If God had told me some time ago that He was about to make me as happy as I could be in this
world, and then had told me that He should begin by crippling me in all my limbs, and removing me
from all my usual sources of enjoyment, I should have thought it a very strange mode of
accomplishing His purpose. And yet, how is His wisdom manifest even in this I for if you should see
a man shut up in a close room, idolizing a set of lamps and rejoicing in their light, and you wished
to make him truly happy, you would begin by blowing out all his lamps; and then throw open the
shutters to let in the light of heaven." — Samuel Rutherford
Heaven is a place. Out of the region of all fancy it is taken and put into the realm of the actual,
the local. The revelations of the bare fact that death does not end all, death cannot end all; that man
must exist to all eternity, that the future may be one of unutterable bliss, — that is the fact. This fact
may have many colorings, many symbols, but these are not the main things, nor of the main thing.
Heaven does not float around. It is not made of air, thin air. It is real, a country, a clime, a home
sacred affinities draw to the spot. Divine assurance settles and fixes the fact
Heaven might be a reality, but simply a state. In its location and grasp it might be airy, volatile.
The Bible statement is of a place. One of the main ideas contained in the heavenly symbol, of a city,
is place, location, a settled place, in contrast with a pilgrim state, unsettled and temporary.
The strong argument for heaven as a place centers in, and clusters about Jesus. The man Jesus,
bearing a man's form, the body He wore on earth, has a place assigned Him — a high place.
"Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name:
That at the name of Jesus every knee should how, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things
under the earth; And that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God
the Father" (Phil. 2:9-11).
"Whom he raised from the dead and set him at his right hand in the heavenly places, Far above
all principality, and power, and might, and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this
world, but also in that which is to come: And hath put all things under his feet, and gave him to be
head over all things to the church, which is his body, the fulness of him that filleth all in all" (Ephes.
1:20-23).