180. II. Blessedness Of Heaven.
II. Blessedness Of Heaven.
1. Beauty of the Place.—The many orders of sentient existence are furnished with homes according to their gradations. This is the rule from the lowest to the highest; so that, the higher the grade, the larger and better the habitation. Man has his home under the same law; in the same world, indeed, but larger and more richly furnished than that of any lower order, according to his vastly higher endowments. His Edenic home, as God prepared and adorned it for him as the place of his probationary trial, was far more beautiful than his present home. What then must be the future home of the children of God! It is reasonable to think that its beauty and grandeur will correspond with their own glorification. More than this, heaven is the home of the angels and God ; the home of the glorified Son. If, therefore, heaven shall correspond, as it must, with the character of its inhabitants, it must be of inconceivable beauty and grandeur. Revelation portrays it in the use of the finest imagery which the mind can command, but the reality must infinitely transcend all such picturing.
2. Elements of Blessedness.—The holiness of heaven means the absence of all that could mar its beauty or disturb its joy. In the absence of sin this world would still be as the garden of Eden. There will be no sin in heaven; hence, none of the miseries which inevitably spring from its presence, but the pleasures which must ever flow from the perfection of holiness.
Immortality is the heritage of the saints in heaven. “Neither can they die any more: for they are equal unto the angels; and are the children of God, being the children of the resurrection” (Luke 20:36). “And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away” (Revelation 21:4). The intellectual life of heaven must infinitely transcend the attainments of the present life. The mental powers will there be free from many present limitations. In the new conditions they must have large development. There is no apparent reason why they should not have a perpetual growth. Certainly they will be capable of a perpetual acquisition of knowledge, and a universe of truth will be open to their research. Many problems, now dark and perplexing, will there be solved. The ceaseless pursuit and acquisition of knowledge through all the realms of truth will be a ceaseless fountain of pleasure.
Heaven will be replete with loving fellowships and holy worship. The imperfections which so often mar our present social life, even in its most spiritual forms, will have no place in those fellowships. There love shall be supreme. Through the headship of Christ saints and angels shall form a happy brotherhood. Yet the saints will have a song and a joy which the angels can share only by the power of sympathy—the song of redemption and the Joy of salvation. Holy love will make all duty a holy delight. The heavenly worship, kindled by the immediate presence and open vision of God and the Lamb, shall be full of holy rapture. In such a life, with powers ever growing and a future ever in hope, the blessedness of heaven will be complete.
Harbaugh: The Heavenly Home; Thompson: The Better Land; Plummer: The Resurrection of the Just and their Condition in a Future State; Spicer: The Spirit Life and its Relations; Hamilton: Beyond the Stars; or, Heaven, its Inhabitants, Occupations, and Life; Bates: The Four Last Things, Death, Judgment, Heaven, Hell; Watts: The World to Come; Pike: Religion and Eternal Life; or, Irreligion and Perpetual Ruin; Taylor: Physical Theory of Another Life; Dick: The Philosophy of a Future State; Welby:Mysteries of Life, Death, and Futurity; Stewart and Tait: The Unseen Universe; or Physical Speculations on a Future State; Oxenham: Catholic Eschatology and Universalism; Strong: The Doctrine of a Future Life.