comforts and luxuries, is never really miserable; nor is the bad man, though crowned with abundant earthly treasures, ever truly happy. For true happiness never comes from without, but depends wholly on the condition of the soul. How clearly did Milton see this, when he sang in strains no less true than beautiful:
"He that hath light within his own clear breast,
May sit in the centre and enjoy bright day;
But he that hides a dark soul and foul thoughts,
Benighted walks under the mid-day sun,
Himself is his own dungeon."
And another of England's poets says:
"Know then this truth (enough for man to know),
Virtue alone is happiness below.
Condition, circumstance, is not the thing,
Bliss is the same in subject and in king."
And the same thing has been seen, if not sung, by every one who has received from the Creator a single spark of poetic inspiration.
If, then, all who go to heaven are to be happy there, and if true happiness on earth comes only from a regenerate and well-ordered state of the soul, the conclusion is forced upon us that heaven is not a place into which people may be admitted from immediate mercy, but a certain state of life. And it may be further inferred that it is a similar state (it may be far more exalted and perfect) to that which is known to be attended with the highest happiness on earth. And what is that state? Let reason, observation and experience testify.
Consider that God is Law and Order itself. He governs the material universe by fixed and determinate laws.
