Heaven: Our True and Abiding Home by David Harsha, circa mid 1800s

Heaven: Our True and Abiding Home by David Harsha, circa mid-1800s

Heaven is now our true and abiding home.

While on earth we are strangers and pilgrims, far from our final rest. And while such is our condition here, should we not often think of our heavenly home? Should not Heaven attract us more and more as we journey through life?

Shall we still cleave to earth, since Christ has obtained eternal salvation for us, and passed into the heavens to prepare a way for our entrance into those unending joys in the presence of God?

Five Ways to Find Heaven on Earth

1) Let our best affections be placed on those spiritual and divine things above
2) And the noblest aspirations of our minds be after a more intimate knowledge of Jesus.
3) Let us look beyond this valley of tears and keep our eyes fixed on that better country where the Savior ever reigns in glorious majesty and the fountains of bliss ever flow; where the tree of life ever spreads its delightful shade and yields its immortal fruits, and where all is unending joy and love, and peace and felicity!
4) Let our hearts be more and more disentangled from the cares and temptations of the present life.
5) Let us live in the world as those who are not of it; as those whose treasure is in Heaven, and whose hearts are there also.

Heaven in Focus

The nearer a Christian comes to Heaven, the less he loves or esteems this present world. May our affections rise heavenward, endeavoring to bring the realities of future, eternal things more vividly before our minds, and to realize our interest in them.

O my soul, rise above these earthly scenes; and, on the wings of faith, soar to the realms of the blessed, where Jesus is enthroned in unspeakable glory—reigning as my life, my hope, and my treasure!

“Blessed Jesus, we beseech You to show us Your glory, and to raise our hearts, our hopes, and our desires, to that blessed world to which You have ascended. O may our souls be daily rising, in holy thought, towards our home where the ransomed of the Lord shall forever obtain joy and gladness. May our thoughts become heavenly, and our hearts be attuned to those songs with which the arches of Heaven shall resound to all eternity! O my Savior, wean my heart from earth, and enable me to place my affection on things above!”

From “The Savior’s Ascension” by David Addison Harsha, b. Sept 15, 1827