Who were these 144,000?

(Charles Spurgeon, "Heavenly Music!")

"Then I looked, and there before me was the Lamb, standing on Mount Zion, and with Him 144,000 who had His Father's name written on their foreheads." Revelation 14:1

Who were these 144,000 "who had His Father's name written on their foreheads?"

Not Bs for "Baptists,"
nor Ws for "Wesleyans,"
nor Es for "Established Church."

They had their Father's name and nobody else's. What a deal of fuss is made on earth about our distinctions! We think such a deal about belonging to this denomination or the other.

Why, if you were to go to Heaven's gates, and ask if they had any Baptists there, the angel would only look at you, puzzled.

If you were to ask if they had any Wesleyans or members of the Established Church, he would say, "Nothing of the sort!"

But if you were to ask him whether they had any Christians there, "Ay," he would say, "an abundance of them! They are all one now-all are called by one name. The old brands have been obliterated, and now they have not the name of this man or the other. They have the name of God, even their Father, stamped on their brow!"

Learn then dear friends, whatever the denomination to which you belong, to be charitable to your brethren and kind to them-seeing that, after all, the name you now hold here will be forgotten in Heaven, and only your Father's name will be known there.