October 19

This is the gate of heaven. - Genesis 28:17.

THE experience of Christians sometimes approximates toward heaven; therefore, says Jacob, not only “This is the house of God,” but “This is the gate of heaven.” There was nothing around him that was so outwardly inviting; but, oh, that ladder, the angels ascending and descending upon it; and his God above, standing and looking down, and addressing him; oh, such scenery, such language, and such communion, made Jacob think, though he saw from the place it was not heaven, that heaven could not be far off. The poor unbelieving world think that heaven is some place millions of miles off, somewhere beyond the stars, to which they are to return when they are delivered from their trouble and toil here; but our Lord said, “The kingdom of God is within you;” and the Christian knows this.

Though the harvest is hereafter, he has the first-fruits now: “He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life.” “Ye are come,” says Paul, “to mount Zion and to the heavenly Jerusalem, the city of the living God, to the general assembly of the church of the firstborn which are written in heaven, and to an innumerable company of angels.” Oh, we have seen Christians in trouble and in sickness joyful in the prospect of glory; and we have heard them shout aloud for joy on their dying beds, exclaiming, “O death where is thy sting? O grave where is thy victory?” Even “while they are here experience will convince them that heaven is a state rather than a place, and their connection with it and its commencement are already begun. There is nothing gives a Christian such an acquaintance with heaven as experience like this. Communion with God in holy exercises will give him a better idea of heaven than all the sermons he ever heard, or all the books he ever read.

The best way to obtain a lively and impressive view of heaven is to contemplate our holiest frames and our happiest feelings here, and to add to them perfection and perpetuity, especially when we feel so blessed as to say, “Oh that this were to last for ever!”

“The smilings of thy face,

How amiable they are,

’Tis heaven to rest in thine embrace,

And nowhere else but there.”