all hunger no more nor thirst any more, neither
shall the sun light on them nor any burning heat, for the Lamb which is
in the midst of the Throne shall shepherd them and lead them to eternal
fountains of waters, and God shall wipe away every tear from their
eyes. There shall be no more death--no mourning nor crying nor pain
any more, for the former things--the old bad things--have passed away."
That is the end of God's purpose for men. Surely it will be the
wondering cry of the angels for ever, "Behold how He loved them!"

I. WHAT IS MEANT BY HEAVEN?

To us with our limited faculties Heaven is practically inconceivable.
We have no experience that would help us to realize it. Even the
inspired writers can but touch the thought vaguely in allegory and
gorgeous vision, piling up images of earthly things precious and
beautiful--thrones and crowns and gates of pearl and golden streets in
the heavenly city "coming down from God prepared as a bride adorned for
her husband."

The only clear thought we have about external things in Heaven is that
"I" who lived here in an earthly body and in the Near Hereafter lived a
spirit life "absent from the body"--shall in that Far Hereafter have a
spiritual body analogous we suppose to the body "I" had on earth. Not
the poor body, certainly, which rotted in the grave, "ashes to ashes,
dust to dust" but a "glorified body," and yet it would seem having some
strange mysterious connection with the earthly body. As the oak is the
resurrection body of the acorn, and the lily of the ugly little bulb
that decayed in the ground, "so also is the resurrection of the dead.
It is sown in corruption, it is raised in incorruption; it is sown in
weakness, it is raised in power; it is sown a natural body, it is
raised a spiritual body." That gives very little information but it
gives some tangible idea to grasp. Beyond this there is no hold for
imagination.

But as we saw in the earlier chapters on the Intermediate Life I am
still "I," the same conscious self through the whole life of Earth.
and Hades and Heaven, and therefore the _real life, the inner life_ can
still be understood. So when we enquire what can be known about the
meaning of Heaven--at the very start I strike the key-note of the
thoughts that follow, in the words of Christ Himself, "The Kingdom of
God is within you." Heaven is a something within you rather than
without you. Heaven means character rather than possessions.