AN OPEN HEAVEN by Editor

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Mountain View, Cal. · Mar 20, 1907

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 33, No. 12.

AN OPEN HEAVEN.

By Editor

OUR illustration is of the closed altar to the Temple of Heaven in Peking. That temple has also its open altar, far less magnificent; the first is open once a year to the royal magnate of the empire, but prohibited to the common people; the other open to those who have the means to gain the favor of the cordon of priests which perpetually surround it. It is a good illustration of the perverted ways of God, the way of man's devices.

THE CLOSED ALTAR TO THE TEMPLE OF HEAVEN, PEKING, CHINA.

How unlike the way of the true God. His word to the people of earth is, "Behold, I have set before thee an open door, and no man can shut it." From the beginning of God's revelation to its close we read of an open heaven to the children of men, from which God is pouring out the exceeding riches of His grace, to which man has access in the simplest way, the easiest way, which it is possible to devise. That way is the infinitely wise way of love on God's part, the simple way of faith on man's part.

THE American Standard Revised Version reads: "Behold, I have set before thee a door opened, which none can shut." Rev. 3:8. Christ Jesus opened the door which sin had shut. He "gave Himself for our sins, that He might deliver us out of this present evil world." Gal. 1:4. He "gave Himself for us, that He might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto Himself a people for His own possession, zealous of good works." Titus 2:14. He is "the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world." Rev. 13:8.

THRU all the rolling centuries has that love been tested, and still it pleads, still it pours out the richest of Heaven's blessings, still it invites man to the heavenly places. From the open heaven with its shining stairway, filled with angel ministrants, revealed to the sinful and despairing Jacob at Bethel, to the glorious visions of John on barren Patmos, it is ever the open door, and the heavenly call to the tempted, sinful, sinning, hopeless, despairing children of men, COME.

BUT to enter that door, to place ourselves in the way which leads to the eternal land of light and love and blessing, we, too, must open a door, the door of our hearts, fast closed by sin and selfishness, at which the Master may have knocked, lo, these many years; but we have been too busy, or careless, or indifferent, or rebellious, or enslaved by sin, to heed the knocking of Him who to us is a stranger. Yet He comes to be a friend. He comes to bring light where hitherto there has been darkness. 2 Cor. 4:6. He comes to speak into order and beauty the heart which sin had reduced to chaos and ruin. He comes to transmute the base and vile into the precious and clean. He comes to sweep away the enfogged wilderness of fen and mire, and plant in our heart

"the highways to Zion;" that the "valley of weeping" may become a "place of springs," covered "with blessings" by "the early rain;" that we may "go from strength to strength," so that every one who has opened the door to the King may appear "before God in Zion." Ps. 84:5-7. But if we choose, we may close that door forever.

SOUL, come. Are you not sick of your own ways? Have you not had enough of sin and its fruits? Are you not convinced that the ways of men, so often right in their own eyes, lead but to death and disappointment? Have you not become sufficiently discouraged in trying to overcome your sins and sinful disposition to give it all up to God, lay down the arms of your rebellion, submit to all the blessed requirements of His blessed government, and heed His call, Come?

THEN do not put it off for one moment. Come now. It is the Father’s call, “Child, come home! Leave the sin, the evil, the plague spots of earth; leave the pleasures that lure to destroy, the gains which harden the heart, the lusts which vitiate and disintegrate all moral fiber, the ambitions which spur to disappointment and death, all the vain, glittering, evanescent bubbles which please for the moment and vanish; leave the husks and the swine, and come home to the Father’s house, with all its riches of grace and glory. It is the conquering Captain’s call, “Come, I lead; you follow Me.” There will be contests, combats, wars, fighting, but there is eternal victory to all who will enlist in the militant army of Jesus Christ, the Captain of Jehovah’s host. All Heaven calls thee. From God’s first call to the brother-hating, sin-loving Cain (Gen. 4:7) to the last chapter of the Book of God (Rev. 22:17) rises the cry of the agonizing love of God to the sinful and dying, Come, come, come. “Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters, and he that hath no money; come ye, buy, and eat; yea, come, buy wine and milk without money and without price.” “Say unto them, As I live, saith the Lord Jehovah, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked; but that the wicked turn from his way and live; turn ye, turn ye from your evil ways; for why will ye die?” “Come unto Me, all ye that labor and are heavy-laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you, and learn of Me; for I am meek and lowly in heart; and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For My yoke is easy, and My burden is light.” “And the Spirit and the bride say, COME. And he that heareth, let him say, COME. And he that is athirst, let him come: he that will, let him take the water of life freely.” Come home!