Beautiful Heaven Quotes, Part 2

Beautiful Heaven Quotes, Part 2

Compiled by Grace Gems

A glance into heavenly bliss! ("Solitude Sweetened" by James Meikle, 1730-1799)
All at once I find myself in an unbounded flood of bliss, a spacious sea of glory--lost in wonder amidst ineffable delights, and transported with the raptures of seraphic harmony! While all His saints rejoice in His excellent glory--what ardor glows in every soul, and what rapture swells in every song! O the wondrous displays of His perfections--the manifestations of His goodness--the outlettings of His love!
Here we received out of His fullness--grace upon grace. and glory upon glory. Our heavenly possession is worthy of our liberal Giver. We have a kingdom which cannot be moved, an undefiled inheritance, which does not fade away, a city with foundations, whose builder and maker is God, garments of glory, a crown of righteousness, the tree of life to feed upon, the fountain of life to drink of, the garden of God to walk in, life above the reach of death, health secured from sickness, eternal pleasure without pain!
Our bodies are immortal, our souls are immaculate, our senses are sanctified, our conceptions are spiritualized, our faculties are enlarged, and our whole soul is glorious!
Our past bliss is with us in the sweet remembrance, our present bliss enchants us in the enjoyment, and our future bliss is present with us in the full assurance of our eternal felicity.
Thus we are forever blessed to the highest degree. We are above all fear, beyond anxiety and doubt, and fixed above all change!
Our service is sincere, our adorations are ardent, our knowledge is profound and satisfying.
Rapture rushes in at every part!
Our eyes are ravished with seeing the King in His beauty; our ears are ravished with hearing the songs of the inner temple; our nostrils are ravished with the fragrance of the Rose of Sharon, the plant of renown; our feet are ravished with standing in His holy place; our hands are ravished with handling of the word of life; and our mouths are ravished with the wine of our Beloved, which goes down sweetly--causing our souls to shout aloud, and our lips to sing and never cease. Our experience of His fullness, our vision of His perfections and glory--constitute our most exalted bliss, and are the heaven of heavens!
O what torrents of eternal love teem from the glorious throne into our souls! O the pleasure that is in His presence! O the exuberant rivers of joy that flow at His right hand!
O love! never to be forgotten--which has brought me safely through so many winding labyrinths and crooked paths, in sight of so many enemies--in spite of a tempting devil, the accusations of my sins, the rebellion of my lusts, the carnality of my affections, and the weakness of all my graces-- to dwell at last forever in heavenly bliss!
O eternity! Once the comfort of our longing expectations--now the transport of our enlarged souls! For we are forever with the Lord, beholding His unclouded face, wearing His divine name, drinking at the streams of His pleasures, eating of His hidden manna, sitting beneath the Tree of Life, basking under the beams of the Sun of Righteousness, singing hallelujahs to Him who loved us, who washed us from our sins in His blood, and brought us here to be with Him forever!
O state of complete happiness and consummate bliss!
We can't even imagine! (John Newton, "The Present and Future Rest of True Believers")
Our most enlarged ideas of our future glory are faint and imperfect. Who can describe or conceive the happiness of Heaven? It will be as unlike as possible--to this wilderness of sin and sorrow where we are now confined. Here on earth, we are in a warfare--but then we shall enter into perfect rest. We now cry out, "O that I had wings like a dove! For then would I flee away and be at REST." (Psalm 55:6)
Heaven will be a rest from all SIN. No 'unclean thing' shall ever defile or disturb us forever! We shall be free from all indwelling sin. This alone would be worth dying for! Indwelling sin is a burden under which all the redeemed must groan, while they sojourn in the body.
And those who are most spiritual--are most deeply affected with shame, humiliation, and grief, on account of their sins--because they have the clearest views of the holiness of God, of the spirituality of His law, of the love of Christ, and of the deceitfulness of their own hearts! Therefore the Apostle Paul, though perhaps in grace and talents, in zeal and usefulness, was distinguished above all saints--accounted himself the 'chief of sinners,' (1 Timothy 1:15) 'less than the least of all saints,' (Ephesians 3:8) and cried out under the disparity he felt between what he actually was--and what he desired to be, "O wretched man that I am! Who will free me from this life that is dominated by sin!" (Romans 7:24)
But we shall not carry this burden of sin beyond the grave. The hour of death shall free us from our inbred enemies (the inseparable attendants of this frail perishing nature) which now trouble us, and we shall see them no more forever!
Heaven will also be a rest from all outward AFFLICTIONS, which, though necessary, and, under the influence of Divine grace, are profitable--yet they are grievous to bear. But in Heaven, they will no more be necessary. Where there is no sin--there shall be no sorrow. Then, "God will remove all of their sorrows, and there will be no more death or sorrow or crying or pain. For the old world and its evils are gone forever!" (Revelation 21:4)
Heaven will also be a rest from SATAN'S TEMPTATIONS. How busy is this adversary of God and man--what various arts and schemes he employs! What surprising force, what constant assiduity does he employ to ensnare, distress, and terrify those who by grace have escaped from his servitude! He says, like Pharaoh of old, "I will pursue, I will overtake, I will destroy!" (Exodus 15:9) He follows them to the last stage of life--but he can follow them no farther. The moment of their departure out of the body--shall place them beyond his reach forever!
Heaven will also be a rest from UNSATISFIED DESIRES. Here on earth, the more we drink--the more we thirst. But in heaven, our highest wishes shall be crowned and exceeded! We shall rest in full communion with Him whom we love, and shall no more complain of interruptions and imperfections, and a careless heart.
Here on earth--we obtain a little glimpse of His presence, when He brings us into His banqueting-house, and spreads His banner of love over us! And how gladly would we remain in such a desirable frame! How unwilling are we to 'come down' from the mount! But these pleasing and holy seasons are quickly ended, and often give place to some sudden unexpected trial, which robs us of all that sweetness in which we lately rejoiced. But when we ascend the holy hill of God above--we shall never again 'come down'! We shall be forever with the Lord, never offend Him, and never be separated from Him again! "I will see Your face in righteousness; when I awake, I will be fully satisfied with Your presence!" (Psalm 17:15) Here on earth--we find a mixture of evil in our most holy moments! When we approach nearest to God, we have the liveliest sense of our defilement, and how much we fall short in every branch of duty, and in every temper of our hearts. But when we shall see Jesus as He is--we shall be fully transformed into His image, and be perfectly like Him!
"Yes, dear friends, we are already God's children, and we can't even imagine what we will be like when Christ returns. But we do know that when He comes--we will be like Him, for we will see Him as He really is!" 1 John 3:2
"No eye has seen, no ear has heard, and no mind has imagined--what God has prepared for those who love Him!" 1 Corinthians 2:9
Immanuel's Land! (Gene Fedele, edited)
What can be more delightful for the weary pilgrim who is hastening to his heavenly mansion, than to meditate on the unspeakable wonders of his future home beyond the skies? There is much of Immanuel's Land to engage our hearts in sacred contemplation, even while we sojourn and toil in this world as strangers and pilgrims.
Heaven is the most cheering and attractive occupation to which we may set our hearts. Yet I wonder why many of us fail to avail ourselves of the enjoyment and spiritual strength afforded in such a holy pursuit.
Could it be that the allurements of the world keep us from recognizing how near we are to the unseen, supernatural, and eternal state? Instead of dwelling on the glorious world to come--do we focus on the mere momentary pleasures of time? We do well to examine ourselves, with judgment day honesty, that we may check the affections of our heart.
It is the influence of the future heavenly realities exercised in our hearts and lives, which gives vitality and beauty to our religion. It reveals genuine piety, as our aim is in contrast to the passing pleasures of this fleeting earth. It affords light along the path of life's dark trials, and points to the realms of bliss, where there shall be no more tears, and sorrow is banished forevermore!
The glorious rest that remains for our earth wearied souls; the sweet consolation of the redeemed in glory; the unending fellowship of that precious society of saints; the incalculable riches laid up in store for us to receive on that glorious day --are all facets of Immanuel's Land, that we might set an adoring eye towards the one object of our affections, Christ Jesus our Lord!
Let us, therefore, 'set our affections on things above' and fix our hearts steadfastly upon the heavenly joys and glory of Immanuel's Land!
Not our home! (David Harsha, "Immanuel's Land")
"For this world is not our home; we are looking forward to our city in Heaven, which is yet to come!" Hebrews 13:14
We are strangers and pilgrims on the earth.
This present world is not our home. We are coming up from the wilderness with our faces Zionward; we are traveling to the Celestial City!
Our path is rough, but the Savior sustains us.
Our pilgrimage lies through a wilderness, but faith cheers us with a view of the glorious rest of the redeemed in our Father's house, in mansions of blessedness!
Let this consideration animate us amid the conflicts of life. In a little while we shall obtain a joyous entrance into the glorious rest above. The storms of life's ocean will soon carry us into the haven of peace, where there is no trouble.
The language of inspiration is, "Get up, go away! For this is not your resting place, because it is defiled, it is ruined beyond all remedy!" Micah 2:10
Your Savior, pilgrim Christian, has prepared for you a nobler rest than this polluted world!
In His Father's house are many spacious mansions, where your happy spirit, after tasting the bitter cup of life's sorrow, shall rest in eternal blessedness!
"We would rather be absent from the body, and at home with the Lord!" 2 Corinthians 5:8
"For this world is not our home; we are looking forward to our city in Heaven, which is yet to come!" Hebrews 13:14
The Rest! (James Smith, "The Rest!" 1865)
"There remains therefore a rest for the people of God." Hebrews 4:9
We shall consider these words as referring to HEAVENLY rest: our Father's house, our Savior's home, and our eternal dwelling-place! To the weary and way-worn--there is something delightful in the thought of REST, and they love to think of Heaven as the place where they shall "rest from their labors." REST gives us the idea of repose--the calm, quiet repose of the soul; refreshment--the refreshment of the exhausted spirit after conflict, sickness, or toil; restoration to vigor--after debility, languor, and fainting. Heaven will be a rest from sin--which will no more grieve us; from sorrow--which will no more trouble and distress us; from fears--which will no more harass and perplex us; and from conflicts--which will no more agitate and suppress us. It will be a rest with God in His glory, with Jesus in His immediate presence, with saints and holy angels in full perfection and blessedness. This rest is FUTURE--it remains for the people of God. This rest is the object of our hope and DESIRE. We look forward to it, with holy longing and cheering anticipations. This rest is PERFECT--free from all mixture of anything that will agitate, give pain, or cause grief. This rest is UNINTERRUPTED--nothing will ever occur to disturb, distress, or agitate us any more. This rest is GLORIOUS--as bright as the meridian sun, as balmy as the most pleasant morning, as glowing with holiness, splendor, and majesty. This rest is ETERNAL--and this is best of all. The possibility of a change, of a return to former scenes--would spoil all. But that rest will be enduring--as changeless as the Divine nature, and as glorious as the Divine perfections. Blessed be God for such a rest for the weary, suffering, and downcast believer in Jesus! Oh, to keep the eye fixed upon it, and the heart expecting it--amidst all the troubles and trials of time! This rest is FOR the redeemed people of God. They are now a poor, tried, tempted, and restless people; strangers and pilgrims upon the earth, as all their fathers were. Satan tempts them, sinners try them, fears harass them, Providence perplexes them, and they often cry out, "O that I had wings like a dove--then would I fly away and be at rest!"
Believer, let the prospect of this eternal glorious rest, cheer you in toil and trouble! Your work will soon be finished, your trouble will soon come to an end--and then rest--the glorious rest, remains for you! Let your Heavenly rest, quicken your pace homewards! You are going to a rest--a perfect, uninterrupted, and eternal rest--a rest in Heaven, a rest with Jesus, a rest in the presence of your God forever! Therefore gird up the loins of your mind, and press on towards the mark, cheered by the prospect of the end of the race. Remember, Christian, this rest is SECURE, for Jesus has taken possession of it for you. "I am going," said He, "to prepare a place for you." Yes, Jesus has gone there for you, He has taken possession in your name, He is preparing your place, and will soon come and receive you to Himself! Remember too, that it is NEAR--very near. Perhaps much nearer than you may think! You may be sighing, sorrowing, striving, wrestling, doubting, fearing, and cast down today; and tomorrow you may be in your Heavenly rest! Today, you may be lying like Lazarus, at the rich man's gate, full of sores; tomorrow, you may be basking in the beams of Immanuel's glory! Today, you may be on the bed of sickness, suffering, and pain; tomorrow, you may be in the presence of Jesus, where there is no more pain, neither sorrow nor crying! Who can tell how near we all are to our Heavenly and everlasting rest? Remember also, that your very trials, toils, and sufferings here on earth, may SWEETEN your rest to you! And that soon, very soon--you may be rejoicing over your present sorrows, and praising God for what now fills you with grief and sadness. Things will look very different there--from what they do here. Never, never forget, then, in your darkest nights, in your most trying days, in the midst of every storm and tempest, when passing over burning sands and under a scorching sky--that there remains a rest for the people of God, and a rest for you! "Arise and depart; for this is not your resting place, because it is defiled, it is ruined, beyond all remedy!" "There the wicked cease from troubling; and there the weary are at rest!"
Playing with monkeys and parrots! (Thomas Watson, "The Christian's Charter")
"You will fill me with joy in Your presence, with eternal pleasures at Your right hand!" Psalm 16:11
Eternity is the highest link of the saint's happiness! The believer shall be forever bathing in the pure and pleasant fountain of bliss! There is neither intermission nor expiration--in the joys of Heaven! When once God has set His plants in the celestial paradise--He will never again pluck them up! You may sooner separate light from the sun--than a glorified saint from Jesus Christ. O eternity, eternity! what a never-failing spring of delight will that be!
The glory of Heaven is infinitely satisfying! There is neither lack, nor excess. This cannot be properly said of anything but Heaven. You who look to the world for satisfaction--remember what the creature says, "It is not in me!" Heaven alone, is commensurate to the vast desires of the soul. Here the Christian cries out in a divine ecstasy, "I have enough, my Savior, I have enough!" O eternity, eternity! what a never-failing spring of delight will that be!
"You feed them from the abundance of Your own house, letting them drink from Your rivers of delight!" Psalm 36:8. Not drops--but rivers! These alone can quench the thirst. Every day in Heaven, shall be a feast! There is no lack at this feast! Here is soul-satisfaction! O the glory of this Paradise! It is more than we can ever imagine! There is: unspotted purity, unstained honor, unparalleled beauty!
There will God give us infinitely more than we would ever dare to ask or hope! Is not this enough? What more could we ask for! A man could ask for million of worlds--but in Heaven God will give us more than we can ask--nay, more than we can ever imagine! We could imagine-- what if all the dust of the earth were turned to silver; what if every stone were a wedge of gold; what if every flower were a ruby; what if every blade of grass were a pearl; what if every sand in the sea were a diamond! Yet all this is nothing--compared to the glory of Heaven! It is as impossible for any man in his deepest thoughts, to comprehend glory--as it would be for him to measure the Heavens with a ruler; or drain the oceans with a thimble. O incomparable place!
But why do I expatiate? These things are unspeakable and full of glory! Had I as many tongues as hairs on my head, I could never sufficiently set forth the beauty and resplendency of this blissful inheritance! Such is the excellence of this celestial paradise, that if the angels would take up their brushes to delineate it in its colors, they would but stain and eclipse the glory of it! I have given you only the dark shadow the picture--and that but crudely and imperfectly!
How should we be inflamed with desire to taste of those rare and sweet delicacies, which are above at God's right hand! O what madness is it for men to spin out their time, and tire out their strength--in pursuing the vanities of this world! Who would, for the indulging of a lust--forfeit so glorious an inheritance! Lay the whole world in scales with Heaven--it is lighter than vanity!
It is reported of Caesar, that traveling through a certain city, as he passed along, he saw some of the women playing with monkeys and parrots; at which sight he said, "What! have they no children to play with!"
So I say, when I see men toying with these earthly and beggarly vanities, "What! are there not more glorious and sublime things to mind!"
What a Heaven! (J. A. James, "The Practical Believer Delineated")
Heaven will consist of the moral perfection of the soul, perfect knowledge, perfect holiness, perfect love, perfect likeness to Christ, perfection of the body in incorruptibility, immortality, glory, and spirituality; the presence of God in the full manifestation of His glory, the beatific vision of Christ, the fellowship of angels and all the redeemed, the joint worship of the heavenly multitudes, the perfect service of Christ, without interruption, imperfection, or cessation, complete freedom from pain, toil, hunger, thirst, anxiety, fear, sorrow, death!
Such is the substance of heavenly felicity. Take any one of them by itself--and each is a Heaven! Add them altogether--and what a Heaven!
How pure! How elevated! How felicitous!
Where is my mamma? (by D.L. Moody)
What makes Heaven attractive for us?
It won't be the pearly gates!
It won't be the streets paved with transparent gold!
These would not satisfy us! If these were all--we would not want to stay in Heaven forever.
I heard the other day, of a little girl whose mother was very sick. While she was sick, one of the neighbors took the child away to stay with her, until the mother would be well again. But instead of getting better--the mother died! They thought it best, that they should not tell the child nor take her home, until the funeral was all over.
So a while afterward, they brought the little girl home. First she went into the sitting-room to find her mother; then she went into the parlor; and then she went from one end of the house to the other--and could not find her mother. At last she said, "Where is my mamma?" And when they told her that her mamma had died, the little girl wanted to go back to the neighbor's house again. Home had lost its attractions to her--since her mother was no longer there!
Just so--it is not the streets of gold and the pearly gates that are going to make Heaven attractive. It is the being with Jesus, our beloved Redeemer!
"And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with Me--that you also may be where I am!" John 14:3
"I desire to depart and be with Christ--which is better by far!" Philippians 1:23
"And so we will be with the Lord forever!" 1 Thessalonians 4:17