The Great Controversy The Great Controversy | Page 676
has led many to spiritualize away the very truths which lead us to look
upon it as our home. Christ assured His disciples that He went to prepare
mansions for them in the Father’s house. Those who accept the teachings
of God’s word will not be wholly ignorant concerning the heavenly
abode. And yet, “eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered
into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that
love Him.” 1 Corinthians 2:9. Human language is inadequate to describe
the reward of the righteous. It will be known only to those who behold
it. No finite mind can comprehend the glory of the Paradise of God.
In the Bible the inheritance of the saved is called “a country.”
Hebrews 11:14-16. There the heavenly Shepherd leads His flock to
fountains of living waters. The tree of life yields its fruit every month,
and the leaves of the tree are for the service of the nations. There are
ever-flowing streams, clear as crystal, and beside them waving trees
cast their shadows upon the paths prepared for the ransomed of the
Lord. There the wide-spreading plains swell into hills of beauty, and
the mountains of God rear their lofty summits. On those peaceful
plains, beside those living streams, God’s people, so long pilgrims and
wanderers, shall find a home.
“My people shall dwell in a peaceable habitation, and in sure
dwellings, and in quiet resting places.” “Violence shall no more be heard
in thy land, wasting nor destruction within thy borders; but thou shalt
call thy walls Salvation, and thy gates Praise.” “They shall build houses,
and inhabit them; and they shall plant vineyards, and eat the fruit of
them. They shall not build, and another inhabit; they shall not plant, and
another eat: ... Mine elect shall long enjoy the work of their hands.”
Isaiah 32:18; 60:18; Isaiah 65:21, 22.
There, “the wilderness and the solitary place shall be glad for them;
and the desert shall rejoice, and blossom as the rose.” “Instead of the
thorn shall come up the fir tree, and instead of the brier shall come up the
myrtle tree.” “The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard
shall
675