippians, “For I am in a strait betwixt two, having a desire to depart and to be M — in the grave eighteen hundred years? The idea of his soul going down into the grave with those worms never entered his mind, “For I am in a strait betwixt two, having a desire to depart and to be with Christ, which is far better.” Absent from the body, present with the Lord. The day that Nero took his head the Son of God took his soul into glory with him. There is no doubt about that. “If this earthly house is dissolved I have a building not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.” This idea that death is going to separate us from the Master we want to dismiss now and forever. I got a card some time ago from a friend of mine in London that lost a very dear mother; and instead of putting on the card a black border, as most of those English people do, he put on gold. They talk about that city being paved with gold. Why shouldn’t we put on gold instead of black. I think it is a great deal better. His sainted mother had gone up on high. It says here on this card:

O! call it not death, ’tis life begun,
For the waters are passed, and home is won:
The ransomed spirit hath reached the shore,
Where they weep and suffer and sin no more.

She is safe in her Father’s house above,
In the place prepared by her Savior’s love,
To depart from the world of sin and strife,
And to be with Jesus; yes, this is life!

In that same letter he sent me another little card, “The Voice from Heaven,” as if his mother had spoken back from that world. I suppose many of you have seen it, but it is worth reading a good many times. I have read it a number of times

I 6hine in the light of God;

His likeness stamps my brow. Through the valley of death my feet have trod;

I reign in glory now.

If we have friends that have gone over the river, let us not be mourning, but let us go out and work for the Master.

No breaking heart is here,

No keen and thrilling pain,
No wasted cheek where the frequent tear,

Hath rolled and left its stain.

I have reached the jovs of heaven;

I am one of the sainted band:
For my head a crown of gold is given,

And a harp is in my hand.

I have heard the song they sing,
Whom Jesus hath set free.

Ah, think of that new songl the song of Moses and the Lamb! I am afraid, Mr. Sankey, they will not want to hear you, that song will be much sweeter than any you sing — that chorus of a hundred and forty-four thousand. We must learn to like music down here. 1 pity a professed Christian who does not like music. It is the only thing we know of their doing up there. It is the occupation of Heaven.

I have heard the song they sing,

Whom Jesus hath set free;
And the glorious walls of heaven ring

With my new born melody.

No sin, no grief, no pain,

Safe in mj happy home,
My fears all fled, my doubts all slain,

My hour of triumph is come.

O, friends of mortal years,

The trusted and the true,
Ye are watching still in the valley of tears,

But I wait to welcome you.

Do I forget? O, no,

For memory’s golden chain
Shall bind my heart to the hearts below

Till they meet and touch again.

Each link is strong and bright,
And love’s electric flame
Flows freely down, like a river of light,
To the world from whence I came.

Do you mourn when another star

Shines out from the glittering sky?
Do you weep when the raging voice of war

And the storms of conflict die?

Then why should your tears run down,

And your hearts be sorely riven,
For another gem in the Savior’s crown,

Another star in Heaven?

When that man sent me those little cards I said, w Really he has got the right idea. It is life after alL She has just gone up there to live forever — gone into a world where death can never come.”

So if we take this idea of it, that a new life is simply that we cannot die, cannot perish, that we ai*e going to live forever with him, then we see that enemy is out of the way* I had a little child in my Sunday-school district, whose father and mother were infidels, and they said to me the last time I was talking with them, that they didn’t know where it was that child heard the name of God, unless it was when the father blasphemed. The little child was so young it could not speak its own name. Its name was Julia. The friends were gathered around its couch and the little child, as they thought had died and they stood there weeping. Its eyes were closed, but all at once the little child opened them, when a beautiful glow was noticed in them, and reaching up both hand, she said, “Dulia is tumin’, Dod, Dulia is tumin’,” and passed away. Who taught that little child there was a God? I believe the Lord Jesus lifted the curtain and that little child saw God, saw God the loving Father ready to take it to His bosom. So, my friends, let us believe that when our loved ones, our little ones pass away, the Savior has a place for them and He will take better care of them than we can, and they are with Him.

A friend was telling me some time ago, and it burned into my heart as a father, he said a man had a son that was sick, but he did not consider him dangerously ill. He went down to the store as usual and when he came home at noon he found his wife weeping, and he said, “what is the trouble?” She said, “There has been a great change in our boy, since you left this morning. I am afraid it is death. I wish you would go in and see him, for if it is death I can’t tell him.” The mother thought the little boy would be afraid of death. The father went in and sat down on the edge of the bed and placed his hand upon the forehead of the boy. He could feel the cold, damp sweat of night gathering and he said to him, “My son, do you know you are dying?” “No, father, is this death I feel stealing over me?” “Yes, you are dying.” “Will I die to-day?” “Yes, my son you cannot live until night.” The little fellow smiled and said, “I will be with Jesus to-night, won’t I father?” The father said, “Yes, my boy, you will be with the Savior to-night.” The father turned his head to conceal the tears. The little boy saw the tears trickling down his father’s face, and he said, “Father, don’t weep for me, when I get to heaven, I will go right straight to Jesus and I will tell Him that ever since I can remember you have tried to lead me to Him.”

Oh, how sweet to have our children go away from earth feeling that there is one that will take care of them and provide for all their wants and keep them safe until we get home! Oh, may God help us to live for Heaven, so that our children shall have confidence in what we profess! That they may believe there is a future state; that there is a Heaven for them. And let me say, if there is a father or mother here to-day that is without Jesus Christ, that has no hope beyond the grave, won’t you just seek Him to-day, and set you heart and affections on things above?