Page:Heaven Revealed.djvu/249

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endless variety. And what is there in all this that is contrary to reason, to the teachings of Scripture, or to our highest conceptions of the wisdom and love and providence of God?

Then look at its practical tendency—its immediate and direct bearing upon the life and character of the believer. Is it not obviously good and wholesome? In the light of these disclosures we see that all the splendid habitations and magnificent palaces of heaven are but pictorial representations, under the great law of correspondence, of the ruling loves of the angels. They are the exact images of their dominant affections, reflecting with mathematical precision their inner life and character. It is each one's ruling love that fashions and adorns his house in the other world, the inner chambers and closets of which, with all their furniture, are but the correspondential images of his secret motives and hidden purposes. And he cannot possibly have or dwell in any other house than that which is in correspondence with his character.

So that, when our fleshly tabernacle is dissolved, if we would dwell in the beautiful mansions on high, we can hope to do so only by developing and carrying with us the angelic loves of which those mansions are the visible symbols. We must begin on earth to live the life of heaven; must imbibe here, and carry with us into the Hereafter, something of that heavenly spirit which creates for the angels their magnificent abodes; must begin here to find our life and delight in the performance of useful deeds from high and heavenly motives; must begin to make the Lord's unselfish love the