p. 155 | THE DIARY OF HEAVEN by Smith Sharp

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Nov 16, 1876

THE DIARY OF HEAVEN.

By Smith Sharp

A diary is a useful book. If it has been properly kept, we can refer to it and tell where we were and what we did on any particular day, and thus many times call up our thoughts and meditations. The importance of this cannot be estimated by those who have not experienced its benefits. By this means a better opportunity is afforded for improvement. As we look at the past and see what our acts were, we are reminded of what our minds were dwelling on then, and by the aid of the Spirit of God we are enabled to see where we did that which Heaven could not approve and where improvement can be made in the future.

But any record that we may keep is fallible. When judging of our own acts we are apt to be partial; but there is a book that I sometimes call the diary of Heaven, kept by those who impartially chronicle, not only our deeds, but our words and thoughts. In the vast library of Heaven, John saw books that contained the record of every candidate for everlasting life.

When a year ends, and we close a diary, and lay it aside however carefully, it may still be lost. The house or trunk containing it may be burned. But not so of the books kept by the angels. When a person dies, his Heavenly diary is closed and safely deposited in the capitol building, where every record is preserved until the Judgment. When the Judgment sits, that ponderous volume called the book of life is examined in connection with the book containing the life record. If the record is one of faithfulness in the service of God, the name is retained in the book of life; otherwise, it is blotted out. Rev. 3:5.

How much depends upon the work we do for the angels to record? Who can pencil a few lines in his diary at the close of the day without feelings of deep solemnity, knowing that an unseen pen is faithfully recording the motives that actuate all of our words and deeds? SMITH SHARP.