What and Where is God? A Human Answer to the Deep Religious Cry of the Modern SoulSwain, Richard La Rue
Religion
What and Where is God? A Human Answer to the Deep Religious Cry of the Modern Soul
Swain, Richard La Rue
Christianity; God (Christianity)
3. Will there be a Holy City?
There will doubtless be many holy cities and plenty of country too. The
Holy City described in the book of Revelation was, in the thought of the
writer, to be located on earth. While it should be our aim to build an
ideal city on earth, yet like most of our aims it will probably fall
short. If in some respects the City of Revelation does not appear to be
the most desirable kind of place in which to live, nevertheless, as a
thing of symmetry and beauty it is a marvelous picture. A perfect city
is a wonderfully attractive thought; and none the less so because one
enjoys a vacation in the country. If there is no ideal city in this
universe, there should be. New York, London, and Paris, in spite of the
ugliness, squalor, crime, and disease which they contain, are very
fascinating. They bring together so much knowledge, wealth, and power
that one feels the mighty impact of it all upon his soul. If one lives
under the most favorable conditions in a great city, his consciousness
so blends with the whole that the city seems to be but his larger self.
This is simply the fuller experience of that law of consciousness which
makes a man feel larger when he puts on a fur coat, or taller when he
wears a silk hat, and causes a woman to feel like her silks and plumes
and fluffy garments. A city without crime, disease, poverty, or
ugliness; a Holy City filled with art, music, knowledge, love, and every
kind of fascinating employment; such a city would lift one into a sense
of joy and greatness beyond words to express.
From our present meager knowledge of the universe, what kind of a city
would be possible if all the laws and resources of nature were fully
utilized? Considering, then, the millions of people who have grown rich
in wisdom and character through millenniums of experience in the
congenial company of their fellow citizens of a heavenly kingdom, what
is it reasonable to suppose they have done in the way of realizing these
possibilities? Even with our limited knowledge of nature's resources,
we know they could have built a city that would make the one pictured in
Revelation look like a beautiful Christmas toy. And if the departed are
living in our universe and not in a vacuum, what could have prevented
them from achieving such a glorious result?
"For thee, O dear, dear country,
Mine eyes their vigil keep."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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