Life in a Thousand WorldsHarris, W. S. (William Shuler)
Science
Life in a Thousand Worlds
Harris, W. S. (William Shuler)
Utopias
Still I scanned the heavens while deeper longings pervaded my soul.
While in this mood the most unusual vision flashed upon my eyes.
Suddenly I forgot whither I was going and in wild astonishment I drank
in the first view of Heaven. Inwardly I marveled that I had not seen at
least a part of it before.
Heaven is fashioned on a transcendently large scale. It is not a single
sphere, but a universal chain of vast and luminous star-groups,
scattered harmoniously throughout the infinite regions of space, so that
a part of it lies suspended preciously near to our own Solar System.
Heaven is more real and substantial than the suns and planets of the
universe, although not one of its numberless parts can be detected by
the human eye, or discerned through a telescope. These luminous orbs
that constitute Heaven control the movements of the planets, suns and
systems which we call material. They are whiter than snow and shine with
a luster not dazzling, but restful to the eye capable of seeing them.
How this glimpse put to naught all my former crude conceptions of
Heaven, and if I found myself unable to describe the wonders of many a
dark world which I have visited, how much less could I portray the
vastly superior beauties of Heaven which are so far beyond the glory of
dark, rugged worlds that I felt an inexpressible desire to take up my
abode there at once and to remain forever.
Inwardly I shouted for joy as this new light illumined my face, and I
loathed to think of proceeding on my journey to any sin-cursed world of
the universe, for the ties of kinship, friendship, and earthship all
vanished at the sight of such resplendent spheres.
THE GREATNESS OF HEAVEN.
There is no language to be employed that can fitly describe the parts of
Heaven I saw, and I know that the greater glory was curtained from my
view. But the size of the lustrous orbs is not equaled by the large
material suns that blaze in the depth of immensity. Heaven's diamond
splendor extended as far as my unassisted eyes could reach, and
according to the way it appeared it must extend without limit.
It would require one hundred millions of years for a child of God to
take one excursion trip to the physical worlds of our universe. Then
there are millions of such universes, (I know of no better name to use)
each one occupying its own immense stretches of space. These universes
average about sixteen hundred millions of worlds each.
Heaven is infinitely greater than this whole material fabric, so that if
a spirit is inclined to travel, he will need all eternity to study the
works of God as displayed in the glorious abodes of Heaven and in the
changing aspects of created worlds.
Let us give a deeper meaning to the stanza of the poet by substituting
"million" for "thousand."
When I've been there ten million years,
Bright, shining as the sun,
I've no less days to sing God's praise,
Than when I first begun.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account