Glimpses of Heaven, J.R. Miller

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OF TFF.
GLIMPSES OF THE HEAVENLY LIFE
G4-IIVIPSES
mEAVENLY
LIFE
By
U.R.MILLER.D.D.
Author.
OF
SiLEfiT Tim 5"
j Beside rnt jTiLL Waters

\.
Etc.
new
YOR^r^:
tmomas
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cRoweix 6 C9
194024
COI-YKIGIIT, 1007
AM.
1008,
Bv THOMAS
Y.
CROWELL
& CO,
Many
look out longingly toward another

believe, yet of
life,
in
which they can know nothing save in the dimmest, most shadowy way. Loved ones are taken from them into that strange land, and they long then more
than ever to
which they implicitly
know about
tlie
new home
its
of their friends
country that
its
is
the
beauty,
its joys,
fellowships, its occupations.

lift
The Bible does
not
the
veil,
but
it
gives
heavenly
to note
life.
It is the
glimpses of the purpose of tliis little book

J. R.
many
some
of these glimpses.
M.
ruiLADELPUlA, U.S.A.
O Thou who
never tak'st from Thy beloved, Except to give the in more, When most is gone from our sweet earthly good. Then most Thou hast in store.
No
aching heart nor empty arms again
Safe in
For through these passing hours, Thy home and free from every Are Thy beloved and ours."
stain,
GLBIPSES OF THE HEAVENLY

LIFE.
Heaven's
less
gates never
open outward.
Count-
multitudes enter them, to look upon the glories
within, but none
come hack
to report to us
what
they have seen.
We
often wish
we might look
to see
upon the beauty of the heavenly home

it
is,
what
but our wish cannot be granted.
Only a
that
thin veil separates heaven from

veil is impenetrable.
earth, but
No
natural eye can see the
things that are spiritual.

of Elisha
Once when the servant

to
was dismayed
find his
master sursoldiers,
rounded by a company
his-
of the
enemy's
eyes were opened and he saw an inner guard
of horses
and chariots of
fire,
round about Elisha.
The angels were not summoned there that moment

to impress the
young man with
his master's safety,
nor was the vision he saw merely a vision, with
no corresponding
for a
reality.
His eyes were opened
moment, that he might have a glimpse of what

5
was always there unseen.
GLIMPSES OF THE HEAVENLY LIFE.

If our eyes were opened to see spiritual things,
a wonderful splendor would appear on every side.
Heaven
always.
of
it
lies
about
us,
not only in our infancy, but

it.
Yet we cannot see

told us in words
All
we can know
is
which are pictures only,
revealings of heavenly things in earthly language.
We
could not understand any other language.

effort, so to
The
Incarnation was the divine

interpret
speak, to
God
to
men
in
words and acts which they

descriptions of
could
understand.
The
heaven
which we have
in the Bible are efforts to give us in
earthly language
some conception of the beauty,
the glory, the blessedness, of the things and' the

experiences of heaven.
We
heaven.
need to train ourselves to think more of

It is the
home to which we
are journeying,
it.
and our thoughts should often be upon

need
its
We
life^
inspiration
is
and uplifting in our
When
night,
one
travelling toward his
home on
is
a dark
when
the road
is
long and he
weary, he
gets courage
and strength from the knowledge that
in a little while he shall reach the place so dear to
him, where his loved ones are.

in our hearts that
clear confidence
heaven
is
waiting for us at the

in all our
end would make us braver and stronger

earthly experiences of
toil,
care,
disappointment,
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and sorrow.
it is
This that we
call
life is
not
life
but the
way
to life.
The
joys
we have
The
here,
sweet as they
may
be, are but hints and beginnings
of the full, perfect joys that await us.
attain-
ments and achievements of our earthly experience, which are the fruit of so much toil, pain, and
struggle are only the faint prophecies and promises
of
what we
shall attain
and
acliieve in the heavenly
life.
We
miss
much
if
we do not have
in our life here
the influence of the heavenly hope.
boy
sat
on
a doorstep, in the gathering dusk of the evening,
holding a string in his hand.
passer-by, notic-
ing the boy's eager zest and interest, asked

Tvhat he
him
was doing that made him
so happy. "
"I
I
am
see
flying
my
kite,"
was
his answer.
Why,
no
kite,"
said
the
gentleman, sweeping the
darkening skies with his eyes.

said the boy, " but I feel
it
"Neither do
I,"
pull."
We
cannot see
if it is
heaven as we move on in this world, but

reality to our faith,
we can
feel it pull
upon our
hearts as
we
tell
toil
and struggle under our burdens.

is
People
us sometimes that there
no
profit
in thinking
about heaven while we
are
on the
earth.
We
would better give our attention to our
duties here than let our
minds wander
off
among

This
is
the stars.
true
in a sense.
is
Gazing into
its veil,
heaven, trying to see what,
within
while
we
do
neglect the duties that wait for us every mois
ment,
all
most unprofitable
living.
Yet while we
our earthly tasks diligently and faithfully,
we have a right to let our thoughts and affections The fly away to the joys that are waiting for us. our hearts for the vision will put new zest into
hard, dull task-work that
sures us that our
vain.
all
fills
our hands.
It as-
work and
while
struggles here are not

shall be
all
In a
little
we
through wdth
sorrow,
failure,
all
disappointment,
and
shall be at
ized,
home where every promise

all
shall be real-
where
weary sowing
shall find its rich harshall prove to
vest,
where every disappointment
have been a divine appointment.
An
to
oculist advised a literary worker,
who came
him
for
new
glasses, to go out
on her porch
several times every day,
and
"
to look for five or
ten minutes at the mountains which were always

in
view in the distance.
The far-away
look," he
said,
"will rest your eyes after your long hours
with manuscripts and proof sheets.

better
for
This will be
you than new
glasses."
The advice
proved most wise.
She could do her prosaic tasksomething lofty and
work better
after looking at
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sublime.
AVe need the far-away look to keep our
spiritual life
from losing
its
tone.
We
have so
much to do with earthly things all the while that we almost forget sometimes that there is a heaven
above
us.
Our work here
is
so strenuous, so un-
remitting, sometimes so hard, that
time to read our Bible or to pray.

is
we scarcely get The tendency

toward earthly
heaven to
to
gravitate
2uore
to
and
more
levels.
We
in
is
need
think often of
is
keep us
mind that there

a story of a
a heaven.
in
There
man who
street.
youth once
after,
found a gold coin on the
Ever
as
he walked, he kept his eyes on the ground, looking

for coins.
He
the
found one now and then, but he

trees, the hills, the glorious land-
never saw the

scapes,
or
blue
sky.
The tendency
its
of our
absorbed business
struggle,
is
life,
with
weary grind and
to
hold our eyes ever on the dusty
earth, causing us to miss the sight of the things
that are above.
St.
Paul's counsel
is
that since
we
are raised together with Christ,
we should seek
is.
the things that are above, where Christ
A life
which runs only along on the ground, with no

elevation in
it,
no thought of heaven or of God,

is
no vision of Christ,
unworthy
of a child of God.
little
We
should get time every day, for a
while,
10

to think
at least,
of God, to look into the face
of Christ,
and
to gaze
upon the heavenly
hills.
The N'ew Testament

the heavenly
life.
gives us uiany glimpses of
The
closing chapters of Rev-
elation contain
a series of such glimpses.
The
a
seer had a vision of " a
new heaven and
new
earth."
This probably does not mean that the
earth and the heaven
we now
see are to be de-
stroyed and a
new
earth and a
new heaven
created.
Astronomers sometimes report seeing through their

telescopes burning worlds, worlds passing through
a fiery chauge.
l^robably they are not being de-
stroyed, but only renewed, to

ordeal,
at length,
come out
what
of the fiery
in
new
beauty.
is
We may
is
supin
pose that something like this

this vision
meant
of a new earth, not created
anew but
of sin
cleansed,
made pure and

removed.
yet before us.
holy, all the
marks
and
sin's curse
is
The golden age
of the
world
There are some people
who
lives
get so discouraged by the troubles in their
and by the sin and moral failure about them,
that they
to
come
to believe that all things are going
destruction.
this
No;
this is
our Father's world.

its
is
On
earth Christ died, and from one of
graves he rose again.

to be
This old battered globe
made new, and
to be fashioned into imperish-
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able beauty.
of
11
Then
it
will be ready to
])e
the
home
of
redeemed and regenerated men.

not be a failure.
The work
Christ will
The paradise
is
of
beauty which was lost through sin

stored.
to be re-
The Bible begins with a garden
of Eden, as the
home
man.
of the unfallen man.
It closes
with a holy
city, glorious
and beautiful, the home of redeemed
Between these two paradises comes a long

and
story of sin, of failure, of sorrow, of struggle, of

suffering, a story also of divine love
in the
sacrifice,
midst of which stands the
cross.
What we
Testament
have
is
in the closing
chapters of the
New
a vision of the completed kingdom of Christ, the

the life to which
home and
we
are looking forward
the
new.
old heaven and the outworn earth made
Take another glimpse.
'^The sea
in the
is
no more."
Is
Why
will there be
no sea
new earth?
earth take
the sea a blot, a disfigurement, on the face of the

earth ?
Would
beauty
a sea on the
?
new
away
from
its
We
talk aljout the grandeur of

its
the sea.
We
can easily suggest
advantages,
not only the physical benefits which the earth

receives from
it,
but
its
commercial value.
Why,
is
in this description of the final
home
of
man,
the
12
GLIMPSES OF THE HEA VEX LY LIFE.

named
as one of the elements of
?
is
absence of a sea
its
beauty and blessedness
No
doubt the language
symbolic.
The
sea
was a symbol of mystery.

stood upon
covered, and
cross
it
In ancient days
its
men
its
shore,
wondering what
waters
what
lay
beyond
it.
They could not

stood for mys-
in those times,
side.
and could only guess what
was on the other

tery.
Hence
it
Earth
is
is
full
of mystery.
is
But
in heaven
the sea
life
is
no more
of
there
no mystery.
Here
full
strange things which
we cannot
understand,
questions which cannot be answered,

we cannot
'
providences in which
find love, sorrows
which stagger
faith.
Scarcely a day passes but
we
hear some one crying,
Why?
God
*'
and no one can give
an answer.
Why
did
take
away the young
mother the other night and leave the helpless

baby motherless?
earth the strong leaving his young
world, and without
Why
man
did he call suddenly from
in the
prime of his
life,
widow
to battle alone with the
human
help to provide for her
children?
We
cannot answer.
There
is
mystery
everywhere.
Ikit in the life of
heaven there will
be no perplexities, no mysteries, no wh3's.
The
darkest providences of earth will then be clear.
We
shall
see
all
untinished
things,
all
broken
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plans,
13
find
worked out
to coin})letion
all
aiul
sliall
love
and beauty where
seemed mistake and

part of the story
even cruelty,
before us.
of
when we had only
In another of the visions of the book

is
llevelation there
a sea, but
it
is
a sea of
it.
glass, clear as crystal.
There
is
no mystery in
l)e
In the
notliiui;-
life of
heaven there will

liid,
no obscurity,
uncertain, nothingis
nothing to })erplex.
strife.
The sea
It
always the symbol of storm and
was dreaded in ancient times.
Every reference
and danger.
in the Bible to the sea implies fear
Even
tific
it,
in
modern
times, while our wonderful scien-
advances have given us a sort of mastery over

it
making
of
a great highway between nations, the

for the world,
medium
commerce
it
and while our

is still
ships traverse
continually, the sea
wrath-
ful in its power.
Thiuk
of
its
cruel storms, of its

its rocks, of
wrecks,
when
ships are broken on
the
destructive energy that
makes
it
terrible to those
who are exposed to its fury. The sea, in this regard, too,
in
this world, with
its
is
an emblem of
its
life
dangers,
in
cruelties, its
storms and wrecks.

more."
In the
But
heaven
" the sea is
no
new
earth, there will be
no danger,
no wars,
with
nothing wild and terrible, no

nothing to hurt or annoy.
fierce storms,
Here nature
itself,
14

beauty and
things
its
all its
gentle ministries
is
full of
tragical
earthquakes,
to quietness,
volcanic
fires,
cy-
clones, droughts, deserts, avalanches.
But
in the
new
lamb
earth, nature will be tamed, all its wildness
and fury subdued
and
will be like a
in its gentleness
and peacefulness.
The sea
is
also suggests separation.
Even now
it
a great and seemingly impassable barrier

to
when
are
we want
beyond
to us. to
it,
get quickly to
our friends
to bring
who
or
when we want
them quickly
In ancient times, however, the sea seemed

altogether hopeless barrier of separa-
make an
tion
when
it
parted friends.
St.
John was on the

visions of Revela-
Isle of
tion,
Patmos when he saw the
while his friends and loved ones were far
away.
The
sea that rolled about his little rocky
island seemed to cut

lessly
him
off
from them relent-
and forever.
There were no ships passing
every day, or even every week, from country to

country.
In his exile there seemed no hope that
he could ever see his friends again.

agine
St.
We
can im-
John, sitting on the cold rocks, homesick
and lonely, looking yearningly in the direction of

his
home, though unable to go to
it,
and thinking
of the sea as most cruel, in that
it
separated him
heart.
hopelessly from all that were dear to his

But
in
15
heaven ''the sea
is
no more."
Its waters
are dried up.
There
will be nothing there to
keep
friends apart, or to hinder their closest and tenderest association.
An
aged Christian woman, alone now

in
in
the
to
world, with most of hers

friend, " If
I
heaven,
said
thought
could go and speak to
people I have
loved ones,
known on earth, my friends and my when I get to heaven, I would be willShe seemed to fear that
ing to go to-morrow."
heaven will be a strange place to newcomers, as
when one coming from over the

in a strange city, sees
sea and arriving

face,
no familiar
and meets
no one he has ever met before, receives no welcome, and finds no love waiting.
the
But
this is not
way
it
will be in heaven.
The moment you

will
touch the edge of the blessed country you will be
met by those who have gone before you, and

be welcomed home.
"
The
sea
is
no more."
In
heaven there will be nothing to separate any one
from those he
It
is
loves.
no shame to our hearts to confess that

dearest things in heaven will be the
among the
These
streets,
friendships begun on earth and continued there.

will n]ean far
more
to ns than
all
the golden
splendors-
the
pearl
gates,
and
the
16

to
One reason we want

those we love
go to heaven
is
to
meet
who
are there,
and a great part of

is
the anticipated joy of heaven

of meeting those
the expectation
who have grown
dear to us, and
whom we
have
:
lost awhile.
Eev. William C. Gan-
nett writes
I
of Paradise
dreamed
trees
and
still
Tliough sun lay soft on vale and
hill,
And
were green and rivers bright,
The one dear thing that made delight By sun or sta,rs or Eden weather. Was just that we two were together.
I
dreamed of heaven, with God so near The angels trod the shining sphere,
each was beautiful
;
And
the days
;
Were
choral work, were choral praise
And
The
yet in heaven's far-shining weather,

best
still
was
we were together.
all
Heaven
is
a place of love, where
the scattered
friendshi])S of earth shall be gathered np, cleansed,
enriched, purified, refined, and elevated, freed from

all
envies and jealousies, all narrowness and sordid-
ness,
and brought together in inseparable union.

sea
is
"
The
no more."
glimpse
of
Take
another
the
heavenly
life.
"He
shall
wipe awây every tear from

is
their eyes."
Earth's comfort
very sweet when
it is
accepted

and allowed
here
is
17
to enter the heart,

is
but the best comfort
only partial, and

if
always incomplete.
The
sorrow remains even

sively in
it.
we acquiesce most submisagain, nor can

or next week,
The friend comes not

come to-morrow,
is
we
hoi)e that he will
and the best we can do and
to consent to give
him up
to go on without him.
Comfort does not take

can never get quite used
away the
to
loneliness.
We
doing without him, though we
know he
is
with
God.
all
The sweetest friendships
are shadowed, too,
along their days of gladness, by the knowledge
that there
of us
must be a separation, by and by, and one

after that.
with you,
;
must go on alone
'
'
A Uttle
Only a
way to walk little way

of us
my own
Then one
must weep and walk alone
Until God's day."
Earth's comfort, precious as

It is
it is, is
not complete.
only for a
will come.
little
while, and then another sor-
row
But
in
heaven God will wipe away
every tear.
This means also that there will never
be any other tears.
For one thing, there
will be
no
sorrow in heaven.
"Death
shall
be no more."
When we
shall
join
hands with our loved ones there, we
have no dread of ever being separated from
them any more.
The reunion with friends
will
18
wipe away the tears which separation from them

It will be a blessed moment when those who have been long apart, one here, one there, The gladness of the reunion will meet again.
caused.
make them
bliss,
forget all the long years of separation.
Their new fellowship will yield such joy, such
such fulness of love, that the memory of the
long loneliness and sorrow will be swallowed up.
But that
is
not
all.
On
life,
earth, the best friend-
ships are marred ofttimes by faults, by infirmities,
by imperfections
unkindnesses.
friends
in the
and by rash words and

are
Xot always
;
even our truest
thoughtful
not always are they gentle.
Somehow many
hearts,
flowers.
of us go trampling with great iron-
soled boots right through the gardens of tender
treading
We
down the delicate plants and do not mean to grieve each other;
are exceptionally kind.
we think we
Yet, ignoor
rantly and unintentionally
we do
things
we
speak words which hurt and give pain.
On
and
the other hand, some of us are very sensitive
far too easily hurt
by others.
We
misconstrue
into rudeness words and acts which were intended
only to be playful.
friends
sa}^
We
misunderstand what our
or do,
imputing a wrong motive when
onl}^ love
was meant.
Thus
it is
that
many
friend-
19
ships never reach their best possibilities in this
world.
It takes time, too, for
most of us to grow
to the best in our friendships.
Love
is
a lesson to
it
be learned.
It is a long lesson, too,

it.
and
takes a
great while to learn
At
the best here, in the
whole of our
understand
life,
however
long, Ave just begin to
how
shall
to love.
But
in
heaven we shall
the
lesson
per-
come
fectly,
together,
having
learned
and
hud and
realize friendship's richest
possibilities.
There are tears ofttimes in earth's
truest,
purest friendships, but
when we meet
tear.
in
heaven,
God
will
wipe away every
We
shall
never hurt nor grieve each other there.
Another way
in
in
which God
will
wipe away tears

bless-
heaven will be by revealing to us the
ings that
come out
of sorrow.
Some one has been

appears under the
photographing a dried
tear, as it
microscope, and describes the exquisitely beautiful
forms
ferns, crosses, dainty frost-wôrk

it.
that are
hidden in
those
Earth's tears are full of blessings for

trusting in Ghrist and subof the
who shed them,

One
that no
mitting to him.
most remarkable and

in
suggestive visions St.

great
John saw
heaven was of a
company
man
could number, gathered
out of
all nations,
wearing white robes, with palms

^'
in their hands, singing a song of victory.
Who
20

it
are these ? "
was asked.
Tlie guide explained
that
these
had come out

are
of
great
tribulation.
" Therefore
they before the throne of
God
and they serve him day and night in his temple

and he that
sitteth
on the throne shall spread his
tabernacle over them."
That
is,
these bright ones, with the white robes
and the palm branches, had not come as one might

think from earth's sheltered places, where they had
never known a
})ain or a care,
where they had ex-
perienced only the sweetness of joy.
They had
Yet
come, rather, out of earth's great tribulations.
the hardness of their earthly experiences had not
hurt them, had

lives lives
trials
;
not
dimmed
grown
the luster of their

in beauty
rather they had
and their
in the
had become more and more radiant

through which they had passed.
The
bright-
est glories of
heaven are for those who have suffered
most
Dr.
in this world.
W.
L.
Watkinson
all
tells of
a flower-show in
London, where
the flowers exhibited had been
grown
in the city.
He
is
says, " It
in
is
not
much
to
grow splendid flowers

places where there
privileged
air,
places,
in
pure
sweet light, silver
dew; but think

and orchids,
in
of
growing palms and myrtles, roses

cellars, in
dingy courts, in murky
<iLiMrsb:s
OF the heavenly life.

\vin(l(j\v-sills,
21
tlie
mean back
tiles,
yards, on narrow
cliininey-pots,
on
anion^-
it
tliink
of
growing
prize blossoms in yellow fogs, stilling air,
and amid
the breath of the million.
No wonder
the Queen
went
to see this exhil)ition;
was one of the most
pathetic of shows, a splendid triumph over dark
and hard conditions."
So
in
St.
John's vision
these noble saints, shining in white garments and
bearing the
symbols of battle and victory, bad
come, not out of ease and kindly circumstances, not

out of experiences of luxury, from cosey homes, from
favored spots and genial conditions
rather they
in
fierce
had won
their
nobleness
in
hard
lots,
struggle, in sharp temptation, in bitter sorrow, in
keen suffering.
Some
that
of us
grow impatient
of our difficulties
and
hardships.
We
brood over them and come to think

fairly dealt with.
we have not been
Some
of us
resent our trials
and think that God has not been kind,

us.
has not even been just with
" I submit to you,"
wrote a young
man
the other day, " whether I have
had a
fair
chance
in life,
whether God's dealing with
me
has been quite right and just."
Then he
and
told of
certain trials
and
losses, certain
bereavements and
struggles
sorrows,
certain
disap[)()intments
whiidi he had met,
and then of certain wrongs and
22

had suffered from those who ought
friends.
injustices he
to
have been his
The
story
was one
that drew out sympathy.
But
in the light of this
heavenly vision
all
that had seemed so hard
meant
an opportunity for this young
man
to
grow into
Those who
in
manly strength and heroic

have the battles and the
them, shall wear white
branches.
character.
trials,
and overcome and

carry
robes
palm
at
They
shall
be
among
the victors
the
last.
Xothing
life
noljle is attained easily.
The
crowns of
struggle.
can be won only on the
fields of
Thus God wipes away

closing
tears in
heaven by
its
dis-
the
rewards of
life.
sorrow,
"
outcome in
wipe away
nobler, purer, whiter
He
shall
every tear."
Take another glimpse

unto him that
is
of heaven.
^'
I will
give
athirst
of the
fountain of the
satisfying, the
water of
life
freely."
That means
quenching of
are satisiied
life's thirsts.
In a sense our thirsts
when we
to
receive Christ.
drink.
We
One
are inof the
vited to
come
is
him and
Beatitudes
for the unsatisfied.
" Blessed are

;
they that hunger and thirst after righteousness

ror
they shall be
filled."
So
thirst is a blessed
to thirst
experience.
The man who has ceased
GLIMPSES OF THE HEAVE N^LY LIFE.

has ceased be satisfied
to
is
23
live
and ceased
to
grow.
limit
To
of
to
have reached
is
one's
growth, for after that there

for
this
no longer any desire

Christian
life in
more of
world
is
life
and
blessing.
full of thirsts, full

its
of longings.
It
never
reaches
best
possibilities.
However
are really
much
living,
of knowledge
we have
gained,
if
we
we
are ever eager to
know more.
The
phi-
losopher, after his lifetime of study
and research,
spoke of himself as but like a child, picking up a
few bright pebbles on the shore, while the great deep sea still lay before him, unexj^lored. The
thirst for
knowledge
is
never
satisfied.
Nor
sweet.
is
the thirst for love.

it is ideal, it
Earthly love
is
very
When
seems to leave nothing

it
is,
to be desired.
still
But pure and deep as
there
are thirsts in the heart after
we have
experi-
enced
human
love's richest
and
best.
Even divine
grace does not altogether in this life quench the

soul's thirsts,
nor satisfy
its
longings.
have our cravings for more and more.

in the love of Christ, but to-morrow
again.
We still We may
drink at the fountain to-day, and go away rejoicing
we
shall thirst
The more we know
of CJirist, the
fuller
more we
long to
know
of him.
The
and sweeter our
fellowship with
him
is,
the more do
we
desire
still
24
fuller

and sweeter communion.
The more we take

more do we
"
of Christ's life into our
souls, the
life.
desire to be filled with that

self,
is,
From
some
of
it
and some of thee," the longing grows until

self,
" Less of
and more of thee."

fills
Still
the
yearniug increases, as God's love
the heart,
and
at last
it is,
"
None
of self,
and
all of thee."
The
writer of the old
Psalm
said he never
would
be satisfied in this world, but would be
when he
looked upon the face of God.

" As for me,
I shall
I shall
behold thy face in righteousness

I
be
satisfied,
when
awake with beholding thy form."

the after-life
What
the Psalmist
knew about
we
be-
cannot certainly
lievers did not
tell.
The Old Testament
have the clear and
full revealing
of immortality that
was made in the
New
Testa-
ment.
Yet
in
some way, dim perhaps, as when
one sees in a mirror darkly, he believed that one
day he would look upon the face of God, and

that then
all his thirsts
would be
day we
satisfied.
We
satis-
may
fied.
say the same
some
with
world.
shall
be
Every longing
with
love,
will be answered.
joy,
We
shall
it
be
filled
with peace.
But
will not be in this
When we
see Christ
face to face, and enter into the fulness of his joy,
we
shall be satisfied.

" Not here
! !
2.
Fade
into
Not liore Not where the sparkhng waters mocking sands as we draw near
;
Wliere, in the wiklerness, each footstep falters

I shall
be
satisfied,
but oh, not here
" There
is
a land where every feeble pulse

earth's sojourners
is
thrilling
With raptures
may
not
know
Where heaven's
And
repose each weary heart is stilling, peacefully life's time-tossed currents flow.
bliss deceives us,
its
" Not here, where every dream of
Where
the
worn
spirit
never gains
goal
Where, haunted ever by the thoughts that grieve Across us floods of bitter memories roll.
" Far out of
sight, while yet the flesh enfolds us, Lies that fair country where our hearts abide
us.
And
of
its bliss is
nought more wondrous told us

'
Than
these four words,
I shall
be
satisfied.'
"Satisfied?
Satisfied?
The
spirit's
yearning
For sweet companionship of kindred minds,
The silent love that here meets no returning, The inspiration which no language finds,
" Shall they be
satisfied ? The souPs vague longing, The aching mind which nothing earthly fills ? Oh, what desires upon my soul are thronging.
As
look upward to the heavenly
hills
" Thither
my weak
and weary
feet are tending.

frail child
all
Saviour and Lord, with thy
abide
Guide
me toward home,
thee
where,
my
wanderings ending,
I shall see
and be
satisfied."
So lieaven
is to
be a place of satisfa(3tion.
Kg
need will be iinsupplied.
Ko want
will be Uxunet.
26

craving will be unanswered.
unfulfilled.
No
be
The
;
voice
calls,
No thirst will "He that is

him take
athirst, let
him come
he that
will, let
the water of
life freely."
We
the
is
do not begin to realize what this assurance of

life
heavenly
means.
It has
Satisfaction
Oh,
it
a hungry word.
gone through the ages

cry.
finding no answer
to
its
There are many
good people to
lavishly,
whom
this
world has not ministered
has
indeed
ministered
most
scantily.
There are some who have

pointed in
been bitterly disapthat they

stone.
human
love.
They thought
it
were
getting
bread, and
was
only a
For promised tenderness and cherishing, they have
had only neglect and wrong.

ful providing, they
Instead
of plenti-
have had want, perhaps some-
times hunger.
only cruelty.
faction
of
Instead of kindness, they have had
How
!
these will enjoy heaven's satis-
loving
What heaven
little
will
thousands who have had so

here
of
mean to human love
There are those to
whom
all life
has been only a
disappointment, a failure, an alluring mirage fading into desert sands. the world with
little of
empty hands.
They have gone through They have known
joy or of comfort.
An
old
woman, who
^_/
L^
-.
/,'--,!
OR,
LENOX
FOUNH5ATION8

had experienced only want
very
best, bareness
all
27
at the
her
life,
and
scarcity,
was taken by
sea.
some
fresh-air society to
first
spend a day beside the
Her
exclamation,
'Î
when she looked npon

is
!
the
ocean was,
is
am
for
glad that here
something there
enongh of
first
everybody "
It
seemed
to her
the
time she had ever seen anything there was

of.
enough
earth's
Think what heaven

its In-ead
will
mean
to
to
hungry ones with
enough and
spare
" I shall be satisfied with beholding thy
form."
Take one other glimpse.

chapters of the
As we read the wonall
derful description of the heavenly life in the last
New
Testament, we find that

''I
the glory comes from Christ.
am
the Alpha
" I
and the Omega, the beginning and the end."
saw no temple therein;
for
the
Lord God
the
Almighty, and the Lamb, are the temple thereof."

''
The
city hath
no need of the sun, neither of the

it
:
moon, to shine upon

lighten
it,
for the glory of

is
God
did
and the lamp thereof

else
the
Lamb."
Here we
Whatever
first
heaven may mean

Christ.
to us, it will,
of
all,
mean being with

faith,
see
him only by
ofttimes
dimly.
Every day
some one speaks
of the difficulty of realizing the

life.
presence of Christ in this earthly
AVe long
28

Our hearts hunger
is
to see him.
for him.
"
We
woukl see Jesus,"
our cry
all
the days.
And
world
the answer to our cry seems only an echo of our

longing.
is
As Tennyson puts
"
it,
man
in this
An
infant crying in the night,

infant crying for the light,
An
And
But when the
our sight
is
with no language but a cry."
veil of sense that hides
heaven from
rent for us, some midnight or some

is
noonday, and the blessedness
suddenly revealed,
we
shall see, first of
all,
before
we
look upon any
of the splendors of the place.
Him we
will
have loved
our
though seeing him

Friend,
not,
our
Savionr and
Jesus
Christ.
And he
wipe away
every tear from our eyes.

shall need nothing else to
Being with him, we
make our
blessedness
See-
complete.
Seeing him we shall be
satisfied.
ing him,
his
we
shall be like him,
changed fully into

then be with
image.
forever.
Seeing him,
we
shall
him
These are only a few of the glimpses of the

heavenly
life
which the Scriptures give
ns,
and
even these are only glimpses, as when the window

opens for a
moment upon
the
glory and
then
quickly closes again.
Indeed no earthly language

is
29
adequate to describe the blessedness, the joy,
the liappiiiess of lieaven.
Perhaps no human word gathers and holds

itself
in
so
much
of the truest
meaning
of
heaven
It is
as the
word home.
a place of
Home is a place of confidence. No one doubts
love.
anotlier at
home.
We
have nothing to hide or conceal from
each other inside home's doors.

loved.
We
Our
know we
we
are
Home
is
the one place where
are never
afraid of being misunderstood.
faults
may
be
seen and known, but
we
are dear in spite of them.

sufferings, pa-
We
find there
sympathy with our

infirmities
tience
with
is
our
and
shortcomings.
Heaven
home.
It
is
Into
it,
all
the children will be
gathered.
a place of glory, of beauty, of

all, it is
splendor, a holy place, but, best of

of perfect love.
a place
The human element has

dearness to our hearts.
there
a large place in heaven's
Before
we have loved ones

by the
we
"
are likely to be impressed most
majesty and grandeur in the descriptions.

writes,
One
As
a child I thought of heaven as glo-
rious, as the place of the divine presence, as full
of bright angels, with never ending worship, but

terrible in its majesty. T
was not attracted
to
it,
indeed
dreaded to think of enterins: heaven.
30

I
There was no one there I knew, and

strange, lonesome
;
would
feel
nobody would know me

little
or welat once
come me.
there
Then my
sister died,
and
was a new element in heaven.
There was
one person there I knew and loved, one

greet
who would
Since that
me when
it
I entered the gates.
many
loved ones have passed into heaven, and
now
I think of
no longer as
cold, stately,
and
lonely,
but as
warm with
is
love, full
of
human
interest, a
true home."
Heaven
the place where
our lives will find
their completion.
It is the glorious
end that waits
before us, where all

fulfilment, all our
our hopes shall have their

realization.
dreams their
is
Much
of our life in this world
only beginnings.
We
inten-
mean
to
do beautiful things, but when they are

is
finished the beauty
lacking.
Our worthy
tions lie as faded flowers at our feet.
We
tried
sincerely
and earnestly, and
failed.
We
struggled
hard, but were not overcomers.

ever,
In heaven, how-
we
shall find waiting for us, not the poor
attainments, the broken purposes, the sad failures

that
we wept
over on earth, but the things
we
to
sincerely tried to do,
in finished beauty now, for

we meant
makes them
real
God
do,
takes our intentions, the things the things
we
tried to be,
TfiL
PUBLiULi*.
GLIMPSES OF THE HEAVENLY LIFE,

ill
31
heaven, and
iills
them out
:
in perfectness.
Of
a noble
woman
erne
wrote
if
" The good she tried to do shall stand as
'twere done
God
finishes the
work by noble
souls begun."
There ought
to be
immeasurable inspiration in
the fact of heaven as the culmination and completion of

life.
The hope
all
of
it
should
make
us
strong to overcome
discouragement.
is,
No
matter
how hard
the
way
here
the end
is glorious.
No
matter the fierceness of the battle, the weariness of

the struggle, the bitterness of the sorrow, the keen-
ness of the suffering,
this
service.
is
the final outcome.
We
for
are
now and
here children of God.
That
should be glory enough to cheer and inspire us
most courageous
is veiled.
But
in this life the
best
It is not yet
v/e
made manifest what

life.
we
shall be
when
reach the goal of our
This dull bud will open, and a glorious rose will

unfold in
all its
splendor.
life
From
this poor, feeble,
struggling earthly
child of
will
emerge at length a
If only
God
in glorious beauty.
we could
have a glimpse of ourselves,
what we will be ten
minutes after our friends say we are dead, what
we
as
will be
are at
if
when we are absent from the body and home with the Lord, could we go on living
for the earth?
we were made only
Let us
32

Let ns not creep in the
this glorious future.
not grovel any longer.

slime and dust;
we who have
little
We
are
"but a
lower than
God"
let
us
live to be
worthy of our exalted honor.
We
have
not yet reached the best.

shall be
AVhen we see
Christ,
we
the
made
like him.
AVe
should
life
remember that the road

starts
to
heavenly
those
in
this
world
that
only
who have heaven
in their hearts here,

last.
can
be admitted into heaven at the
We
must
receive the beginning of the heavenly purity, the
heavenly joy, the heavenly peace, into our lives

in this world.
In the Apostles' Creed we say, "I
believe in the life everlasting."
We
must practise
It
our
is
belief.
Heaven must be
real
real to our faith.
real,
more
than earth.
It is a place.
Our
friends are there, living, loving, remembering us

still,
busy in the service of Christ.
Let us make
heaven real to ourselves
as
real as our houses,
the homes to which wê go
when we come back

life
from a journey.
Let us practise the heavenly
to-morrow and next day, at home, in business, on

the street.
Let us be the kind of people we would

in heaven.
be
if
we were
THE NEW YORK PUBLIC LIBRARY

REFERENCE DEPARTMENT
This book
is under no circumstances to be taken from the Building

Glimpses of Heaven, J.R. Miller

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NYPL RESEARCH LIBRARIES

GLIMPSES OF THE HEAVENLY LIFE

SiLEfiT Tim 5"

j Beside rnt jTiLL Waters

look out longingly toward another

which they implicitly

fellowships, its occupations.

The Bible does

glimpses of the purpose of tliis little book

aching heart nor empty arms again

GLBIPSES OF THE HEAVENLY

multitudes enter them, to look upon the glories

within, but none

they have seen.

upon the beauty of the heavenly home

but our wish cannot be granted.

thin veil separates heaven from

natural eye can see the

things that are spiritual.

Once when the servant

eyes were opened and he saw an inner guard

round about Elisha.

The angels were not summoned there that moment

young man with

his master's safety,

nor was the vision he saw merely a vision, with

His eyes were opened

moment, that he might have a glimpse of what

was always there unseen.

GLIMPSES OF THE HEAVENLY LIFE.

a wonderful splendor would appear on every side.

not only in our infancy, but

Yet we cannot see

which are pictures only,

revealings of heavenly things in earthly language.

could not understand any other language.

Incarnation was the divine

words and acts which they

in the Bible are efforts to give us in

some conception of the beauty,

the glory, the blessedness, of the things and' the

need to train ourselves to think more of

and our thoughts should often be upon

and uplifting in our

travelling toward his

and strength from the knowledge that

in a little while he shall reach the place so dear to

him, where his loved ones are.

waiting for us at the

end would make us braver and stronger

GLIMPSES OF THE HEAVENLY LIFE.

be, are but hints and beginnings

of the full, perfect joys that await us.

acliieve in the heavenly

in our life here

the influence of the heavenly hope.

a doorstep, in the gathering dusk of the evening,

holding a string in his hand.

ing the boy's eager zest and interest, asked

was doing that made him

gentleman, sweeping the

darkening skies with his eyes.

heaven as we move on in this world, but