School of the Hereafter
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motion agencies for good. In the hereafter the action and reaction of
all these will be seen.
Of every gift that God has bestowed, leading men to unselfish
effort, a record is kept in heaven. To trace this in its wide-spreading
lines, to look upon those who by our efforts have been uplifted and
ennobled, to behold in their history the outworking of true principles—
this will be one of the studies and rewards of the heavenly school.
There we shall know even as also we are known. There the loves
and sympathies that God has planted in the soul will find truest and
sweetest exercise. The pure communion with holy beings, the harmo-
nious social life with the blessed angels and with the faithful ones of
all ages, the sacred fellowship that binds together “the whole family in
heaven and earth”—all are among the experiences of the hereafter.
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There will be music there, and song, such music and song as, save
in the visions of God, no mortal ear has heard or mind conceived.
“As well the singers as the players on instruments shall be there.”
Psalm 87:7
. “They shall lift up their voice, they shall sing for the
majesty of the Lord.”
Isaiah 24:14
.
“For the Lord shall comfort Zion: He will comfort all her waste
places; and He will make her wilderness like Eden, and her desert
like the garden of the Lord; joy and gladness shall be found therein,
thanksgiving, and the voice of melody.”
Isaiah 51:3
.
There every power will be developed, every capability increased.
The grandest enterprises will be carried forward, the loftiest aspirations
will be reached, the highest ambitions realized. And still there will
arise new heights to surmount, new wonders to admire, new truths to
comprehend, fresh objects to call forth the powers of body and mind
and soul.
All the treasures of the universe will be open to the study of God’s
children. With unutterable delight we shall enter into the joy and the
wisdom of unfallen beings. We shall share the treasures gained through
ages upon ages spent in contemplation of God’s handiwork. And the
years of eternity, as they roll, will continue to bring more glorious
revelations. “Exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think”
(
Ephesians 3:20
) will be, forever and forever, the impartation of the
gifts of God.
“His servants shall serve Him.”
Revelation 22:3
. The life on earth
is the beginning of the life in heaven; education on earth is an initiation