Recognition of Friends in Heaven.
The following article, from the Ladies' Repository, will be interesting to every person who hopes for a place in the kingdom of Heaven. It is the doctrine of "personal recognition," which so sweetens our cup of sorrow, when dear friends are reft from our embrace by the relentless hand of death. But were there no such recognitions, Heaven would lose for us one of its chiefest attractions. No doctrine is better attested by both Scripture and reason than this; and for the comfort of the waiting ones who soon expect "TO SEE AS THEY ARE SEEN, AND KNOW AS THEY ARE KNOWN," the following selection finds a place in the Review. "The warmest love on earth is still
Imperfect when 't is given;
But there 's a purer clime above,
Where perfect hearts in perfect love
Unite; and this—is Heaven." Few themes connected with the great hereafter so deeply concern the heart, as the question of personal recognition among the redeemed. We have carefully and tearfully laid their bodies in the grave to slumber till the great awakening morning. We shall see them no more in the land of the living. And if we are never to know them in the future state, this separation—sad as may be the thought—is eternal. The hour that carries them down to the grave is the hour of final separation. If there is no personal recognition in Heaven; if we shall neither see nor know our friends there, so far as we are concerned they are annihilated, and Heaven has no genuine antidote for the soul's agony in the hour of bereavement. The anxiety of the soul with regard to the personal recognitions of the future state, is natural. It springs from the holiest sympathies of the human heart. And any inquiry that may solve our doubts or relieve our anxiety is equally rational and commendable. We shall proceed, then, to argue the fact of personal recognition among the redeemed in Heaven, and shall present considerations which, in their aggregate force, are absolutely conclusive of the subject. What we mean to assert here is, that the doctrine of personal recognition in the future state has a basis in nature and in reason. The yearning of the heart for the departed must remain forever unsatisfied without it. Our loved dead are still linked to us, not only by the cords of memory, but the ties of affection. The monuments carved to their memory, the flowers that blossom above their sleeping dust, and the tears that bedew their graves, are so many living testimonials of our undying affection for them, and the yearning of the heart for a reunion with them. "She goeth unto the grave to weep there," is the record, not merely of Mary, but of the heart-yearning of humanity in all ages. This human feeling finds its consummation only in a recognized personal reunion in Heaven. The soul craves the assurance of this reunion, and in response to that craving, our funeral hymns take up the blessed strain and whisper it to our hope in sweetest melody. In the faith of it the farewells of the dying chamber are touched with a deeper pathos, and made expressive of a sublimer joy. "Good-by, papa, good-by! we'll all meet again in the morning!" Such was the language of a dying child as the night-shades of death closed around him. Yes, thanks be to God, we'll all meet again in the morning! How the thought thrills the heart! Have our brethren in Christ, with whom we have taken sweet counsel in the day of our pilgrimage, left us to finish the journey weary and alone? It cheers us by the way to know that "we'll all meet again in the morning." Bereaved parent, how often is thy yearning heart filled with a holy calmness as angelic whisperings, wafted from the far-off land, come unto thee, saying, "We'll all meet again in the morning!" "O, wild is the tempest and dark is the night,
But soon will the daybreak be dawning;
Then the friendships of yore
Shall blossom once more,
'And we'll all meet again in the morning!'" The communion of the saints in Heaven is impossible without personal recognition. The communion of the saints of God on earth is one of the richest sources of comfort, as well as one of the most effective means of spiritual nurture in the Church militant. And we are led to look forward to it as one of the grand consummations of the heavenly state. "If the mere conception," says Robert Hall, "of the reunion of good men in a future state, infused a momentary rapture into the mind of Tully; if an airy speculation, for there is reason to fear it had little hold on his convictions, could inspire him with such delight, what may we be expected to feel, who are assured of such an event by the true sayings of God! How should we rejoice in the prospect, the certainty rather, of spending a blissful eternity with those whom we loved on earth; of seeing them emerge from the tomb, and the deeper ruins of the fall, not only uninjured, but refined and perfected, with every tear wiped from their eyes, standing before the throne of God and the Lamb, in white robes, and palms in their hands, crying with a loud voice, Salvation to God who sitteth upon the throne, and to the Lamb, forever and ever! What delight will it afford to renew the sweet counsel we have taken together, to recount the toils of combat, and to approach not the house, but to the throne of God, in company, in order to join in the symphonies of heavenly voices, and lose ourselves among the splendors and fruitions of the beatific vision!" But how would it dampen the ardor of our faith, with what a chilliness would it overspread the otherwise delightful prospect of the communion of saints in Heaven, if there we are not to recognize them as fellow-pilgrims redeemed from earth! Communion implies personal knowledge of each other. If the glorified saint shall have communion with the angels of God, it will be with them as beings who have not only a personal existence, but also a personal history that may be remembered and rehearsed. Thus each angel in Heaven may run back through all the ages of his personal history—never, at any time, losing, even for one moment, the distinct individuality of his consciousness or his experience. And so must it also be with the saints of God. If their earthly history is lost, how shall we know that there ever was to them any such history? How shall we know that they ever were of the Church militant—redeemed and saved by the blood of Christ? But if their past history is known, how can it be separated from the individual person? If this can not be done, then to know the earthly history of the saint passed into Heaven is to obtain personal knowledge of him, so that there must be recognition between him and us. If he has an earthly history, and we have an earthly history, and each is capable of communicating his own history, or of receiving the history of the other, so certain is it that personal recognitions must take place. The Christian can never lose his identity, either on earth or in Heaven. Personal recognition in the future life is essential to the unraveling of the mysteries of this. In the history of the purest and best men that have ever lived upon the earth, there are events, conflicts of mind, and even providential dealings that were dark and mysterious, and in many instances the individuals have gone down to the grave with the darkness unrelieved and the mystery unsolved. Our Saviour said to his disciples, "What I do thou knowest not now; but thou shalt know hereafter." John xiii, 7. Thus, in the heavenly state, there is to be an unveiling of the mysteries of this. We shall know why the good man was afflicted and his life clouded with sorrow, and why202the wicked were permitted to prosper in his wickedness. The knowledge acquired there will be such as to assure us that the Judge of all the earth has done right. II. REVELATION PROCLAIMS IT.
In affirming that revelation proclaims the recognition of friends in Heaven, we do not mean it is any where put into the precise formula of a proposition. Some of the most elementary truths of religion are passed by without any such formal statement; but they are constantly recognized in its general teachings, and, by obvious implication at least, taught in many of its most striking recorded transactions. So it is with the doctrine of spiritual recognition. It is interwoven in the very texture of revelation and runs through the whole scope of its teachings. The mental basis of recognition, namely, personal identity, consciousness, perception and memory, are recognized as being retained in the future state. All this is implied in the song heard by St. John sung in Heaven, "Thou wast slain, and hast redeemed us to God by thy blood, out of every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation." Revelation v, 9. No one could sing this song for himself without a remembrance of the redeeming love of the Saviour, as it found him a lost and ruined sinner upon the earth, and made him a king and a priest unto God; and all this too from among a certain nation, people, tongue, and kindred. Nor could any one join with others in saying "Thou hast redeemed us," without some recognition of each one of the great company as having been once, like themselves, possessed of definite place, and language, and kindred upon the earth. The doctrine of the resurrection, as taught in the Bible, implies both a preserved and a recognized individuality. "Faith sees the bright, eternal doors
Unfold to make his children way;
They shall be clothed with endless life
And shine in everlasting day.
"The trump shall sound, the dead shall wake,
From the cold tomb the slumb'rers spring;
Through Heaven with joy their myriads rise,
And hail their Saviour and their King."
[Dwight.] We do not undertake now to argue the fact of the resurrection of our bodies from the dead. That has already been done. But we now present a single point; namely, that this resurrection implies both a preserved and recognized individuality in the persons so resurrected. Job says, "For I know that my Redeemer liveth, and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth; and though after my skin worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God: whom I shall see for myself, and mine eyes shall behold, and not another," Chapter xix, 25-27. In this early foreshadowing of the resurrection, it is only stated that Job should in his resurrection body see "God;" not that God should see him, or that any body else should see him; but it is manifestly implied not only that he should see, but also that he should be seen. Isaiah is still more explicit: "Thy dead men shall live, together with my dead body shall they rise." Chapter xxvi, 19. It is inconceivable that he should have employed such language if these dead were to rise unknowing each other. What avails rising together, and how can the promise bring cheer or comfort if we shall neither know nor be known in the rising? When Jesus said unto Martha "Thy brother shall rise again"—John xi, 23—her reply was, "I know that he shall rise again in the resurrection at the last day." Chapter xi, 24. Both the Comforter and the comforted in this interview must have had more in mind than an abstract assurance of a mere resurrection. There was implied restoration. The yearning heart of the sister grasped the idea that her loved brother should not only be raised from the dead, but should be restored to her arms. But notice the particularity with which the resurrection is described; how distinct the different classes and individuals stand out. "Marvel not at this, for the hour is coming in the which all that are in the graves shall hear his voice and shall come forth; they that have done good unto the resurrection of life, and they that have done evil unto the resurrection of damnation." John v, 28, 29. "And this is the will of him that sent me, that every one which seeth the Son and believeth on him may have everlasting life, and I will raise him up at the last day." John vi, 40. It is not implied that they shall come up from the grave with characters different from those with which they went down into it, but with the same. For "many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt." Daniel xii, 2. If it should be announced that those sleeping in the night should awake in the morning, the announcement would imply that they should awake the same persons, recognizable and recognizing, as when at nightfall they lay down to sleep. So in the resurrection morning. The announcement that we shall "awake," that we shall "come forth," "rise again," and "the dead, small and great, stand before God," can not by any possibility allow of so great a detraction from our personality as to render recognition impossible. But to settle this question and place it beyond all doubt and all controversy, let us also be reminded of the resurrection of the body of Christ and its recognition by the disciples. This has something more than a formal and technical application to us and to our race. He arose the "first fruits," and the model after which the resurrection bodies of his saints shall be formed, for he "shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body." Phil. iii, 21. Or again it is said, "When he shall appear we shall be like him." John iii, 2. And yet the body raised was identified and recognized by the disciples as "that same Jesus" whom the Jews had taken and crucified with wicked hands. They knew his form, they recognized his voice, they saw the nail prints in his hands and his feet, the scar of the wound in his side; they felt him and found him flesh and bones, they walked with him, and from the summit of Olivet saw him ascend into Heaven. The recognition was perfect. The apostles and the early converts had undoubting faith of it—"so we preach and so ye believed"—1 Cor. xv, 11—was the testimony of Paul. If, then, Christ's resurrection body was clearly distinguished and recognized so as to produce undoubting faith, and if his resurrection body was the type and pattern of ours, surely we shall recognize each other in the resurrection state. The revelations given us concerning the heavenly state clearly imply personal recognition among the saints in Heaven. The gathering of the saints home to Heaven is thus described by our Lord: "Then shall he send his angels, and shall gather together his elect from the four winds, from the uttermost part of the earth to the uttermost part of Heaven." Mark xiii, 27. And they "shall come from the east and west, and shall sit down with Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of Heaven." Matthew viii, 11. "And I will appoint unto you a kingdom as my Father hath appointed unto me, that ye may eat and drink at my table in my kingdom." Luke xxii, 29, 30. Is there not here recognition of individuals? Why, St. Luke adds that the wicked thrust out from this scene "shall see Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, and all the prophets in the kingdom of God." Luke xiii, 28. Surely higher privileges of recognition will not be given to the wicked thrust out of the kingdom of God than to the elect gathered into it. St. Paul teaches us the joy the faithful pastor shall feel in the salvation of those to whom he has preached and for whom he has labored. He addresses them as his "joy and crown," exhorting them to steadfastness, that he might "rejoice in the day of Christ," for "ye also are our rejoicing in the day of the Lord Jesus." 2 Cor. i, 14. And then he adds, "For what is our hope, or joy, or crown of rejoicing? Are not even ye in the presence of the Lord Jesus Christ at his coming?" 1 Thess. ii, 19. But how is this consummation to be reached? The apostle tells them, "He which raised up the Lord Jesus shall raise up us also by Jesus, and shall PRESENT US WITH YOU." 2 Cor. iv, 14. How sadly deluded was the apostle if those saved through his ministry were to be personally unknown to him in the heavenly state! To "present us with you" means something more than gathering up a bundle of abstractions, however holy they may be. But in the delineations of the heavenly state this knowledge is still further implied. Witness the language of the Saviour to his disciples: "In my Father's house are many mansions; I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you I will come again and receive you unto myself, that where I am there ye may be also." John xiv, 2, 3. Witness, also, that comprehensive prayer of the Redeemer for all them that should believe on him—"that they all may be one, as thou, Father, art in me and I in thee, that they also may be one in us. . . . Father, I will that they also whom thou hast given me, be with me where I am, that they may behold my glory which thou hast given me." John xvii, 21, 24. All these expressions imply mutual and endearing intercourse. It is the communion of the heavenly family especially among those members of that great family who have been redeemed from earth, and to whom the bliss of Heaven is heightened by the remembrance of that redemption. Now, then, can it be supposed that they know less of each other than when in the pilgrimage state? Rather is it not certain that in them has been realized that, though once they saw through a glass darkly, now they see face to face, knowing even as they also are known? This only can fulfill the conditions of a heavenly family mingling in social fellowship, beholding each other, sitting, and eating and drinking at the table of their common Lord, and joining with united heart and voice in celebrating the amazing love that sought them out while sinners and aliens, redeeming them to Christ, made them often sit together in heavenly places in the time of their pilgrimage, and now has exalted them to be kings and priests to God and the Lamb forever and forever. And such a family are they who are now gathered into one in Christ Jesus.