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RECOGNITION IN HEAVEN
Preached in Christ Church, Westminster Bridge-road, S. E,, on Sunday Evening by Dr. Len G. Broughton, M.D., D.D.
Reported for The Golden Age by M. I. H.—Copyright Applied for.
INTRODUCTORY NOTES
In view of the enormous improvements that are about to be effected at Christ Church with
regard to the Sunday School and Church premises, and their adaptation to up-to-date modern
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Christ Charch, London.
course in close touch with the doctors. We hope gradually to open dispensaries in different parts
of the district in connection with our settlement work and Sunday School Stations.’ An extract
from the Christian, one of our religious papers reads: ‘Whether old fashioned or not, Evangel
istic work has not lost its power at Christ Church, where over seventy members have been re
ceived into fellowship, mostly on confession, of faith, during the past two months, and very large
congregations are being attracted on Sundays.’ It is encouraging too that the proposal to improve
the ’Church and rebuild the ‘home’ school adjoining, should have been so enthusiastically adopted.
Dr. Broughton holds that ‘the people and children of the district need the brightest, sunniest,
cheeriest place of worship that the Christian Church can afford.’ The great thronging crowd of
child-life in the section, and the great educative and spiritual needs, more than justify the ef
fort and sacrifice the members of Christ Church are making.”
Last Monday the Prayer Meeting hour was entirely taken up with prayer, scripture read
ing, and hymns, and many prayers were offered for the services to be held next Sunday when
the congregation and public at large will be given an opportunity of filling in forms to indicate
the amount of shares they are able to take in support of the new Scheme.
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TEXT: “I shall go to him, but he shall not
return to me. ’ ’ II Sam. 12:23.
VER since I first began to come to
this country, I have found myself
greatly interested in viewing old
palaces where lived England’s
greatest rulers in the days gone by.
During my first visits to this coun
try I used to spend days round
these old palaces, reading guide
books —the usual American occupa-
E
tion in England—and wondering how things
went on inside those walls in those olden days.
But, without doubt, the most interesting of all
these palaces to me has ever been Buckingham
Palace because I have so often passed it coming
and going, and I rarely pass that place
thatji don’t wonder what is going on inside
those walls and how they do things in there. Os
course, I never expect to have my curiosity
gratified, and perhaps that makes it the more
interesting to me and certainly more abiding.
I can’t help it —it may be that I have no busi
ness wondering what takes place in there, but
I just can’t help it. I was born with that
much curiosity. Just to know that I can’t
makes me feel like I want to.
But, my friends, I want tonight with all the
interest that I have in these palaces, so inti
mately connected with the history of this great
country and with our great people—as inter
ested as I am in these —I want to take you
with me back across the centuries long down
the dim, dusty corridors of the past, and have
you with me for just a little w J hile visiting one
of the greatest palaces of all the ages, and
certainly the palace in which lived one of the
greatest rulers that the world ever saw. It
is the home of Israel’s shepherd-king. It is
a great and magnificent palace, with its stone
columns and its many courts, and its long cor
ridors, and its broad halls, and, stretching far
back into the distance, its unequalled garden
equipment, Dr. Broughton has been interviewed by representatives
of several daily newspapers, at his present home in the west of
London, and there is given here an account of an interview with
the representative of the Daily News, one of the leading Daily
papers.
“At the end of the second month of his ministry Dr. Brough
ton finds the morning congregation steadily increasing, the seating
accommodation in the evening altogether overtaxed, the roll of
Church members rapidly climbing up, and a similar revival making
itself felt in the ten sub-stations where work is carried on. Haw
keston hall, next door to the Church is to be gutted and with an
extra story added, will house a Sunday School fully equipped and
graded on American lines. The Rev. Albert Swift, formerly Dr.
Campbell Morgan's Co-Pastor at Westminster Chapel, has been
brought back from Reading to take charge of the young people's
work, which it is hoped may be developed extensively.
Perhaps the most interesting departure is the inauguration
of the Medical work, which was a feature of Dr. Broughton’s
previous work in Atlanta. Arrangements are well advanced for
establishment of an institute for the training of lay workers, dea
conesses, and district nurses.
“ ‘The Insurance Act,’ said Dr. Broughton yesterday, ‘has
made district nursing an essential part of all Church work. Far
more people will be nursed in their homes, and we should have
women properly trained for this service working under the over
sight of a superintendent and other professional nurses, and of
The Golden Age for July 18, 1912.
of exquisite flowers. Around this palace we
see bands of soldiers constantly marking time.
They are there for the purpose of protecting
the King and his household. I fancy it was
during the shades of night, while the soldiers
marked time around the palace, that the arch
enemy of the race passel their ranks. He
passed unobserved, and entered the door, and
stalked along down the long corridor, turn
ing past the beautiful court, and then down the
broad hall and across it to a certain chamber
in which lay the child of fortune. And when
he entered that room, he approached the bed
side of that child, and reached out a merciless
hand for the heart-strings of that child. No
body knew that he was in the house. Not even
the King himself knew his presence. But, af
ter a while, the King became conscious of the
fact that the monster Death was lurking in
his chamber. And then he summoned his wis
est men for the purpose of driving him from
his palace. But he failed, and failing he be
took himself to a quiet place and prostrated
himself upon the ground, and began to implore
God to come and do what He could not do.
And there, without food, without water, fast
ing and praying, he remained for days, until
all the while he heard the servants whispering
in his presence lest they should inform him
of what transpired and add to his grief. He
heard these servants whispering and he arose
and asked the question: “Is the child dead?”
And they said: “He is dead.” And then he
immediately arose, and washed his face, and
bathed his hands, and took food, and said:
“I shall go to him, but he shall not come to
me.”
A Comforting Thought.
Ah, my friends I wonder how many people
in this room to-night have some time felt the
thrill of those words? I wonder how many
of us have at some time, been comforted with
that thought. Just five hundred miles from
the city of Atlanta, where for twenty years I
lived and labored, was a beatuiful little moun
tain city called Reidsville. In that city I lived
as a young physician. In that city I was or
dained to preach. In that city I preached my
first sermon. Twenty-two years ago we took
our only girl, a beautiful, cooing little darling,
and carried her out to the cemetery and buried
her. That cemetery is along by the side of
the railroad track. Twenty-two years have
passed, and I chanced to pass on a train along
that railroad 1 track and the train stopped' in
sight of the cemetery. Through the window
I looked upon the hill-top, at the root of a
beautiful white oak which had grown consid
erably during these twenty-two years, and 1
recognized the spot where it all took place,
and for a time lived over again that sad ex
perience. I saw the little headstone which
marked the grave, and as I looked at it the
tears ran down my face. A man stepped up
to me and said: “Have you anybody buried
there?” I told him my story, and as I told
him I thought of these w’ords: “I shall go to
her, but she shall not come to me.” And
from the deep of my heart tonight I can say,
though I loved her as I never loved anything
in this world, I thank God she cannot come to
me, I thank God that it is as it is; that I am go
ing to her rather than her come back to me.
And so, my friends, I have no doubt that in
this great company tonight there are scores
and hundreds of people who have, at some time
or other, passed through some experience like
unto my own, and have gotten sweet comfort
and solace out of these words, uttered under
the direct inspiration of the Spirit of God
by His servant David.
The question I come to present to you to
night is this: Is there sufficient ground for
the hope that so many of us, the majority of
us Christians, have of heavenly recognition?
It is to this question that I desire to address
myself. And first of all let me say that I am
not going to speculate at all concerning the
meaning of the word “heaven.” I under
stand all that the world is saying today about
But for the purpose that I have
in my mind tonight I am not at all concerned
with it. lam simply here speaking of heaven
just as we have all regarded it all our lives,
and as our dear old mothers regarded it all
their lives. I want to face this subject in the
light of the old idea of heaven, for I think,
after all, it is far more correct than any modern
idea that I know of.
Some Objections Answered.
First of all, I want us to pay a bit of atten
tion to the great class of skeptics that natural
ly force themselves when we come to consider
a subject like this. I want us to consider this
for a special reason, a reason which I think
we will always see. First of all, there comes
in that company of skeptics a man —he may be
an honest man; I don’t know, I will not ques
tion his honesty—and he says, “I don’t believe
in heavenly recognition because I don’t be
lieve that there is any future state for man.”
Now I haven’t time tonight to argue with
that man—l wish I had. At some future time
I propose to conduct an argument with him
on that subject, but not tonight. Only let me
say here in passing that the man who holds
that view denies the most ancient tradition and
the most abiding intuition that the world has
ever known since the day of man’s existence.
But I am not going to argue that question with
him now. I am going to pass him by and
come to a class of men that do believe in heav
en, in the future state, but they can not some
how accept what is said about heavenly recog
nition and for the reason, first, that heaven,
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