CHAPTER TEN

And as philosophers will often write
That heaven is swift and round and burning ever

Canterbury Tales
Franklin's Tale
Geoffrey Chaucer
1394
Translation: Walter W. Skeat

Earth's crammed with heaven,
And every common bush afire with God;
But only he who sees, takes off his shoes,
The rest sit round it and pluck blackberries,
And daub their natural faces unaware
More and more from the first similitude.

Elizabeth Barrett Browning

Heaven is music.

Thomas Campion

It must be so - Plato, thou reason'st well! -
Else whence this pleasing hope, this fond desire,
This longing after immortality?
Or whence this secret dread, and inward horror,
Of falling into naught? Why shrinks thy soul
Back on herself, and starles at destruction?
'Tis the divinity that stirs within us;
'Tis heaven itself, that points out an hereafter,
And intimates eternity to man.
Eternity! thou pleasing, dreadful thought!

Joseph Addison

I find earth not grey but rosy,
Heaven not grim but fair of hue.

Robert Browning

-for love is heaven, and heaven is love.

Lord Byron

For love is heaven, and heaven is love.

Sir Walter Scott

Things learned on earth, we shall practise in heaven.

Robert Browning

Where the wicked cease from troubling,
And the weary are at rest.

Jerusalem the Golden (c.1870)
Gerald Massey

And we have created over you seven heavens.

Koran (c.630)
Mohammed

Hee seemd to bee rapt into the thirde heaven.

George Pettie (1576)

He looked upon himself as approaching to the seventh heaven.

Walter Scott (1824)

Heaven means to be one with God.

Confucious (c. 500 B.C.)

Heaven is the presence of God.

Christina Rossetti (1879)

Heaven is to be at peace with things.

George Santayana (1894)

Heaven is a cheap purchase, whatever it cost.

Thomas Fuller (1732)

Heaven were not Heaven, if we knew what it were.

Sir John Suckling (c.1635)

In heaven I hope to bake my own bread and clean my own linen.

H.D. Thoreau (1841)

Heaven is a place where you can have a little conversation.

Amos Bronson Alcott
As recorded by Thoreau (1860)

If you are ignorant about things of earth, how can you know about things of heaven?

Babylonian Talmud
Sanhedrin (c. 450)

I desire to go to Hell, not to Heaven. In Hell I shall enjoy the company of popes, kings and princes but in Heaven are only beggars, monks, hermits and apostles.

Niccolo Machiavelli
On his deathbed, 1530

To be in hell is to drift;
To be in heaven is to steer.

Shaw
Man and Superman, 1903

Heaven and hell are near man, yea, in him.

Swedenborg (1749)

The Koran allots at least a third of Paradise to well-behaved women.

Lord Byron (1813)

Better to reign in Hell than serve in Heav'n.

Milton
Paradise Lost (1667)

Those who hope for no other life are dead even for this.

Goethe

What a man misses most in heaven is company.

Mark Twain

To get to heaven, turn right and keep straight.

Anon.

Some people are so afraid to die, they never begin to live.

Henry van Dyke

I never think he is quite ready for another world who is altogether weary of this.

Hugh Hamilton

Heaven is a place, but also a condition.

Spencer W. Kimball

I picture heaven as a continuation of the ideal home.

David O. McKay

To think that God cares for nothing but singing and praying, and that some time we will sit on a corner of a cloud twanging a harp through all eternity, and that is to be our heaven, is an absurdity to my mind.

Charles W. Penrose

The heaven we seek is little more than the projection of our homes into eternity.

Stephen L. Richards

Could you gaze into heaven five minutes you would know more than you would by reading all that was ever written on the subject.

Joseph Smith

Welcome joy unspeakable and full of glory.

Donald Cargill
(on the gallows)
Last Words of Saints and Sinners
Herbert Lockyer
Grand Rapids:Kregel Publications, 1969

All arrayed in spotless white,
We will dwell 'mid truth and light.
We will sing the songs of praise;
We will shout in joyous lays.
Earth shall then be cleansed from sin
Ev'ry living thing therein
Shall in love and beauty dwell'
The with joy each heart will swell.

Come, Ye Children of the Lord
James H. Wallis, 1861-1940

Then shall I see and hear and know
All I desired and wished below,
And every pow'r find sweet employ
In that eternal world of joy.

Sweet Is the Work
Isaac Watts, 1674-1748

O my Father, thou that dwellest
In the high and glorious place,
When shall I regain they presence
And again behold thy face?
In thy holy habitation,
Did my spirit once reside?
In my first primeval childhood,
Was I nutured near thy side?

For a wise and glorious purpose
Thou hast placed me here on earth
And withheld the recollection
Of my former friends and birth;
Yet ofttimes a secret something
Whispered, "You're a stranger here,"
And I felt that I had wandered
from a more exalted sphere.

I had learned to call thee Father,
Thru the Spirit from on high,
But, until the key of knowledge
Was restored, I knew not why.
In the heav'ns are parents single?
No, the thought makes reason stare!
Truth is reason; truth eternal
Tells me I've a mother there.

When I leave this frail existence,
When I lay this mortal by,
Father, Mother, may I meet you
In your royal courts on high?
Then, at length, when I've completed
All you sent me forth to do,
With your mutual approbation
Let me come and dwell with you.

O My Father
Eliza R. Snow, 1804-1887

I am a child of God.
His promises are sure;
Celestial glory shall be mine
If I can but endure.

I Am a Child of God
Naomi W. Randall, b. 1908
(c)1957 LDS

I get sort of homesick sometimes
for the home I had before my birth.
For my other Father and Mother
that I left to come to earth.

I miss all the heavenly peace
of that place where no pain can be found.
Where there is no hurt and there is no hate
but only love around.

Till it's time to go back home,
there's one thing to do, it's clear.
I'll try with my heart, I'll try with my hands
to make a Heaven here.

Homesick
Lyrics by Carol Lynn Pearson
(c)1977 by Embyro Music

And that same sociality which exists among us here will exist among us there, only it will be coupled with eternal glory, which glory we do not now enjoy.
........
.....But there are no angels who minister to this earth but those who do belong or have belonged to it. The angels do not reside on a planet like this earth; But they reside in the presence of God, on a globe like a sea of glass and fire, where all things for their glory are manifest, past, present, and future, and are continually before the Lord.
The place where God resides is a great Urim and Thummim. This earth, in its sanctified and immortal state, will be made like unto crystal and will be a Urim and Thummim to the inhabitants who dwell thereon, whereby all things pertaining to an inferior kingdom, or all kingdoms of a lower order, will be manifest to those who dwell on it; and this earth will be Christ's.

Then the white stone mentioned in Revelation 2:17, will become a Urim and Thummim to each individual who receives one, whereby things pertaining to a higher order of kingdoms will be made known.....

Doctrine & Covenants: Section 130
Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
(c)1981, Salt Lake City, Utah

Facing Death and the Life Thereafter

The moment we take our last breath on earth we take our first in heaven...we will recognize and be recognized...
When our body ceases to function and we are dead, the spirit of the believer is not asleep. Our flesh and bones and all the intricate and wonderful parts God has made are the dwelling place of the spirit of the believer. When we leave our bodies, we depart to be with Christ...some day our bodies will be renewed and changed, like that of the resurrected body of Jesus Christ...Our mortal bodies will become immortal. This means we will be changed in our appearance, but not in our essence. This is why we will recognize people we knew here on earth...
...our eternal heavenly home will be bright and beautiful.
...In heaven there will be no more sorrowful seperations.
...We will have a family reunion like no other!
Even when we allow our imaginations to run wild on the joys of heaven, we find that our minds are incapable of conceiving what it will really be like. We are imprisoned by our earthly limitations...
The first great benefit of death for Christians is permanent freedom from evil...
We will be like (Jesus Christ) in knowledge...
...there will be no sectarian worship...
...we won't get knowledge second hand...
...there will be no fear...
...there will be no night...
...there will be no more suffering or death... Heaven is the city of our God.

The Secret Kingdom

...there is absolute abundance in the Kingdom of God...He is above the laws of nature and any restrictions...He can create from nothing...
Some day, when the kingdom is fully manifested...speaking will not be necessary. The thought will become the deed, as it is in heaven today...
...In 1972 (Dr. Richard E. Eby)...fell from a second-story window and split his skull. He told me that he died (whether for minutes or hours, he doesn't know) but miraculously returned to life and today is perfectly healthy and normal.
During the experience, Dr. Eby related, his spirit left his body and apparently went to heaven, or paradise. As one would expect, he found it to be a most beautiful place. At one stage he enetered a field of flowers and as he walked along, he was overwhelmed by their beauty. "Wouldn't it be wonderful if i had a bunch and could smell them?" he thought. But as he started to bend over, he looked at his hand, and it was laready full of flowers.
At another point, he was thinking how good it would be to go to a distant valley and, behold, he was there...
...our minds can't comprehend the perfection that will exist then. We can't speak about it. Our ideas and words are still too limited.
But think of this: What would it be like if all the energies of men and all creation were founded 100 percent on love? Or consider the reverse: What if there were not a single trace of hatred anywhere?
That is the world God created for us. No pride, no greed, no fear, no crime, no war, no disease, no hunger, no shortage.

We Are Immortal

The spiritual world appears to be quite like the natural world, although it is superior in many ways. There are cities and homes, mountains and valleys, gardens and trees, grasses and flowers, birds and other animals, food and drink, etc. There is useful activity and recreation, eating and sleeping, love and sex. But the spiritual life is more excellent than this life, and its quality depends entirely on the kind of life that we have chosen in this world...

The spiritual world "appears" to be so much like the natural world that many can hardly believe, at first, that they have passed on to a spiritual existence...
...the things seen are not just forms or pictures but creations in every sense of the word, even to the finest details. Fruit is eaten, birds sing, the odor of the flowers is everywhere, the earth is solid beneath their feet, trees give shade, and so on...
...the homes and other posessions of the angels are permanent because the angels are in a permanent state, unlike new arrivals in the spiritual world...
...travel in the spiritual world is actually an induced change of mental state...

There are no space barriers...spirits from our world can even talk with spirits of other worlds if it is permitted...
Newly arrived spirits find a new freedom which they seldom or never enjoyed on earth. Their real loves finally determine all their actions, and the nature of their associates. This is the judgement. In other words, newly arrived spirits are not brought into a "courtroom" before the Lord....every action, every facial expression, every bodily motion, exhibits their true nature. In this way, they judge themselves, and want nothing more than to be themselves. Everyone becomes an embodiment of his own particular ®MDUL¯secret®MDNM¯ preferences, and associates with those who have similar preferences...
...all those in the spiritual world communicate with each other through the speech of ideas of thought...
...all those who are prepared for heaven are spiritually conjoined by the Lord to their perfect mates. These may or may not be their earthly mates, depending on whether or not there is a real spiritual affinity between them. This spiritual marriage is far superior to any earthly marriage...an angel is not one person, but a heavenly couple who have been spiritually united for eternity...a married couple in heaven often appears from a distance as one person...

A SEXLESS HEAVEN IS IMPOSSIBLE...conjugal love is holy, pure, and clean, as well as infinitely more delightful than any comparable experiences between man and wife on earth...true conjugal love, even in its ultimate sexual expression, is a chaste love...
The women in heaven are the most beautiful living beings in all creation. The men are in perfect forms of manliness and rugged virility...

...in order to enter heaven, we must have heaven within us while on earth...
...there is no such place or state as purgatory...

Adjuvant A.C. Ferber
We Are Immortal
(the philosophy of Emanuel Swedenborg)
(c)1975 by Adolph C. Ferber
Exposition Press, Inc.
Hicksville, N.Y.

Chapter Eleven

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