01.21. Celestial Property
Chapter 21 CELESTIAL PROPERTY.
Elsewhere we have written about the wisdom, duty and practicability of laying up treasure in heaven. In the present chapter we desire to dwell upon the nature or character of that property which we are told can be laid up in the skies for our present, future and everlasting enrichment.
It is quite remarkable that while there are no lines of communication between this world and the heavenly land similar to those that bridge and bring together the nations and continents of the globe on which we dwell, yet there is communication of the most unmistakable kind; and there is transportation of spirit; and a remarkable transportation of things counted most valuable on earth, into forms of greatly increased value in heaven.
There are bills of exchange, and letters of credit well known in the business world, which look to the uninitiated like so many worthless pieces of printed paper; but when these same unimposing appearing documents are presented in far distant foreign countries at great banks and commercial houses, they cause a perfect stream of gold to be poured from the cashier’s into the presenter’s hands.
After one sight or hint of this business method among men, the thought of transfer of property from earth to heaven by the child of God ought not to strike the mind with amazement, but with the glad recognition of such a possibility.
God is ready to do a most profitable business with the soul. He has the strongest of banks, the largest of clearing houses, and the safest of agencies in the reception of what we entrust and deposit with him, and in the transfer of all such values to heaven, where they will await our presence and check, in sums and amounts tremendously added to by the interest and dividends declared in the kingdom of glory.
One thing we can lay up in heaven is money. One would think from the grudging gifts of many of God’s people, the way that many contributions to the cause of the gospel have to be begged, surprised and literally wrenched out of others, that the general idea is that all such money given is value lost; when the fact is that the only part of our earthly treasure in gold and silver and bank notes which is saved from a burning world and the wreck and ruin of time is that portion which we gave to heaven. This very truth was brought out by the Saviour in the parable of the unjust steward. Very many have been the expository and explanatory struggles of scholars, commentators and preachers over this remarkable passage of Scripture, but nearly all we ever heard or read agree that one teaching of these words of our Lord is, that we can so use our money here on earth as that it will receive us in everlasting habitations in heaven in the sense of reward and exaltation. In other words, God makes the moneyed sacrifices of his people to meet and greet and bless them in the skies, in forms of such increased spiritual wealth, as no bill of exchange could ever secure, and no bank of this world ever dream of presenting to any applicant. As we have contemplated the stinginess of many professed Christians, and thought, suppose the pavement before each mansion, and the crown on each head in heaven was made out of the moneyed gifts people made to the cause of Christ on earth -- then how many heads would have coronets of copper, and how many heavenly homes would have no golden street before it, but a mud puddle instead. It would be a good idea to ship enough property through the exchange of heaven to secure a crown of twenty-four carats of the noblest of metals, and a front walk of gold that will look a little larger than a pocket handkerchief, or better still, attain at least the proportions of a parlor rug. But some one replies, what if a person is poor in this world’s goods, what has he got that will begin to do what is suggested. Our answer is that all such cases are most happily covered in the history of the woman whom Christ saw throw two mites of copper in the treasury. They were worth about a farthing or so of English money, but it was all she had on earth. The Saviour declared she had given all she owned. Hence the gift of the woman outranked that of others made that day; for they, said Christ, cast in of their abundance, but she threw in everything that she possessed.
What a wonderful investment that lonely poverty stricken worshiper made that day. What an overwhelming interest it has paid into the kingdom of Christ on earth. How innumerable have been similar investments which this act has brought forth. What coupons of grace, and dividends of blessing have been attached to or flowed from the little deposit of that morning. What royal estates and possessions of happiness, blessedness and glory have already rolled upon, and will continue to come upon that woman in heaven for the gift she made to God in the deepest poverty, giving all she had, and dreaming not that anyone beheld or knew of the act. As for her crown -- when we see it, men will think that the output of an hundred rich mines was somehow wrought in it. As for the golden pavement in front of her door, it will be a thousand feet deep, run up and down the street a mile or so, sheathe her side alley and back yard, and have blocks enough piled up in her warehouse to contribute handsome fronts to the mansions of a whole denomination of rich and stingy Christians who used to give a mere trifle out of their abundance, and called it in their consummate meanness and profound ignorance, "The Widow’s Mite." It is perfectly amazing to see how many who claim to give the contribution of the poor widow, overlook the fact that she gave her ALL to God. A second piece of earthly property we can lay up in heaven is our prayers.
We are told that they are bottled, up there. Here is not only a transfer of value, but an unmistakable teaching of a gathered and preserved influence in heaven, which God uses in and for his Kingdom’s victory and advancement on earth. Not only is the petitioner made better by the supplications he offers for others, but in some way the vessels in which they are preserved are uncorked, and the prayer heard and kept in the skies is turned back again on the world and accomplishes wonders of grace through the blessing of the Almighty to whom they were addressed. A third piece of property in heaven is our good works. By a strange kind of transmutation, or by a transference of values not the less remarkable, the words and deeds spoken and lived for Christ and humanity are found again in the Kingdom of Glory awaiting us in diversified forms of incalculable spiritual wealth.
Christ speaks of a cup of cold water given in his name on earth, meeting us in the city of God in the changed form of a blessed reward. Labor in his service shall be re-beheld in the shining of the resurrected body, and souls saved shall be numbered like glittering stars in a crown.
Suffering for Christ’s sake shall be recompensed with a throne, and differing degrees of faithfulness to him shall be recognized by diverse and graded degrees of glory as one star is seen to surpass another in the heavens.
Very strict and faithful account is kept in the upper world of the good works, and the various classes of such labors rendered by the godly in the name of the Lord Jesus. He numbers them off at the Day of Judgment, saying, "You fed me," "You gave me drink," "You clothed me,"
"You entertained me as a stranger," "You visited me when I was sick," "And I was in prison and you came unto me."
Nothing that we are doing for him is unobserved or overlooked, and not a single deed shall be unrewarded in the skies. Hence the more we accomplish for him the better for mankind, and the better for our own souls even in time. But in addition it is equally true that the more we abound in the work of the Lord the greater treasure we are laying up in heaven, and the vaster the spiritual fortune that will be there to astonish and delight us on our arrival.
It is said of a certain queen in Europe that she gave two exceedingly valuable pearls to be sold in order to found an institution of mercy for poor and undone women. That once sitting by the side of one of the dying inmates, the sufferer gasped out with her last breath, "But for your goodness and kindness I would not have had this bed on which to die, nor heard of my Saviour," bent forward, kissed the hand of the queen, left two great tears glistening upon it, and fell upon the pillow dead. It is said of the queen that looking at the tears shining on the back of her hand, and then gazing upward, she said softly and reverently, "My Saviour, thou hast already sent back to me my two pearls and they are so much more beautiful than those I gave to Thee."
It was a beautiful thought and a true one as well. But this, according to the Bible, is not all of the reward. The big pay day is to come. The cashing of the letter of credit is yet to take place. The full fortune is to be turned over to us in the New Jerusalem.
It is true that even in this life, according to the Bible, God pays his children back in the very lines they gave to him -- but it is careful always to state that a crown is laid up against "that day"; and that in the world to come we will have exceeding and abundant weights of glory, as well as life everlasting.
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