If this is you, there is one world that you have not yet entered, and that is the eternal world to which you are hastening. The life you are living can never introduce you to the sphere of heavenly beings for "flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable" (1 Corinthians 15:50). Your physical life will wither the the flowers of summer, your mental endowments will rise to the highest human rank, but will not touch the joy of that celestial realm. You must have another nature before you can enter the kingdom of heaven. "Unless a man is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God" (John 3:3).
Just suppose for a moment a man is going to a great musical festival in Germany. He enters the great concert hall but he does not know a single word of the language spoken nor has the faintest germ of musical taste. To him the words are meaningless gutturals, and the notes a jargon of confusing noises. He could understand a problem in mathematics or could discourse with them with eloquence in English on questions of politics or philosophy, however, he is out of place; he does not possess the key to their society or enjoyment.
Also let us suppose the greatest intellectual of earth enters the society of heaven. To him their songs and joys would all seem as incomprehensible as the conversation of a cultivated home circle would be to the little dog that sits at their feet or the canary that sings in the window. It belongs to a different race and cannot touch their world.
Such a man would not have one point of contact with these heavenly beings. It would be another world, a world unknown and barren as a wilderness. From its scenes he would be glad to flee to find some congenial fellowship. He cannot reach its range because it is a spiritual race of beings and he has but an intellectual nature. On the other hand, they would have as little in common with him as his range is infinitely below theirs.
We can imagine the porter of heaven's gates asking him what he knows. He tells the gatekeeper about the lore of classical culture, the mythologies of Greece or the monuments of Egypt. The angel smiles with pity and answers, "Why, these splendid memories of which you speak are not worthy of comparison with the world in which we dwell. The grandest temple of Egypt would not make a pedestal for one of the stairs of heaven."
Perhaps he also tells him of astronomy, the distance or magnitude of the stars. "Why," the angel answers, "we have no need of these dim and distant calculations here. There is not one world we have not visited and we could tell you 10,000 times more of its mysteries than you have ever dreamed of. The glories of these cannot be compared with the glory of Him who sits upon the throne, whom you have not eyes to see, or the sweetness of these redemption songs, which you cannot even hear because you have not ears to hear. One thrill of the rapture we feel you cannot ever know because your heart has not been quickened in one heavenly chord. You do not belong here. You live in the lower realm of mind alone, but this is the home of God and those who have received His nature, His Spirit, and are admitted as His children to dwell in His presence and share His infinite and everlasting joy."
This is the high calling that is given to every one of Adam's race who has heard the gospel. You may become a son of god, you may receive a new spirit which can know and enjoy Him, and that spirit can be so sanctified, so cleansed, so enlarged, so filled with Himself, as to be able to reach the highest sublimity of His grace and glory and joy. Will you separate it from all that defiles and dwarfs it? Will you dedicate it to Him to be exalted to its highest possible destiny and will you henceforth receive Him to be its life and purity, its satisfaction, its nature, and its ALL and in ALL?
These four short lines of simple poetry express the depth and height of holiness, namely, as a great need and an infinite supply for that need in God. Shall they express your emptiness and your divine filling?
In the heart of man -
A cry:
In the heart of God -
Supply.
~A. B. Simpson~
(continued with # 14 - "A Sanctified Soul")
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