le as the
Infinite Spirit, incapable, except in his various incarnations, of
particular local enthronement and uncovering to the outward gaze
of worshippers, necessitates a correspondent alteration in the
vulgar idea of heaven as an exclusive spot in space.

In every form of being, in any portion of the universe, the
central idea of a state of salvation, is the fulfillment of the
will of the Creator in the faculties of the creature, the fruition
of the ends of the whole in the consciousness of the part, the
congruity of the forces of the soul with the requirements of its
situation. If this definition be accepted, it is clear that no
mere place of residence, however excellent, can be heaven. That is
but one factor of heaven, and worthless without a corresponding
factor of a spiritual kind. Essentially, heaven is a divine
experience, not a divine location; yet constructively it is both
of these. Ever so serene and pure a space, perfectly free from
every perturbation of ill, and surrounded with all the outer
provisions of power and order, would be no heaven, until a
prepared soul entered it, furnishing the spiritual conditions for
the forces to run into fruition, for the melody of blissful being
to play. The material elements of the universe, so far as we know,
are unconscious dynamics. However perfectly marshalled, they can
by themselves compose no heaven. So the conscious soul, as far as
we know, is incapable of an independent and unrelated existence in
itself. All its experience, when ultimately analyzed, is the
resultant of the mutual relations between its own energies and
capacities and the forms and forces of things outside of itself.
When there is a right arrangement of right realities in the
residence, and a right development of faculties and affections
within the resident, and such an adjustment of the spiritual
states with the surrounding conditions, that, as these act and
react upon each other, the laws of the universe break into
conscious harmony, or the will of God is realized in a life of
blessedness; that harmony, that blessedness, is what we mean by
heaven; and the conditions of its realization constitute the law
of salvation.

Such being the true idea of heaven, obviously, it cannot be
limited to any particular locality. It may be here, elsewhere,
anywhere, everywhere, before death, in death, after death;
whenever and wherever the proper conditions meet inward state and
outward circumstances so adjust