t. We begin
Heaven here on earth, not by taking a journey to the sun or the
planets, not by taking a journey from this world up through the air,
but by taking a journey from a bad state of mind to a good state of
mind; from that state of mind which is enmity against God, to that of
humble, loyal, loving obedience to Christ. It is not so much that we
have to go to Heaven. We have to do that, too. But Heaven has to come
to us first. Heaven has to begin in ourselves. "The beginning of
Heaven is not at that hour when the eye grows dim and the sound of
friendly voices becomes silent in death, but at that hour when God
draws near and the eyes of the spiritual understanding are opened, and
the soul sees how beautiful Christ is, how hateful sin is; the hour
when self-will is crucified, and the God-will is born in the
resolutions of a new heart." Then Heaven has begun, the Heaven that
will continue after our death.

Do we believe that this is the right way to think of Heaven? For if so
it is a serious question for us all. What about my hopes of entering
Heaven? If Heaven consists of character rather than possessions, of a
state of mind rather than a place of residence, if, in fine, Heaven has
to begin on earth, what of our hopes of entering Heaven? Is it not
pitiful to hear people talk lightly about going to Heaven, whose lives
on earth have not any trace of the love and purity and nobleness and
self-sacrifice of which Heaven shall entirely consist hereafter? To
see men with the carnal notions about Heaven as a place of external
glory and beauty and jasper and emerald, where, after they have misused
their time on earth, they shall fly away like swallows to an eternal
summer. Why, what should they do in Heaven? They would be miserable
there even if they could get there. They would be entirely out of
their element, like a fish sent to live on the grass of a lovely
meadow. Those who shall enjoy the Heaven hereafter are they whose
Heaven has begun before. They who may hope to do the work of God
hereafter are those who are humbly trying to do that will on earth.
These shall inherit the everlasting Kingdom. Unto which blessed
Kingdom may He vouchsafe to bring us all! Amen.

[1] Whittier, "The Brother of Mercy."

***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE GOSPEL OF THE HEREAFTER***

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