Heaven's Inhabitants

HEAVEN'S INHABITANTS
by D.L. Moody

The society of heaven will be select. No one who
studies Scripture can doubt that. There are a good many
kinds of aristocracy in this world, but the aristocracy
of heaven will be the aristocracy of holiness. The
humblest sinner on earth will be an aristocrat there.
It says in the fifty-seventh chapter of Isaiah: For
thus saith the High and Lofty One that inhabiteth
eternity, whose name is holy; I will dwell in the high
and holy place, with him that is of a contrite and
humble spirit. Now what could be plainer than that? No
one that is not of a contrite and humble spirit will
dwell with God in His high and holy place.

If there is anything that ought to make heaven near to
Christians, it is knowing that God and all their loved
ones will be there. What is it that makes home so
attractive? Is it because we have a beautiful home? Is
it because we have beautiful lawns? Is it because we
have beautiful trees around that home? Is it because we
have beautiful paintings upon the walls inside? Is it
because we have beautiful furniture. Is that all that
makes home so attractive and so beautiful? Nay, it is
the loved ones in it; it is the loved ones there.

I remember after being away from home some time, I went
back  to see my honored mother, and I thought in going
back I would take her by surprise, and steal in
unexpectedly upon her, but when I found she had gone
away, the old place didn't seem like  home at all. I
went into one room and then into another, and I went
all through the house, but I could not find that loved
mother, and I said to some member of the family, "Where
is  mother?" and they said she had gone away. Well,
home had lost its charm to me; it was that mother that
made home so sweet to me, and it is the loved ones that
make home so sweet to every  one; it is the loved ones
that are going to make heaven so sweet to all of us.
Christ is there; God, the Father, is there; and many,
many that were dear to us that lived on earth are there
- and we shall be with them by and by.

We find clearly in the 18th chapter of Matthew, and the
10th  verse, that the angels are there: Take heed that
ye despise not one of these little ones; for I say unto
you, that in heaven, their angels do always behold the
face of my Father which is in  heaven.

Their angels do always behold the Father's face! We
shall have good company up there; not only they that
have been redeemed, but those that have never been
lost; those that have never known what it is to
transgress; those who have never known what it is to be
disobedient; those who have obeyed Him from the very
morning of creation.

It says in another place, when Gabriel came down to
tell Zachariah that he was to be the father of the
forerunner of Jesus Christ, Zachariah doubted him, he
had never been doubted before; and that doubt is met
with the declaration: "I am Gabriel, that standeth in
the presence of the Almighty." What a glorious thing to
be able to say!

It has been said that there will be three things which
will surprise us when we get to heaven--one, to find
many there that we did not expect to find there;
another, to find some not there whom we had expected; a
third, and perhaps the greatest wonder, will be to find
ourselves there.

A poor woman once told Rowland Hill that the way to
heaven was short, easy and simple; comprising only
three steps--out of self, into Christ, and into glory.
We have a shorter way now--out of self and into Christ,
and we are there. As a dead man cannot inherit an
estate, no more can a dead soul inherit heaven. The
soul must be resurrected in Christ. Among the good whom
we hope to meet in heaven, we are told, there will be
every  variety of character, taste, and disposition.
There is not one mansion there; but many. There is not
one gate to heaven, but many. There are not only gates
on the north; but on the east three gates, and on the
west three gates, and on the sough three gates. From
opposite quarters of the theological compass, from
opposite quarters of the religious world, from opposite
quarters of human life and character, through different
expressions of their common faith and hope, through
different modes of conversion, through different
portions of the Holy Scripture, will the weary
travelers enter the Heavenly City, and meet each 
other--"not without surprise"--on the shores of the
same river of life. And on those shores they will find
a tree bearing, not the same kind of fruit always and
at all times, but "twelve  manner of fruits," for every
different turn of mind, --for the patient sufferer, for
the active servant, for the holy and humble
philosopher, for the spirits of just men now at last
made  perfect; and "the leaves of the tree shall be for
the healing," not of one single church or people only,
not for the Scotchman or the Englishman only, but for
the "healing of the nations,"--the Frenchman, the
German, the Italian, the Russian--for all those from
whom it may be, in this, its fruits have been farthest
removed, but who, nevertheless, have "hungered  and
thirsted after righteousness,: and who therefore "shall
be filled."

An eminent living divine says: "When I was a boy, I
thought of heaven as a great, shining city, with vast
walls and domes and spires, and with nobody in it
except white-robed angels, who were strangers to me. By
and by my little brother dies; and I thought of a great
city with walls and domes and spires, and a flock of
cold, unknown angels, and one little fellow that I was
acquainted with. He was the only one I knew at that
time. Then another brother dies; and there were two
that I knew. Then my acquaintances began to die; and
the flock continually grew. But it was not till I had
sent one of my little children to his Heavenly
Parent-God-that I began to think I had got a little in
myself. A second went, a third went; a fourth went; and
by that time I had so many acquaintances in heaven,
that I did not see any more walls and domes and spires.
I began to think of the residents of the celestial
city. And now there have so many of my acquaintances
gone there, that it sometimes seems to me that I know
more in heaven than I do on earth."

WE WILL LIVE FOREVER.

It says in the 12th chapter of John and the 26th verse:
If any man serve me, let him follow me; and where I am,
there shall also my servant be.

I cannot agree with some people, that Paul has been
sleeping in the grave, and is still there, after the
storms of eighteen hundred years. I cannot believe that
he who loved the Master, who had such a burning zeal
for Him, has been separated from Him in an unconscious
state, "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 has given me." This is Christ's
prayer.

Now when a man believes on the Lord Jesus Christ, he
gets eternal life. A great many people make a mistake
right there; "He that believeth on the Son
hath--h-a-t-h--hath eternal life;" it does not say he
shall have it when he comes to die; it is in the
present tense; it is mine now--if I believe. He is the
gift of God, that is enough. You can't bury the gift of
God; you can't buy eternal life. All the grave-diggers
in the world can't dig a grave large enough and deep
enough to hold eternal life; all the coffin-makers of
the world can't make a coffin large enough and deep
enough to hold eternal life; that is mine; it is mine!

I believe when Paul said "To be absent from the body
and present with the Lord," he meant what he said; that
he was not going to be separated from Him for eighteen
hundred years; that spirit that he got when he was
converted he got from a new life and a new nature, and
they could not lay that away in the sepulcher; they
could not bury that that flew to meet its Maker. It may
be he is not satisfied, and will not be until the
resurrection, but  Christ says: "He will see then the
travail of his soul, and be satisfied." Even the body
shall be raised; this body, sown in dishonor, shall be
raised in glory; this body which has put n  corruption,
shall put on incorruption, and this mortal shall put on
immortality. It is only a question of time. The great
morning of the world will, by-and-by, dawn upon the
earth, and  the dead shall come forth and shall hear
the voice of Him who is the resurrection and the life.

Paul says: If our earthly house of this tabernacle were
dissolved, we have a building of God, an house not made
with hands, eternal in the heavens. He could take down
the clay temple, and leave that, but he had a better
house. He says in one place: I am in a strait betwixt
two; having a desire to depart and be with Christ,
which is far better; nevertheless to abide in the flesh
is more needful for me. To me, it is a sweet thought to
think that death does not separate us from the Master.
A great many people are living continually in the
bondage of death, but if I have eternal life, death
cannot touch that; it may touch the house I live in; it
may change my countenance and send my body away to the
grave, but it cannot  touch this new life. To me it is
very sad to think that so many professed Christians
look upon death as they do.

I received some time ago a letter from a friend in
London, and I thought, as I read it, I would take it
and read it to other people and see if I could not get
them to look upon death as this friend does. He lost a
loved mother. In England it is a very common thing to
send out cards in memory of the departed ones, and they
put upon them great borders of black-- sometimes a
quarter of an inch of black border--but this friend has
gone and put on gold; he did not put on black at all;
she had gone to the golden city, and so he just put on
a golden border; and I think it is a good deal better
than black. I think when our friends die, instead of
putting a great black border upon our memorials to make
them look dark, it would be better for us to put on
gold.

It is not death at all; it is life. Some one said to a
person dying; "Well, you are in the land of the living
yet." "No," said he, "I am in the land of the dying
yet, but I am going to  the land of the living; they
live there and never die." This is the land of sin and
death and tears, but up yonder they never die. It is
perpetual life; it is unceasing joy.

"It is a glorious thing to die," was the testimony of
Hannah More on her deathbed, though her life had been
sown thick with the rarest friendships, and age had not
so weakened her memory as to cause her to forget those
little hamlets among the cliffs of her  native hills,
or the mission-schools she had with such perseverance
established, and where she would be so sadly missed.

As some one has said:
		"There is a soft, a down bed;
			"Tis fair as breath of even;
		A couch for weary mortals spread,
		Where they may rest the aching head,
			And find repose--in heaven!
		"There is an hour of peaceful rest,
			To mourning wanderers given.
		There is a joy for souls distressed
		A balm for every wounded breast,
			"Tis found alone--in heaven!"


KNOWING OUR FRIENDS.

Many are anxious to know if they will recognize their
friends in heaven. In the 8th chapter of Matthew and
the 11th verse, we read: And I say unto you, that many
shall come from the east and west, and shall sit down
with Abraham and Isaac and Jacob, in the kingdom of
heaven.

Here we find that Abraham, who lived so many hundreds
of years before Christ, had not lost his identity, and
Christ tells us that the time is coming when they shall
come from the east and west and shall sit down with
Abraham and Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of God.
These men had not lost their identity; they were known
as Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. And if you will turn to
that wonderful scene that took place on the Mount of 
Transfiguration, you will find that Moses, who had been
gone from the earth 1,500 years, was there; Peter,
James and John saw him on the Mount of Transfiguration,
they saw him as Moses; he had not lost his name. God
says over here is Isaiah, "I will not blot your names
out of the Lamb's Book of Life." We have names in
heaven; we are going to bear our names there, we will
be known.

Over in the Psalms it says: When I wake in His likeness
I shall be satisfied. That is enough. Want is written
on every human heart down here, but there we will be
satisfied. You may hunt the world from one end to the
other, and you will not find a man or woman who is
satisfied; but in heaven we will want for nothing. It
says in the 2nd chapter of the 1st Epistle of John,
speaking to followers of Christ:

"Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not
yet appear what we shall be: but we know that when He
shall appear, we shall be like Him; for we shall see
Him as he is. "And every man that hath this hope in him
purifieth himself, even as he is pure."

Moreover, it seems highly probable; indeed I think it
is clearly taught by Scripture, that a great many
careless Christians will get into heaven. There will be
a great many who will get in by the skin of their
teeth, or as Lot was saved from Sodom, so as by fire.
They will barely get in, but there will be no crown of
rejoicing. But everybody is not going to rush into
heaven. There are a great many who won't be there. You
know we have a class of people who tell us they are
going into the kingdom of God, whether they are
converted or not. They tell us that they are on their
way; that they are going there. They tell us all are
going there; that the good, the bad and indifferent are
all going into the kingdom, and that they will all be
there; that there is no difference; and, in other
words--if I may be allowed  to use plain language--they
give God the lie. But they say,  "We believe in the
mercy of God;" so do I. I believe in the justice  of
God, too; and I think heaven would be a good deal worse
than this  earth if an unrenewed man were permitted to
go into it. Why, if a  man should live forever in this
world in sin, what would become of  this world? It
seems as if it would be hell itself. Let your mind pass
over the history of this country and think of some that
have lived in  it. Suppose they never should die;
suppose they should live on and on  forever in sin and
rebellion; and do you think that God is going to  take
those men that have rejected His Son, that have
rejected the offer  of His mercy, that have rejected
salvation, and have just trampled His  law under their
feet, and have been in rebellion against his laws down 
here? Do you suppose God is going to take them right
into His Kingdom  and let them live there forever? By
no means!


NO SALOONS IN HEAVEN.

No drunkard shall inherit the kingdom of heaven. Now
let those mothers that have sons who are just
commencing a dissipated life, wake up; and not rest day
nor night until their boys are converted by the power
of God's grace, because no drunkard shall inherit the
kingdom of God. These moderate drinkers will become
drunkards; no man ever became a drunkard all at once.
How the devil blinds these moderate drinkers! I do not
know of any sin more binding than the sin of
intemperance; the man is bound hand and foot before he
knows it.

I was reading some time ago an account of
snake-worshiping in India. I thought it was a horrible
thing. I read of a mother who saw a snake come into her
home and coil itself around her little infant only six
months old, and she thought that the reptile was such a
sacred thing that she did not dare to touch it; and she
saw that snake destroy her child; she heard its pitiful
cries, but dared not rescue it. My soul revolted as I
read it. But I do not know but we have things right
here in America that are just as bad as that serpent in
India-- serpents that are coming into many a Christian
home, and coiling around many a son and binding them
hand and foot, and the fathers and mothers seem to be
asleep.

O, may the Spirit of God wake us up! No drunkard shall
inherit the kingdom of God; nor rum-seller either. Bear
it in mind. "Woe be to the man that putteth the bottle
to his neighbor's lips." I pity any professed
Christians who rent their property for drinking
saloons; I pity them from the depths of my heart. If
you can never rent your property to better purposes you
had better let it stand empty. This idea that all is
going well, and that all are going into the kingdom of
God, whether they repent or not, is not taught anywhere
in the Scripture.

There will be no extortioners in heaven: those men that
are just taking advantage of their brothers; of those
men who have been unfortunate; whose families are sick;
who have had to go and mortgage their property, and had
snap-judgment taken against them by some man who has
his hand at their throats, and takes every cent that he
can get. That man is an extortioner. He shall not
inherit the kingdom of God. I pity a man that gets
money dishonestly. See the trouble that he has to keep
it. It is sure to be scattered. If you got it
dishonestly you can't keep it; your children can't keep
it--they haven't got the power. You see that all over
the country. A man that gets a dollar dishonestly, had
better make restitution and pay it back very quick or
it will burn in his pocket.


SOME WON'T GET IN.

In the days of Noah we read that he waded as it were
through the deluge. He was the only righteous man, but
according to the theory of some people, the rest of
those men who were so foul and so wicked--too wicked to
live--God just took them and swept them all into
heaven, and left the only righteous man to go through
this trial. Drunkards, and thieves and vagabonds all
went to heaven, they say. You might as well go forward
and preach that you can swear as much as you like, and
murder as much as you have a mind to, and it will all
come out right--that God will forgive you; God is so
merciful."

Suppose the Governor of a State should pardon out every
person that the Courts ever convicted, and are now
lying in its jails and penitentiaries; suppose he
should let them all loose because he is so merciful
that he could not bear to have men punished; I think he
would not be Governor of that State long. These men who
are talking about God being so full of mercy, that he
is going to spare all, and tall all men to Heaven,
would be the very  men to say that such a Governor as
that ought to be impeached--that he ought not to be
Governor. Let us bear in mind that the Scripture says
there is a certain class of people who shall not
inherit the Kingdom of God. Now, I will give you the
sanction--I will give you the Scripture; it is a good
deal better to just give the Scripture for these
things, and then if you don't like it you can quarrel
with Scripture, and not with me. Let no man say that I
have been saying who is going to heaven and who is not;
I will let the Scripture speak for itself: "Know ye not
that the unrighteous shall not inherit the Kingdom of
God?

But the unrighteous--the adulterers, the fornicators
and thieves--these men may all inherit it if they will
only turn away from their sins. "Let the wicked forsake
his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts;" but if
the unrighteous man says:  "I will not turn away from
sin; I will hold on to sin and have heaven," he is
deceiving himself.

A man that steals my pocket-book loses a good deal more
than I do. I can afford to let him have my pocket-book
a great deal better than he can afford to take it. See
how much that man loses that steals my pocket-book.
Perhaps he may get a few dollars; or he may steal my
coat; but he does not get much. See how much he has
lost. Take an inventory of what that man loses if he
loses heaven. Think of it. No thief shall inherit the
kingdom of God. To any thief I would say: steal no
more. Let him ask God to forgive him; let him repent of
his sin and turn to God. If you get eternal life it is
worth more than the whole world. If you were to steal
the whole world, you wouldn't get much, after all. The
whole world don't amount to much, if you have not
eternal life with it, to enjoy yourself in the future.