What Is Heaven?

1902

It is a place of overpowering brightness. Everything that ever came from thence tells us so. Chariots so bright that the only thing to which they could be likened was fire. Angels with faces shining so that men must veil their eyes before them. Moses and Elias so surrounded with glory that the three disciples were overcome with the vision on the mount of transfiguration. The walls are like a great jewel, the streets of pure gold and every single gate a pearl. You know the brightness of one little gem as it sparkles on your finger, but O! the wonderful thought that every gate is a pearl, and the day will come when we may go sweeping through the gates if we will. God has done everything that He could do, and our entering in now rests upon ourselves. But the brightness of heaven, aside from the presence of Christ, is not due to the gates, nor to the walls, nor to the streets, but to the presence of those who have been redeemed.

I have been told that the deeper the water the larger the pearl. Whether that be true or not I can not tell, but I know that from the greatest depths God sometimes takes His brightest jewels. It is no cause for discouragement if you have been a great sinner. Paul was a persecutor, Bunyan a blasphemer, Newton a libertine, and yet they shine to-day as the jewels of Christ. Geologists tell us that the diamond is only crystallized carbon, charcoal glorified. This book tells us something better than that, that "though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool."

Heaven is a place of unutterable sweetness. Can you imagine the number of little children there? Can any one describe the sweetness of a child's song? And when you remember that your own little one may be there! What wonderful singing it is as their lips are touched by the finger of Christ, and their hearts are thrilled with His presence. — Rev. Dr. J. Wilbur Chapman.