A GLIMPSE INTO HEAVEN
It seemed most wonderful to me upon finding that I could converse with perfect ease and freedom with
anyone I met, although we had been accustomed to different languages and tongues while on earth, and
often had to speak through interpreters; but now I found, since I had laid aside the material for the
spiritual, I could easily understand the thoughts of anyone. As rapidly as he could think I could read his
thoughts. Matters of detailed explanation were not needed or required as I had been accustomed to while in the flesh, for if a subject was plain to any one with whom I was conversing, it seemed that at once it
was just as clear to my own mind, so I was quite surprised to find how rapidly I could take in a
knowledge of the spiritual realm, and yet a second surprise constantly met me: that of the great depth of
divine truth.
For instance, many things I had learned from the Holy Scriptures, while in my flesh, were now opened
with a depth of meaning I had never seen before. I could compare it to nothing better than to great layer
after layer and strata upon strata of precious mineral rock, so that the deeper down and the further on one
went, the more precious became the ore and the finer the metal. I said to the elder by my side, "How is
this?" He quickly and smilingly replied,
"God never gives the best He has to give; you will find later on,
that truth is unfathomable." I now felt myself like a little fish just launching out from the mouth of a
great river into a great and boundless ocean without a shore to be seen or depth that could be sounded.
My feelings were joyful beyond any power to describe to a mortal man of flesh and blood. It seemed
that my entire spirit was in a perfect rapture of delight. I asked the elder, who seemed to take delight in
remaining with me, how I was to account for this rapturous joy which was increasing so constantly in my
soul, until I felt I would break out into shouting and hallelujahs. He said, "The spirit of God is the
atmosphere of heaven; His joy becomes ours on a larger scale than what we ever knew while in our
flesh. The great joy that you feel now is only a little foretaste of what you will feel when you are
ushered into the city and about the throne."
Upon this I quickly remembered the Scripture where the prophet said: "In thy presence is fullness of joy;
at thy right hand there are pleasures forevermore." (Psalm 16:11)
A feeling of praise was continually crowding up in my soul for utterance. I wanted to praise God,
forever giving me an existence, and still more for my salvation from sin, for changing my heart and
bringing me into this glory. Nothing of an earthly character could have induced me to have gone back to
the world. I seemed to laugh at the thoughts of the fear of death, which fear belongs only to the
impenitent and the unsaved.
The elder, who seemed perfectly conscious of my desire, said to me, "You need not fear of giving
utterance to your feelings, for everyone praises God here. Those praise Him loudest and most who have
learned how to praise Him best while on earth,"
The elder, whom I found to be Joshua of olden time, and who had been taking such an interest in my
introduction into the heavenly state, now said,

"Let us go to yon cluster of trees and sit down a
moment. I noticed as we approached them that they were growing beside a great river whose waters
were clear as crystal and sparkling with a light of which I had but a faint idea while I was in the
flesh. The trees were beautiful beyond anything I had ever seen. Their form was so symmetrical and
lovely, with no dead or withered branches. The leaves had such an aroma that the fragrance spread over
everything and to all parts of the kingdom of God as I was told. Everyone was brought under its
influence. I had felt the power of this fragrance long before I knew the source.
The elder now said to me, "Look across to the other side of the river;" where I saw clusters and groves of
these trees lining the bank as far as the eye could reach. There I saw multitudes of redeemed souls
clothed in the purest white and all of them seemed filled with the same spirit of praise which I had felt so
constantly since entering the portals of the kingdom.

The elder again said to me, "Let us gather some of the fruit of these trees and then we will join that
company yonder." I replied, "I would be quite glad to do so, for I have eaten nothing since leaving the
body," and yet I felt no great sense of need. My hunger seemed more like what I had often realized
while in the flesh when I felt a longing to hear a good gospel sermon. My guide now said, "What kind of
fruit would you prefer? You can have your choice of things here just as you used to in the earth. If you
feel faint or weary from your long abstinence from food, this kind (pointing to a certain pear- shaped and
beautifully colored fruit) is what you need, for the tree has twelve kinds, as you see, upon it." I said with
feelings of deepest praise, "Oh, how wonderfully God has provided for us! Twelve kinds of fruit on
each tree, ripening their fruit every month, and the leaves never withering! Wonderful!"
"Here," said he, "pluck from the boughs on this side of the tree and eat." I did so, and much refreshing
and enlightening grace as they imparted to me, it is beyond the comprehension of mortal man to know; it
must be eaten to be understood. The taste of the fruit was delicious indeed. The earth never furnished
anything like unto it for taste, not the orange, peach, nor melon. Nor would the fragrance of the rose
compare with it. "When anyone eats of these trees," said the elder, "he can never die again, grow older
nor feel weary; death hath no more dominion over him. One of these trees grew in the Garden of
Eden. After our first parents had sinned against God, they thought to eat of the fruit of it also; but God
said, "No," for had they eaten of it they would always have lived in that sinful, dying state. So a flaming
angel was sent to guard it, and so man never eats of it until he has passed the boundaries of his earthly
life."
"Now," said Joshua, "let us cross over." To my great astonishment I found we could walk upon the
surface of the water, which seemed like a sea of glass, it was so transparent, and yet it was gliding and
rolling along as beautifully as any stream I had ever seen on earth. I quickly remembered the Word of
God by His prophet: "But there the glorious Lord will be unto us a place of broad rivers and streams;
wherein shall go no galley with oars, neither shall gallant ship pass thereby." (Isaiah 33:21)
As we walked along, I asked him, "How is it that we do not sink in the water?" He said, "You seem to
have forgotten that you have left your body behind you, and that you are now ready to be clothed upon
with a far more excellent body than you have ever known. Your spirit cannot sink in these waters. You
will soon find that you can go from place to place at will either in the air or upon the solid foundations of
the celestial country; but let us hasten," he said, for I was inclined to linger at every fresh object I came
in contact with, "for I must introduce you to that great company you see yonder."
As we went on, I glanced up and down the river and saw many other spirits, still later arrivals than I,
passing on toward the gathering legions of the blood washed. Among them was my friend, Bohemond
of Russia, whom I met as he stepped from the chariot only a short time before.
My soul was filled with such an inexpressible sense of praise to God for the unspeakable gift of eternal
life and for such a rational sense that it was I, myself, who once had lived in a world of sorrow and death,
the memory of which, with a conscious freedom from it, now filled my soul indeed with ecstasies of
eternal joy.
"Now," (Seneca Sodi)
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