HEAVEN -DEPARTURE FOR

I remember standing in the pulpit, one sultry summer’s afternoon, preaching of the joys of heaven, and there was one woman’s eye, that specially caught mine as I was preaching. I knew not why it was, but it seemed to fascinate me; and as I spoke of heaven, she seemed to drink in every word, and her eyes flashed back again the thoughts I uttered. She seemed to lead me on to speak more and more of the streets of gold and the gates of pearl; till, suddenly her eyes appeared to me to be too fixed; and at last it had struck me that, while I had been talking of heaven, she had gone there. I paused and asked if someone in the pew would kindly see whether the friend sitting there was not dead; and, in a moment, her husband said, “She is dead, sir.” I had known her long as a consistent Christian woman; and, as I stood there, I half wished that I could have changed places with her. There was not a sigh, not a tear; she seemed to drink in the thoughts of heaven, and then straightway to go and enjoy it. 3031.139 So far as I am personally concerned, I would like to have a similar experience to that of good Dr. Beaumont, who was preaching the Word on earth, and just as he finished uttering a sentence of his sermon was singing the praises of God in heaven; or an experience like that of another minister, Brother Flood, whom I knew. He had just given out that verse,— “Father, I long, I faint to see The place of thine abode; I’d leave thy earthly courts and flee Up to thy seat, my God;”— when he fell back, for his desire was granted, and he had gone from the earthly courts of the Lord’s house up to the seat of God on high. 3216.463