The Society of Heaven

Pacific Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Oakland, California · May 22, 1879

The Society of Heaven.

THE society of Heaven constitutes one of its chief attractions. We will, doubtless, carry the social principle with us in the eternal world. But who constitute the society of Heaven? Let an apostle answer. It is "an innumerable company of angels; the general assembly and church of the first born, whose names are written in Heaven; God, the judge of all; the spirits of just men made perfect, and Jesus the mediator of the new covenant."

What a grouping together of all that is necessary to constitute good society is here made! God the Father, Jesus Christ the mediator, innumerable angels, and the spirits of good men in a state of perfection! Can anything be added to it? Should anything be taken from it? Every being will be there whose presence we could desire, and not one whom we would wish to be absent. We talk sometimes of good society in this world as a necessary element in our happiness; but what is the best society of earth compared to that of Heaven?

We have occasionally held communion here with God the Father, and our fellowship has been with his Son Jesus Christ, but it has been at long intervals, and there has always been a veil between us; but there we shall see them face to face, and know even as we are known. Angels have visited us, and been our ministering spirits, and kept their stations round about our beds, to defend us when we were in danger, and to shield us when temptations beset our paths; but we were not conscious of their presence, and received the benefits of it without knowing the sources from which they came. But there we shall be their equals, and talk with them as friends.

We have associated with the wise and the holy men and women of earth, and our hearts have gone out in warm affection toward them, and we have felt as if we would make them our companions forever; but they were only just men and women, with the remains of corruption and imperfection still clinging to them. In the very best of them we can see spots which marred the beauty of their characters, and tempers and dispositions which rendered intercourse with them unpleasant. Though thus imperfect, we have thought that a society composed entirely of such would far exceed anything that earth has ever afforded; but Heaven is filled with these just men made perfect. A spirit made perfect is something of which we have never yet seen a specimen. What a spirit must that be which has been purged of all the unholy tempers and corrupt propensities which have filled it and marred its peace in this world, and been adorned with every grace which the Holy Spirit can confer upon it? How different from the spirits with which we come in contact in the society in which we now mingle! In Heaven there are none but such. Envy and malice, hatred and strife, slander and detraction, are neither felt nor practiced there. Who would not wish to dwell in such a company as that?—Louisville Herald.