My own belief, though I say it very humbly, is, that St. Paul spoke of these things only as a figure of speech, for the sake of the ignorance of the people to whom he was writing.  They talked in that way; and he was forced now and then to talk in that way, too, to make them understand him.  I think that, when he spoke of being caught up into the third heaven, he did not mean that he was lifted bodily off the earth into the skies:  but that his soul was raised up and enlightened to understand high and wonderful heavenly matters, though not the highest or most wonderful.  If he had meant that, he would have said, that he was caught up into the seventh heaven.  We know that our Lord, in the same way, continually used parables; because, as he said, the ignorant people could not understand the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven; and he had, therefore, to put them into parables, taken from the common country matters, and country forms of speech, if by any means he might make them understand.  And so, I suppose, it was with St. Paul.  He had to speak in such a way that he could be understood; and no more.

But when he says that Christ ascended far above all heavens, we are to believe this—­that he ascended to God himself.  So high that he could go no higher; so far that he could go no farther.

We, now, do not believe that there are seven heavens above the earth; and we need not.  It is no doctrine of the Church, or of the Creeds.  We know that the earth is round, and not flat; and that the heavens, if by that we mean the sky, is neither above it, nor below it, but round it on every side.  But some may say, whither, then, did our Lord ascend?  To what place did his body go up?  And that is a right question; for we must always bear in mind that not merely Christ’s godhead but his manhood, not merely Christ’s soul but his body also, ascended into heaven.  If we do not believe that, we do not hold the Catholic faith.  Whither, then, did Christ ascend?

My friends, we know this.  That this earth and the planets move round the sun, which is in the centre of them.  We know this, too; that all the countless stars which spangle the sky are really suns likewise, perhaps, with worlds which we cannot see, moving round them, as we move round the sun.  We know, too, that these fixed stars, as they seem to be, are not really fixed, but have some regular movements among themselves, which seem very slow and small to us, from their immense distance, but which really are very great and fast.

Now all these suns and stars, it is reasonable to believe, most probably have a centre.  There must be order among them; and they most probably move round one thing, one place, one central sun, as it were, which is the very heart of all the worlds, and the whole universe.  Where that place is, or what it is like, we know not, and cannot know.  Only this we may believe, that it is glorious beyond all that eye hath seen, and ear heard, or hath entered