Page:Heaven Revealed.djvu/237

 mately is the idea of home associated in our minds with some kind of habitation. We cannot even think of human homes without human habitations of some sort; and they are no more possible in heaven than on earth.

True, the first use of houses here, is defense against the storms and shelter from the cold and heat. But this, though it be their primary, is by no means their highest, use. A house everywhere stands as the representative image of home. It is the symbol of those home-born, home-bred, and home-felt joys which constitute "that best portion of a good man's life." Suppose there were no inclement skies, no chilling frosts, nor scorching heat, nor drenching rains, nor pitiless blasts, nor anything, indeed, to make houses necessary to bodily comfort, does it follow that human beings would then need and have no houses? By no means; for so long as the love of home lives in the hearts of good men and women, so long will some kind of habitation be sought and had as the symbol of that love. Human beings, and especially those who have made much progress in regeneration, will have houses as the sanctuaries of those pure domestic joys which are more than half the solace and sunshine and fragrance of life.

Therefore houses, though not needed in heaven as a defense against cold and storms, are needed for their higher spiritual uses. And as sure as there dwells in the hearts of angels the love of home (and we cannot think of them as existing without this love), so sure is it that they must have houses.

Moreover, the outward or phenomenal heaven would lose half its beauty if there were no houses. Picture to