We know there is a future state, there is a land where the complications of this present world will be squared away.  Some call it a Day of Judgment; I like best to think of it as a day of explanations.  I want to hear God’s side.  Also I know we shall not have to lie weary centuries waiting for it.  When the black curtain of death falls on life’s troubled scenes, there will appear on it these words in letters of gold, “End of Part I. Part II will follow immediately.”

I know that I shall have a sweet and beautiful temper in heaven, where there will be nothing to try it, no worries, misunderstandings, elections, long and tedious telephone conversations; people who insist on selling me a dustless mop when I am hot on the trail of an idea.  There will be none of that, so that it will not be difficult to keep sweet and serene.  I would not thank any one to hand me a sword and shield when the battle is over; I want it now while the battle rages; I claim my full equipment now, not on merit, but on need.

Everything in life encourages me to believe that God has provided a full equipment for us here in life if we will only take it.  He would not store up every good thing for the future and let us go short here.

In a prosperous district in Ontario there stands a beautiful brick house, where a large family of children lived long ago.  The parents worked early and late, grubbing and saving and putting money in the bank.  Sometimes the children resented the hard life which they led, and wished for picnics, holidays, new clothes, ice-cream, and the other fascinating things of childhood.  Some of the more ambitious ones even craved a higher education, but they were always met by the same answer when the request involved the expenditure of money.  The answer was:  “It will all be yours some day.  Now, don’t worry; just let us work together and save all we can; it’s all for you children and it will all be yours some day.  You can do what you like with it when we are dead and gone!” I suppose the children in their heart of hearts said, “Lord haste the day!”

The parents passed on in the fullness of time.  Some of the children went before them.  Those who were left fell heir to the big house and the beautiful grounds, but they were mature men and women then, and they had lost the art of enjoyment.  The habit of saving and grubbing was upon them, and their aspirations for better things had long ago died out.  Everything had been saved for the future, and now, when it came, they found out that it was all too late.  The time for learning and enjoyment had gone by.  A few dollars spent on them when they were young would have done so much.

If that is a poor policy for earthly parents to follow, I believe it is not a good line for a Heavenly Parent to take.