The Real World

 "Who serve unto the example and shadow of heavenly things; 'See,' saith He, 'that thou make all things according to the pattern showed to thee in the Mount.' " Hebrews 8:5.

       We speak of the dead as being in the land of shadows.'' Shades of the dead" is a familiar expression; it suggests that the next life is an unreal life. The view of the writer to the Hebrews is exactly the opposite. To him the spiritual world is the only real world, and the natural world is the land of shadows. Instead of the future life being a sleep in which we shall dream of earth, earth is a sleep in which we dream of the future life. We sometimes ask whether we shall carry any pictures with us beyond the grave. This writer says we have fallen into a strange misconception. We think of heaven as needing the photographs of earth to wake earthly memory. He says that earthly objects are themselves the photographs of heaven. The Mount of God does not need to be made after the pattern of the human; the human has already been fashioned after the pattern of the Mount of God.

       My soul, hast thou weighed the comfort of this revelation! Often have I heard thee say, ''What if the future should be to me a foreign land!" Often have I heard thee ask, "Is there anything which man will carry over from earth to heaven?" Hast thou reflected what God has carried over from heaven to earth! Hast thou considered that the best within thee is only the shadow of something more substantial! Hast thou pondered the heavenly origin of things which thou callest earthly realities! Thou speakest of earthly ties -  the ties of family and home. Where did these come from? From the Fatherhood of God, from the Sonship of Christ. Thou speakest of the marriage ring. Where did that come from? From the bridal supper of the Lamb. Thou speakest of the joys of love. Where did these come from? From the Love that passeth knowledge. Thou speakest of the sights of beauty. Where did these come from? From Him who is fairer than the children of men. Thou speakest of thy career of ambition. Where did that come from? From the Son of Man ascending to His Father. O my soul, thou hast mistaken thy true home; heaven is thy home. Thou art not going to travel at death; thou art traveling now. This is thy foreign land. What thou callest present reality is but a memory - an echo of far-off bells. Death will not reach the bells; it will only make thee independent of the echo. The distance makes the sound a mere reflection; thou shalt hear the actual chimes when thou shalt reach home.