Imágenes de páginas
PDF
EPUB

I. TYPES OF HEAVEN.

The employment of types for the unvailing of spiritual truths, or of truths lying beyond the range of ordinary human knowledge, has always been a characteristic of inspiration. It was thus that the character and coming of the Messiah were revealed through the long ages that preIceded his advent. And perhaps in no other form is heaven, the future home of the believer, so distinctively unvailed as by the types employed by inspiration to represent it to us. As the calm lake mirrors back to our view the overarching sky, so these types seem to mirror the very image of heaven to our faith.

1. Eden was a type of heaven. It would transcend human power to describe the loveliness of man's early and earthly paradise. Eden means pleasure or delight; and the garden planted in its midst must have combined the richer beauties of the country. "And the Lord God planted a garden eastward in Eden; and there he put the man whom he had formed. And out of the ground made the Lord God to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight, and good for food; the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of knowledge of good and evil. And a river went out of Eden to water the garden; and from thence it was parted, and became into four heads." (Gen. ii, 8-10.) Simple is the description of this glorious earthly paradise; but it must have been a spot surpassing all others in its ethereal delights. As such it even now floats in the imagination like a vision of purity and love-after the lapse of nearly six thousand years of forfeiture and banishment.

This "paradise" lost dimly shadows the "paradise" we may gain. Our Savior says to the penitent thief, "To-day

shalt thou be with me in paradise." (Luke xxiii, 43.) And when St. Paul would convey an idea of that heaven, the glory of which he had beheld, he speaks of himself as having been "caught up into paradise." (2 Cor. xii, 4.) St. John, also, in his apocalyptic vision, received from the Spirit this message, and conveyed it to the Churches: "To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the tree of life, which is in the midst of the paradise of God." (Rev. ii, 7.) And not only does the "tree of life" reappear in the heavenly paradise, of which the earthly was the type, but the river that watered the earthly Eden finds its antitype in that "pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding out of the throne of God and of the Lamb." (Rev. xxii, 1.) To the Jew this imagery and the promise it embodied awakened the most tender and joyous feelings. The paradise they had lost on earth was still guarded by the cherubim and the flaming sword, so that they could enter it no more. But this, though lost, now mirrored to them another paradise-richer in its transcendent glory and perennial in its duration-into which they might enter through the great Messiah. So, also, the Christian finds in Eden the type of that paradise in which the consummation of his hopes shall be reached. In sacred song he anticipates the day when,

we shall

"Of our paradise possess'd,"

"With God in Eden live."

But what are the lessons suggested by this type? What light does it shed upor our future home and destiny? Let us see: If the paradise of Eden was the most lovely spot of the primeval earth as it came, unblighted by sin, from the hand of the Creator, may we not infer that the heavenly paradise shall be, above all other places, the spot of

most transcendent beauty in all the universe of God? Was Eden a place of social intercourse, sweet and unalloyed; of love pure, undefiled, and lasting; of holiness unmarred and glorious? In all these endearments it shall be infinitely surpassed by its heavenly antitype. The rivers that watered the earthly Eden were but the type of that "pure river of water of life, clear as crystal," that gushes forth from beneath "the throne," and rolls onward through the heavenly plains; and both symbolize the purity and fullness of the joy of the redeemed. So the trees of the earthly Eden find their counterpart in that unfailing "tree of life" growing abundantly upon the banks of either side of the river of life, and in the very streets of the city, and bearing all "manner of fruits," and yielding them month by month, so that supply might never fail; and both symbolize the exhaustless resources of the Divine beneficence treasured up in heaven. But last of all, and above all, as God held personal intercourse with the dwellers in the earthly Eden, so much more shall he unvail his presence and his favor to those who have gained the heavenly Eden.

Such are some of the characteristics of our heavenly home, as shadowed forth by the earthly Eden. Surely it will be joyful to dwell in the Eden of God, to behold its celestial beauties, to be regaled by its fruits, to share in its blissful associations, and, above all, to be crowned by the Divine and glorious Presence.

"Fair land! could mortal eyes

But half its charms explore,

How would our spirits long to rise,
And dwell on earth no more!"

2. Canaan was also a type of heaven. For two thousand years the people of God knew no type of heaven more glorious than the Eden of our first parents. Then a new pic"While Paradise lay in

ture was presented to their view.

the past, and was receding silently to a still more indistinct distance, there grew up in the horizon of the hopeful future an image of, perhaps, still greater attraction, and one which had this advantage, that it was drawing ever nearer to them. This was the land of Canaan, the land of promised inheritance. This, accordingly, was also made a type of heaven; and they gazed at the land of their hopes, beyond the skies, through its lovely images. This was the picture, yonder was the reality; this was the shadow, yonder was the substance; this was the earthly, yonder was the heavenly Canaan, the true inheritance." *

This earthly Canaan was a place of habitation, a home for the people of God. It was a land flowing with milk and honey; of corn and of wine; of balmy air and genial skies. To the ancient Jews earth could not furnish a fairer type of heaven. How gloriously it contrasted with their present condition! Now they were a wandering, homeless people; that was to be their abiding home. Now they tread the sands of a waste and burning desert; that was a land of abundance and beauty. Now they are in want, in peril, and in sorrow; but in the promised Canaan abundance, safety, and joy shall be theirs forever. Jordan only separated them from their longed-for, goodly land. Thus is prefigured the heavenly Canaan. In this dim foreshadowing the Christian catches glimpes of his eternal inheritance. Bright in their living reality, they convey no uncertain indications of the nature of our heavenly home.

"Sweet fields beyond the swelling flood

Stand dress'd in living green;

So to the Jews old Canaan stood,
While Jordan roll'd between."

3. Jerusalem is also presented as a distinctive type of heaven. It was a glorious city, beautiful for situation; a

Heavenly Home. By Rev. H. Harbaugh, p. 60.

great city, and goodly palaces were in the midst of her; and God was worshiped in her sanctuaries, and Jerusalem was the chief place in Israel. "The Lord loveth the gates of Zion more than all the dwellings of Jacob. Glorious things are spoken of thee, O city of God." (Psa. lxxxvii, 2, 3.) God is also spoken of as dwelling in Mount Zion, (Isa. viii, 18; xviii, 7; Joel iii, 17,) and as putting his name (2 Kings xxi, 4) and making his abode in Jerusalem. (Ezra vii, 15.) In all these respects is Jerusalem the type of heaven.

Do God's ancient people come up to Jerusalem to worship? It is only a type of that grander scene when the redeemed of the Lord shall return, and come with singing unto Zion; "and everlasting joy shall be upon their head; they shall obtain joy and gladness, and sorrow and mourning shall flee away." (Isa. li, 11.) Does the Revelator, inspired by Heaven, attempt to unvail to mortal view the glory of the invisible heaven? The vision of the "New Jerusalem coming down from God out of heaven" (Rev. xxi, 2) breaks upon our wondering gaze. The earthly Jerusalem may be subjected to bondage; "but Jerusalem which is above is free, which is the mother of us all." (Gal. iv, 26.) The earthly Jerusalem may be destroyed and become desolate; but of the heavenly it is declared, "Violence shall no more be heard in thy land, wasting nor destruction within thy borders; but thou shalt call thy walls salvation and thy gates praise." (Isa. lx, 18.) The darkness of night may brood over the earthly Jerusalem through long ages; but of the heavenly it is said, "There shall be no night there." (Rev. xxi, 25.) "The sun shall be no more thy light by day, neither for brightness shall the moon give light unto thee; but the Lord shall be unto thee an everlasting light, and thy God thy glory. Thy sun shall no more go down, neither shall thy moon with

« AnteriorContinuar »