What will you do in Heaven?
--About thirty years ago, when stage coaches still ran, an excellent old clergyman, who had a keen observation of the world, was traveling on the top of the coach from
Norwich to
London.
It was a cold, winter night, and the coachman, as he drove his horses over
Newmarket heath, poured forth such a volley of oaths and foul language as to shock all the passengers.
The old clergyman, who was sitting close to him, said nothing, but fixed his piercing blue eye upon him with a look of extreme wonder and astonishment.
At last the coachman became uneasy, and turning round said to him, "What makes you look at me, sir, in that way?" The clergyman said, still with his eyes fixed upon him, "I cannot imagine what you will do in Heaven!
There are no horses, or coaches, or saddles, or bridles, or public houses in Heaven.
There will be no one to swear at, or to whom you can use bad language.
I cannot think what you will do when you get in Heaven." The coachman said nothing more, and they parted at the end of the journey.
Some years afterwards the clergyman was detained at an inn on the same road, and was told that a dying man wished to see him.--He was taken up into a bedroom in a loft, hung round with saddles, bridles, bits and whips, and on the bed, amongst them, lay the sick man. "Sir," said the man, "do you remember speaking to the coachman who swore so much as he drove over
Newmarket heath?" "Yes," replied the clergyman. "I am that coachman," said he, "and I could not die happy without telling you how I have remembered your words: 'I cannot think what you will do in Heaver.' Often and often as I have been driven over the heath I have heard these words ringing in my ears, and I have flogged the horses to make them get over that ground faster, but always the get over that ground faster, but always the words have come back to me: 'I cannot think what you will do in Heaven'"
We can all suppose what the good minister said to the dying man. But the words apply to every human being, whose chief interest lies in other things than doing good, and being good, and who delights in doing and saying what is evil. "There is no making money in Heaven — there is no promotion — there is no
gossip --there is no idleness — there is no controversy — there is no
detraction in Heaven.--I cannot think what you will do when you get to Heaven."
