Heaven and earth

“ If there be Heaven on earth it came to me that minute when he offered his life to me, but alas! this great earth of ours holds the reality of Heaven but a second and then appears more threatening than ever. ”

“ The pure and light ascended, and became Heaven; the turbid and heavy descended, and became Earth; and the harmonious auræ, in combination, produced Man. Heaven and Earth containing in themselves the germinal essence of all things, the visible creation was evolved and came into existence. ”

“ For as the heaven surrounds and encompasses all things, so does the God of heaven support and comprehend all his creatures. “Who hath measured the waters in the hollow of his hand, and meted out heaven with the span, and comprehended the dust of the earth in a measure, and weighed the mountains in scales, and the hills in a balance?” ”

“ A natural heaven visible to the eyes, and a natural earth inhabited by men, are not meant by a new heaven and a new earth; but a spiritual heaven is meant, and the earth of that heaven, where angels dwell. ”

“ The air, all around, seems alive with illuminated gems. Every tree is a diamond chandelier, with a whole constellation of stars clustering to every socket—and, as they wave and tremble in the light breeze that is passing, I think of the dance of the morning stars, while they sang together on the birth-day of creation. Earth is a mirror of heaven. ”

“ Heaven, therefore, must exist there as an animal, not without what here we call its stars, and this is the idea of heaven. Yonder, too, of course, must be the Earth, not bare, but far more richly furnished with life; in it are all creatures that move on dry land and plants rooted in life. ”

“ Once admitted to the heaven of thought, they see no relapse into night, but infinite invitation on the other side. Heaven is within heaven, and sky over sky, and they are encompassed with divinities. Others there are, to whom the heaven is brass, and it shuts down to the surface of the earth. ”

“ For paradise in the world to come is uncertain, but there is indeed a heaven on this earth, a heaven which we inhabit when we read a good book. ”

“ Frequently, as they sat together on the terrace at night, contemplating that assembly of glorious stars, whose beauty first misled mankind into idolatry, she would explain to the young listener by what gradations it was that the worship, thus transferred from the Creator to the creature, sunk lower and lower in the scale of being, till man, at length, presumed to deify man, and by the most monstrous of inversions, heaven was made the mirror of earth, reflecting all its most earthly features. ”

“ Hence, the only rational conclusion we can arrive at—from a thorough investigation of Divine revelations; from all the lights afforded by the science of astronomy; from the true philosophy of Nature, as well as from all that is visible and perceptible—is, that far within the circling photosphere of ethereal fire which we see and realize as the Sun, there is a solid body, a globe, a VAST WORLD, and that world is the heaven for all the righteous from this earth; that it is the Saviour's allotted empire, and that He is there the ruler of His people. ”

“ If we have only to say, 'As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are' His 'ways higher than' our 'ways,' that difference is not unlikeness, and establishes no separation; for low and flat though the dull earth be, does not heaven bend down round it, and send rain and sun, dew and blessing? ”

“ Eye hath not seen nor ear heard the glory of this paradise, kingdom, or new heaven: it has only been revealed as fully as frail and finite man can comprehend it. WHY HEAVEN AND EARTH ARE USED FIGURATIVELY In the natural world we have heaven and earth, sun, moon and stars. God created the sun to rule by day and the moon to rule by night. The Bible being a revelation to this planet, our range of view is limited to the relation of the heavens, sun, moon, and stars to this earth. Here is the earth beneath, or under the heaven, as we are compelled to speak of it ”

“ First, Look round to the earth, to the land, to that land that used to be the land of light and the joy of the whole earth, and behold darkness and sorrow, all frightful, all mournful, nothing hopeful. Secondly, Look up to heaven, and there the light is darkened, where one would expect to have found it. If the light is darkened in the heavens, how great is that darkness! If God hide his face, no marvel the heavens hide theirs and appear gloomy, Job xxxiv. ”

“ Will he whom heaven and earth cannot contain, dwell in wood and stone? வானமே ஈன்றது பூமியே தாங்கிற்று. The heavens produced, and the earth sustained. வானம் பார்க்கப் போயும் இடைஞ்சலா? When you go to gaze at the heavens, do you find any impediment? ”

“ All creatures, the sun, the moon, and the stars, the vast expanse of the ocean, the earth, trees, flowers, animals, and man especially, are a grand mirror in which the perfections of God are reflected in a dark and imperfect manner. ”

“ Heaven is for thee too high To know what passes there; be lowly wise: Think only what concerns thee, and thy being; Dream not of other worlds, what creatures there Live, in what state, condition, or degree; Contented that thus far hath been revealed Not of Earth only, but of highest Heaven. ”

“ When heaven is spoken of in the Scriptures, its greatness is always either directly expressed or implied as if it were a matter of course; and the higher scientific achievements can ascend in the realms of the starry heavens the more marvelous appears the greatness thereof, and the more awfully real become the words of the Psalmist: "The heavens declare the glory of God and the firmament showeth his handiwork." God "sitteth upon the circle of the earth, and the inhabitants thereof are as grasshoppers." ”

“ What, then, is that sacred, that revealed science, declared by the Fathers to be the sum of all knowledge?... As to the earth, it affirmed that it is a flat surface, over which the sky is spread like a dome. In this the sun and moon and stars move, so that they may give light by day and by night to man.... Above the sky or firmament is heaven ”

“ The apostle Paul speaks of God as "dwelling in light, whom no man hath seen, nor can see, whom no man can approach unto." These testimonies show that heaven is a place, location, and can be thought of and spoken of separately from the earth and other parts of the universe. Heaven is generally spoken of from our standpoint as being up or above. The literal meaning of the word is "that which is heaved up," that which is above, which is high. "Heaven is my throne and earth is my footstool," it is said, in which figure of speech it is represented as above the earth. ”

“ But when the perfection of the natural world is attained—when it becomes, so to say, spiritualized, and its grosser elements are absorbed—then the human being can live on its surface arid develop his faculties from century to century.
The thoughtful reader will perceive from this statement that the spirits who have inhabited these superior planets must have attained a far greater perfection than those who have inhabited your earth, and the spiritual existence, or heaven, to which such beings migrate, is in advance of the heavens in which the dwellers of earth are born. ”

“ Hence, Heaven looks down on earth with all her eyes; ”

“ As "everything in Heaven has its counterpart on Earth," so may we see, by introspection, that the reflecting surface, the thin, physical film between the Human and Divine, is represented by that Base, and Human Life then becomes truly, as it should be, the reflection of the Divine. ”

“ for Heaven Is as the book of God before thee set, Wherein to read his wonderous works, and learn His seasons, hours, or days, or months, or years: This to attain, whether Heaven move or Earth, Imports not, if thou reckon right; ”

“ But the true earth is pure and situated in the pure heaven—there are the stars also; and it is the heaven which is commonly spoken of by us as the ether, and of which our own earth is the sediment gathering in the hollows beneath. ”

“ And earth was heaven a little the worse for wear. And heaven was earth, done up again to look like new. ”

“ Much now have we said of the heaven of heavens, and of the earth invisible and without form, and of the darksome deep, in reference to the wandering instability of its spiritual deformity, unless it had been converted unto him, from whom it had its then degree of life, and by his enlightening became a beauteous life, and the heaven of that heaven, which was afterward set between water and water. ”

“ Who knows but on their sleep may rise
Such light as never heaven let through
To lighten earth from Paradise? ”

“ All about us the earth steamed; mists rose up toward heaven like clouds of incense; a shattered rainbow still hovered in the air. ”

“ Heaven to me’s a fair blue stretch of sky,
Earth’s jest a dusty road. ”

“ Taste this, and be henceforth among the Gods Thyself a Goddess, not to earth confined, But sometimes in the air, as we, sometimes Ascend to Heaven, by merit thine, and see What life the Gods live there, and such live thou!" ”

“ Solemnly seemest, like a vapoury cloud,
To rise before me—Rise, O ever rise,
Rise like a cloud of incense from the Earth!
Thou kingly Spirit throned among the hills,
Thou dread ambassador from Earth to Heaven,
Great Hierarch! tell thou the silent sky,
And tell the stars, and tell yon rising sun,
Earth, with her thousand voices, praises GOD.
1802 ”

“ Has he told her Heaven unites again the links that Earth has broken?
For on Earth so much is needed, but in Heaven Love is all! ”

“ the Earth Though, in comparison of Heaven, so small, Nor glistering, may of solid good contain More plenty than the sun that barren shines; ”

“ Her soul from earth to Heaven lies,
Like the ladder of the vision,
Whereon go
To and fro,
In ascension and demission,
Star-flecked feet of Paradise. ”

“ Enlarge this meditation upon this great world, man, so far as to consider the immensity of the creatures this world produces; our creatures are our thoughts, creatures that are born giants; that reach from east to west, from earth to heaven; that do not only bestride all the sea and land, but span the sun and firmament at once; my thoughts reach all, comprehend all. Inexplicable mystery; ”

“ All that expands the spirit, yet appals, Gathers around these summits, as to show How Earth may pierce to Heaven, yet leave vain man below. ”

“ And the great lesson to be received from all.One lesson, however, we are invariably taught by all, however approached or viewed,—that the work of the Great Spirit of nature is as deep and unapproachable in the lowest as in the noblest objects,—that the Divine mind is as visible in its full energy of operation on every lowly bank and mouldering stone, as in the lifting of the pillars of heaven, and settling the foundation of the earth; ”

“ By what seemed then and still seems a chance, the suggestion of a moment's idle thought followed up upon familiar lines and paths that I had tracked a hundred times already, the great truth burst upon me, and I saw, mapped out in lines of light, a whole world, a sphere unknown; continents and islands, and great oceans in which no ship has sailed (to my belief) since a Man first lifted up his eyes and beheld the sun, and the stars of heaven, and the quiet earth beneath. ”

“ And you, my Love, as high as heaven above,
Yet should the thoughts of me, your humble swain,
Ascend to heaven in honour of my love.
Were I as high as heaven above the plain,
And you, my Love, as humble and as low
As are the deepest bottoms of the main,
Wheresoe'er you were, with you my love should go.
Were you the earth, dear Love, and I the skies,
My love should shine on you like to the Sun,
And look upon you with ten thousand eyes,
Till heaven wax'd blind, and till the world were done. ”

“ The waxing moon moves high in heaven, walking in beauty amid the clouds, and murmurs soft her cradle-song unto the slumbering earth. The broken sword reflects her placid beams. A star looks down, and is imaged back in a pool of blood. The cool night wind plays in the branches of the trees shivered with shot. Nature is beautiful—that lovely grass under- neath their feet ”

“ We thank thee for the rain thou sheddest down from heaven, abundant in its season, and the genial heat thou minglest with the air and earth, changing these seeming dead organic things to vegetative growth. We bless thee for the animated world of living things that feed upon the ground, that wing the air with their melodious beauty, or that sail unseen the depths of the sea. ”

“ Out of the ground what daily use and beauty grow! Think of the thousand million men on earth ; the million millions of beast, bird, fish, insect! They all hang on the breasts of Heaven, and are fed by the motherly bounty of infinite perfection. This is a clover blossom at one end of the stalk,—at the other end is God. Yes, all rests in Him, flowers out of Him, lives by Him, leads us to Him. All this material beauty of nature is but one rose on the bosom of Deity, overlooked by the infinite loveliness which is alike its Cause and Providence. ”

“ It is indeed a glorious world,—the stars of earth, that gem the ground with dewy loveliness, the flowers of heaven, whose amaranthine bloom attracts alike the admiring gaze of clown or sage, and draws the lover's eye while the same spirit is blooming also in his and in another's heart. ”