"THE HEAVENS OPENED."

New Zealand Herald, Volume XIII, Issue 4667, 28 October 1876, Page 2

"THE HEAVENS OPENED."

Several instances hcv« lately come to our knowledge iu which ...ildren just before dying seemed to have i>. view of heaven. One was the case of a young person who seemed to see the angels coming, a case which answered almost exactly to these words of Morrison: " Tho young girl, who, through some mysterious sympathy with them, or , some strange monition to the soul, seems to hear the souud of their coming from afar, and, without apprehension or surprise, composes hersislf for the solemn change, and in perfect trust leaves aJI she loved on earth ; goes already ripe for the harvest." Another was that of a mere child who, throwing up his hands declared he saw Annie, a little sister who just gono before, and who exclaimed in. his broken language : "Nicely, nicely," by which he meant something beautiful. " I don't know," said his mother, " but he saw the Lord." Why not? If Isaiah saw the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up, and the Apostle John had such a view of paradise that he could describe it in detail, why may not such glimpses of heaven be granted to believing children? If their angels do always behold the face of the Father in heaven, why may not they behold it, not with the natural eyes, indeed, but by some clearing of their vision as a means of strengthening their faith ? Think of a young child who naturally dreads the dark, leaving father and mother, aud the delights of home in sheer iguoranqe aud blindness. There is to be no return to their earthly paradise, and yet there is no sight of' any , other. How welcome at least to such little ones when they are lioMiut; father aud mother by the hands, aud are about to say good-bye, to have some vihiou of that better home to which the angels shall welcome them, and where God shall embrace them.

There is a paiuting by one of the old masters representing a. dying saint to whom a number of beautiful, white-robed spirits have just appeared, to give her the assurance of their pre-seuce ami heavenly companionship. There is another in which an angel is lifting ayouug child above the darkness of the world, as if nothing less than this could make it content to bo separated from the embraces of its inuther. All this, it may be said, is mere imagination. But what shall be said of believing children to whom something of the sort seems to be 111 real as anything can be ? Is it hardly supMosable that when a child of live or six suddenly throws up his hands, and breaks out in exclamation in view of some beautiful vision of heaven, that this is a mere dream or delusion owing to some peculiar 1 condition o! thu nervus? It is certainly no delusion when a little girl carries herself through this t'uml struggle with as much selfpossession and composure as though what is called the kiny or" terrors were a smiling friend. Aud what cnuld be more natural than that lie who snid: Suffer the little children ami forbid tliein not to come unto me, for such is thej kingdom of heaven, should sometimes vouchsafe to them iu the last hoius such a view of heaven that it takes away all desire of living, and all fear of dying, and gives to them a dignity aud courage which the most matured saint might almost euvy ? What if this is one of the rewards which they receive who are declared to be greatest iu the kingdom of God? It is rioG to ije supposed, however, that such experiences ami visions, however we resolve them, may bu expected aside from Christian teaching. All the children referred to were tho offspring of Christian parents. At home and iu tiie tiumlay school they had learned of Jie.n'cn uml sung about it, until it was sumet ing y.s certain to them as their homes on cai tli , and, of course, what they seemed to see ni.iy have been, iu some sort, a reflection of wli.it was written in their characters, lint even ti.eu, how beautiful the picture, ami how full of connort ! * What an auswtring to the heaven within them of tho heaven above them ! Aud this projection of whiitis mirrored in the soul, and which is Been us ;i sort of mirage, is, to say the luasi, a bright foreshadowing of that world upon winch th«y are entering. Oh, the nearness of it, and the splendour of it ! Ami i>, alter all, this vision is but a sight of that New Jerusalem which has come down from CSud out of heaven to entrance these little ou.:t, and receive them to this company, M'hoof God's dear children are more worthy to be waited upon in this way, and to enter upon th.; joys and rewards of saintship ?