HEAVEN OUR HOME.
WE HAVE NO SAVIOUR BUT JESUS,
AND
NO HOME BUT HEAVEN.
BY THE AUTHOR OF "MEET FOR HEAVEN."
B O S T ON:
ROBERTS BROTHERS, PUBLISHERS;
CHICAGO:
R. R. LANDON, AGENT.
1864.




BOSTON:
STEREOTYPED AND PRINTED BY JOHN WILSON AND SON,
No. 5, Water Street.




PRE F ACE
TO
THE AMERICAN EDITION.
THE following work by an anonymous author, although but recently published in England, has met
with very great favor.
In a note to the edition from which this is reprinted, the author states, " that, within the space of
little more than one week, the whole of the first
edition of'Heaven our Home' was sold. Within a
few months more, sixty successive editions have been
called for. He trusts that this will be taken as an
evidence that the views which he has presented of our
future home have created some interest in the minds
of the reading public."
Since the publication of " Heaven our Home," have
appeared "Meet for Heaven," and " Life in Heaven;"
[3]




4.PREFACE TO THE AMERICAN EDITION.
and the united sale of the three works already exceeds one hundred thousand copies. Should this
volume meet with similar approval from the
American people, the other works will follow in rapid
succession.




PRE FA CE.
I IAVE often felt, that the views which most divines
have given of heaven are so utterly negative in their
nature, and also so utterly unsocial in their aspect,
that they are more calculated to repel the inquiries
and longings and aspirations of the children of God
after it, than to allure their thoughts upwards, and
fix their affections and desires upon the things that
are above.
The mechanism of our moral nature - God's own
workmanship -fits us for a social heaven.  We are
social beings.  A heaven from which saint-friendship2
and social intercourse, among those who are in glory,
are excluded, is not and cannot be a suitable abode for
us, who have received from God's own plastic hand
those social affections which we are to possess for ever.
A social heaven is, accordingly, the leading idea which
I have endeavored to embody and illustrate in the
following treatise.
Li;]




6                   PREFACE.
Richard Baxter's heaven, depicted in his  Saint's
Everlasting Rest," is an eternity of holy repose, free
from the sins and troubles of earth.  John Howe's
heaven, delineated in his "Blessedness of the Righteous," is a calm, intellectual eternity spent in the
beatific vision of God.  St Paul's heaven is a
being  through eternity with  Christ.  St. John's
heaven, exhibited in the Apocalypse, is a great and
gorgeous temple crowded with the worshippers of
God. The heaven I have attempted to delineate is
a home, with a great and happy and loving fuamily
in it.
The Bible is the orient sun that has dispelled the
long, deep night of darkness that once hung over
heaven, and in a great measure concealed it from the
view of man. The natural sun, by his rising every
morning, brings the earth-our present home-into
our view, with its variegated scenery, and its living,
busy population. The Bible —God's bright spiritual
sun that has risen upon us-also brings by its revelations into our view an eternal heaven, which we who
are the children of God are to enter at death, and
meet each other again on the other side of the Jordan's floods, and be happy for eternity there, in our
Father's home.




PREFA CE.                  7
WAre need a home.  What is our life here?  Look
at a river upon earth: you see, in its flowing waters,
life's symbol.  That river is but a little streamlet in
its source, welling out from its small and pebbly fountain: it gradually increases in depth and in width; it
never rests; it flows on and on, and still unceasingly
onwards, without a moment's pause. So does our life,
till at last, like the mighty river nearing the ocean, it
flings its waters, with a convulsive and gurgling roll,
into the sea that is before the Lord, there to mingle
with the living floods of angels and glorified saints,
who move and gleam like a great ocean, filling the
heavens, and stretching far and wide, and seemingly
without a shore. Look at the sun in the sky: you
see in it a symbol of life. That sun peeps up into the
view of a living world, at his first rising, with but a
comparatively dim and feeble shining; he gradually
emerges with an increasing lustre from his chamber
in the east; he goes forth over us in the sky, like a
vessel of light sailing along upon the bosom of the
great ocean of space; he reaches his meridian splendor; then he begins to descend gradually towards the
western horizon, until at the close of day he passes
from our gaze into the expanse beyond, going forth
to sail still as a vessel of light over another sea of life




8                  PREFA CE.
in the opposite hemisphere, there to rise and to pour
down his beams upon other homes and upon other
eyes, but removed from our view. It is the same
with our life. Our soul is our sun. The thoughts
of our minds are the beams of light that gleam forth
in their scintillations and radiancy and illumination
upon those around us. There is the first glimmering
dawn of reason, then the increasing splendor of
brightening faculties, then the meridian sunshine
of intellectual and moral powers. The zenith of life is
reached: our mental sun then begins to descend the
western sky of age; the evening of death darkens
around; then our soul, if in a state of grace, leaves
the sphere in which it moved and shone for a season
here, passes over the horizon that bounds eternity and
time, the Lord Jesus transferring it to a new firmament,- the hemisphere of glory, - there to rise in
new splendor before the throne of God; there to shine
as the brightness of the firmament, and as the stars
of God for ever and ever.
It is computed that one of the human family dies
every moment. Thus, every tick of the clock, an
immortal spirit, as if with the outspread wings of an
angel, is flying over the boundary-line of time, and is
entering the great world of spirits on the other side.




PREFACE.                    9
There is thus a river of living souls continuously
flowing from time into eternity. In the bed of that
stream, we are all, sooner or later, to take our place,
and to pass away; for "as the waters fail from the
sea, as the flood decayeth and drieth up, so man lieth
down, and riseth not till the heavens be no more:
they shall not awake, nor be raised out of their
sleep."
How comforting, in these circumstances, is the
revelation that God has made to us in his Word,we have a home for eternity, and that home is
heaven!
In the following treatise, I look in upon that home
of love.  I survey the family assembled there.  I
view their intercourse with each other, and with us
who are still upon earth; and I notice the interest
which they feel in what is occurring here.  I also
show, that, in the gospel view of heaven which I
am led to set forth, death, to believers in Jesus, is
going home.
It is no cold and uninteresting subject which I am
thus led to treat.  Was it like music in the ears of
the Israelites, whilst journeying in the wilderness, to
listen to the accounts, which were orally and through
tradition handed down to them, of the land promised
1*




10                  PREFACE.
to their fathers,- a land flowing with milk and honey,
and towards which they were advancing?  And will
it not be equally comforting to you who are the children of God, nay, will it not be infinitely more so,
in the midst of your present wearisome journeyings,
to read a gospel description of your Father's home in
the heavens, which many of your friends from earth
have already entered, where you are again to meet
them at your death, when time with you is past, and
the world is left?
The descriptions which I have given of heaven have
a deep and personal interest about them; for heaven
is to be your home for eternity who read these, if ye
are the children of God. The emigrant, who is about
to sail to a foreign land, feels that he has a personal
interest in the accounts which he reads about it in the
newspapers or otherwise: for he is soon to sail to it,
to land upon its shore; and he is to spend there the
remainder of his life. The bride, who is about to go
to her new home, feels that she has a personal interest
in the descriptions which her friends give her of its
site, of its appearance, and of its furnishings; for she
has upon her soul the sunshine of the gladdening hope,
that she is to spend her future life beneath its roof.
You have a similar interest in heaven.  The sea, the




PREFACE.                  11
deep-blue sea, is not far off, over the bosom of which
you will soon set sail, that ye may land in eternity.
The vessel is in the harbor; it is preparing to go
forth to plough the bosom of the unseen deep, as
Columbus launched forth upon the Atlantic, whilst
America, on the other side, was all unseen; the
sails are already spread; the pilot is at the helm.
You already hear the dash upon the shore, and the
roll of the great waters; and soon you, who-are
believers in Jesus, will be in the position of the emigrant, whilst standing upon the deck of the vessel
that is already under sail, — you will look back, and
you will look down upon your weeping, bereaved
friends, whom you are leaving in your death-chamber; upon your home, with its dark cloud of bereavement lowering around it; and upon the earth itself,
receding from your view, and gradually becoming
nsmaller in the distance, till, like the vessel upon the
far-off horizon, it flits away entirely from your gaze.
You will then rise upwards to heaven, your home;
you will enter, and join for eternity, God's family now
assembled there. In the anticipation of that abundant
entrance into heaven, you can even now look up to
Jesus upon the throne, and you hear him thus
addressing you: "In my Father's house are many




12                PREFACE.
mlansions: if it were not so, I would have told you.
I go to prepare a place for you. And, if I go and
prepare a place for you, I will come again, and re-. ceive you unto myself; that, where I am, there ye
may be also."




CO N T E N TS.
PART I.
Peaber our pome.
CHAPTER I.
PAGE
HEAVEN A LOCALITY.........                19
II.
TYPES OF HEAvEN.- EDEN AND CANAAN.38
III.
TYPES OF HEAVEN.- -A TEMPLE....... 44
IV.
TYPES OF HEAVEN. -A CITY......... 62
V.
TYPES OF HEAVEN. -A HOME......... 77
VI.
THE FAMILY IN HEAVEN........... 90
[C13]




14                   CONTENTS.
VII.
PAGE
COMMUNION OF SAINTS IN HEAVEN........            104
VIII.
COMMUNION OF SAINTS IN HEAVEN (continued)... 116
Ix.
COMMUNION OF SAINTS IN HEAVEN (continued)... 132
X.
COMMUNION OF. SAINTS IN HEAVEN, A SOURCE OF
INSTRUCTION AND OF JOY......            142
PART II.
3:ecagnitiaon  f  tffienm  irn tafmen,
CHAPTER I.
RECOGNITION OF FRIENDS IN HEAVEN...... 149
II.
RECOGNITION OF FRIENDS IN HEAVEN (continued).. 160
III.
RECOGNITION OF FRIENDS IN HEAVEN (continued).. 169




CONTENTS.                     15
IV.
PAGE
RECOGNITION OF FRIENDS IN HEAVEN (continued).. 175
V.
RECOGNITION OF FRIENDS IN HEAVEN (continued).. 188
VI.
RECOGNITION OF FRIENDS IN HEAVEN (continued).    191
VII.
OBJECTIONS ANSWERED......   201
PART  III.
Ube Entertet toize  in eabtre feet in Cartt.
CHAPTER I.
THE INTEREST THOSE IN HEAVEN FEEL IN EARTH.. 219
PI.
PHILOSOPHICAL EVIDENCES FOR THIS INTEREST.        226
III.
SCRIPTURAL EVIDENCE OF THIS INTEREST... 233
IV.
SCRIPTURAL EVIDENCE OF THIS INTEREST (continued). 243




16                    CONTENTS.
~.'
PAGE
EVENTS SHOWING HEAVEN'S INTEREST IN US... 253
VI.
EVENTS SHOWING  HEAVEN'S INTEREST IN US (continued)................  268
VII.
EVENTS SHOWING  HEAVEN'S INTEREST IN US (continuted......... 282
VIII.
EVENTS SHOWING  hI-lAVEN'S INTEREST IN US (CO?Ztinuted)................  295




PART I.
I ATHERS  OUSE AlE              S.me.
"' IN i-MY FATHER'S lIOUSE ARE MANY MANSIONS.77








CHAPTER  I.
HEAVEN A LOCALITY.
*.~~I HE subject of the following treatise is one
that ought to arrest the attention and engage the interest of every member of the
human family, and especially of believers in Jesus.
Heaven is the locality around which are clustering
the highest and the holiest hopes and associations
of the people of God.  It is to be their home for ever.
Thus all who are Christians must surely feel a holy
desire to hear about the dwelling-place in which they
are to spend their immortal existence when life with
them here is finished, and when, at death, they have
bidden adieu for ever to the home in which they now
dwell.
The exile's heart exults with joy as he peruses a
description of the land of his nativity, either in the
newspaper or in the more elaborate treatise; for he
knows the day is coming when he will set sail for it:
[19]




20           HEAVEN A LOCALITY.
such a description leads him often to look across the
deep-blue sea, and longingly and pensively to gaze
in the direction where his future home is lying. The
pilgrim, in the midst of his desert-journey, opens
and reads, with the glowing emotions of a lively
interest, the letter which has reached him from his
home, and which gives him an account of the dear
ones who are there, — his affectionate partner and
beloved children, - whom he has the prospect of
joining when his journey is finished; and to whom,
sitting in the comfortable parlor, he will joyfully
recount the incidents that happened to him by the
way. The mariner who is afloat upon the bosom of
the ocean, and on his voyage homeward, not only
consults the compass habitually and carefully, which
points out the course in which he is to sail that he
may reach the desired and sheltered haven, where
he will cast anchor, and be safe and secure, for the
billows will then be rolling far away in the distance
behind him: he also delights to read the narrative
which gives him an account of the country to which
he is sailing.
In like manner, you, who are the children of God,
must feel your hearts' best affections and purest
desires enlisted when you think of your eternal
home; and you must surely feel some interest in an
attempt to give you a description of it, what it is,
and what you are to experience when you enter it.
This is the task which I now endeavor to execute.




HEAVEN A LOCALITY.              21
What, then, is heaven?  This is no trifling or unimportant question.  If I am  immortal, and if
heaven is to be my home for ever, it is of the utmost
importance that I should form a right and scriptural.view of it.  Much of my present happiness will
depend upon the particular conception of it which I
now imbibe and cherish; and this, again, will exert
an influence upon my conduct, leading me to prepare
and make ready, that I may enter it at death.
Before, however, I proceed to consider what heaven
is, I will, in this chapter, make a few reflections
upon the question, Where is heaven?
I believe that the views of many Christians about
the "locality" of heaven are quite as indefinite and
vague as are the musings of a little child two or
three years old respecting the position of India, or
of Australia, or of the Cape of Good Hope.  With
many Christians, all is dark and visionary and
dreamy respecting the fact that heaven is verily a
locality, and not merely a state.
I believe that the young, generally, have a far more
vivid though an erroneous view of the exact place
where the eternal home of the people of God rears
its walls than that possessed by those more mature
in years. In youth, the heart's affections are warm,
curiosity is strong, the imagination is lively; and
fancy paints heaven as situated just above the blue arch
of the visible sky.  Ask a child, "Where is heaven?"
Is there any dimness or doubt existing in the mind




22           HEAVEN A LOCALITY.
whilst giving an answer to your question? No:
the finger is instantly lifted up; and, looking and
pointing to the overarching sky, the answer is, "Up
there."
Advancing years, however, and increasing know-.
ledge, effect a complete revolution in our view of this
locality. A knowledge of astronomy does this by
ennobling and elevating the mind. Astronomy not
only exhibits to us the greatness and the splendor
of the material universe, but the greatness also and
sovereignty of Him who made it; to whom it is a
great palace, with its lighted chandeliers burning in
every apartment; and through which he walks in his
glory and in his majesty.
A similar change of view about the exact position
of a departed friend sometimes comes over our imaginings. Have you not sometimes dreamt, that you
saw in the visions of the night some such valued one
meeting you in your home, and smiling upon you
with the love and friendship which he showed to you
whilst he yet lived with you? You awoke in the
morning, and saw, amid the light of awakened reason, that you mistook in that dream the dwellingplace of him who stood before you. Would it be
right reasoning, in these circumstances, for you thus
to conclude: "Because I had a wrong view in the
visions of the night respecting the _place of his present abode, therefore my friend has no habitation
at all; or, in other words, has no existence "? It is




HEAVEN A LOCGALITY.              23
the same with the whereabouts of heaven. After the
dream of childhood about its localization has vanished amid the descending light of increased knowledge, would it be right in us hastily to jump to the
conclusion, " Oh, heaven is nowhere! It is not where
we once thought it was, and therefore it has no existence at all: it is in no region at present "?
Some divines have attempted to get over the difficulty of fixing the present locality of heaven by
representing it as a habitation that is not yet formed.
These theologians place heaven in the same category
as the millennium, the latter-day glory, the judgmentday, the resurrection of the dead; and, in support of
their view, they are in the habit of quoting the following words of the Apostle Peter: "Nevertheless,
we, according to His promise, look for new heavens
and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness."
These words, misinterpreted, have prevented Christians from looking up and abroad upon God's great
universe in search of a local and presently-existing
home.  Assuredly there is a heaven, existing just
now, into which Jesus, our new-covenant Head, has
ascended, - the heavens have received him until the
final restitution of all things; where God has established his throne, -a throne of glory that is high and
lifted up; in which angels who have kept their first
estate have their usual habitation, - " for their
angels," says Jesus, " do always behold the face of
nay Father which is in heaven;" and in which are




24           HEA VEN A LOCALITY.
dwelling "the spirits of the just made perfect;" or
otherwise the revelations of the Bible are so many
myths. There is a heaven, existing just now: moreover, it is not merely a local but a material habitation, into which Enoch and Elijah have ascended,
carrying their bodies with them; and into which
the resurrection-bodies of all the children of God
are to rise after the judgment is over, and where
they are to dwell for ever; or otherwise the whole
Bible is a novel, and its beatific revelations are
merely comfortable dreams.
There is a heaven, into which patriarchs have
entered who lived long ages near the beginning of
the world's history; for they are still alive. At
Horeb, God's language to Moses is, "I am," not I
was, " the God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob."
When these words were spoken, the patriarchs had
been dead for several hundred years. God asserts
they were still alive: he is not the God of the dead,
but of the living; for all live to him. There is a
heaven, into which prophets have ascended, who once
acted as the mouth of God upon earth, and made
audible in the hearing of the children of men those
high and important revelations which the eternal
Jehovah for ages sent down from his throne, and
from the habitation of his glory, to his children.
There is a heaven, into which the disciples of our
Lord have entered who once followed Jesus in his
mission of love in this world, and who still follow




HEA VEN A LOCALITY.            25
the Lamb whithersoever he goeth.  There is a
heaven, into which martyrs have ascended in their
chariots of flame, who sealed their testimony to
Jesus with their blood. There is a heaven, into
which believers, from every clime of earth and from
every age of this world's history, have ascended;
who have been coming from the east and from the
west, from the north and from the south, and have
been sitting down with Abraham, with Isaac, and
with Jacob.  From the throne of his love, in these
high places, God has been saying to the north,
"Give up;" and to the south, "IKeep not back:
bring my sons from far, and my daughters from the
ends of the earth." The redeemed of the Lord have
been for thousands of years returning and coming
to the heavenly Zion with songs of praise. They are
now obtaining, in God's presence above, the joy
and gladness that were promised, and sorrow and
mourning have for ever fled away from them; and
these collected and assembled multitudes now stand
together in their exaltation, and sing before their
God and Saviour the praises of the celestial temple.
There.is a heaven, presently existing, into which ye
are to ascend at your death who are the children of
God through faith in Christ Jesus.
WT1here, then, is heaven?  The Bible constantly
speaks of it as uzp, as above.  But this language,
it is quite evident, is only relative; in other words, it
merely implies that heaven is away from the earth,
2




26     ~     HIIEA VEN A LOCALITY.
and is localized in some distant region of space.
The earth, every student of geography knows, is, in
form, a sphere, or globe, and has two motions. It
has its annual motion along its orbit round the sun:
it has also its diurnal motion; or, in other words, it
turns completely round upon an imaginary axis
every twenty-four hours. Take the case of an individual who speaks about heaven, and who, in faith,
looks up to it at twelve o'clock in the day.  Up,
with him, simply means the direction in which he is
looking into the great pavilion of space, in a line
drawn from the centre of the earth, and the part of
its surface upon which he at the moment stands.
Let twelve hours pass over that individual's head,
whilst meanwhile the earth is revolving in its diurnal
motion, and has now brought him into the exactly
opposite direction, in reference to that great pavilion,
from what he was twelve hours before. Let him
now speak of heaven, and let him look sip to it, in
imagination and in faith: his feet are now, in a line
leading from the centre of the earth, towards the
heaven to which he looked twelve hours before; his
head and uplifted eyes are in the entirely opposite
direction.'Is that man right in his view of the
direction in which heaven lies from him at twelve
o'clock in the night? Either there must be two
heavens, or all space is heaven; or he is mistaken
in his view of the direction in which heaven lies from
the earth at one or other of these seasons. Now,




HEAVEN A LOCALITY.             27
because we involuntarily and inadvertently commit
this mistake in our view of the situation of heaven, -
imagining it localized in one part of space at twelve
o'clock in the day, and in the entirely opposite region
in space at twelve o'clock in the night, -is heaven
nowhere? The man would neither be a good mathematician nor a good logician who would draw such
a conclusion from the premises.
I believe the Scriptures do not fix the place: they
have not assigned, they do not assign, the exact locality
which heaven occupies in the great pavilion of space,
no more than they have fixed definitively the exact
locality upon earth where Eden was situated. There
has been no small controversy among writers on
scriptural subjects respecting the site of Eden: one
writer has actually placed it in the moon. Suppose
I had, in my judgment, fixed upon a particular
locality as that of Eden, and had afterwardseither by reasoning, or by observation, or by meeting some one inspired, and getting him to point out
to me its exact place and its boundaries - been led
to see that I was wrong: does it follow that Eden
never had an existence because I was wrong in my
localization of it?
The Scriptures, I repeat, do not attempt to define
to us the exact region in the great immensity of space
where heaven is situated. I am not sure, indeed,
that they could have done this so as to have been
understood.  Were the earth stationary, and the




28           HEAVEN A LOCALITY.
heavens at rest too, I believe this could have been
done; but, looking at the earth's revolution round
the sun, and looking at the fact, that, for any thing
I can tell, the sun may have a similar revolution
through space round the outside of the wall of heaven,
— which is said to be great and high, and from the
radiancy of which the sun may derive his light, and
thus be a merely reflecting body like the moon, -
heaven may thus be in one direction from me at one
time, and in the directly opposite at another. Even
physically, we speak of the sun being up from us;
and nevertheless we are all aware, that, every twelve
hours, he is down.  An illustration will show the
im?7possibility "of assigning the exact celestial region.
If heaven be stationary, and the sun with his attendant planets, and the stars with their several family
orbs, roll in their courses round about it, surveying it like children playing round a fire, its exact
position cannot be assigned.  Look to that vessel
which has cast anchor in the bay, and is at rest at
her moorings: it is to be your home whilst you are
crossing the Atlantic; but it has not yet set sail.
Suppose you go into a boat at a distance of two hundred yards, and row quite round the vessel. Whilst
you are making that circuit, in what direction will
the vessel be from you? It is quite manifest that it
will be at different sections of your circle in entirely
opposite directions; and were you to say that the
position of the vessel, as seen from your boat, and




HEAVEN A LOCALITY.               29
the direction from which it lies from you, is due
west, this, it is evident, would be true only whilst
you were at one part of your course.
I cannot tell the exact position of heaven. I cannot stand in the boat - the earth  in which I am
now sailing, and point my finger in the exact direction along the ocean of space in which heaven is,the vessel of glory in which I am, as a child of God,
yet to have my home through eternity.  But what
if heaven, the vessel of immortality, has weighed
anchor, and is also under sail as well as the earth?
It is manifest, that in this case the difficulty of fixing
the situation is greatly increased. The Scriptures
have not fixed the locality; and, as far as I can see,
they could not do so.  But heaven has its position
in the great ocean of space, just as much as the vessel has that is lying at rest upon the waters, kept
there by the anchor.
It may be, that beyond all that is visible, and
beyond all that is existing in God's lower creation,
there lies and there expands and there gleams beneath the light of God's own manifested presence
the heaven of heavens, which forms the ethereallized,
luminous, material habitation in which the children of
Godl are, throughout eternity, to dwell. Heaven may
be to the whole material orbs of God's great universe
what the sun is to the solar system, - a region of
brightness so dazzling, that all the light that is in
the universe may be flowing out from it; and thus




30           HEAVEN A LOCALITY.
it may be, that all that is luminous in the lower creation is exactly to heaven what the planets are to the
sun, — dark, floating masses, till lighted by its
beams.
Do not say, that this view of the situation of
heaven removes it to an almost indefinite distance
from the earth. Time has, as it were, no duration in
the reckoning of God.  "One day is with the Lord
as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one
day." Space, upon the same principle, has, as it
were, no extension in the measurement of God.
There is no such thing as distance, considered in its
relation to him. Space is thus annihilated in God.
Quickness of transition, to some extent, also annihilates space. The speed of angels may be so great in
their transitions from heaven to earth, and from
earth back again to heaven, that, far as the regions
may be asunder, they may make the passage quick
as the gleam of the lightning, and rapid as the
twinkling of an eye. The invention of the telegraph
has almost annihilated space along the surface of the
earth.  For any thing I can tell, God may have
made known, to those who are above, some nobler
space-annihilating invention, through which, though
situated on the other side from  us of the great
pavilion of the universe, they may nevertheless feel
that they are at earth's very door. Our thoughts
almost annihilate space as they roam to and fro
through the great creation, and up and down through




HEAVEN A LOCALITY.             31
the heavens, and round about the throne of God.
Angels, glorified spirits, may move through space
much quicker than our thoughts do, and therefore
quicker than the beams of light move away from the
sun into the regions around, and hence so much
more quick than the ball when just propelled from
the cannon's mouth.
The Temple of Jerusalem was a visible panorama
of heaven in its relation to earth.  There was the
Holy of Holies typifying heaven, whilst the outer
courts — where the sacrifices were offered, and incense smoked upon the altar, and the worshippers
assembled — represented the earth.  A  veil was
stretched, by God's appointment, so as to conceal
the Holy of Holies entirely from the view of those
who' were worshipping without.  So is it with
heaven. God has stretched a veil of invisibility
betwixt us and his throne, which entirely conceals it
from our view. Heaven is, indeed, as much out of
my sight, and beyond the reach of my eye, as if it
had no existence. The prophet's description of God
is, "Thou art verily a God that hidest thyself, O
God of Israel, the Saviour." God not only hides
himself: he hides also from us the habitation of his
holiness.  For wise purposes, he holdeth back the
face of his throne, and spreadeth his cloud above
upon it. For wise purposes, God conceals from us
the pavilion of light with which he is inhaloed, as
he dwells in the midst thereof; because, whilst we




32          HIEAVEiN A LOCALITY.
remain upon earth, we are to walk by faith, and not
by sight; and because a constant and vivid view of
the hosts of heaven, and of the great realities
of eternity, would so overpower and paralyze us as
to unfit us for the duties of earth and of time. But
though God does not show us heaven, does not
open to us its regions of bliss, so that they may
become visible to our view whilst we remain upon
earth, he speaks to us, in his Word, about heaven,
and tells us, not where it is, but what it is.  A little
child is in this country, whose parents are living at
Calcutta: that child knows not where its parents'
home is, nor the way to it; but the captain knows
who takes that child on board; and angels know
where heaven is, who will take you, believers, home.
Those who are in heaven possess a knowledge of
it, independently of the descriptions of the Bible.
They see its heights of majesty towering around
them; its valleys of joy stretching away in all the
luxuriance and fragrance of an eternal summer; its
rivers of pleasures rolling through its brightening
scenery, and the living streams flowing at their feet,
which make glad the city of. God. They behold its
azure sky arching over them in its meridian splendor,
and vouchsafing to them the cloudless expanse of an
eternal day, -a splendor of light that never grows
dim.  There are no stars in the bright firmament
that is above them, to dispel, in part, the darkness of
night; for there is no night there. Finally, they see




REAVSEN A LOCALITY.           33
the building of God, — the house not made with
hands, eternal ill the heavens, - the house with many
mansions, in which God's great and happy family
meet and live and walk and talk and act and love.
Angels have been surveying heaven, and have
been contemplating its scenery, for at least near six
thousand years; and by their surveys, and flights
through the midst of it, they must have now a knowledge of what is to us so mysterious.  Abel, the
first of the human family who entered there, has
been enjoying the vision for nearly six thousand
years; and, arrayed in his robes of white, has been
walking through it, looking upon its changeless
monuments, and exploring wonders that have upon
them  the impress of eternity.  All this is from
observation, just as a person travelling through his
native land acquires, by viewing it, a knowledge far
more accurate than what he received by studying its
map or its history. Noah now views heaven from a
higher mount than that of Ararat; and how living is
the scenery i - it is not desolated, as the earth was,
by a recently oversweeping deluge.  Moses now
beholds heaven as he looked from Mount Pisg-ah
upon the Promised Land; but he is not surveying
it as a country which he is never to enter: he is
already in it.
It is different with us who are yet but pilgrims
and sojourners upon earth. We have in the Bible
the only inspired descriptions of heaven which ever
2*




34          HIEAVEN A LOCALITY.
will be put into our hands; but these descriptions
are not heaven, no more than the pattern of the
temple which Moses saw on the mount was the massive and gorgeous fabric reared by Solomon, or than
a map is the country it delineates, or a book of
geography is the earth, or the plan of a house is the
material building, or your portrait is yourself.
With many, heaven is merely a sound.  They
see the word "heaven" in their Bible; they read
about it there: but the great heaven into which
Jesus has ascended, where God has his throne,
where angels and glorified saints dwell together in
love, is not at all, or is but dimly, realized by them
as a locality, a world, existing entirely apart, and
independently of the Bible's descriptions. It is right
that such individuals should remember that heaven
existed before the Bible was written, and would continue to exist even were there no Bible to tell us
what a glorious, holy, and happy place it is. The
star that is in the far-distant recess of space, hidden
from the view of the bodily eye, exists independently
of the telescope that has brought it into view. What
does the telescope do to that star? The star is not
in the telescope, no more than your friend, whom
you see before you, is in your eye. It has an existence independently of the instrument through which
you look, and by the aid of which you behold it
shining, quiet and beautiful, in its far-distant sphere.
The telescope does not create the star: it merely




HEAVEN A LOCALITY.              35
brings it into your view, and shows you how -in
regions that have never yet been penetrated by the
gaze and exploring eye of man, with all his instruments - the heavens are declaring the glory of God,
and the firmament is showing forth his handiwork.
In like manner, the Bible does not create heaven;
but it does to heaven what the telescope does to the
most distant star that is invisible to the naked eye,it brings it into view; it throws the light of its high
revelations over it; it lifts the veil that conceals the
great regions of eternal life from our view; and it
shows us, in its panoramic delineations, a world
existing, peopled by prodigious assemblages, and
lighted up with its own peculiar joy.
Heaven is not a state or a character merely.  It is
quite true, that it is said by our blessed Saviour himself, "The kingdom of heaven is within you:" but,
in these words, Jesus is not speaking of the kingdom
of glory; he is speaking of the kingdom of grace,
of the reign of grace in the heart of every believer.
It is quite true, that character —a gracious state,
the soul transformed into Christ's image by the Holy
Spirit —is necessary as a preplaration for heaven.
What would heaven be to you, speaking generally,
who have not the character that fits you for it, were
you carried up in your present state of unpreparedness, and set down in the midst of its assemblies,
and deep roll of its eternal praises? It would be
what the warm, dry beach, on a beautiful summer




36           HEAVEN A LOCALITY.
day, is to the fish that has been dragged up there
alive out of the sea, its natural element, and to
which the balmy air is quite intolerable; it would
be what a beautiful landscape is to a man who is
entirely blind; it would be what a delightful concert
of music is to a man who is deaf; it would be what
a rich and sumptuous feast is to a man who is sick,
and who nauseates, the taste of the most savory and
most delicate food; it would be what the society of
the learned and the wise, the noble and refined, is
to a man who is profoundly ignorant, whose tastes
are depraved, whose habits are such that he feels no
pleasure except when in a state of intoxication.
Character is necessary as a preparation for heaven;
but what I wish you distinctly to understand is, that
character is not heaven, no more than your character
is your home, - than the qualification fitting you to
be one of an assembly is that assembly.
Paul was highly favored in getting a knowledge
of heaven in the visions of the Almighty.  He
was caught up into the third heaven. He looked
upon its inhabitants, and listened to the roll of its
praises.  God, however, conceals heaven from ouzr
view; but, as I have said, he speaks to us about it
in his Holy Word.  He tells us what it is like, and
what things upon earth bear a resemblance to it.
This is the origin of the figures which we find the
Holy Spirit in the Scriptures employing to represent
heaven to us. These figures are so many lakes, in




HEAVEN A. LOCALITY.             37
whose clear bosoms we see the world that is above
us reflected. They are so many mirrors, reflecting
in their polished surfaces the image of the heaven of
heavens.  These figures are particularly worthy
of notice; for they show that heaven is both a
locality and also a place of friendship.
A:?~




CHAPTER  II.
TYPES OF HEAVEN. - EDEN AND CANAAN.
DEN was a type of heaven; and every
reader of the Bible knows that it was not
only the home, for a season, of our first
parents, but also a place of social intercourse.
"To-day shalt thou be with me in paradise." "To
him that overcometh will I give to eat of the tree of
life, which is in the midst of the paradise of God."
What Eden was in its primeval beauty to this world,
heaven is to the universe of God.  Heaven is the
Eden of creation, where unfading flowers bloom, and
the glow of an eternal summer unchangingly smiles;
where trees, whose leaves never wither, impart a
cooling shade to those who walk through its bowers;
where streams of joy flow everywhere through the
valleys, and sparkle and rejoice beneath the beams
of an unsetting sun.
Does God walk in Eden with our first parents,
and hold sweet intercourse with them? God is
[38]




EDEN AND CANAAN.               39
doing this to all who are in heaven.  He walks with
the hosts above through the eternal Eden. He communes lovingly with all its rejoicing inhabitants from
off the mercy-seat, and mingles with them in its
bowers of bliss.
Did Adam and Eve, previous to their fall, exhibit
the bloom and glow and beauty of immortality, and
the possession of eternal youth?  The inhabitants
of heaven stand, in their peculiar beauty as well as
in their immortality, before the throne of God. The
paleness of decaying health is never seen to overspread their countenances, as they walk through
these bowers of paradise. No inhabitant there ever
says, "I am sick," or presses a sick-bed, or suffers
death, or is ever laid by mourning survivors in a
grave. No funeral was ever seen moving slowly
and solemnly along the highways of eternal life to
the city of the dead, - the lonely churchyard. No
bereaved mourner appears in heaven standing sorrowfully at the newly filled-up resting-place, and
looking down in tears upon the spot where a oncebeloved friend lies.  The inhabitants there are in
possession of a life without end: they will live as
long as God himself, as long as Jesus who is upon
the throne, as long as heaven itself will exist; and
that will be fbr ever.
Do our first parents in Eden, as previous to their
fall, walk now with God in the light of holiness?
Heaven is creation's Holy of Holies. It is a holy place,




40            TYPES OF HEAVEN.
and all are holy who dwell in it.  I believe, so
bright, so shining, so glorious in holiness, are all the
members of God's great family in heaven, that were
I taken up at this moment into it, and set down
among theim, I could no more gaze upon their faces
and forms than the Jews could upon the countenance of Moses arrayed in the lustre of God; than
his persecutors could upon the face of Stephen, so
like that of an angel; than I, with unshrinking eye,
could look upon ten thousand suns. Saul was struck
blind by the outbursting around his path of Christ's
manifested presence. What would I feel were Christ
at this moment to unveil himself to my view, surrounded by all these exalted and resplendent hosts?
I believe that one look would in a moment strike me
blind, and thus spread at once, so far as I was concerned, a mantle of darkness over all the august
personages who now move through these peopled
heavens.
Do our first parents, as previous to their fall in
Eden, dwell together in love? and do they feel their
highest and their purest happiness, next to their covenant-communion with God, to spring from their
intercourse with each other? Are their bosoms two
well-tuned instruments of music, that pour forth
their melodious tones in sweetest harmony? Are
they as two morning-stars beaming forth in their
calm sublimity from the deep-blue azure of a cloudless sky?  Are they as two AEolian harps played




EDEN AND CANAAN.              41
upon by the same holy gale of love?  Heaven is the
paradise of love. All who are in heaven are living
in love. It is the very atmosphere of heaven, - the
breath of all its glorious inhabitants, - the language
in which they address one another, - the power
which lights up the holy eye wherewith they look
upon each other. Surely it will be joyful to leave
behind us for ever the cruel hatreds of earth, to spend
a long eternity in that holy Eden of love, sitting
under our Redeemer's shadow, - feeling his fruit to
be sweet to our taste, - being led by him into his
celestial banqueting-house, -having  his banner
spread over us for eternity, even the banner of covenanting love!
The earthly Canaan was not merely the local habitation of the people of God: it was a place of social
intercourse.  Was Canaan the Land of Promise?
Heaven is this to the whole spiritual Israel of God.
It is the Promised Land which your God has prepared for you who are believers in Jesus: it is ready
for your joyful and triumphant entrance; and when
you have crossed the Jordan, and have taken possession, you will live in it, - nay, you will never leave
it, - whilst the endless cycles of a glad eternity are
rolling over you.
Not merely twelve visitors have left the wilderness
of the world to go and spy the Land of Promise,
but multitudes, whose numbers cannot be reckoned
up, have left the camp of the human family in the




42           lTYPES OF HEA VEN.
world, have crossed the Jordan of death, have entered eternity, and are now in the goodly land. The
Holy Spirit is the bunch of grapes which the Lord
Jesus has brought out to us from heaven, to give us
a foretaste of the fruits which are spread over its
vine-clad hills and are enjoyed in its banquetinghouses. Hence says Jesus to his disciples, "I will
drink no more of the fruit of the vine with you, until
the day that I drink it new with you in my Father's
kingdom."
Was the earthly Canaan a land flowing with milk
and honey? What is the better land, the heavenly?
"The Lamb who is in the midst of the throne,"
throughout eternity, "shall feed them, and shall
lead them unto living fountains of waters; and God
shall wipe away all tears from their eyes."  They
feed upon the fruits of the tree of life; they drink of
the rivers of God's pleasures; and thus they hunger
no more, neither thirst any more. The Lord God is
their sun and shield.  They are dwelling in a world
of unchanging and of unfailing abundance.
Was the earthly Canaan somnething like the lighthouse of heavenly knowledge to the world, shining
in the midst of an ocean of ignorance, over which a
night of deep darkness brooded?  Was it Goshen
filled with light, whilst a darkness that might be felt
was filling the various provinces of Egypt? -Heaven
is creation's lighthouse.  It is a world filled with the
uncreated light of God's glory, and in which there is




EDEN AND CANAAN.               43
no darkness at all.  " They who are in it need no
candle, neither light of the sun; for the Lord God
giveth them light."  "There is no night there: the
Lamb is the light thereof."
Did the silver trumpet sound every fiftieth year in
Palestine, proclaiming liberty to the captives, and the
opening of the prison-doors to them who were bound?
Was this the joyful experience of the oppressed
in Israel when the year of jubilee dawned? " Blessed
is the people that know the joyful sound: they shall
walk, 0 Lord! in the light of thy countenance."
Heaven is the world of liberty: "Jerusalem  that is
above is free, which is the mother of us all."  Those
who are in it are free from slavery, from sin, from
pain, from sorrow, from death.




CHAPTER III.
TYPES OF HEAVEN. —A TEMPLE.
TEMPLE, or church, is a type of heavein:
"Him that overcometh will I make a pillar
in the temple of my God, and he shall go
no more out; and I will write upon him the name
of my God, and the name of the city of my God,
which is new Jerusalem, which cometh down out of
heaven from my God; and I will write upon him my
new name.' " What are these which are arrayed in
white robes? and whence came they?  These are
they which came out of great tribulation, and have
washed their robes, and made them white in the
blood of the Lamb.  Therefore are they before
the throne of God, and serve him day and night in
his temple; and He that sitteth on the throne shall
dwell among them."
The great universe is the temple of God's presence. The Church - every believer's soul - is the
[44]




A TEMPLE.                  45
temple of God's grace.  Heaven is the temple of
God's glory.  A temple is a house consecrated to
God, in which he dwells, and meets with his people,
and blesses them; and it is a place of social intercourse, not only betwixt God and his people who
assemble there, but also among these worshippers
themselves. The worship of God is the very object
for which a temple is built; and the chief purpose for which God reared the heavens and spread
them forth was that he might have one region, at
least, in his vast and boundless dominions, in which
the great retinue of followers who are round about
him, and the innumerable hosts who are assembled
above, might worship him day and night in his
temple.
Heaven, I believe, has been too much viewed as a
world of mere rest and complete deliverance from all
the ills that afflict us here, and too little as a temple;
for, if heaven be a temple, it is a life spent by us here
in God's worship, both public and private, through
Jesus, that alone fits and prepares us for its holy
exercises.
The whole of heaven is one vast temple. The
endless eternity above is one continuous and neverending sabbath.
I cannot tell exactly in what God's worship in the
temple of heaven consists. From various incidental
allusions made in the Scriptures, it is evident that
praise constitutes a part of it.  I never read of those




46             TYPES OF IEA VEN.
who are in heaven engaging in prayer to God, as we
do upon earth, for the pardon of sin, for the Spirit
to sanctify, and for the daily grace which we require.
I often read, however, of them engaging in praise.
It thus appears that it is Christ alone who prays in
heaven and intercedes for us.  All the created intelligences who are there spend their glad eternity, not
in praying, but in praising.
Do not, however, imagine that the praises of
heaven never vary in their subject. You have only
to read your Bible carefully to see that there is a
very great variety indeed in the subjects which call
forth the praises of the assembled hosts who stand
before the throne of God.  At one time, God is
praised by them as the great Creator of all things:' The four and twenty elders fall down before Him
that sat on the throne, and worship Him that liveth
for ever and ever, and cast their crowns before the
throne, saying, Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive
glory and honor and power: for thou has created
all things; and for thy pleasure they are, and were
created." At another time, for the spread of Christ's
kingdom  upon earth: "And the seventh  angel
sounded; and there were great voices in heaven,
saying, The kingdoms of this world are become the
kingdoms of our Lord and of his Christ, and he
shall reign for ever and ever.  And the four and
twenty elders, which sat before God on their seats,
fell upon their faces, and worshipped God, saying,




A TEMPLE.                 47
We give thee thanks, 0 Lord God Almighty, which
art, and wast, and art to come; because thou hast
taken to thee thy great power, and hast reigned."
The triumph believers obtain through Jesus over
Satan is at another time the subject of a distinct
song to God by the assemblies of heaven: "And I
heard a loud voice saying in heaven, Now is come
salvation and strength, and the kingdom of our God,
and the power of his Christ; for the accuser of our
brethren is cast down, which accused them before
our God day and night.  And they overcame him
by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their
testimony; and they loved not their lives unto the
death. Therefore rejoice, ye heavens, and ye that
dwell in them."  The conversion of every sinner
causes joy to those who are in heaven; and I presume, over every wandered child's return to God
upon earth, a special song of praise will be presented
to Him who is upon the throne.
The inhabitants of heaven are not spending their
eternity in idleness. They feel how much God has
done for them; and they show their gratitude to him,
for all his great and unspeakable benefits bestowed
upon them, by doing his will, by engaging unceasingly in his service, and in the worship of Father, Son,
and Holy Ghost. Nor are you to imagine that there
is no reciprocation and no mutual and no endearing
personal intercourse betwixt the worshipped and the
worshippers,- betwixt Him who is upon the throne




48            TYPES OF HEA VEVN.
and those who are assembled before it, - or that the
worship consists simply and solely and exclusively of
praise.
The redeemed from earth have left their Bibles
behind them  in the world, from  whose holy and
dearly relished pages they learned God's will whilst
here below, and heard God himself speaking to
them.  Have they no means of obtaining a knowledge of God's mind and will, now that they are
standing before him  unveiled?  Being in the presence of a person does not necessarily convey to you
a knowledge of his will.  So far as I see or can perceive, being in the presence of the eternal God,
and at the foot of his august throne, does not necessarily put his children in the possession of Jehovah's
will.  I believe that the prerogative of seeing and
of knowing the thoughts of other beings is possessed
by God alone.  He only can look into the bosoms
of created spirits, and can view what is passing
there, even as we look upon a crowd assembled in
the market-place, or scan the words in the pages of
a book, and in these visible signs see the author's
thoughts, and even catch the glow of his sentiments
and emotions. I believe that the created inhabitants
of heaven cannot look into the bosom of the great
God, and see his thoughts and behold his will, till he
gives expression to these in the vocables of heaven,
in the utterances of eternity.
Does God, then, make no communication of his




A TEMPLE.                  49
will now to those who are in heaven? Do they
nothing but praise, praise, praise? Does God sit
upon the throne of his majesty, and does he neither
break the silence of eternity, nor make known one
new revelation of his will to those who are round
about it? If so, then I have only to say, that there
is a great difference betwixt God's present dealing
with those who are in heaven from what it was
whilst they remained upon earth.
The Scriptures reveal to us thefact, that God has
been condescending to speak to his people audibly
and face to face in almost every age. He spoke
thus to our first parents in Eden; to Cain, when
reproving him for the murder of his brother; to
Noah, in giving intimation of the coming deluge;
to the tribes of Israel, when trembling at the foot of
Mount Sinai; to Moses, both on the mount and in
the tabernacle; to Job, from the careering whirlwind; to the three disciples, upon the Mount of
Transfiguration; and to many others, the occasions
of which are referred to in the Holy Scriptures. Did
God speak thus to none upon earth till the canon of
Scripture closed, except to those who are particularly mentioned in the Bible?  Has he never spoken
to his people upon earth since, either in dreams, in
the visions of the night, or in their holy communion
with him by day?  I am not prepared to answer
these questions in the negative. I believe that what
God has often thus done to his people upon earth,
3




50            TTYPES OF HEA VEN.
speaking audibly to them in a language which they
understood, and graciously revealing to them his
holy will, is just a gliimpse and foreshadowing of what
he is doing in heaven; just as his meeting with his
people and blessing them whilst here is an earnest
and a symbol of what he is doing to his people who
are assembled before him above.
A sovereign in his court upon earth is not always
silent and uncommunicative to the courtiers and
others who meet in his palace.  A father does not
sit during his whole life entirely silent in the midst
of his children and friends. Is not God a sovereign,
seated upon his throne, in his own celestial palace?
Are not his courtiers and attendants crowding the
celestial presence-chamber, and waiting for an audience of the Great Kino,? Is not God a father? and
does he not dwell in the midst of his great family,
as they wait for the smile of his paternal love, and
does he never slpeak? Does he never look down,
either with the condescension of a sovereign or the
love of a father?  The very smulplosition spreads a
gloom and an unsocial coldness over our views of
heaven.
I believe, that, whilst the multitudes in heaven are
permitted to speak to God, and to hold endearing
converse with him in holy and blissful communion,thus prayer.upon earth is a figure of this intercourse
enjoyed by the saints, - God condescends to speak
to them also upon particular occasions, to break by




A TEMPLE.                 51
the voice divine the silence of eternity, and to make
known to them both additional and fuller revelations
of his will than they previously possessed.
When a sovereign, upon great occasions, speaks
in the palace or in parliament, the assemblies present
attentively listen, the hum of their previous conversation is hushed, and all eyes are instantly, in
profound earnestness, turned towards the speaker.
Oh! then, surely when God speaks from the midst
of the light that is inaccessible and full of glory, and
from the throne of his sovereignty, and, in accents
of divine love, delivers some new and holy communication of his will to the assemblies who are above,
the ascending swell and the commingled anthems of
praise, that were previously rising from the ranks
of angels and of the glorified, will instantly cease
and become hushed, like the sudden calm that came
down upon the Sea of Galilee, when Jesus rose in
the ship, and looked out upon the rolling billows,
driven and lashed into foam by the furious winds,
and said, "Peace, be still!"
If you ask, " Upon what subjects do I suppose will
God speak on these occasions?" I answer, I cannot
dogmatically tell; but there are many themes upon
which God may speak. He may give audible intimation respecting what he wishes angels and glorified
saints to do in their several places; he may give
information to the whole assemblies above, when
another and another of his children press a death



52            TYPES OF IIEAVEVN.
bed upon earth, and single out the angels who are
to go down and bear them up in triumph to their
rest; he may give intelligence respecting the more
prominent events in connection with Christ's kingdom
and cause that are taking place in the world below.
Nor may he speak merely about what is taking
place in heaven and upon earth: he may, on particular
occasions, refer to the past. He may describe, in words
that are divine, what was taking place throughout
his great universe during the long ages that preceded the morning of creation, — what he was
during that period, what he felt, and what he was
doing, and where was the shining-forth of his glory;
or he may describe the creation of angels, of the
heavens, of the earth, of the human family, and of
all that exists, and solve, in words conveying a whole
flood of light, many of those subjects that have for
ages puzzled dogmatizing geologists, and baffled the
puny philosophers of earth; or he may refer to the
bglow of that eternal love in the bosom of Father,
Son, and Holy Ghost, that embodied its promptings
in the formation of the covenant of grace; or he
may assign the precise reason or reasons why He
who is all power, and all wisdom, and all knowledge,
and all goodness, and all love, and who could have
made his whole universe a paradise of life, and of holiness, and of happiness, nevertheless permitted moral
evil to enter it, to mar, to disfigure, and to spread
death over it, - a subject that has been a dark con



A TEMPLE.                  53
tention both to philosophers and divines in every
age; or he may give, in revelations that carry convictions of his equity to every hearer, the reason or
reasons why, in the sovereignty of his justice, he
passed fallen angels by, and, in the sovereignty of
his grace, made provision for the eternal redemption
of fallen man; or he may make known the solemnl
fact, to the entire satisfaction of all, that the incarnation and humiliation and sufferings and death
of his only-begotten and well-beloved Son were so
absolutely necessary, that there was no other mode
possible, even to God, to bring salvation to man,
consistently with the claims of divine justice, and
with the maintenance of the principles of his moral
government over the intelligent universe; or he
may show the precise reason why the mission of the
Lord Jesus to the world was delayed for so many
thousands of years after the promise of it had been
given to the human family; or he may assign the
reason why he did not cause the gospel to be spread
through the world instantaneously by a miracle, but
left it to be propagated gradually by the living
agency of the Church of Christ; or he may tell
the listening assemblies why it was that he permitted
the monstrous systems of religious delusions to originate and exist, that have overspread the world and
overshadowed the nations, in different ages, like so
many upas-trees; or he may speak of the future,
and tell to angels, and to the spirits of the just made




5;4           TYPES OF HEA VEN.
perfect, when the last day is to dawn upon the earth,
when the judgment is to sit, when the resurrectionmorning is to overshadow the world, and when the
long, dark night of the grave is to roll away for
ever.
On other occasions, the Lord Jesus will occupy, if
I may use the expression, the pulpit in the heavenly
temple. Then, when the Great Preacher himself
begins to address the great congregation, the mighty
assemblies will instantly cease their song of praise
which they are lifting before the throne of God; and,
like the rustling foliage of a large forest when suddlenly stirred and breathed upon by the passing wind,
they will be moved by his holy voice, while, with
the eye of their earnest and silent attention fixed
upon him, they will listen with a deep and solemn
stillness to the words of grace and of love that
proceed out of his mouth.
If Christ's eloquence was so sweet and persuasive
and fascinating whilst upon earth, that even his enemies were forced to exclaim, "Never man spake
like this man," what then is it, what will its power
and influence be, whilst heard by the great congregation in heaven?
Do you hesitate to admit the possibility of Christ
preaching to the assembled hosts above? Notice, in
proof of it, these views.  Jesus preached whilst
down upon the earth here, and prayed, and spoke in
the most condescending and familiar manner to his




A TEMPLE.                 55
disciples and followers; and he is the same yesterday, to-day, and for ever.  "Seeing, then, that we
have a great High Priest, that has passed into the
heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast our
profession."  Further, the Lord Jesus is expressly
called the minister of the "true tabernacle," - heaven, - of which the tabernacle among the Jews was
a mere shadow.  "Now, of the things which we
have spoken, this is the sum: We have such an High
Priest, who is set on the right hand of the throne of
the Majesty in the heavens; a minister of the sanetuary and of the true tabernacle, which the Lord
pitched, and not man."
The Lord Jesus preached upon earth. His voice
was often heard here, making known to those around
him the extent and the spirituality of the law of
God; the greatness and the fervor of the love existing in the bosom of the Father towards the human
family; the movement that had originated in heaven,
and that was going forward upon earth, for the salvation of the perishing.
Can it be, Christ's voice is never heard now in
that heavenly tabernacle where he presides in the
inidst'of his followers? Is Jesus as silent now as if
he were a statue of white polished marble, erect and
motionless, standing cold and still on the right hand
of the throne of God? If he mingled with his followers upon earth in all the intimacies of the most
condescending and endearing friendship, can it be




66            TYPES OF HEAV EN.
that he is now in a state of isolation and of entire
and lonely separation from all the assembled hosts
who crowd around him, and who look to him as the
great object of their love, with all the ardor and
with all the unquenchable glow of that holy feeling?
Is that bosom cold now in heaven that once glowed
with such ardor of affection to his people upon earth?
Love is not a selfish and silent and an uncommunicative emotion.  It may be that Christ's voice is not
heard alone in heaven as the intercessor of his Church
and people, addressing the eternal Father on their
behalf. That voice may also be heard addressing
angels, and also his people, with an eloquence of
which we can form only a very inadequate idea. I
may ask, Is the Lord Jesus the minister of heaven?
Is he the elder Brother of God's family? Is he the
great High Priest who is over the house of the Lord?
Do the redeemed follow the Lamb whithersoever he
goeth? Does the Lamb in the midst of the throne
feed them, and lead them to fountains of living waters?
Whilst the Lord Jesus is one with God, is he not
also one with the general assembly and church of the
first-born? Does he not retain in heaven now the
holy social nature which he possessed upon earth?
Then rest assured, that Jesus in heaven mingles with
the hosts who are there, speaks to them, and makes
known more fully the unsearchable riches of the
love of God. Oh, how lofty and how comforting is
the view, that the whole of heaven is a church; that




A TEMPLE.                 57
the created hosts who are in it form one great congregation! Jesus is the preacher; and, on the;e
occasions,- you will not, perhaps, call these seasons
the sabbaths of eternity; for the whole endless roll
of the cycles above is one continuous, holy, calm,
and eternal sabbath, - Jesus preaches to the mighty
assemblies who are congregated before him, forming
a multitude whom no man can number.
The/re are subjects worthy of such a preacher and of
such an audience. On these occasions, Jesus may
refer, not in the way of reproach, but as an illustration of the.great love wherewith he has loved the
children of men, to the unspeakable sacrifices which
he made to bring them salvation; how he spent his
past eternity, before the world was, in holy love, and
in holy communion and in blissful fellowship with
the Father and with the Spirit, and, in the fulness
of time, left it; how he had glory with the Father
before this world was, and, in the day of his coming
to earth, veiled it for a season; how He who was in
the form of God, and thought it not robbery to be
equal with God, nevertheless made himself of no
reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant,
and was made in the likeness of men; how He who
had been throughout a past eternity the Father's
delight, rejoicing always before him, became a man
of sorrows, and acquainted with grief; how He who
was the mighty God, the everlasting Father, became
a Child born and a Son given upon earth.




I58           T YPES OF HEAVEN.
Jesus may also describe -the wonder and amazement and intense thrill of awe that spread through
heaven when its onlooking assemblies saw a new and
mysterious eclipse beginning to come over Him who
is the Sun of righteousness, and the veil of concealment commencing to hide the shining-forth of his
divine attributes.
It is true, the Scriptures do not reveal to us what
new emotions, what wonder, what feelings of amazement, were circulating through the bosoms of those
in heaven when they beheld the Son of God leaving
the throne. But is there no new sensation in a houe
when' a beloved son is preparing to go out from it
upon some important mission?  Is there no sympathetic emotion in a kingdom when a beloved monarch
leaves his throne, and lays aside his royal apparel, and
forsakes his palace and his courtiers, and goes forth
upon some important emprise of difficulty and of
danger? Nay, is there no tumultuating sorrow in
your hearts who are parents, and in the bosoms of
the'other members of your family, when you look
upon a beloved child going out from you, amid the
solemnities of the funeral day, to be laid in the
grave? Jesus may represent to those who were not
then in heaven the emotions that thrilled through it
when the fulness of time dawned; when he bowed
the heavens, and came down. He may describe too,
more particularly than the Scriptures have done, the
depth and the terribleness of his sorrow, which he en



A TE MPLE.                59
dured for the salvation of the lost; how he trod the
wine-press alone, while of the people there was none
with him; how he felt in the garden of Gethsemane,
when "his soul was exceeding sorrowful, even unto
death, and his sweat was as it were great drops of
blood falling down upon the ground;" how he felt
upon the cross, when the Father withdrew from him
the light of his countenance, the sensible tokens of
his love, and when, in the horrors of deep darkness
and desertion, he exclaimed, "My God, my God,
why hast thou forsaken me?" how the darkness that
came down, upon the earth was the shadow of the
deeper darkness that was upon his soul; how he felt
when sleeping among the dead; how he felt when
the resurrection-morning, dawned, and when the angel from heaven was in the act of rolling back the
stone from the door of the sepulchre, and when he
was rising the conqueror of death; how the heavens
were moved when his ascension from the Mount of
Olives, and from the midst of his assembled followers, was taking place, when the everlasting doors
were lifted up, and the gates of glory were flung wide
open, that, amid thousands and tens of thousands
of attending angels, he might return to his native
heavens; how the thrill of an indescribable joy shot
through the bosoms of all who were in heaven, when
they looked up, and saw him seated in his glory upon
the throne with God. What communications may
not Jesus thus make to the listening assemblies,




60            TYPES OF HEAVEN.
whilst the joyful cycles of a long eternity are rolling
on! What new revelations of God, of himself, of
the Holy Spirit, of the ways of God with man, may
not Jesus thus make!
So, too, Jesus may describe to the assemblies the
various events that are taking place upon earth in
connection with his kingdom, — the name of every
new penitent, the spread of his cause among the
nations of the world. When not engaged in making
known to the great congregation views such as I
have suggested, will he not condescendingly walk
with his followers in heaven, and talk with them
personally in the language of eternity?  He did
these whilst upon earth. Is he not acting similarly
towards his people who are now with him? Joyous indeed will eternity be that is spent in this holy
and personal and loving communion.
I address myself to you who are the ambassadors
of Christ, the heralds of the cross, the messengers of
peace to men from Him who is King in Zion. When
you take your position in the pulpit on the holy sabbath of the Lord, and stand up in the name of a
reconciled God, a risen Saviour, a Spirit who is love,
to preach to your fellow-worshippers the gospel of
Christ, and to ask them to behold the Lamb of God
who taketh away the sin of the world, remember
whose representatives you are.  Whilst you are
addressing the listening assembly before you, elevate
your thoughts and views, and remember that you




A TEMPLE.                 61
are doing in the sanctuary upon earth what Jesus
may be doing, and probably is doing, in the temple
of heaven. Look up in faith to Him who is your
new-covenant Head; preach with the same glow of
holy affection, with the same tenderness and sympathy and love of souls warming your hearts, that are
now pervading the bosom of Jesus.




CHAPTER  IV.
TYPES OF HEAVEN. — A CITY.
-;, CITY is a type of heaven; not in its morality, but in the concourse of its citizens, anl
in their intercourse with each other.  By far
the most splendid description of heaven which the
Bible contains is given by the Apostle John in the
twenty-first chapter of the Book of Revelation: "And
I John saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming
down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride
adorned for her husband. And I heard a great voice
out of heaven, saying, Behold, the tabernacle of
God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and
they shall be his people; and God himself shall be
with them, and be their God. And God shall wipe
away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be
no more death, neither sorrow nor crying, neither
shall there be any more pain: for the former things
are passed away..... And there came unto me
[62]




A CITY.                 63
one of the seven angels which had the seven vials
full of the seven last plagues, and talked with me,
saying, Come hither, I will show thee the bride, the
Lamb's wife. And he carried me away in the spirit
to a great and high mountain, and showed me that
great city, the holy Jerusalem, descending out of
heaven from God."  Surely we may well say, " Glorious things are spoken of thee, O city of God!"
The new Jerusalem hath a wall of glory great and
high, fifteen hundred miles in height, according to
the measure of the angel. It has twelve gates, and
at these gates twelve angels are standing with unslumbering eyes. They are looking forth, as you
look forth from your home with watchful anxiety
when you are expecting a beloved one's return, upon
the nations of earth, and upon the homes of the
human family scattered over the surface of the world
below them; and they are welcoming into heaven
the pilgrims of time who fall asleep in Jesus, and
who are going up to the city which hath foundations,
as a cloud, and as the doves to their windows. The
gates of the city are twelve stones most precious;
the streets of it are pure gold, in brilliancy and
purity like to transparent glass. The heavenly city
is not lighted with lamps at regular distances burning along its streets: it hath no need of the sun,
neither of the moon, to shine in it; for the glory of
the Lord doth lighten it, and the Lamb is the light
thereof. The nations, the multitudes who are saved,




64            TYPES OF IIEA VEN.
are walking in the light of it, and are rejoicing in
the splendors of a day to which no night comes.
The gates of heaven are never shut; and angels are
bringing the glory and honor of the nations into
it.
Angels bear Elijah up into heaven, when, in the
form of horses of fire and of a chariot of fire, they
rise with him in the whirlwind. Angels carry Lazarus up from the rich man's gate, and place him, as
the nurse places the child in its mother's arms, in
Abraham's bosom. Angels are around Jesus at his
ascension in countless multitudes, whilst upon the
bosom of a cloud he returns to the bosom of the
Father.  And these angels at the gates of the holy
Jerusalem welcome their companions in who bear
home to the city of God the spirits of the just made
perfect, - those who wash their robes, and who make
them white in the blood of the Lamb.
When heaven is called a city, the figure reminds
us that it is a place of concourse, in which many are
assembled.  London is a large and crowded city.
Vast multitudes dwell in it, and throng its bustling
streets: but, in the number of its citizens, it is no
more to be compared to heaven than one solitary
grain of sand lying by itself upon the washed rock
of the beach is to be compared to the beds of sand
that lie along all the seashores of earth; or than
one ray of light is to be compared with the whole
encircling ocean of sunbeams that stream forth from




A CITY.                 65
the sun in every direction, and penetrate far and
wide into the great pavilion of space; or than one
drop of dew that hangs upon the point of the bending grass-blade, and shines in the morning light, is to
be compared with the waters of the earth.
Who can take the census of the angelic hosts that
move to and fro through these golden streets? I The
chariots of God are twenty thousand, even thousands
of angels." "I beheld, and I heard the voice of
many angels round about the throne and the beasts
and the elders; and the number of them was ten
thousand times ten thousand, and thousands of thousands."
Who can number the spirits of the just made
perfect, the general assembly of the church of the
first-born, who are met in heaven?  "It became
Him, for whom are all things and by whom are all
things, in bringing many sons unto glory, to make
the Captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings."  " After this I beheld, and, lo, a great multitude, which no man could number, of all nations
and kindreds and people and tongues, stood before
the throne and before the Lamb, clothed with white
robes, and palms in their hands; and cried with a
loud voice, saying, Salvation to our God which sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb."




66            TYPES OF HEA TEN.
FAITH S VIEW OF HEAVEN FROM THE MOUNT
OF GLORIY.
The angel takes the Apostle John to a mount of
glory, rearing its lofty summits'to the east of the
new Jerusalem, and commanding a full view of the
holy city, spread in its vastness and glory and populousness, as it were, at his very feet. Place yourself, in imagination, upon the top of that mountain,
beside the Apostle John and his angel-companion,
and with them look down upon the city of the great
king; and, lo, you see that it is not only a place of
concourse, but of sweet and endearing intercourse.
There is the clear serene, without a vapor; above
and around, one unsetting sun; for the Lord God
is heaven's sun.  No cloud ever sails across to
darken that firmament. The air is peaceful; or, if
it move at all, it is like the gentle breathing of an
infant when asleep upon its mother's breast.  The
joyous calm of heaven's eternal sabbath spreads its
pure and holy peace over its whole population. And
there is the celestial city itself, extending far and
wide, its twelve gates standing continually open,
through which the weary pilgrims from earth pour
incessantly into the metropolis of the universe; at
these gates, twelve angels, whose faces are turned
towards the highways by which the children of God
come home to the realms of rest, intent upon the
same object that moved Lot at the gate of Sodom,




A CITY.                  67
when, evening after evening, he watched the approach of strangers, that he might give them the
welcome and the shelter of his home. "Who is this
that cometh up from the wilderness leaning upon her
beloved?"  Far beneath in the distance, and emerging from the clouds of earth and the mists of time,
there appear guides, encircling, in her upward flight,
one of the daughters of God's spiritual Israel, who
has just died, whose ransomed spirit has even now
struggled firee from its connection with the motionless
body.  She has left a home of sorrow, where a great
change has just taken place.  A bereaved partner
is standing in it, gazing, with a heart like to break,
upon the changed countenance of her who was previously so dear and so lovely in his eyes. A newborn child is lying asleep, and all unconscious that
its mother has left it, so that it never can enjoy a
mother's care.  That child of God, freed from the
trammels of the body, parted from those she loved
so tenderly, and surrounded by her companions,
rises higher and higher, approaches nearer and still
nearer to the city of the living God. There is a cry
of many commingled voices rising from these angels
who form her bridal train, and are conveying that
beloved one, who has long been betrothed to Christ,
up into the holy city, where dwells her beloved.
" Lift up your heads, O ye gates! even lift them up,
ye everlasting doors." Lo, the angel at the gate
towards which these rejoicing guides are approaching




68            TYPES OF HEA YEN.
goes forth to meet that child of God, and to welcome
her into the city of habitations.
Yonder, also, you observe the patriarchs walking
stately and slow among the other citizens of the new
Jerusalem.  You can distinguish them by their dignified and majestic mien, as they move among their
younger brethren.  These lived long ages in the
world below, whilst the earth was yet young: they
seemed, whilst there, to be in possession of something
like an endless and unchanging existence. They were
the oaks of earth among its fading flowers. They
have lived long ages since they rose, and became the
citizens of heaven; and they are yet, as they ever
will be, in the freshness of youth.
You behold also, not far off, another company,
with countenances more pensive and studious, their
eyes piercing, but calm, as if meditating upon subjects that waft their thoughts far away from the
scenery around them. These are the prophets of the
Lord of hosts. The descending irradiations of prophecy from the Spirit of the Lord once shone upon
their souls, and illuminated the beclouded evolutions
of the dark future. They were gifted with a faculty,
whilst down upon the earth, which God did not
bestow upon other men, - the faculty of looking forward, and beholding events that had not emerged
and risen and made their appearance upon the surface of the great onflowing river of Tinme. They
looked not back like the historian, as he reviews and




A CITY.                  69
chronicles the events of the bygone; they looked not
around upon society to form  portrait characters:
their eyes were fixed steadfastly upon the regions before them; those realms, over which, to the eyes of
other men, impenetrable clouds rested, -the darkness of a starless night. The habits of mind which
these children of God contracted upon earth have
been carried up with them to heaven.  Grace is just
glory in the bud. These prophets of the Lord still
gaze with the eye of a calm and earnest penetration
upon what is to occur in the regions of bliss.  Yea,
the book they read, and which they keep incessantly
spread out before them, is the book of eternity.
Turn your eye towards the throne of God.  You
see an amphitheatre, its crescent of rainbow hues
stretching in front more than half way round about
the throne of God and of the Lamb.  There are
seats of honor placed there, each glittering in the
uncreated light of God's presence, as if formed separately of the precious stones, multiplied twelvefold,
which constitute the gates.  Seated upon these are
twenty-four apparently honored citizens, with crowns
of glory on their heads, and arrayed in robes of
white. VWhat are they?  Are they virgins dressed
for a marriage-party? and are they seated there
awaiting the approach of the bride, that they may
form in the bridal train, and become her bride's-maids
at the altar?  No: they neither marry nor are given
in marriage in heaven. Are they so many children




70            TYPES OF HEA VEN.
in their innocence, and dressed in their robes of white
for the baptismal font, and about to be given up by
their parents in covenant to God, to be baptized by
the high priest?  No: baptism is an ordinance that
does not exist here.  Are they new-come saints from
earth, who have lately entered heaven, and are waiting that they may be crowned by the Captain of their
salvation, before all the assembled hosts, with the
crown of glory that fadeth not away? No: they
are crowned already. Upon twelve of these seats
of honor are enthroned the twelve apostles of our
Lord. They spent a life of toil upon earth. They
resembled, whilst doxn in the world below, the four
living creatures that you see above them, who are
full of eyes before and behind, and who rest not day
nor night, crying, "Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of
hosts: the whole earth is full of his glory."  These
disciples left their homes and their friends and their
native land in the cause of Christ.  They faced
cheerfully persecution and fire and sword, and even
death itself, whilst carrying the banner of the cross
in their zealous hands to the ends of the earth.  Bunt
they went undismayed as the ambassadors of Christ,
for it was the King of Zion and the Head of the
Church sent them forth; and they perambulated the
world as the messengers of the gospel of peace,
bringing to those who were afar off from God the
overtures of reconciliation.  As the heralds of the
cross, they everywhere proclaimed that God in Christ




A CITY.                  71
was, in covenant, reconciled, and was stretching
forth the sceptre of mercy to every member of the
human family;   waiting to be gracious; not willing
that any should perish, but that all should turn to
him, and live." Each of them breathed forth these
words of ardent longing in the execution of their
evangelical mission: " For Zion's sake will I not
hold my peace, and for Jerusalem's sake I will not
rest, until the righteousness thereof go forth as
brightness, and the salvation thereof as a lamp that
burneth."  How much did they endure! and now
you see what has followed as their reward. They
gave forth the laws of heaven, for the regulation of
the conduct of men, whilst they remained upon earth;
and now they interpret, for the guidance of the citizens, the will of Jehovah for ever.  On the other
twelve seats are enthroned the twelve patriarchs, in
solemn and august majesty, as if they were the
elders of the celestial Church.
You may observe, also, a large company, arrayed,
like the others, in white, and whose countenances
seem as if mantled with something approaching either
to the lingering remains of former sorrow that has
not quite passed away, or to the remembrance of an
anxiety which has followed them up even to rest.
They are like ships which have suffered by fire at
sea, but have managed to reach the harbor, where
they have got repaired and improved, but yet exhibiting the lingering traces of former disaster. They




72            TYPES OF HEA VEN.
are at rest, like weary and lately benighted pilgrims
who have finished a long journey, and have reached
their home with difficulty. Now peacefully reposing
under the altar, the concave of heaven is ringing
with their full-toned and melodious praises; and yet
they appear to have upon their faces the shadow of
disappointment seated in the midst of joy, a dimness resting upon the face of transparency, the few
spots that appear upon the face of the sun, a thin,
fleecy cloud floating upon the clear-blue sky; and
consistent with these manifestations is the song which
they raise: " How long, 0 Lord, holy and true, dost
thou not judge and avenge our blood on them that
dwell on the earth?"  These are the holy mawtyrs, who
sacrificed their lives for Christ's kingdom and crown.
They sealed their testimony with their blood, for they
loved not their lives unto the death; and over them
the heavens are called to rejoice. The gate through
which these now exalted and gladdened ones left the
world, with all the transactions of time, and entered
into that pavilion of glory where they now sit, and
where they now enjoy freedom from pain, and exemption from fire and sword and wild beasts and the
torture of man, was a gate of blood and of pain.
Through much tribulation they entered the kingdom..
" What are these which are arrayed in white robes?
and whence came they?  These are they which came
out of great tribulation, and have washed their robes,
and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.




A CITY.                 73
Therefore are they before the throne of God, and
serve him day arid night in his temple; and He that
sitteth on the throne shall dwell among them."  How
joyful and ecstatic must the rest of heaven be to
these, when they compare it with what they endured
when their bodies were literally roasting in the flames,
or quivering under the tooth and claw of ferocious
animals, or scalded to death in the boiling caldron,
or choked in the stagnant pond or running stream!
The chair in the pilgrim's home is comfortable and
soft, when he enters and sits down upon it, after the
toils of his fatiguing and exhausting journey are
over. The calm of the haven is refreshing to the
mariner, when in full sail he enters it, and casts
anchor there in safety, and leaves far behind him the
storm and the hidden coral reef, the mountainous
waves and the terrible breakers: so must the rest
and peace of heaven have been sweet and overjoying
to these holy martyrs, when they rose from their
mangled and bleeding bodies, and entered upon the
enjoyment of God's love to them, by the efficacy of
Christ's blood, through which alone they have obtained pardon and eternal salvation.
But look yet again. There, too, on Mount Sion,
towering in its grandeur almost to a level with the
mount upon which we stand, are assembled multitudes, so young and so fair in their appearance.
You know who gave this inspired description of
them: " And I looked, and, lo, a Lamb stood on
4




74           TYPES OF HtEA VEN.
the Mount Sion, and with him an hundred forty and
four thousand, having his Father's name written in
their foreheads. And I heard a voice from heaven,
as the voice of many waters, and as the voice of a
great thunder; and I heard the voice of harpers
harping with their harps; and they sung as it were
a new song before the throne, and before the four
beasts and the elders; and no man could learn that
song but the hundred and forty and four thousand
which were.redeemed from the earth.  These are
they which were not defiled with women; for they
are virgins. These are they which follow the Lamb
whithersoever he goeth. These were redeemed from
among men, being the first-fruits unto God and to
the Lamb. And in their mouth was found no guile;
for they are without fault before the throne of God.
And I saw another angel fly in the midst of heaven,
having, the everlasting gospel to preach unto them
that dwell on the earth, and to every nation and
kindred and tongue and people."  These are those
who died in the world whilst they were yet young.
Over them, Jesus said to their parents, when reluctant to give them up, " Suffer little children to come
unto me; for of such is the kingdom of heaven."
Now they are with Jesus. With them, the less of
earth, the more of heaven; the briefer life, the earlier immortality. How joyful and comforting would
a look upon these beloved ones be to many a poor
sorrowing mother still upon earth! -the child of




A CITY.                    75
her affections, whom she saw sicken and die, like a
flower in the bud destroyed by-the early frost, now
happy among these immortal companions!
But let your eye wander searchingly over these
crowded streets, and try to single out and individualize those happy citizens in their uniform robes of
glory. There cannot but be upon some countenance,
among all these that are looking up to you, the smile
and recognition of former friendship. Near to the
fountain of life there is a once dear and tender
mother.  How different that glorified being from
that which I looked upon lying cold and ghastly in
her home of sorrow! The Jordan of death is rolling
its dark and deep swellings far away in the distance
from her now; and with what ecstasy I meet again
the smile of that countenance which was once to
me as the light of the morning! By her side are
friends talking with her in the language of heaven, —
a sister, who left us in the dawn of life, and forsook
our home upon earth to enter this home of love;
another is a father, who left us in more mature years
to enter this glad heaven; and now these saints of
the Most High, who were lovely in their lives, whom
death parted for a season, have met in this world of
life, never to be parted again.
There are others among the fair citizens, other
members of our family, who are there in the great
world; and others, also, who were once my companions and neighbors and friends.  Farewell all,




76            TYPES OF HEAVEN.
for a season, beloved ones! My time is not yet
come, but soon my God will call me home. Then I
will rise from my bed of death, where I will, I hope,
fall asleep in Jesus, as you have done before me,
and then join you for eternity in this peopled heaven
of yours. I will then dwell with you for ever beneath the overshadowing of God's presence; walk
with you under the light of yon great Sun that never
sets; and talk with you in your own language about
the glories and the joys of the new Jerusalem, and
the past scenes and associations and recollections of
earth.
6zt




CHAPTER V.
TYPES OF HEAVEN. -A HOME.
F all the types through which the Holy Spirit
speaks to us in the Holy Scriptures about
heaven, there is not one that exhibits it in
such an endearing aspect, and which instantaneously
awakens in our souls such a flood of tender and of
hallowed associations, going so warmly and touchingly at once to our heart, as when he tells us, not
merely once, but in many a varied description, that
heaven is a home, in which there is assembled already
a great and glorious and happy family, and in which
we, who are the children of God, are to spend with
them innumerable ages.
It is not one type alone, but the various figures of
the Scriptures combined, that give us the truest view
of heaven. This is the reason that has led me to
dwell for a little, as I have done, upon the earthly
similitudes, —Eden, Canaan, a temnple, a city. I now
[771




78             TYPES OF HEAVEN.
proceed to a more particular consideration of the
type, heaven our home.
Those who are in heaven are often spoken of in the
Scriptures as constituting but one family; and, in all
such passages, it is impllied that heaven is a home. The
house in which the members of a family live and associate, whether the palace, the hall, or the cottage,
is their home. Heaven, again, is expressly called
the "house of God," "our Father's house."  A child's
father's house is its home.  Our Father's house is to
be our eternal home who are the children of God.
"We have a building of God, an house not made
with hands, eternal in the heavens."  "In my Father's house are many mansions: if it were not so, I
would have told you. I go to prepare a place for
you. And, if I go and prepare a place for you, I
will come again, and receive you unto myself; that
where I am, there ye may be also."   Surely, goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my
life; and I will dwell in the house of the Lord for
ever."
The great universe is the house of God, - which he
more than fills; for he made it, and the Creator must
be greater than the creature,  inwhich he walks in
his majesty to and fro, and in every part of which he
manifests, by the works of his hands and the evolutions of his providence, his awful presence.  The
earth, the Church, every believer's soul,' is the house
of God, in which he now reigns in grace and through




A IHOME.                 7 9
grace.  Heaven is the home of the sanctified, where
his scattered children are all at last to meet, and in
which they are to dwell together in love for ever.
The word "home " awakens in the bosom of every
individual many tender and hallowed and dearly-loved
associations.  You, to whom I now speak through
these pages, may not be at home just now. You may
be a sailor, in the midst of strangers, and* tossed far
away upon the rolling billows; or you may be a
soldier, bivouacking in an enemy's country, and exposed to all the perils and deprivations and fatigues
of war; or you may be a traveller, at a great distance
from that home which is so dear to your soul: but
you have a home awaiting your return in your native
land. Your parents are there, and often speak about
you to their friends and neighbors, and take a pleasure
in showing the letters to them that you statedly send.
Or if they are both dead, and are sleeping together in
the family grave, and there be no dwelling now upon
earth to which you can give the name, " my home,"
yout hasd a home once. In the days of your youth, you
lived with your parents there; shared the smile of
your mother; partook of the kind attentions of your
father; and played, a light-hearted and reckless boy,
or romped, a warm-hearted girl, with your brothers
and sisters.  The word " home " has with you around
it now the tender and hallowed and never-to-be-forgotten associations of the past; and to you surely
the announcement must be a comforting one, that




80            TYPES OF HEAVENV.
you have a home still, if a believer in Jesus; and
that home is heaven.
Do I address myself to some of you who are
parents, watching with affectionate care over your
children, who are growing up before you in wisdom
and in stature, and with increasing love to God, to
each other, and to you? You are looking hopefully
upon their minds becoming brighter and brighter in
the knowledge and in the ways of God, like the
morning light, the increasing splendor of the rising
sun. You are contemplating with emotions of pleasure their quiet, kindly, loving walk with each other
in the journey of life, and feel your heart glad at
witnessing the reciprocation of these amiable feelings.
Surely, whilst in the midst of such enjoyment, and
whilst watching hopefully over your immortal charge,
you must feel a comfort in the thought, that, if believers in Christ Jesus, you the parents and your
dear children will yet constitute a portion of God's
great family; for you have a home of love that is
already prepared for you. Death will part you sooner
or later; but you can even now say to your children,
in the anticipation of leaving them, and of entering
heaven before them, what Jesus said to his sorrowing
disciples, "I will see you again," up in our Father's
home, "and your heart shall rejoice."
Or it may be that you are brothers and sisters,
dwelling together in love, and experiencing, under
the smile of your heavenly Father, the outgoings of




A HOME.                   81
the dawn and the twilight rejoicing over you.  With
glad and lightsome hearts, you lie down at night
under the guardianship and watchful eye of the great
Shepherd of Israel, and rise in the morning, and take
your seat day after day at the family table, enjoying
the affectionate care, the heavenly conversation, and
the holy example, of your parents.  You feel that
your present home is every thing to you. It is Eden,
with its sunshine, and its roses clustering around the
door, and hanging in graceful tendrils from every
window; its birds of song upon the wing, carolling so
gladsomely over your heads. It is a bower of bliss
in the midst of a desert of sorrow; the retreat of all
that makes life happy; where Love has set up her
throne, and reigns supremely over all the social and
Christian affections of your souls. It is the sheltered
tranquillity of. the haven, where the sailor upon the
voyage of life casts anchor, and feels secure from the
rolling -billows and the fearful hurricanes that are
raging in their fury on the outside and far away in the
distance.  It is Noah's ark of peace and protection to
the dove in the midst of the world's encircling deluge.
You feel secure in the inside; for the Lord in love has
shut the door, and you are under his covenant protection, whilst the great world around is the wide waste
of cold waters.  Your home is, in this case, the
image, the symbol, the panorama, of heaven.
Or it may be that you are confined to your sickchamber, and are now laid down upon your.bed of'
4*




82            TYPES OF HEA VEN.
death. Your head is pressing in much pain your
uneasy pillow; your heart and flesh are beginning to
faint and to fail; you feel that you have not long
to live; your friends are gathered around your dying
bed, looking upon you with that earnest, shlrinking
glance, and with that distressing gaze, which give
evidence, that, in their opinion, you will soon, very
soon, bid them adieu.  The rising sun is just beginning, to pour his brightening beams into your sorrowful dwelling, shadowing forth to your friends around
you the morning of a glorious eternity, that is bursting out with its flood of light upon your waning eye.
You shake hands with your weeping relatives, who
are at your bedside, like an individual setting out
upon a long journey, or embarking in an emigrant
vessel; and you bid them an affectionate farewell.
You have taken the last look of the home you are
about to leave, and of the well-known, dear, but sorrowful. faces that are around you; your spirit is
struggling to be free; angels are hovering over you
in their sympathy and love, waiting till the last spasm
with you is over, that they may conduct you in triumph to the realms of life, to the brightness of eternal day.  Is your name enrolled in the Book of Life?
Are you a child of Godl?   ouow comforting to you, i7n
your present circtumstances, is the knowledge that heaven
is youtr home! Death to you will thus merely take
you out of one home, that it may usher you into another. You can leave and go out from your weeping




A HOMlE.                  83
friends with the full and gladdening, assurance, that
you are not departing to be a homeless wanderer for
eternity.  Your disembodied and living spirit is not
to traverse for ever the wide and boundless universe
of God in search of a home, and find it all dark and
empty and unpeopled, and discover no refuge for
eternity in any part of it that will open its friendly
door and admit you to its rest.  You have a home for
eternity in heaven; and, at the very moment of your
dissolution, you can look up in joyful hope, and exultingly exclaim, " For I am now ready to be offered,
and the time of my departure is at hand. I have
fought a good fight; I have finished my course; I
have kept the faith: henceforth there is laid up for
me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the
riglteous Judge, shall give me at that day; and not
to me only, but unto all them also that love his
appearing."  Nay, more: death is thus to you not
simply a passage out of one home, that you may rise
and enter another: it is a passage from the midst of
the warm, loving bosoms of the present members of
your family, who are dear to you, up into heaven, to
become associated for eternity with the warmer and
more loving bosoms of God's great family, who are
waiting for you to join their happy number with
songs of unspeakable joy.
Again: a home is the abode of love, or rather
should be so; the place of union and of peace and
of holy brotherhood.  In this it is the very image of




84            TYPES OF HEAVEN.
heaven.  Around the very word "home" what holy
and sacred associations cluster and hang! what young,
joyous, and refreshing thoughts! what hallowed imaginings   What soul-gladdening, cherished remembrances hover around that word! In what heart does
it not awaken these emotions?  Yes: it does this
even in the hearts of those who have disgraced their
home by their misconduct. Amid their scenes of
vice and of misery, they have fond recollections of it;
even as our first parents still had loving and holy
associations hovering around Eden, after being driven
out of it.
WVe have not far to look for some young woman,
who, like a withered flower, rudely plucked by the
hand of the seducer from the stem upon which it had
bloomed, is now heartlessly flung out of her domestic
bower, a scandal to Christianity, a disgrace to her
sex, and the source of misery and wretchedness to
herself and to others.  She is wandering among
strangers, far from her parents' home, dwelling now
in the haunts of sin; but, oh! even yet, the holy
remembrances of the not far-distant past, like the lightning at night, bringing the dark thunder-clouds more
frowningly into view, flicker across the darkness of
her present sinful path, and fill her bosom with feelings and emotions of the bitterest remorse. Reflection sleeps, it is true, and is too often drowned in the
laugh of her guilty companions who are around her,
in the hilarity of the licentious song, in the cup of




A oI IOME.                85
intoxication which she now presses to her lips. Memory, however, sometimes, in an hour of calm reflection,
brings back, flashing full upon her view, the scenes
of innocency, of love, of holiness, and of joy, that
were around her in her girlhood, but which have
passed away from her like her days of former purity.
These reflections leave her heart lone and desolated,
torn, bleeding, and dark.  And what is her history?
That young woman, who now walks with an apparently unblushing brow in the paths of sin, was once
a virtuous, timid, and shrinking creature, the prayerfully-tended opening rose of her parents' home. The
morning dew of her innocent youth sparkled upon
the leaves, and made her slhine in all the beauties of
at least an external morality and an outward purity.
She grew up from infancy to girlhood, gradually expanded in her beauty, and passed at last into the full
bloom of womanhood, " with the rose upon her cheek
and the lily upon her brow, and the fragrance of the
hawthorn in her breath, and the blended light of
heaven in her smile; the idol of her mother, and
the pride of her father."
The old story: A young man in the neighborhood,
attracted by her beauty, began to pay to her his addresses, with apparently honorable intentions. Their
acquaintanceship ripened into friendship, their friendship into love, on her part; on his, into something
else. Visit after visit, that pretended lover endeavored
to undermine her principles of virtue by speaking to




86 (TYPES OF HEA VEN.
her about how other young women had acted previous
to their marriage with their present husbands; and
he succeeded in producing in her bosom a feeling of
decreasing horror at the thought of sin; and he led
her, step by step, to assume a hollow trust and a false
confidence in him, by telling her that he would save
both her feelings and her character by an honorable
marriage, -a promise he never meant to fulfil. That
young man — who has a mother, too, and she is of
the same sex as his victim - cruelly, heartlessly,
diabolically seduced at last, in an unthinking and
thoughtless and terrible hour, that fair and credulous
girl; and, oh, the bitter fruit of sin! In an agony
of shame and remorse, she slips, with her heart like
to break, away from her parents' presence, and from
the hallowed precincts of her youthful, perhaps rural,
home; and now she has become, in the crowded city,
a withered leaf, tossed upon the ocean of crime.
Ah! as that now ruined and miserable creature
creeps into her wretched dwelling,- which is not
her home; she is there merely as a lodger, retained
for the horrid gains of iniquity she brings to the
owner, - she feels that that retreat of degradation
and shame is not her home: the peace and the joys of
home never visit her there. Go to her, even in that
place. Be an ambassador of Christ to her. Speak
to her, in the words of love and of earnest entreaty,
about the ruin she has brought upon herself, and
about the shame and pain which her conduct has flung




A HOlIE.                 87
upon her distressed and sorrowing parents, upon her
blushing sisters and affronted brothers, who mourn
over her in their home of sorrow, and still see what
she was once in every rose that blows during the
summer in their little cottage garden, and hear the
music of her voice, during her youth, in the song of
the lark that sings so sweetly in the sky above them
in their sorrow, and who are longing for, and yet
fearing, her return.  Tell her that she has a home
still; that her mother and father are in it; that they
still have warm hearts beating glowingly towards her,
and that they would receive their poor ruined and
wretched daughter. At the mention of the word
" home," you might see how her dim and callous eye
kindles and flashes; how her face, sad with the clouds
of sorrow upon it, brightens up; how her heart
heaves, and she bursts into tears.  Yes, that word
" home" has a charm which softens even the hardest
heart, revives holy associations, and awakens a longing
desire to return to it in the bosom of the very guiltiest wanderer.
What effect, then, should be produced upon you,
who have wandered from God in a life of ungodliness
and guilt, by the assurance that in him you have a
Father who is looking down upon you in love, waiting to be gracious, beckoning you to return, and
telling you that in heaven you have a home, the door
of which is ever standing open for you to enter? Do
you not feel, at the thought of that home which God




88            TYPES OF HEA VEN.
has provided for you, that in your life of grace, and
preparation for eternity, you have something worth
living for, nay, something worth dying for?
Take another picture. A young man is about to
be married to one who has long been the object of his
affections; who, with a warm, confiding, and virtuous heart, reciprocates his love.  He has already
prepared the home, to which, with his attending
friends, he is about to conduct his blushing bride,
as Adam conducted Eve to the nuptial bower, when
he received her in all her beauty and innocence from
the hand of the Lord, - where, for the remainder of
his life, he is to live with her, and where he will feel
in her presence a new sun risen in the firmament of
his happiness.  That home which he is soon to enter
in these circumstances, and in which he is to spend
life with her who is all fair in his eyes, and every way
worthy of his love, is every thing to him; and he
longs to be there.
Such is your position who are believers in Jesus,
and the children of the living God. Christ, your
beloved, the spiritual bridegroom of your souls, has
gone up into yon glorious eternity that is above you.
IHe is even now preparing and making ready heaven
for you, to be your home of rest and joy for ever,
in which you will spend a glad and an endless eternity.  You are now looking up with this longing
desire for an entrance into yon home.  "I have a desire to depart, and to be with Christ, which is far bet



A lHOME.                 89
ter." And that longing will soon receive a glad and
eternal realization. The day of the solemnization of
your spiritual espousals with Jesus is drawing near.
Then He who is " fairer than the children of men, the
chiefest among ten thousand, and altogether lovely,"
will come forth at your death to take you up, escort
ed by a great company of attending angels, that
where he is, there ye may be also. You can even
now look up to heaven with the same feeling that
enlivens the bride as she looks to her new home, to
which she is soon to be conveyed: it is your future
and eternal. mansion of love.




CHAPTER VI.
THE FAMILY IN HEAVEN.
EAVEN is not a home —empty, deserted,
and lonely - like what many of the homes
around us in the world become through the
influences of time and of disease. "Time does not
breathe on its fadeless bloom:" there is in it "no
more death, neither sorrow nor crying, neither shall
there be any more pain; for the former things are
passed away."
A glorious family is already met there, where a
Father is presiding in love. There is upon his countenance neither the scowl of the despot nor the frown
of the cold and unfeeling judge. The smile upon his
countenance bears evidence that he is not a severe
and exacting master merely, but the Father of mercies, and the God of all comfort. There is the love
of a Father in his look as he turns his eye downwards, and condescendingly listens to the song which
[90]




THE FAMILY IN IIEA FErV.          91
the countless assemblies present to hima, as with one
heart and one voice they proclaim, " Salvation to our
God which sitteth upon the throne, and unto the
Lamb." There is the benignity of a Father upon his
brow as he contemplates his great family rejoicing
round about him, and feeling in their bosoms the
flowing tides, the ever-running streams, of an exceedingly great joy; the affection of a Father in his
bosom, that ever glows with benevolence towards all
the members of his family; the welcome of a Father
in the outstretched arms of his endearment, whilst
he beckons his children to approach him, that they
may speak to him individually, and hold personal
converse with him, as a loving child upon earth does
with an affectionate parent in their home of love.
There is the emotional tenderness and the love-tones
of a Father in his voice, whilst conversing personally
with all who stand round about the throne of his
sovereignty.
The Lord Jesus is upon the throne with God, the
brightness of the Father's glory, and the express
image of his person. He is the elder Brotlher of
heaven's great family. As the souls of the just made
perfect reflect the inmage of Jesus, Jesus himself
reflects the image of the great Father of lights. He
is not there lifted high and apart, and far removed
from the feelings and sympathies that are pervading
the bosoms of those who are round the throne: he
is, on the contrary, mingling with them in the utmost




92          THE FA MILY IN HEA VEN.r
condescension and fraternity and holy familiarity.
He is acting towards all his brethren in the heavens
the part of an attentive and affectionate elder brother
towards a younger sister; watching over them in
love, taking them by the right hand, bearing,them
upon his arm. He is feeding them, and leading
them to living fountains of waters, wiping away all
tears from their eyes.
The Holy Spirit is the fountain of life, and is the
source of undying love, - the wellspring of immortal joys in the bosom of every member of the great
family.. He is the Breath from the four winds of
heaven, descending in living currents upon all its
inhabitants, enabling them, with the full and evergushing aspirations of gladdened hearts, to pour
forth, to Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, their anthems
of adoration and praise. He is the Fire fromn off
heaven's high and holy altar, which glows so intensely and so unquenchably in the bosom of every child
of God.
Angels compose a part of that great family.  I
cannot tell their number; nor do I believe their number could be set before the human family in the
arithmetic of earth. I cannot describe their glory
nor portray their beauty.  The splendor of Gabriel's
countenance was so great, that, when the Prophet
Daniel- a man greatly beloved —looked upon it,
he could not stand upright, and gaze, but fell with
his face upon the ground. The angel that came




THE FAMILY IN tIEATVEN.          93
down from heaven to roll away the stone from the
door of Christ's sepulchre is thus described: "His
countenance was like lightning, and his raiment
white as snow."  The angel who appeared to the
shepherds by night upon the plains of Bethlehem, to
announce the advent of Jesus to earth, was so shining,
that his presence filled the plains with light. In this
splendor and beauty of countenance and form, the
whole angels of heaven - God's first-born children
- stand and sing before the throne of God, and give
glory to Him who was, and who is, and who is to come.
I cannot tell whether angels, who are the morningstars of eternity and the sons of God, differ in the
traits of their features, and the glow of their countenances, as females do. When a painter wishes to
draw the portrait of an angel, he forms the image of
a beautiful woman, and then simply adds to her a
pair of wings.  This shows his inability to comprehend an angel's beauty. The Bible does not describe
whether there exist these differences.  We must
enter heaven before we can know. But I can learn
from the Bible, that angels differ in rank in the scale
of dignity and honor which God has appointed then
to occupy in heaven; for, besides the angels, there is
the archangel, also principalities, powers, cherubim,
seraphim.  We never read of angels feeling envy
towards those who are in a higher position in the
scale of promotion; and they mingle familiarly with
the saints.




94         THE FAMiLY IN HEA ENT.
The redeemed who have returned and come to the
heavenly Zion - the whole glorified members of the
human race - compose another portion of the family
now assembled in heaven as their home of love..I
have already referred to the fact, that the number of
the redeemed must be very great; so great, that they
are beyond calculation.  That this may be easily
conceived, we have only to remember what is the
number of believers in a home compared with the
children of God who live in all the different places
of a parish; what is the number in a parish compared
to those living in all the different parishes of Scotland; and, by thus continuing our comparison, we
come to the contrast between the number who are
living at present in the World and all the children of
God who have lived and died, and gone up into
heaven, during the near six thousand years which
have rolled over the world.
I cannot describe in adequate language the appearance of these redeemed ones. We must be contented
with the consideration, that they now bear the image
of Jesus, whilst he is the image of the invisible God,
the perfection of beauty: which is more than the
concentration of all that is fair in this world; for far
short are the things of earth compared with those of
heaven.
Angels who have kept their first estate, the redeemed who have come out of every nation and kindred and people and tongue, and have met together,




TIE FAMILY I1V IIEA VEN.          95
make up the family of God; and they constitute but
one family. They are watched over and loved by the
same Father. They are ministered to and guided
and instructed by the same Saviour, their Lord and
Master, their new-covenant Head, the universally
Beloved of them all. They are gladdened and refreshed by the life-giving breathings, by the sweet
and comforting influences, of the same Holy Spirit.
They are the happy inmates of the same home of love.
They walk together through the garden of the Lord,
or sit together in its roseate bowers.  They travel, in
larger or smaller groups, the valleys that are stretching around. They sing, as the united and affectionate
members of the same family, heaven's song of praise.
Their voices rise and mingle in one harmonious stream
of melody to Him who is upon the throne.  Heaven,
in short, is their home; and it is a habitation of peace
and love.
Again: as, in the members of a family upon earth,
there is a family likeness, apparent in the midst of
peculiar and individualizing traits, of features, complexion, and form; so is there a family likeness
existing among all the members of the family of God,
both in heaven and upon earth. Love to God, to
Jesus, to the Holy Spirit, and to all the members, is
one feature. I address myself to you who are the
children of God by profession, and followers of the
Lord Jesus.  Have you, I ask, this featare in your
moral image?  Do you love God?  Have you the




96         THE FAMILY IN HEAI,"VEN.
love of God shed abroad in your hearts by the Holy
Ghost which is given unto you?  Were Jesus at this
moment to speak to you from the throne of heaven,
to break the silence of eternity, and to put the question to you which he once did to the Apostle Peter,
Lovest thou me?" could you look up to him whose
eyes are as a flame of fire; who searches Jerusalem
even as with lighted candles; who penetrates the
hearts, and who tries the reins of the children of
men? and could you say, "Lord, thou knowest all
things; thou knowest that I love thee"?  Do you
love the Holy Spirit, who has kindled his own lovebreathings in your soul, as one fire kindles another,
or as one candle lights another? Allow me, then, to
ask you this question: How does the love of God
in your soul manifest its presence? Is it a mere
kindly, inactive, and inoperative glow, only showing
itself in words, and never flowing forth in a stream
of warm, active, beneficent deeds?
You may come to be able to answer by studying
the nature of some earthly love; say, of one of Eve's
daughters, who responds to your affection, and from
whose eyes come those demonstrations of pure feeling which fall warm and glowing upon your heart.
You will quickly perceive that your affection to her
is an active principle, and instinctively leading you
to love all connected with her. You love the home
where she dwells; and, some way or another, you
never feel happier than when your footsteps are upon




THE FAMILY IN HEAVEN.            97
the path that leads you to it. You love her parents,
who with fond parental affection are watching over
her. You love the brothers and sisters who smile
upon her. You love to be in their company, even
when she is not present; for they speak to you about
her: their very voices are pleasant to you, because
they sound, not so musical and sweet, but something
like hers. The letter which she has written with her
own hand, and which she has sent to you, describing,
with a shrinking and timid caution, the feelings of
esteem she bears towards you, has a charm in it.
The shady walk, along which she wanders alone, and
reads apart from the world the letters you send her,
giving full expression to the warmth of your honorable affection, carries the same secret virtue. Above
all, you love to be in her company, to see her smile,
to hear her voice, and to feel your heart delighted in
the sunshine of her presence.
Have you this evidence that the love of God is in
your bosom, -that you possess this trait of the
family likeness of God's children?  Do you not only
love God, but all connected with him?  Do you love
the Lord's Day?  During its hallowed calm, when
the din of labor is hushed, anid you are set free from
the distractions, pursuits, and pleasures of earth,
during the sabbath's sweet and hallowed hours, do
you feel upon your spirit a holy calm and a peaceful
elevation, as if heaven was descending upon you
with its ineffable rest, and its fervor of kindling and
5




98          THE FAMILY IN HEAVEN.
intense desire after God? Whilst its holy and peaceful hours are passing over you, are they to you a
foretaste of those joys that are at God's right hand,
and of those pleasures that shall endure for evermore?
Do you love the Lord's house, and long to be in the
church, that you may meet with Jesus there, sit
under his shadow, listen to his voice speaking to you
in that of his ministering servant —the man of God
who occupies the pulpit — who is an ambassador for
Christ to you, and in his name beseeches you to be
reconciled to God?  Whilst wending your way
peacefully and meditatively towards the gates of
Zion, do not these words give expression to your
holy, heavenly, breathing desires?-'How amiable
are thy tabernacles, 0 Lord of hosts! My soul longeth, yea, even fainteth, for the courts of the Lord; my
heart and my flesh crieth out for the living God."
e' Oh, send out thy light and thy truth: let them lead
me; let them bring me unto thy holy hill and to thy
tabernacles. Then will I go unto the altar of God,
unto God my exceeding joy; yea, upon the harp
will I praise thee, 0 God, my God. Why art thou
cast down, 0 my soul? and why art thou disquieted
within me? Hope in God; for I shall yet praise him,
who is the health of my countenance and my God."
Oh, yes! it is necessary that you experience the same
glow of affection, the same elevation of thought and
of contemplation, the same kindling warmth and




TIlE FAMILY IN HEAVEN.            99
celestial fervor, the same buoyancy and alacrity and
exultation of spirit, whilst joining God's worship in
his house of prayer, that his glorified children feel
in heaven, when their voices rise and commingle and
swell upwards and upwards in the temple of glory
above. This fervor and joy in God's worship is a
distinguishing feature in the family likeness of all his
children.
Do yoz love dthe Lord's Word?  Do you love it
because it is the gift of God to you, the revelation
of his holy will as David did, who thus speaks of
it? -" Oh, how love I thy law! it is my meditation
all the day." " Thy word is very pure; therefore thy
servant loveth it;" "' sweeter also than honey and
the honeycomb." Do you read the Bible with the
same feelings of kindling delight, and with the same
awakening associations of pleasure, with which the
lover reads over and over the letter which he receives
from the mistress of his heart? And do you go to
the Bible daily as the hungry man repairs to his
meal, as the weary and thirsty traveller turns aside
to the spring of cooling and refreshing waters which
he meets at the side of his path?  Is God's Word
your salvation, your desire, the man of your counsel,
the guide of your life? Do you follow its leadings
as the Israelites in the wilderness followed the pillar
of cloud by day and the pillar of fire by night, that
you may learn from it the path in which yout are to
walk that you may reach your Father's home?  Do




100        THE FAMIL Y IN HEA VEN.
you keep your eye upon the Bible with the same
anxiety and care that the mariner looks upon the
pointings of his compass, whilst afloat upon the
bosom of the ocean? It appears that even God's
children in heaven delight to observe God's Word:
"And I John saw these things, and heard them;
and, when I had heard and seen, I fell down to worship before the feet of the angel which showed me
these things. Then saith he unto me, See thou do it
not; for I am thy fellow-servant, and of thy brethren
the prophets, and of them which keep the sayings of
this book: worship God." This clinging of the soul
to Holy Writ, and holy longing after its sweet and
heavenly revelations, is another trait in the family
likeness of God's children, both in heaven and upon
earth. It is to be hoped you possess this feature of
the child of God; that you feel a holy delight whilst
listening to the tones of your heavenly Father's voice
speaking to you in its inspired vocables, and whilst
perusing its high and heavenly revelations.
Do you love the Lord's people, - all who bear the
image of Jesus, whose life is hid with Christ in God?
If you have love for the father of a little child, you
love that child for its father's sake. This sympathy
of love is a universal law, not confined to man, but
extending to the higher creation. So should you
love, then, the children of God for their Father's
sake. This love to the brethren is the very foundation of what is termed the communion of saints.




THE FAMILY IN HEAVEN.            101
Attraction exists among all material bodies, — the
communion of saints among all the children of God.
There exists among all material bodies the nprinciple of
attraction: so, too, there exists among all the children of God -if not counteracted and neutralized
by sin - a breathing, longing desire after fellowship
and communion with each other. This communion of
saints is not confined to the children. of God upon
earth: it exists also among those who are home in
heaven, who are standing before the throne of
God, who see each other's countenances in the
l.ight of a glorious eternity, and who speak to each
other in the language that God's children use in
heaven.
What is implied in the communion of saints, as it
exists among the members of God's family? If you
look at the intercourse which the members of an affectionate family enjoy with each other in their parents'
home, you will see in it the symbol and visible representation of the intercourse and fellowship that are
even now existing among the members of God's
household.
Happily, we have all experiences of home, - the
continuous'affection of the members to each other,
their converse, the nameless little attentions which
affection prompts them to perform, all independent
of the mercenary motive of obtaining a reward. The
history of a family is a history of our affections: how
these are gratified by the quiet walk in each other's




102        THE FAMILY IN HEA. VEN.
company; the talk about the heavens declaring the
glory of God, and the firmament showing forth his
handiwork; how full the earth is of God's goodness; how they are naturally led to look up in hope,
and to think and speak about heaven as their eternal
home, where their heavenly Father is waiting to receive them; how they are to meet when the journey
of life with each of them is finished upon earth; and
how they are to spend their eternity in their heavenly
Father's home of love. Then, where there is a separation during the day or for a longer period, how
fondly you find the members, when they meet again,
speaking to each other about the past, and about all
that has happened to them in the providence of God
since they parted!
This, I believe, is taking place among the members of God's great family in the heavens. They
dwell together in their Father's home. They speak
with each other in the language of heaven. Their
communion and fellowship is with God, and with his
Son Jesus Christ. They have intercourse also with
each other. They have their fellowship-walks of holy
friendship, during which they will speak to each other
of all God's dealings with them in preparing them
for home; will naturally refer to the past journey
of life, and to what happened to them by the way
along which their heavenly Father led them, and at
last conferred upon them the unspeakable blessing of
meeting, and living together for ever.




THE FAMILY IN HEA VEN.         103
Perhaps the telescope, upon earth, is a mere apprloximation to the power of vision which God's glorified children possess. They may scan the heavens,
and gaze not merely upon what is existing before
them- and around them, but look also everywhere
onwards upon the great universe, and talk together
of what they see; and who shall try to follow that
vision, even in imagination?  This will lead them to
speak with each other, not merely about the evolutions of God's providence in the past, but also about
all that they behold going on around them, both in
heaven and throughout the boundless universe of
God.
kA~T~




CHAPTER VII.
COMMUNION OF SAINTS IN HEAVEN.
T has often occurred to me that we might
particularize these fellowships and conversations in heaven, not only without being
exposed to the charge of presumption, but with manifest advantage. Image, then, with me, my reader,
yon venerable-looking pair at the very verge of the
valley which stretches far away in its verdant beauty,
and is bounded by a pure river, whose waters are
flowing as smoothly, fully, and calmly as if Peace
herself had there established her reign. They are
walking alone, and loitering, with placid contemplation, among gorgeous amaranths. These are Adam
and Eve. They have been long in heaven, long
associated there, not as husband and wife, - many of
the relationships that existed upon earth are not
needed in heaven, and thus no longer exist there, -
but in the higher and holier affinities of that love
[104]




COMMUNION OF SAINTS IN HEAVEN.  105
and praise enjoyed by the angels. They have long:
held sweet intercourse together. For more than five
thousand years, they have walked to and fro among its
gardens and palaces; but do not suppose that their
vision is yet blunted, their hearts weary, or their
affections waned. Among other subjects, they are
doubtless speaking about the terrible loss which they
and the whole of their posterity sustained through
the fall, and how much they were to blame for the
guilt of that black act. They are talking about
the cunning of the old Serpent when he planned the
temptation for Eve, and the wily way in which he
made his approaches along the avenues that led to the
citadel of a holy and unsuspicious heart. They are
discoursing of the great mystery of redeeming love, -
how God, who brings light out of darkness, order
out of confusion, and life out of death, so overruled,
in wisdom and in love, their fall, as to give through
it the human family to occupy a higher place in the
scale of existence than they enjoyed before; for he
gave up his only-begotten and well-beloved Son, to
asszzme, and thus to exalt, the nature of fallen humanity: so that man, who was made a little lower than the
angels, is actually, through the fall, raised above
them, and placed upon the right hand of the throne,
in the person of Jesus.
The subject leads them to the success of Christ's
great undertaking, the while they are gazing around
them upon the numberless assemblies of their posteri5*




106   COMMUNION OF SAINTS IN H-AEA VEN.
ty.  In these great crowds, they have the evidence
that their Redeemer's death has not been in vain; for
they are, with gladdened eyes and rejoicing hearts,
looking upon the millions of millions who have been
saved by the blood of Christ, and been ushered into
heaven to praise him there for their salvation. The
expression of delight upon the countenances of these
our first parents is proof that they feel no ordinary
emotion of gratitude to God, whilst they hold this
sweet intercourse in the fellowship of heaven, and
speak of the fallen race; for, far as their joyful eye
can reach, they see their children's children, even one
hkndred and sixty generations, at last rejoicing before
them, —a great revenue of souls gathered by Christ
into the exchequer of heaven.
Realizing still further this view, you may hear these
two venerable fountains, from which the great stream
of the human family is still flowing, and will continue
to flow till the river is lost in the ocean of glory,
giving expression to two anxious wishes.  The first
is, that their posterity who are yet upon earth could
see the great and eternal reward which God has provided in the heavens for all who believe in Jesus upon
earth; that the inhabitants of the world might thus
be led to live under the influence of these great realities, and under the powers of the world to come;
that, whilst in the world, they would live above it, and
make their whole life upon earth a season of earnest
and unwearied preparation for the world above.  The




COMMUNION OF SAINTS IN HEAVEN.   107
second, that the glorious gospel of the blessed Jesus
were spread in its light and liberty and power over
the whole earth, and that the Sun of righteousness
were risen upon all the dark and benighted lands of
heathenism that are still the habitations of cruelty and
superstition.  Nor is it possible but that Adam and
Eve must look down from their seats in the slies,
and walks of bliss, upon these nations of earth, in
their sin and degradation, with the same feeling
that pious and affectionate parents look upon their
once-innocent children, now become the inmates of
a prison, or the occupants of still more infamous
abodes.
Image again, and picture, those two seemingly
much-attached saints, arrayed in white, with crowns
upon their heads, and sitting in that recess where
never-fading flowers cluster so thickly over it and
around it as to form a holy retreat, and scene of
seclusion.  There, where love breathes over the
scene, and has established a throne in each of their
hearts, they discourse of the past, and chiefly of the
leading events of their lives previous to the time when
they rose at their death, and met each other for eternity. These are Jacob and Rachel. First as cousins,
in the endearments of a holy friendship, and then in
the nearer and dearer relationship of husband and
wife, they were lovely in their lives, whilst down in
their home upon earth.  So, in their eternity, they
are not divided.  They have met in heaven, and




108   COMMUNION OF SAINTS IN HEAVEN.
have met never to part again.  They are sitting far
retired from the congregated assemblies, and are engaged, it may be, in such discourse as this.
Jacob's mind is upon the past, whilst he says, "O
Rachel! the ways of God with his people in the
world are truly wonderful, and often mysterious.
Yea, when I look back upon my own earthly life, I see
in its varying events a vivid manifestation, that, whilst
the Lord reigns in love, his way with his people is
often in the sea, his footsteps in the deep waters,
and his paths not known. How hoveringly do clouds
and darkness hang over and around his dealings with
his chosen! Do I not recollect with what anguish
of heart I left my dearly-beloved mother, Rebekah?
and how the frequently mysterious and dark dispensations of his providence led us, and brought us at last
to meet in this world of eternal love?  I did what
was wrong in stealing my brother's birthright, and in
deceiving my father by telling him the lie. God
punished me for my sin by stirring up against me the
wrath of my justly offended brother. By my mother's
advice, I left the home of my youth to go to your
father's for a season, until my brother's wrath should
pass away. I acted upon my mother's counsel, and
left my parents. I did so with a heavy heart and
sorrowful spirit. I had merely my staff in my hand.
It was on a bright summer's morning I left, before
my brother Esau had risen, and whilst my father was
yet asleep.  The birds were singing over my head




COMMUNION OF SAINTS IN HEAVEN.    109
as gladly and cheerily as yonder myriads are now
praising God. The sun was risen, and was looking
out upon our home as joyful and glad as if he did not
see one sorrowful heart. The streams were playing
on in their courses, and glittering beneath the beams
of the morning sun, utterly unmindful of our sorrow,
and the lambs were gambolling round about us, when
my mother came with me a short distance out from
our dwelling, shook me by the hand, and, bursting
into tears, commended me to the keeping and guidance of my covenant God, the great Shepherd of
Israel, whose eye slumbers not nor sleeps. Every
thing around me and my weeping mother was glad,
and exulting in the sunshine of the morning; but our
poor hearts were sorrowful and sad at the thought of
separation. I shook hands with her, turned from her
in tears, and entered upon the desolate path that was
to lead me onwards towards your father's. I reached
Bethel just as the sun was going down.  I felt exhausted and tired.  I took some of the stones, and
placed thereon my weary head, without any fear at the
loneliness of my situation: for I knew that God was
everywhere present; that he would encircle me in
his covenant embrace, watch over me in love, defend
me from all harm. I fell into a sweet sleep, during
which I had a heavenly vision, -a ladder not far from
me, standing upon the earth, with its top reaching to
heaven. I saw the angels of God. I recognized
those who were my visitors there, very soon after I




110   COMMUNVION OF SAINTS IN HEA VEN.
entered into heaven, ascending and descending upon
it. I saw the vision of the Almighty, and heard the
voice of the great God speaking to me out of this very
heaven in which we are now met, and giving me the
covenant promise of the land upon which I was lying,
and intimating to me that my posterity was to be very
great. In the morning, I rose, and left that place
with the commingled feelings of gladness and of holy
awe. Pursuing the path that led me to your father's,
I remember well how my heart danced with joy when I
first saw you, and met you at the well; for you were
fair and lovely in my view as an angel of God. The
fourteen years I served your father appeared to me
merely like a few weeks, on account of the love that
I bore you. When we were joined in the endearing
relationship of husband and wife, I felt as if a new
sun had risen upon the world; yea, in the light of
your countenance I experienced a new life there.
True, I felt distressed at your subsequent discontent,
because of your having no children.  Nay, your fretfulness on this account was natural; for it expressed
the deepest and strongest instinct of the female heart:
and I now feel that I was to blame in being sometimes so angry with you as I was, whilst giving
expression to so natural a feeling.
"Oh, how little can people down in the world tell
what things are really for their good, and what things
are really for their evil! My life upon earth gives a
vivid illustration of this.  I thought that a more un



COMM UNION OF SAINTS IN HEAVEN.  111
fortunate occurrence could not have happened to me,
than to be forced to leave my mother and my father's
house, and to be cast out a poor wanderer upon a
desolate world. But, had this not taken place, I
would never have met with you.  We would never
have been associated together in the relation in which
we once stood to each other, and I would not at this
moment feel that heaven is, if possible, dearer to me
because I am privileged to share its joys in company
with my beloved Rachel.
"Your life, Rachel, upon earth, also gives a very
striking illustration how little God's people can tell
what is for their good, and what is for their evil;
and, consequently, it would be well if they were to
look more than they do to the leadings of God's providence with them, and were to trust more to the
wisdom of his holy appointments with them, than
they feel generally inclined to do. Still you wept
and fretted your life away because God, in his
holy providence, denied you children.  God at last
granted your wish. What then?  Why, the very
thing you so ardently desired became the means of
your death, parted you and me for a season, and left
our dear little Benjamin without the care and love
and unwearied attentions of a beloved mother. Oh!
I recollect well the anguish I felt when forced to flee
with you and with the rest of our family from your
father's, and how much my distress was increased
when you were overtaken in labor by the way. Sad




112   COMMUNION OF SAINTS IN HEA VEN.
and dark and dreary was our sorrowful separation.
I felt as if the sun had left the sky, when I saw the
light of your earthly existence go down, and as if
the firmament had become a mourning pall to encircle the earth. But the night of our former sorrowful
separation has now passed away. The glad and
bright morning of a never-ending day has succeeded
to it. Now we can look back upon our earthly
troubles and trials, as our descendants, when settled
in Palestine, looked back upon the bondage of Egypt,
and upon the hardships and privations of the wilderness; yea, as the mariner, who casts anchor in the
peaceful haven of his own dear native land, looks
back upon the stormy ocean which he has left far in
the distance behind him."
Rachel reciprocates: "Oh! I recollect well how
painful our separation was to me when I was so unexpectedly parted from you, whilst we were on our
way to the home of your youth. I remember well
what a lonely feeling and desolate emotion spread
over my soul, when I felt my heart and my flesh
beginning to faint and to fail; when I looked, in my
state of feeble exhaustion, upon the lovely face of
our new-born babe, and wept at the thought that I
was so soon to be taken from you and from him,
and that our little darling was, alas! so soon to
be deprived of all the kindly but nameless attentions
of a mother's love. What a crush came down upon
my heart, what a blight descended upon my earthly




COMIMUNION OF SAINTS IN HEAVEN.   113
prospects, when I heard your voice beside me, and
speaking to me in tones of love! But my fading
and glazing eyes no longer beheld you. I heard our
dear little babe breathing softly and sweetly upon
the nurse's knee beside me. I asked him  to be
brought to me. I clasped him to my sinking bosom,
and involuntarily looked down upon him to take my
last parting view of him; but his little face was all
enshrouded in darkness! I no longer saw it. Oh the
reviving effect' which it had upon my soul, whilst
the dear ones in our home, and all the visible objects of earth, had become invisible to my benighted
eyes; when I was struggling to get free from the
body, and saw the bright and glorious morning of
eternity beginning to break upon me; the great
world of glory, that had previously been hidden from
my view, coming, in all its splendor as it were, near
to me, and when it flashed in all its loveliness full
upon my gaze! Oh the delighted emotion that
thrilled through my redeemed spirit, even whilst I
was looking blindly upon you in your tears, and upon
my little unconscious Benjamin, sleeping so peacefully, upon Joseph catching my almost lifeless hand,
as if by that grasp he would keep me from going
away! I took my seat in the chariot of salvation,
whilst a company of rejoicing angels were around
me to bear me up to my Father's home. Oh those
ecstatic momnents, when, hanging over that home in
wvhich I had left you in tears, and over the earth,




114   COIMMUNION OF SAINTS IN HEAVEN.
which was already far beneath me, I looked down, and
saw you standing at our tent-door, with your hand
placed upon your brow, gazing down upon the
ground in speechless agony and silent meditation over
your loss! Yea, at the sight of you in that position,
whilst the body I had left was lying behind you in the
tent, a momentary feeling of sadness thrilled through
my soul. It lasted only for a moment; for suddenly
I heard the roll of the voices of the redeemed beoin
to fall upon my ear.  My soul was full of rejoicings;
for I knew that I was now near to my Father's home.
But what was all this to the feelings that streamed
through my spirit when I first entered the world of
glory, was introduced into this heaven of love, stood
within the veil that separates eternity from the sorrows of time, and beheld all those scenes that are so
bright around us burst upon my view? But even
that - what was it to the rapture of first beholding
God? I had often listened to you speaking about
the God of Israel; but how different the unveiled
reality from all that poor mortals can conceive of it
while the spirit is yet in the body!
" I became familiar with the scenes of heaven. I
felt no impatience; for all here is holy resignation
to our Father's will: but a feeling of ardor reigned
in my soul, that you were come home to share these
joys with me, to walk with me through these plains,
to climb with me these hills, to perambulate with me
these paths that converge towards the throne of God-,




COMMUNION OF SAINTS IN HEAVEN.    115
and to join with me, and with all the throngs of
heaven, in raising high the song of praise to Him who
is the centre of all.
"And when it was announced here, that a company of angels, by God's appointment, had left these
courts for earth to bring you home, and after the
angels had left, how elevated beyond the aspirations
of earth the thought that I was so soon to see you
again! How ineffable the start of holy joy when
the cry was raised, that Jacob was coming, and was
already near! When you entered heaven, encircled
and escorted by the multitude of angels; when you
took your place for a little near to the throne, and
was crowned by Jesus with that glorious diadem that
now gleams upon your brow, -how the whole recollections of the past rushed upon my soul!
" How refreshing to my spirit the account you gave
me of our family; of my once dearly-beloved sons,
Joseph and Benjamin, as they affectionately wept over
your dying bed, and tenderly kissed your brow, and
pressed your feeble hand! Ah! heaven was sweet to
me before you came; but it is, if possible, more joyful
to me now; for we can not only enjoy, but reciprocate: and we have now the glad proof, that our
remembrance here of our trials and sorrows upon
earth, so far from lessening our happiness, is one of
the chief elements that will enhance it through eternity."




CHAPTER VIII.
COMMUNION OF SAINTS IN IHEAVEN (continued).
(HE train of fancy in which I have been indulging - so consonant to our aspirations,
so enchanting to our hopes, and yet not
adverse to our reason, if not to a great extent favored
by it- may be continued through other pictures.
Take David, the sweet psalmist of Israel, and Jonathan, who loved him as his own soul, and cannot be
parted from him in heaven. They discourse together
of the clouds and darkness that hang in the view of
men upon earth, and make inscrutable there the ways
of God's providence.
" How  dark and perplexing," may David now
serenely say, " many of my heavenly Father's dispensations and actings appeared towards me in the world
we have left! God lifted me up, I often thought,
just that he might cast me down again. In the
midst of the changing vicissitudes of nmy life, I was
[116]




COMMUNION OF SAINTS IN HEAVEN.    117
sometimes led to wonder if the great God, who walks
in providence and deals out to his people their portion, was capricious and fickle. I now see these
earthly dealings with me very differently in the light
of eternity. It is the frowning sky and the appearance of the coming storm that lead the mariner to
make all sail towards the haven, and urge the traveller to hasten to the covert.  So now I see that it
was because of the deceitfulness of my heart, that
God, in his infinite wisdom as well as infinite love,
spread around me the checkered scenes of my earthly
experience.
"I was young, and comparatively thoughtless,
when the Prophet Samuel came and anointed me to
be the future king of Israel, in the room of your
earthly father, who was then reigning. I felt my
heart puffed up with pride at the thought of the dignity which thus awaited me. God saw this, and in
love brought into operation means to humble me,the jealousy and cruel hatred of your father; the bitter opposition of my enemies, who swarmed on every
side wherever I turned; the many wearisome days and
sleepless nights I spent homeless and cheerless, hunted
like a partridge upon the mountain-top.
Then, when God had placed me upon the throne,
and opened the hand of his bountiful goodness so liberally, and showered down upon me so many blessings,
both temporal and spiritual, my heart was again
lifted up in the pride of a dangerous security; and




118   COMMUNION OF SAINTS IN HEAVEN.
thus, in an unthinking and thoughtless moment, I fell
into the deepest of sins, and gave occasion to the
enemies of the Lord to blaspheme. The sword of
the Lord God was then unsheathed against my house;
and ever after its gleaming edge hung over it, sharpened and made ready for the slaughter. IIow often I
look back upon these dark transactions, with feelings
of wonder that I could have lulled myself into such a
state of hollow confidence and deceitful peace! I
forgot that the holy eye of the all-seeing God had been
turned towards me, and was glaring upon me during
the whole of these iniquitous scenes in which I had
been the chief actor.
"How can I describe that scene, when, sitting quiet
in my palace, composed and calm, the Prophet Nathan
was introduced to me?-how, after observing that in
the sweet calm of that summer's afternoon the God
of Israel seemed to be smiling upon his people, he
began to recite to me, in well-set phrase and in beautiful elocution, the parable of the poor man and his
ewe-lamb, and the conduct of his rich neighbor in
robbing him of it?-how I was so unmindful of my
own doings, and so stirred by the simple but graphic
narrative of the prophet, that I hastily said,'As the
Lord liveth, the man that hath done this thing shall
surely die'? —how Nathan then looked me broad in
the face, pointed his finger towards me, and, with an
emphasis and solemnity of voice that went to my very
heart, said,'Thou art the man'?  These words




COMMUNION OF SAINTS IN IHEAVEN.    119
sounded in my ears during the whole days of my pilgrimage on earth.  The moment I heard them, the
whole enormity of my conduct flashed upon my view;
nor know I what I would have done, if I had not
found refuge in prayer.  Oh! what a privilege to
those on earth that God has made himself known as
the hearer of the stricken heart, and that they are
permitted to unbosom their misery to his mercy! It
was only when I poured out my heart before God
with many tears, that the darkness of a deep and
dreadful night passed from my soul, and that the
morning of a joyful day began to dawn upon my
heart.  Yes, the dark clouds of sorrow were dispersed, and in the light of God's countenance I saw
the evidence that I was forgiven.
" How little can those who are in the world foresee
what effects are to follow particular actions, and how
necessary it is to be always in a state of holy watchfulness! I little thought, when I rose from my bed
to take a walk upon the roof of the king's house on
the evening-tide in which I fell, that one short and
hurried look was to change the whole current of my
after-life.
"In the midst of all my distresses upon earth, I
found a solace in solemn poetry. I wrote my psalms
chiefly with the object of putting upon record my own
varying spiritual experience, to show to the children
of Israel in what the life of God in the soul really
consists. I found that the soul in a state of grace




120    COMMUNION OF SAINTS IN HEAVEN.
was not as a calm, clear sky without a cloud, nor as
a lake unstirred by the passing winds: it was as a
sky sometimes clear, sometimes covered with clouds,
sometimes filled with the warring winds and with the
rolling thunder.  Such was my spiritual experience
in the world.  I was sometimes in darkness, sometimes in light, and sometimes like the dim morning
light spread over the mountains, whilst their tops
were hung round with the drapery of clouds. I was
at one time in doubt; and at another I felt in the
glow of a comfortable assurance. I was at one time
far down in the depths, as if cast off by God, and
sunk into the floods; at another, elevated upon the
hill-top of comfort and of heavenly hope, the whole
firmament around me lighted up with the sunshine of
God's favor and love, and the warm heavens above
me opening to receive me into their eternal rest.  I
have given in the psalms my varying spiritual experience, for the instruction and comfort of the children
of God in every age of the world.  And what a sol'ace has been to me my spiritual outpourings! These
psalms, which, but for my sins, would never have
been written, have been introduced into almost every
congregation of God's people upon earth, as a part of
their worship.  Thus the spiritual Israel of God,
singing them by the way, have been returning and
coming to the heavenly Zion with songs and everlasting joy upon their heads; and now we find that
the singingr of God's praises in the world is the




COMMUNION OF SAINTS IN HEAVENV.    121
symbol and the preparation for celebrating the same
holy aspirations in heaven."
Jonathan's recollections of God's providence: "I
quite concur. The views you have expressed-that,
in his dealings with his people in the world, God
often enshrouds himself in a pavilion of thick darkness, that his judgments are a great deep, and his
ways past finding out-are also mine. How mysterious did God's doings once appear to me also, when
he deprived me of the kingdom of Israel, and gave it
to you!  But I now see that God in this acted
towards me, not only in infinite wisdom, but also in
infinite love. The natural pride of my heart was so
great, that I believe, had I succeeded my father and
ascended the'throne of Israel, I must inevitably have
lost my soul. God in love deprived me of an earthly
kingdom in time, that he might confer upon me
through eternity this heavenly one; yea, this crown
of glory which I now wear, and which will never fade
away."9
Another picture of love is Mary Magdalene, and
Mary the mother of Jesus.  They, too, are recalling
to their remembrances the scenes of the past, and are
speaking to each other about the transactions of earth.
"How glorious is heaven," may the first, who had
been so inured to grief, now say, " compared with
earth! and how joyous is our experience here, compared with what we passed through when in the
world! Oh! when I look in love upon my blessed




122    COMMUNION OF SAINTS IN HEAVEN.
Saviour upon the throne of sovereignty yonder, and
now clothed with such transcendent honor and glory,
I often recall the spectacle that I once witnessed upon
earth, so distressing to my bleeding heart, -the scene
of Calvary, - Jesus upon the cross, that crowned
Saviour dying.  Yea, I saw my dear Redeemer,
whom I loved so ardently, nailed to the cross, and
his precious, blood crimsoning the ignominious tree!
Oh the emotions of that dark hour, when I stood
beside you in the midst of the congregated and insulting crowd, and beheld Immanuel suffering for those
who were turning his sufferings into mockery!  I
saw that brow, which is now encircled with a diadem
of glory, covered with sweat and blood, lacerated
and torn with the cruel crown of thorns! -these
eyes, that are now so mild, whose every look upon
us here is love, and which had often looked upon me
with the expression of a holy and heavenly favor,
red with weeping, dim with sorrow, and closing in
death! — these holy lips, which teach us here the
high things of God, and drop like the honeycomb,
pale with pain and the loss of blood, and quivering in
the agonies of dissolution! — these feet, which traverse
here the plains of bliss whilst feeding us with the
manna of heaven, and leading us to the fountains of
living waters, which I once washed with my tears,
fastened with the bloody nails to the painful tree!these hands, that now hold the sceptre of universal
dominion, so often stretched forth upon earth to




CO00iMLIUNION OF SAINTS IN HEAVEIV.   123
relieve the needy, or lifted up in prayer, stretched
and nailed to the bloody beam! It was almost like
a relief to me when the darkness began to mantle
the sky, and to throw its deepening shadows over the
earth; for it hid from my sight my dear Redleemer's
contortions and twitchings of pain; just as it is
sometimes like a relief to a mother to see her dear
babe at rest in death, and its sufferings over. What
horror streamed through my soul when I heard the
voice of agony exclaiming, My God, my God, why
hast thou forsaken me?'
"The resurrection-day will not be more joyful to
me when it dawns, and when I will receive my body
from the tomb, fashioned like to my dear Redeemer's,
than was that morn when Jesus rose from the dead,
and appeared to me in my sorrow in the garden.
Oh the joy of my soul when I heard his well-known
voice again saying to me, Mary!' I love to dwell
upon the recollection of these scenes; for this awakens
my gratitude to Jesus anew, and, by contrast, enhances my present happiness.  Thus the remembrance of the sorrows and trials of earth is one
element by which the joys of heaven are heightened
to us here; just as the recollection of the temporal
death all endure when we enter this great world
leads us to appreciate aright the gift of eternal life
which we now enjoy."
The mother of Jesus, in tones of love: "How
often I too, amidst our present joys, recall the scenes




124    COMMUNION OF SAINTS IN HEAVEN.
of sorrow to which you have now referred!  A
mother's heart was bleeding as well as yours, when
Jesus, now so gloriously exalted upon the throne,
was upon the cross. What tender sensibilities awoke
at the words,'Behold thy mother!' My soul magnifies the Lord, my spirit rejoices in God my Saviour,
because these trials are all past, and because all
my earthly cares and solicitudes and anxieties are
over now. I was highly honored by God whilst a
daughter of earth, inasmuch as all the promises of
a coming Saviour concentrated in me, and I was
selected, among the thousands of women throughout
Palestine, to give birth to Immanuel, who is God
with us. But my name, I know, has been injured,
and my.dear Redeemer has been grievously dishonored, by a portion of the Christian Church paying
to me, on this account, a misplaced reverence and an
impious worship. Oh that they knew as well as I
do that I did not save myself, and that I cannot
save them, having no more power to bestow salvation
upon the perishing than the meanest saint in glory,
and would worship the Lord their God and serve
him alone! Jesus himself has said,'TWhosoever shall
do the will of my Father which is in heaven, the
same is my brother and sister and mother.' Yet
the poor heathen cries to his idol in his distress,
and the poor idolatrous worshippers of a woman cry
to me, and ignorantly worship me, who am not the
hearer of prayer, and cannot answer it. Would




COMMUNION OF SAINTS IN HEAVEN.   125
that the nations of earth heard the voice and would
listen to the proclamation of yonder angel who is
now flying with outspread wings through the midst
of heaven, and whose message is,'Fear God, and
give glory to him, and worship Him that made heaven
and earth, and the sea, and the fountains of waters'!
No, my privilege in this heaven of love is not to
bestow salvation upon others, but to magnify and
to praise my God and Saviour for the great salvation,
which, through his shed blood, he has conferred upon
me."
How interesting another picture, that of Paul and
Onesimus! They are engaged in conversation. They
are discoursing of God's sovereignty in grace, and of
the overruling decrees, in reference to each of them,
of God's electing love.
Paul's reminiscences: "In the possession of this
heaven of love in which we have now our home for
eternity, I often recall the past, and meditate upon
the various manifestations of God's great and awful
sovereignty in the salvation of men.  What an
illustration of the doctrine of grace does my salvation
give! I was a proud and contemptuous Pharisee.
Imagining myself righteous, I despised others.  I
was a blasphemer and a persecutor. I hated to hear
the very name of Jesus. In my ignorance and
ungodliness, I thought I was doing God service by
persecuting all who called upon Him, the Father, in
the blessed name of Immanuel.  Surely, in these




126   COMllMUNION OF SAINTS IN HEAVEN.
circumstances, I deserved to be left to perish. But
God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved me, did not leave me in my guilt. In
the midst of deserved wrath, he remembered me with
undeserved mercy. Jesus, in the sovereignty of his
grace, appeared to me on my way to Damascus, and
snatched me as a brand from the everlasting burnings.  Oh! I feel as if eternity will be too short to
utter forth the high praises of Him who thus looked
down upon me in love, made bare his holy arm for
my salvation, and compassed me about with a great
deliverance.  Yea, I was hanging, with the dark
thunder-cloud of God's wrath above me, over the pit
of eternal destruction, every moment about to perish
for ever, when Jesus came down from this heaven of
love, flew in his chariot of light and glory, encircled
me in his covenant embrace, placed my feet upon the
Rock of ages, and put a new song into my mouth,
even salvation to my God.  Thus elected to life,
and to enjoy his favor, and to partake of the outgoings of his grace and love, I was not yet exempt
from sufferings.  My whole life upon earth was a
scene of endless trials.  I had no rest, few friends,
many enemies, bitter and cruel. Wherever I went,
the world was up in arms against me. I was like
the petrel, flying always in the midst of the raging
and warring winds, and among the rolling and
dashing billows. A rough passage, indeed, to this
eternity of rest, was mine; but when I reached this




COMMUNION OF SAINTS IN IIEAVEN.   127
haven of eternal repose, and east anchor within the
veil, and looked back upon the foaming billows of
time rolling in the distance behind me, I was reconmpensed, secure in the haven of eternity.
" I stood upon the shore of Melita after a fearful
shipwreck, and saw the white waves breaking harmlessly at my feet. I then felt glad. I was gladder
when I reached the shore of Immanuel's land, leaving
behind me my poor shattered body lying stranded
upon the shore of mortality. I often think that I
could not have enjoyed heaven so much as I do, if
I had not previously been subjected to a life of such
sorrows, trials, and persecutions.
Little did my bitter enemies think, when they
were hunting me to death and stirring up the world
against me, that they were pouring into the cup of
affliction they placed in my hand a draught of comfort and of joy which I will drink for ever. It was
this that led me to say whilst in the world,'I reckon
that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy
to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed
in us.''For our light affliction, which is but for a
moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and
eternal weight of glory.' The view of the grated
cell and the erected scaffold is the very thing that
thrills the bosom of the criminal with rapture when
his sovereign cancels the sentence, and pardons.
Rising from the sick-bed upon which the poor patient
has been stretched for a season, with the burning




128    COMMUNION OF SAINTS IN HEAVEN.
fever drinking up the moisture of his body, is the
very thing that gives virtue to the cooling breeze
which a summer's afternoon breathes upon the yet
partially heated cheek.  The sufferings of slavery
give zest to the joys of liberty, and the experience
of the perils and horrors of war weaves a wreath
around the waving olive-branch of peace. So do I
feel that my toils and sufferings in the world heighten
the enjoyment of the blessings of heaven.
" I often think, Onesimus, upon the act of God's
sovereignty and electing love in your salvation, as
well as in my own. When I appealed to Caesar,
whilst standing at Festus' judgment-bar, I little
thought that God was thus leading me, by a way
that I knew not, to become the instrument of your
salvation. But so it was. God was looking down
in love from that throne upon which he is exalted.
He saw you an unawakened and guilty sinner at Rome,
and he had even then thoughts of mercy towards you.
He brought me into perplexities and troubles that he
might bring you salvation. I felt much annoyed at
being detained so long in Rome before my appeal was
decided by the emperor; but God was detaining me
there till the set time for your deliverance should
come. I remember well the moment when I first
looked upon you among the auditors who were listening to me preaching in my own hired house. The tears
were streaming from your eyes, as those eyes were
fixed intently upon me. I had been preaching of




COMMUNION OF SAINTS IN HEAVEN.   129
righteousness and temperance, and was dwelling upon
the awful fact, that there is a judgment to come,
when suddenly you cried out,'What must I do to be
saved?' I cannot describe to you the thrill of joy
that question sent to my soul. I saw that God was
blessing his gospel, preached even in the midst of
bonds and imprisonment. How joyful I felt when I
met you alone, after the rest of my hearers had withdrawn, and when I discovered, that, encircled as you
had previously been by a very ocean of ungodliness,
you had found the pearl of great price, and become
the new creature of God in Christ Jesus! I knew
that the whole heavens were at that moment rejoicing
over your spiritual birth; and it was with a heart
filled with gratitude to God, that I knelt with you,
and we lifted up our tribute of thanksgiving and of
praise. Oh, with what a gush of holy fervor in my
soul I then blessed him, that he had brought you into
a knowledge of the truth as it is in Jesus; that he
had sent the rod of his strength out of Zion, and that
you had become willing in the day of your Redeemer's power!"
It is not difficult to figure the answer of Onesimus:
"Oh that sovereignty of God in the salvation of man!
Those in the world feel God's decree to be a sea which
the short line of their reason cannot fathom; but, God
is sovereign in his electing love.  I am an example
of this. What had I done to deserve his favor and
love? I had robbed my master, fled from his ser6*




130   COMMUNION OF SAINTS IN HEAVEN.
vice, and run away from a home in which I had
uniformly been kindly treated. I came in my wanderings to Rome, the metropolis of the world, and was
glad when I reached that densely peopled city; for
I thought it was scarcely possible for my injured master to find me there and bring me to punishment. I
mingled foi a season with the ungodly in that city
of iniquity; and it was only casually I heard from a
companion, that an eloquent prisoner had come up
from Palestine upon an appeal to the emperor. I
made inquiries, and learned your name. I had heard
you preach whilst yet in the house of Philemon; but
the word preached was not then carried home by the
Spirit to my heart in its saving power. I thought
I would like to see you again, that I might observe
whether or not you were much altered in your appearance since the time when I saw you in Asia Minor. I
thus came to hear you preach; but it was out of mere
curiosity, and with no intention of making myself
known to you. When I looked upon you in the
midst of your persecution, - so calm and resigned in
your bonds to the will of our heavenly Father, and
exhibiting such an air of holy confidence and heavenly
comfort upon your countenance, — I began to feel,
even before you commenced your address, that assuredly you were engaged in the cause of truth. Oh!
I will bless God through all eternity, that, by the
invisible leadings of his providence, he brought me to
hear you that day. Your words went home to my




COMMUNION OF SAINTS IN HEAVErN.    131
heart like winged arrows barbed with steel.  The
Lord Jesus was in the chariot of his preached gospel, and I felt the powers of the world to come. I
awoke into a state of new existence,  into a life of
light and liberty and holy joy."
/
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~.\)
\kD




CHAPTER IX.
COMMUNION OF SAINTS IN HEAVEN (continued).
AKE another group, composed of Mary,
Martha, and Lazarus, and listen to the
first: " I often here recall the fond remembrances of our once-happy home at Bethany. Life
upon earth is soon over, with its rainbow-hopes and
its often anxious fears; but the remembrances of life
will never be exiled from the chambers of memory.
The scenes of Bethany are as fresh and as vivid before me now as they were when we lived there. I
never hear the word'Bethany' pronounced here,
even in this home of love, but a whole flood of hallowed and tender associations connected with it are
awakened in my soul. It was to us the house of
God, the very gate of heaven. Our earthly parents
left us whilst yet young.  When they forsook us, the
Lord took us up.  I often recall with wonder and
delight that afternoon, when Jesus, the Son of God,
[132]




COMMUNION OF SAINTS IN HEAVEN.  133
first came to our home, apparently a mere homeless
stranger, and when I had first the privilege of hearing his voice. We felt in that divine and holy presence as if heaven had actually come down, not only
into our home, but into our very hearts. Such serenity, such peace, such holy joy! How gladdened
I was by the thought, that we were the objects of his
love! and, in my too high spiritual security, I imagined no evil would come nigh our dwelling, and no
cloudwould ever in its darkness gather over it. O
Lazarus! I recollect well what a blight came over my
heart, when I looked upon you breathing with difficulty, and the perspiration in cold drops falling from
your pallid brow. Approaching your bed softly, for
you had become calmer, I thought you were asleep;
and the sunshine of a momentarily awakened hope
dawned upon my sorrowful heart. I thought the
Lord was looking down upon us in love, and that you
were to be spared to us. You tried to lift your head,
and lay it upon your hand, whilst your elbow rested
upon the pillow. You were unable to support yourself in that position, and you laid yourself down upon
the pillow again. You then said,'Is that you,
Mary?' Your eyes had become so dim, that you did
not see me; and you asked me to call for Martha,
who was busily engaged in getting the drink you
loved ready for you. What emotions of sorrow circulated through our souls, when you told us, as we
were stooping over you in tears, that you felt your



134   COMMUNION OF SAINTS IN HEAVE'N.
self dying, and then, with a tremulous voice, commended us to the God of our salvation; adding, as
you shook hands with us,'We have been happy together in this home of love: but, oh! we will be
happier when we meet up yonder, in our Father's
home in heaven; for then we will have no sin, we
will be perfectly holy, and I will not be a suffering
patient to give you pain'! We sat down beside you,
and looked on in silence, and beheld with you and
towards you the doings of the Lord. You went to
sleep; and oh the agony of that moment when we
knew that from that sleep you would never awake,that your spirit had passed away! Then were we
desolate, for we felt that we had but few friends left;
and this was the very cause that led us to look up
in prayer, resignation, and hope to our Father in
heaven, who lives whilst friends die.
" Nor was our grief yet ameliorated. Our sympathizing neighbors had stretched and dressed your
body; and I approached the bed, laid my fevered hand
upon your brow, and shook as I felt the coldness of
death. I looked out from our desolate home, and
thought the pale moon in the sky was sick with grief,
and that the stars were silently weeping over the
desolation of our hearts; but oh that morning of
joy which broke upon our souls when we listened to
the voice of Jesus at your tomb, saying,'Lazarus,
come forth,' and when you rose into life, and walked
from. the tomb to meet us, and came home with us




COMM IUNION OF SAISTS IN HEAVEN.  135
and our friends, and again occupied your accustomed
seat! We met that day in joy, but we met to be
parted again; and how delightful is the thought, that
we are now in a home that death will never enter, and
where we will never be separated more! "
Martha's reciprocating views:  I now see that I
felt, while in the world; far too anxious about what
I was to eat, and what I was to drink, and wherewithal I was to be clothed; whilst indeed I gave
myself no rest either by night or by day, planning my
worldly arrangements, and bustling about to get them
executed., I felt as if the world would necessarily
stand still, and the sun would cease his journey
through the sky, and the moon and stars would not
remain upon their watch-towers, if I was not panting and sweating and hurrying to and fro in the
performance of duty, and in carrying forward my
domestic arrangements.'Martha, Martha, thou art
troubled about many things; but one tlhing is needful.' These words were to my bosom like the'Peace,
be still!' to the' Sea of Galilee. They not only
calmed my agitated heart, but caused the morning
of a new day to break upon my soul. I then began
to see that the world would go on when I was at rest
in my grave; that the time would come when our
household arrangements, which had almost entirely
engrossed my attention, would be performed by the
hands of another; and that there was something
higher to live for than the world, anld all that was in




136   COMMUNION OF SAINTS IN HEA VEN.
it. I saw that I had received life, not to spend it
merely in the performance of worldly duties, but to
dedicate it to God, and to make preparation for
eternity.' In the midst of these musings, a new light dawned
upon my soul, - a new world came into my view. I
felt then a peace and a calm descend upon my heart
which I had never experienced before. I entered the
pavilion of God's covenanted presence. I felt myself
embowered in the embrace of my heavenly Father's
love, and I too hastily inferred that care and anxiety
would never be the inmates of my bosom again. I
~thought with Mary, that as Jesus loved us, and as we
were the children of the living God, he would surely
exempt us from affliction and trouble.  Oh, what a
shock these improper hopes received when we looked
upon you sickening, and when we saw you, a brother
beloved, numbered with the dead!  How utterly
empty and desolate and dark the world had become,
as if the previously bright sun of our earthly comfort
had set, and a dark and starless night of sorrow had
gathered, with its clouds and stillness, around our
desolated home! But when, in answer to our dear
Redeemer's call, I heard the rustle of your deadclothes; when I saw you rise up, and become erect
again upon your feet; and when I looked upon you
walking among the living with these grave-clothes
still about you, - indeed, life from the dead, - I felt
all that emotion of joy and of gratitude to the Son of




COMMUNION OF SAINTS IN HEAV EN.  137
God, described by Mary, and which never can be forgotten even among the joys of heaven."
The loving response of Lazarus to these hallowed
recollections: " We have left the earth, with its
changing seasons and its varying spiritual experiences, for this heaven, in which one summer of life
continually smiles, and in which our souls are always
glad beneath the sunshine of God's unveiled countenance. I remember well the occasion to which you
have both alluded. I felt pained, when the burning
fever spread its withering fire over my body, at the
thought that I was to be parted from you, with whom
I had lived so happily; but this was changed into
emotions of joy when I came up here to find a home
of love, But how can I describe my feelings when
commanded by God to leave heaven, and to enter my
body again, and to return to you in your home of
sorrow, in answer to the prayer of Jesus? When I
saw again the sun; when I descended, and came
within sight of the earth, as it rose before me, with
its mountains and oceans and streams and woods
and valleys; when I came within sight of Bethany,
and saw Jesus standing at the mouth of the tomb
in which my body was lying; when I saw you two
standing beside him, and weeping; and when I
beheld the multitude who were gathered around,these things are for the spirit, rather than for the
words of the spirit. Nor more adequate to the conception would be the description of my emotions




138   COMMUNIO;N OF SAINTS IN HEAVEN.
when I entered my body again, -so like, in a mean
sense, a person returning to his home after an
absence, and finding the windows closed, the fires
out, and silence and darkness reigning in every
apartment, — and when I came out from the tomb,
and returned with you to our home of love. I had
to die the second time; but that death did not appear
such a strange thing: and when I rose again, and
came along the path that leads to this home, I felt
like a person upon a road.sthat is familiar to him, or
like a child returning along the well-known path that
leads him back to his father's home."
OBJECTIONS NOTICED.
Before closing this chapter, I will notice three
objections that possibly may be brought by the captious against some of the views that I have advanced
in setting forth the communion of saints in heaven.
Do you say, that, in the pictures I have given of the
family intercourse in our'Father's home, you have got
a glimpse of a totally different heaven from that which
you were previously, by faith, in the habit of looking
up into? This may be, and nevertheless the heaven
I have described may be the very heaven of the Bible.
Again: if you say that I have represented the glorified
who are in heaven as holding and enjoying too great
a familiarity in their intercourse with each other, I
would like you to give to the world the benefit of a
distinct statement of the proof of your objection.  Is




COMMUNION OF SAINTS IN HEAVEN.  139
heaven a home?  Do all who are in heaven constitute
but owne family?  Then surely it is fair analogical,
nay, it is logical, reasoning to infer, that the intercourse which exists amongst the children of a pious
Christian family upon earth is an index and a symbol
of that which exists in heaven. Moreover, if you
say that you had always previously pictured heaven
in your imagination as a place whose inhabitants are
so much engaged in the realization of the beatific
vision,' looking upon God, beholding the face of Jesus,
and joining in the worship of Him who sitteth upon
the throne, that they have no leisure and no opportunity of holding such fellowship with each other as I have
depicted, —do you really, then, believe that your eternity is to be spent in one continuous, fixed, and
unchanging gaze upon God's face?-a position which
would involve the conclusion, that all the inhabitants
of heaven, and all its glorious scenery, for I have
shown it is a place, —are to be entirely hidden from
your view as you thus stand transfixed and immovable. This is not the position of angels. They veil
their faces with their wings before God, and go forth
to execute his messages both of wrath and of love.
This is not the position of those glorified ones from
earth who are already in heaven.  " They follow the
Lamb whithersoever he goeth," and join in the high
praises of eternity.  The poor Brahmin takes his
stand upon his lofty pedestal in the exercise of his
superstitious worship; he withdraws his eyes from




140   COMI1KMUNION  OF SAINTS IN HEAVEXN.
earth and from all terrestrial objects; he lifts them
upwards, and fixes them, not upon God, not upon
heaven, nor upon heavenly things, — for these are all
unknown, —but upon the natural sun; and this he
continues until he becomes entirely blind.'This
unchanging gaze upon what he calls God is the
Brahmin's heaven.  The Bible heaven is a home;
and those who are in it constitute one united and
happy family, whose chief element of joy, it is true, is
conmmunion  wit]L Father,  Son, and Holy Ghost, but
whose secondary source of happinzess —a happiness not
the less real —is the fe.lows]iho and intercourse which
its members are permitted to hold with each other.
If heaven be a home, then it must be a place of
sociality, of intercourse, and of fellowship.  That would
be a strange home in which the inmates had no social
intercommunion. If your previous view of heaven
be correct, and if the inmates of it be living in a
state of separated, cold, and distant isolation from
each other, the Holy Spirit, who speaks the truth in
the Bible, would have given it another name,-perhaps a penitenztiary,  certainly not our Fazther's house.
The communion which the members of God's family
enjoy with each other in heaven, is, I grant, a source
of joy subordinate to that which they hold with God;
but just as communion with each other exists amongst
the members of a family upon earth, so a holy communion also exists amongst the members of Good's
family in heaven.




COMMUNION OF SAINTS IN HEAVEN.   141
I have, in my preceding observations, assumed the
fact, that friends do recognize each other when they
meet in heaven, which renders their fellowship there
the more interesting and dear.  I will afterwards
give the special proof for this assumption.




CHAPTER X.
COMMUNION OF SAINTS IN HEAVEN, A SOURCE OF
INSTRUCTION AND OF JOY.
EAVEN is our homle. Thus all who are
there constitute but one family; for of Christ
the whole family in heaven and earth is
named;" and, as the members of the same family, they
have fellowship with each other. I believe that this
fellowship which we will enjoy, when we enter heaven,
with those who have reached it before us, will be to
us a source, not merely of increased enjoyment, but of
instruction also.  The Bible is chiefly taken up in
giving us a description of the evolutions of God's
providence whilst watching over the human family
during the long period of four thousand years, and
of the various steps which he was led to take in
order that he might effect our salvation. I believe
that it will be a source both of instruction and of
pleasure to meet those in heaven who were the leading agents under God in the accomplishment of many
[142]




COMMUNION OF SAINTS IN HEAVEN.  143
of those events which are described only shortly and
darkly in the Bible; and to hear from their own lips,
in the language of heaven, additional particulars
respecting them.
How much more, for instance, could be declared
of the mysteries of the creation than is contained in
Genesis!  How many conflicting theories indulged
in by man might receive their settlement from the
mouths of Adam and the patriarchs! And we are
not surely to suppose that our curiosity as to these
wonderful doings of God-amounting, as it does, to
an aspiration-is to be left for ever as ungratified as
it will be at our death. From Noah, who built the
first ship and acted as the first sea-captain, how
much might be learned on grand and mysterious
events!-the circumstances connected with the coming of the deluge; what he felt when the waters were
above the earth, and when he was sailing over the
place where cities formerly stood; and what his
feelings were when he came out of the ark, and looked
forth upon a desolated world.
How much more, too, of these patriarchal times
might be learned from Moses, besides what he has
recounted of his own experiences! — what he felt in
Egypt when the destroying angel was passing over it,
and during that tedious wilderness-journey of forty
years. And then there is that mysterious termination
of his pilgrimage, when alone upon the mount on
which he died, with no human being near him. We




144,COMMUNIONl OF SAINTS IN HEAVEN,.
are curious to know more of the history of David,
whose ways-detracting, in one instance, from the very
embodiment of devotion - are to us, in many respects,
inexplicable; a remark still more applicable to Solomon. We have all read the history of Samson, over
and over again, as it is given in the Bible; but who
has ever yet been able to form a definite and satisfactory view of his character, under its strange lights
and shadows, with the gates of Gaza upon his shoulders? And then the pitiful picture he presents with
both his eyes put out, groping for the pillars, upon
which he pretended he was about merely to lean and
rest himself. Perhaps his whole life was a riddle,
and all that he did was just the acting-out of a strange
parable, because his lot was cast among strange people.
I have often read the history of the Apostle Paul,
the most enthusiastic and earnest and laborious of all
the children of God, with his soul continually on fire,
burning with an unquenchable zeal, and rapt in a
conflagration of holy love and heavenly aspiration.
If we feel so much interest in what we read of him,
how much more would we experience in the full
development of that abstruse spirit, a more complete
insight into his character, and a more ample explanation of those wonderful doctrines, election and God's
sovereignty in grace, which are yet to so many Christians a stumbling-block to faith, and to others a deep
study of the mysteries of God!




A SOURCE OF INSTRUCTION AND OF JOY. 145
Nor less interesting would be the personal experience of the Apostle John.  What a gratification will
it be to listen to his voice, giving an account of what
took place that night, when the traitor rose from the
table and left the holy brotherhood, and when Jesus,
in the view of his approaching death, instituted the
Lord's Supper, and spoke to the disciples about his
Father's house of many mansions, where they were
all at last to meet, and to spend an eternity of love
together; but, above all, to hear him explain the
Book of the Apocalypse, which has ever appeared to
divines upon earth full of enigmas and riddles, a
mysterious camera-obscura, a lofty but dark delineation of the future history of the Church of Christ!
We might thus go over all the patriarchs, prophets,
and evangelists, every one of whom must have his
soul replete with a knowledge which would be to us
as a light in the dark, showing us the counsels of the
Lord, and malting plain to us his ways with his people; but what are we to say of all that region of
ignorance which lies beyond the veil of mere phenomenal things, and to penetrate which has been
man's effort since the creation of the world?  We
know that the triumphs of the greatest, in all the
departments of science, are admitted by themselves
to be no more than gropings in the dark. We know,
too, that this ignorance is man's destiny; never to
be changed while he is upon earth, and yet ever to be
wrestled with under a hope that will never cease its
7




146   COMMUNr.ON OF SAINTS IN HEAVEN.
aspirations. Nay, that very hope against despair is
a sufficient indication to us that an explanation awaits
us in another sphere, where the instruction will come
from God, the angels, and the saints.




PART II.
vTHer HALL niorN oWf fEelnbrAs'n Ata tW.
"THEN SHALL I KNOW EVEN AS ALSO I AM KNOWN."








CHAPTER I.
RECOGNITION OF FRIENDS IN HEAVEN.
HE recognition of friends in heaven follows
Iecessarily from the two facts, — that heaven
is a home, and that all who are in it constitute
but one family. It would be a frigid home whose
members were entire strangers to each other, and
knew nothing of each other's present state and past
lives.
Few subjects can possess an interest equal to that
which is involved in this question i Will friends, who
have associated with each other upon earth, recognize
each other when they rise from earth at death and meet
in heaven? It is of the deepest interest to all parents,
to children, to partners, to brothers and sisters, to
ministers, to their people, to masters, to servants,
to companions, to neighbors.  Without this recognition, heaven would not be a home of love. True,
the present relationships in which we stand to each
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150  RECOGNITION OF FRIENDS IN HEAVEN.
other upon earth will not be perpetuated in heaven.
When an architect finishes his building, he takes
down his scaffolding.  These present relationships
are a part of the flesh and blood, which, the Apostle
Paul tells us, cannot inherit the kingdom of God.
The Lord Jesus himself tells us, that the children of
the resurrection — the glorified in heaven - neither
marry, nor are given in marriage, but are as the
angels of God.  But, whilst we will not meet in
heaven holding the same relationship to each other
which we did upon earth, I believe we will know
those there, when we rise and meet them before God
unveiled, who are at present our beloved friends
here.
It is somewhat strange, that this doctrine of the
recognition of friends in heaven should ever have been
called in question; but, strange as it may appear,
there are some individuals who doubt it, and there are
others who deny it. This, at least, cannot be denied,
that in every pious heart there exists the wish, that
the doctrine were true; for who, indeed, would like
to part with those near and dear to them, at their
death, never to see them more, so as to recognize
them again?
It has been questioned, what would be gained by
the non-recognition of our friends in heaven? It
would be difficult to say; but I can tell what we would
lose by it. We would lose the delight of meeting,
in circumstances of peculiar gladness, those dearly



RECOGNITION OF FRIENDS IN HEAVEN. 151
beloved ones from whom we were parted in our
chamber of bereavement and sorrow; and we would
be deprived of the joy of dwelling with those, through
eternity, in a home which is a high realization of the
last and dearest hope of dying humanity.  Nay,
there is something dreary and desolating and blighting
to the warm, longing, social emotions of the heart,
in the very supposition, that we may not, in a future
state, recognize those we loved upon earth: and if
the hope is to bear no fruit, then, in that case, I do
well to bid them farewell at death; for, if there be
not the recognition of friends in heaven, I am never
to meet them so as to recognize them; and, in other
words, I am parted from them for ever.  They may
exist; but they are lost to me, — absolutely, eternally
lost.
Several causes are in operation, leading people
either to doubt or positively to discredit this doctrine
of the recognition of friends. Those who have married a second time are apt to think, that, were a first
wife to meet and recognize the second, she would
scarcely be able to look with heavenly love upon her
successor: she would feel that she was not merely soon
forgotten, but that her memory was injured by her
husband's taking another to her bed; and to avoid this,
to them, disagreeable meeting and recognition, such
individuals take refuge in an entire disbelief of the
doctrine.  Their wish becomes the proof, that what
they wish does not exist.




152  RECOGNITION OF FRIENDS IN HEAVEI.
Some individuals, again, live with some of their
friends such unholy lives upon earth, that they feel
convinced that the remembrance of these lives, and the
future recognition of their friends, will not contribute
to their happiness above; and thus these also reason
themselves into a disbelief of the doctrine.  Others
again, of a truly pious disposition, but whose devotion
has too much of the transcendental about it, think that
the saints in glory will be so occupied in the contemplation of God, in the worship of God, and in the
enjoyment of the beatific vision, that the question, "Are
our once dear friends here in the same home of love
with us?" will have no interest to them. I have
already shown this view to be both unscriptural and
wrong.
Others imagine that the resurrection-body will be so
changed and improved from what it was during life,
that we will be no more able to recognize it than we
could recognize a drop of water when changed into a
flake of snow, or the little crawling grub when changed
into the winged butterfly, as it sports with its rainbowcolors amid the beams of the summer's sun.  Such
individuals I believe to be wrong in their opinion
respecting the nature of the change that the body is to
undergo when it is raised from the grave on the resurrection-morning.  The Lord Jesus is the pattern in all
things of his people.  When he rises from the tomb,
he is not so changed that Mary Magdalene and the
other women and his disciples do not know him,



RECOGNITION OF FRIENDS IN HEAVEN.  153
they recognize him at once; and so satisfactory do'es
this peculiar example appear, that it does not seem
necessary to say more.
Before setting forth in their order the proofs that
have led me to believe firmly in the view that friends
will recognize each other in heaven, I ask, May we not
somewhat naturally infer, that, since the recognition of
friends exists upon earth, which is God's, it is more
than probable, apart from the proofs which demonstrate it, that recognition exists also in heaven, which
is God's? Much of what exists upon earth should be
looked upon by us as a symbol and visible representation of what is in heaven; and this is a natural inference, because the same God made both worlds, and
reigns over them.
What is the Christian sabbath, with its holy rest
and its hallowed and sublime associations? It is a
symbol of the sabbath of eternity.  What is God's
public worship on his own holy day within the gates of
Zion? It is a symbol of the high and everlasting public worship of God in heaven, in which all the hosts of
glory exultingly join.  What is prayer, in which exercise we look up to God, and make a direct address to
Him who is our Father in heaven? It is a symbol
of the beatific vision which saints in glory enjoy, and of
the holy communion and inestimable privilege of speaking to God face to face, which those in heaven possess.
What is the Lord's Supper and Christ's banquetinghouse upon earth, in which the great Master of assem7*




154 RECOGNITION OF FRIENDS IN HEAVEN.
blies meets us, and breathes upon our souls the Holy
Ghost, and puts into our hands the cup of salvation,
and feeds our souls with the bread of life?  It is a
visible representation of what the glorified in heaven
are enjoying, who are seated in Christ's banquetinghouse above, in his own manifested and blessed presence, and at the table that will never be drawn. What
is a Christian family, with its sympathy and love, and
sweet and open intercourse existing among its beloved
members?  It is the panorama of God's great and
happy family in heaven. Upon the same principle, I
argue that the recognition of friends, after a short
parting from them in this world, is just a type or a
symbol of that which is taking place among friends
when they rise at their death from earth, and meet in
heaven beneath God's covenant-presence, and under
the sunshine of God's approving love.
I now proceed to notice some of the sources of evidence
for this recognition of friends.
PROOF FIRST.- RECOGNITION A DOCTRINE OF
NATURAL RELIGION.
The recognition of friends in heaven is a dictate of
natural religion.  Even those who did not enjoy the
light of revelation believed in it.  The resurrection of
the body is not a doctrine of natural religion. Apart
from the revelations and the intimations of Scripture,
the thought that the buried bodies of the dead are to




RECOGNITION OF FRIENDS IN HEAVEN. 155
be raised seems never to have entered the human mind.
Paul is stigmatized as a babbler becauee he preached
at Athens the resurrection of the dead.  The view
which unenlightened reason takes of the destiny of the
body of man is, that, when it is committed by surviving
and sorrowful friends to the cold bed of the grave, it
is to sleep there for ever. The thought of'a coming
resurrection-morning, when the buried bodies of all
the dead are to awake and to rise as Lazarus did at the
call of Jesus, never gleamed in with its ray of comfort,
apart from revelation, upon the dark and sorrowful
heart of the bereaved. The heathen philosophers saw
the nights successively pass over them; they saw the
morning dawn: but the thought that a morning was
coming to the grave never once entered their mind.
The spring came, and breathed upon the earth vwith its
generative warmth; the flowers sprang up around the
human family: but the expectation of a spring coming
to the grave never once suggested itself to the thoughts
of the unenlightened reason of man.
It is different in reference to the soul. Apart from
revelation, men have in all ages believed in the existence of the soul after death. Man's immortality is a
doctrine of natural religion.  Men in every age and
in every clime have believed that the soul survives the
shock of death, and lives after the body in which it
once dwelt goes to sleep. Further, men have almost
as universally believed in the doctrine of the recognition offriends in their disembodied state. Immortality




156  RECOGNITION OF FRIENDS IN HEAVEN.
and this recognition are the almost universal response
of humanity. Examples will suggest themselves to
the reader of history. The source of this universal
belief may be either tradition or desire for it.
PROOF SECOND. - SCRIPTURE TEACHES RECOGNITION.
The Scriptures both assume and teach the doctrine of
recognition. I may here allude to the amount of proof
which we may reasonably suppose the Scriptures will
afford in support of this tenet.  There is a principle
upon which God seems generally to proceed when
giving us evidence in confirmation of any doctrine of
his blessed gospel. Those doctrines that we feel
indisposed to receive and believe, or which are calculated to crush the pride of man, are largely proved,
and much insisted upon: such as those of human
depravity; the incarnation of the Lord Jesus; the personality of the Holy Spirit, and his work of grace
upon the soul of man; salvation by faith through the
imputed righteousness of Christ alone; the resurrection of the body; the fulness and distinctness of the
last judgment; the final and eternal separation of
the righteous and the wicked; the exile of the lost into
hell for ever; and the rising of the saved to enter
heaven, to dwell there in a home of love for eternity.
Those doctrines of revelation, on the contrary,
which we have a predisposition to receive and believe,




RECOGNIITION OF FRIENDS IN HEAVEN. 157
are not so fully and distinctly set forth; such as the
existence of God (a doctrine, in fact, which the Scriptures do not prove, but assume), the immortality of
the soul, the beatific vision, the full and unveiled view
of God above in his glory, the communion of saints
and of angels in heaven through eternity as the members of the same family, our body after our resurrection bearing the exact and holy image of Jesus, the
recognition of our friends in heaven.
There are many passages, both in the Old and also
in the New Testament Scriptures, in which the doctrine is assumed and incidentally alluded to; such as,
"Then Abraham gave up the ghost, and died in a
good old age, an old man and full of years, and was
gathered to his people."  " And Isaac gave up the
ghost, and died, and was gathered unto his people,
being an old man and full of days."  "And, when
Jacob had made an end of commanding his sons, he
gathered up his feet into the bed, and yielded up the
ghost, and was gathered ctnto his people."  To Moses,
God says, "Get thee up, and die in the mount
whither thou goest up, and be gathered -unto thy people; as Aaron thy brother died in, Mount Hor, and
was gathered unto his people."  The expression, "gathered unto his people," does not refer to the bodies
lying in the family tombs of those alluded to, but to
the souls of their ancestors. The two mounts upon
which Aaron and Moses respectively died and were
buried were not the sepulchres of their ancestors.




158  RECOGNITION OF FRIENDS IN HEAVENr.
The cave where Abraham was buried was not the
sepulchre of his ancestors. David says, "I shall go
to him; but he shall not return to me." "Hell from
beneath is moved for thee, to meet thee at thy coming: it stirreth up the dead for thee, even the chief
ones of the earth; it hath raised up from their thrones
all the kings of the nations.  All they shall speak,
and say unto thee, Art thou also become weak as
we? art thou become like unto us?"  " Make to
yourselves friends of the mammon of unrighteousness;
that, when ye fail, they may receive you into everlasting habitations." Without quoting any more passages
from the Bible in which the doctrine of recognition is
merely assumed, I will now allude to a few in which
it is directly and distinctly taught.
It is, perhaps, proper to makle the remark, that
even one direct statement made by God in the Bible
is quite sufficient to prove the doctrine of recognition
to the satisfaction of every one who reverences the
word of inspiration.  " Abraham said, Son, remember that thou in thy lifetime receivedst thy good
things, and Lazarus evil things; but now he is comforted, and thou  art tormented."  This passage
plainly teaches us that Abraham recognizes Lazarus,
and associates with him, in the world of glory, slpeaks
of him by name, and is familiarly acquainted with his
earthly history.  Christ's transfiguration scene teaches
the (loctrine of the recognition of friends.  Moses
and Elias, two glorified saints from heaven, appear




RECOGNITION OF FRIENDS IN HEAVEN. 159
there in companionship.  The same subject engrosses
the thoughts of both. They speak to Jesus of the
decease which he was to accomplish at Jerusalem.
The Apostle Paul thus addresses his Thessalonian converts: "For what is our hope, or joy, or crown of
rejoicing? Are not even ye in the presence of our
Lord Jesus Christ at his coming?" These converts
could only become the apostle's joy by his recognition
of them in Christ's presence. Jesus thus addresses
his disciples who were sorrowing at the thought of
his departure: "And ye now, therefore, have sorrow:
but I will see you again, and your heart shall rejoice;
and your joy no man taketh from you." The Lord
Jesus here gives the intimation, that the disciples were
to see him, and associate with him in glory; and, consequently, they. were to associate with each other.
The apostles knew Jesus when they met him after his
resurrection. " The men of Nineveh," " the queen of
the south," will be known and recognized at the
judgment-throne, when they appear there as witnesses against the Jews who despised and rejected
Jesus.  It is not necessary to bring more Scripture
proofs for this doctrine. This source of evidence is
open to all who have the Bible in their hands. I will
rather now proceed to give some evidences for the
doctrine which are not so patent.




CHAPTER II.
RECOGNITION OF FRIENDS IN HEAVEN (continued).
PROOF THIRD. -HEAVEN A HOME PROVES RECOGNITION.
HE fact that heaven is a home, proves, as I have
already said, recognition.
Those who live in the same home upon earth
are not strangers; they have a knowledge of each
other; an acquaintanceship and fellowship exist among
them. It is the same in heaven. Those who are there
are the members of the same family, and, as such, have
free communication and intercourse. They are in possession of language; they can speak to each other;
they can sing; they can both put and answer questions.
"And one of the elders answered, saying unto me,
What are these which are arrayed in white robes? and
whence came they?  And I said unto him, Sir, thou
knowest. And he said to me, These are they which
came out of great tribulation, and have washed their
robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.
Therefore are they before the throne of God, and serve
[160]




RECOGNITION OF FRIENDS IN HEATVEN. 161
him day and night in his temple."  Then I heard one
saint speaking; and another saint said unto that certain saint which spake, How long shall be the vision
concerning the daily sacrifice, and the transgression
of desolation, to give both the sanctuary and the host
to be trodden under foot?"
Those who are in heaven are in possession of their
memories. The souls under the altar remember the
earth, and the death they endured upon it, as well as
the means by which they were redeemed, - the blood
of Christ. Those in heaven, as is manifest from many
passages of Scripture, have a full remembrance of the
past. With this faculty, I ask, granting that we will
not have an intuitive recognition, How long will we
live with them after our meeting there till we come to
know those who had once fellowship with us in the
bonds of a hallowed friendship upon earth?
Suppose you take up your lodging for a night in a
hotel, and meet two strangers in the public room, with
whom you take supper: if they be truthful and communicative, and if you enter into conversation with
them, you will find that one single hour will not pass
over you until you are put in possession of a pretty
extensive knowledge of their past lives; to what country they belong, where they were born, what are or
were the names of their parents; what brothers or
sisters they have, with their names; if married, to
whom; and what are the names of their children,
through what countries they have travelled, what they




162  RECOGNITION OF FRIENDS IN HEAVFEN.
have seen, and from what place they had come previous to the time when you met them.
Th/e same facility for becoming acquainted with the
past lives of those we meet exists in heaven. I1nowledge is perfected there. How much more enlarged,
then, will your acquaintanceship be with each other,
when you, who are the children of God, come to meet,
not for an hour at supper, but for eternity, in an abiding and unchanging home, and that in the presence of
your common Father, and enjoying the freest intercourse with your blessed Redeemer, as well as with
each other! By that free intercourse alone, even if
no other mode existed, you will come to know those
who were your bosom companions upon earth, who
lived with you in the same home, who stood towards
you once in the nearest and dearest relationships of
life, who walked with you in the covenant of your
God, with whom you took sweet counsel, and went
up to the house of God in company.
PROOF FOURTH. — ANALOGY PROVES RECOGNITION.
Analogy proves that there will be the recognition of
friends in heaven.  Suppose the case of two brothers,
who spent the morning of life together in their beloved
parents' home. They wade the stream, and pull the
flowers, and climb the trees, and search for nests together; they read God's Word at the family altar, and
sing the same psalm in the same church. In God's
providential dealings with them, these boys are sepa



RECOGNITION OF FRIENDS IN HEAVEN. 163
rated whilst rising into manhood: the one embarks for
Calcutta, the other for San Francisco.  They do not
meet, nor hear from each other by letter, for the long
period of forty years.  Suppose these two brothers
were to leave respectively the land of their adoption,
and were, unknown to each other, by one of those
coincidences in the providence of God which we call
chance, to meet in the same hotel at the Cape of Good
Hope; suppose that they were so much changed in
their appearance that they did not recognize each other,
and were to enter into conversation: how short a time
would pass over their heads until some expression
would be used, some reference to the past made, or a
question put respecting where they were born, who
were their parents, where they had come from, and
whither they were going, which would reveal to them
the joyful and thrilling discovery that they were
brothers, and that the same fond parents had watched
over them in the days of their boyhood! How poor a
case is this in comparison with a meeting in heaven,
and yet with the points of analogy so well fitted, that
we cannot escape the conviction, that the one is a type
of the other!
How slight the touch from which recognition springs!
Two young men entered the British army, who were
fellow-parishioners in their boyhood; they enlisted ill
different regiments; they did not meet for many years.
The two regiments were successively sent out to India,
and they came incidentally to be stationed in the same




164  RECOGNITION OF FRIENDS IN HEA TVEN.
town. These two young men were thus brought into
each other's company occasionally, both upon parade
and also in pleasure-excursions; but they did not
recognize each other. One day, whilst together at the
canteen, a fall of snow had taken place, which was
succeeded by a cold, bleak, and drizzling rain. One of
them happened casually to make the remark, " This is
a Glentore thaw."  The other, whose attention was at
once arrested by the name of the locality referred to,
asked him, "What do you know about Glentore?"
This question led to an explanation, and that explanation resulted in the discovery, that they were not
merely fellow-Scotchmen, but had been born in the
same parish, had attended the same school, had stood
in the same class, had played on the same villagegreen, and had worshipped God in the same church.
Grant that the glorified have the gift of languzage
in heaven, and are capable of speaking to each other
about the past; and this must be conceded, or some
portions of the Scriptures must be rejected: how
long will those who were friends upon earth associate
and converse in their home of love and of fellowship
in eternity, until some casual remark, or some reference to the past, or some question put, reveals to
them the important discovery, that they once lived in
the same home upon earth, were once the members
of the same happy family, and spent life together in
an earnest, persevering, and successful preparation
for heaven?




RECOGNITION OF FRIENDS IN HEAVEN. 165
Further, angels know each other; and they appear,
from the narratives set before us in the Bible, to have
a large and a very distinct knowledge of the members
of the human family, — not those in heaven merely,
but those also who are dwelling far beneath them,
and distant from  them, upon our planet.  Why
should the glorified not have a similar acquaintanceship with all the children of God in glory, as well as
with those who still live down in the world? Have
they not become perfected in knowledge, and like
unto the angels? The angel who passed over the
land of Egypt had no difficulty, so far as we are told,
in selecting the first-born child in every home which
he entered. I believe that messenger of woe did not
commit during that painful night one single blunder,
by killing a younger in mistake for the first-born
child in the family.  Nor can I read the inspired
account of that memorable night, without feeling
impressed with the conviction, that the whole population of Egypt was individually and minutely known
to that angelic messenger, whilst hovering with the
wings of death over that devoted land. The angel
who released the Apostle Peter from prison had no
difficulty in distinguishing him from all the rest of the
prisoners who were confined in its different wards.
The angel who breasted the fury of the Adriatic Sea,
and, in his placid and peaceful descent from heaven,
lighted upon the deck of that vessel in which Paul
was sailing, and around which the waves were rolling




166 RECOGNITION OF FRIENDS IN HEAVEoN.
mountains high, had no difficulty in singling out hinm
from the rest of the passengers, and in making this
announcement: " Fear not, Paul: thou must be
brought before Casar; and, lo, God hath given
thee all them that sail with thee." The angel who
appears to Cornelius has a distinct knowledge of the
Apostle Peter's movements, and of the house in
which he was lodged, as is evident from this command: "And now send men to Joppa, and call for
one Simon, whose surname is Peter. He lodgeth
with one Simon, a tanner, whose house is by the
seaside: he shall tell thee what thou oughtest to
do."
If angels know the members of the human family
so minutely, as the facts I have referred to clearly
demonstrate, why should the members of the human
family not know each other, and recognize each
other, when they meet in a higher and more perfected state of knowledge, and become like to those
angels in love and wisdom?
Abraham shows, in his address to the rich man in
hell, that he has a distinct and minute knowledge both
of his previous life, and of the life of Lazarus. We
are not told how Abraham gained this knowledge;
but surely the same source of communication and of
information to which he had access is open to all the
children of God. Moreover, the Lord Jesus Christ,
during his sojourn here, was an exemplification in all
things of the life which the glorified of God are living




RECOGNITION OF FRIENDS IN HEAVEN. 167
in heaven, —his humiliation and pains and sorrows
excepted.  Did the Lord Jesus, whilst here in the
world, live in a state of isolation and estrangement
from those who were round about him?  Did he
discountenance holy friendship, and frown upon it?
Did he show in his earthly life, that the social affections did not exist in his bosom?  The very reverse
is the case.  The Lord Jesus came down from
heaven into this world to destroy sin, not to annihilate
friendship, not to eradicate the social affections from
the bosoms of his people.  The disciples were the
companions and the friends of their Lord and Master.
He who is God over all, blessed for ever, condescended to speak to them, and to hold intercourse
with them in all the familiarity of the most loving,
holy, and intimate friendship. The members of the
family at Bethany were the peculiar objects of the
Redeemer's regard: " Now, Jesus loved Martha and
her sister, and Lazarus."  The Apostle John was
known by the appellation, " the disciple whom Jesus
loved."  Mary Magdalene met Jesus after his resurrection, near to the tomb in which he had been laid,
and became conscious it was he by the tone of
endearment with which he pronounced her name.
If the Lord Jesus thus cherished holy friendship
whilst upon earth, and exemplified a peculiar attachment to particular individuals, and cultivated the
social affections as they are exhibited in our friendships with our bosom friends, upon what principle,




168  RECOGNITION OF FRIENDS IN HEAVEN.
for what reason, will Christ's followers in heaven be
stripped of that privilege?
And, lastly, if you deprive Christ's followers in
heaven of their social affections, you strip them in a
great measure of their religion: for love is a social
feeling; and take away love from the bosoms of the
saved, and what kind of a heaven will you leave?




CHAPTER III.
RECOGNITION OF FRIENDS IN HEAVEN (continued).
PROOF FIFTH. - THE WAY GOD'S CHILDREN ENTER
HEAVEN PROVES RECOGNITION.
ELIEVERS, at their death, enter heaven publicly and triumphantly; and this must be the
_   source of recognition.
I believe that a great misconception exists in the
minds and views of many Christians respecting the
way in which the children of God enter into heaven.
The generality of Christians, if they think about the
matter at all, have, some way or another, come to
cherish the vague, visionary, and undefined view, that
God's children ascend into heaven at death as silent,
unperceived, and unnoticed as a current of air flows
into a room, or as a new thought glides into our minds
whilst we are sitting in the midst of a large company,
without, of course, any one around us being at all
aware of the entrance of the new-come stranger.
It is not thus believers at their dcleath enter into
glory.
8               [169]




170  RECOGNITIOAN OF FRIENDS IN HEAVEN.
I believe that the way in which the Lord Jesus
entered heaven at his triumphant ascension, to take
possession for eternity of the glory which he had with
the Father before the world was, is just a representation of what takes place when a child of God enjoys
that privilege. What were the circumstances in which
the Lord Jesus left this world at his ascension, and
rose, and entered into his kingdom?  He left it as a
conqueror leaves the battle-field, where he has overthrown his formidable foes, and returns home in the
midst of the plaudits and shoutings of assembled
multitudes. And did those who were in heaven not
expect Christ's ascension, and make preparation for it?
These passages of Scripture show that they did, and
prove to us that Jesus entered heaven openly, triumphantly, and gloriously, observed and welcomed
by all who were there, attended by many of its exulting inmates, who had come out to receive him, and,
with the welcome of a joyous greeting, to hail him
home. "God is gone up with a shout, the Lord with
the sound of a trumpet."  "Lift up your heads, 0
ye gates; and be ye lift up, ye everlasting doors;
and the King of glory shall come in. Who is this
King of glory? The Lord strong and mighty, the
Lord mighty in battle. Lift up your heads, O ye
gates; even lift them up, ye everlasting doors; and
the King of glory shall come in. Who is this King
of glory? The Lord of hosts, he is the King of
glory." "I saw in the night visions; and, behold, one




RECOGNITrON OF FRIENTDS IN HEA VEN. 171
like the Son of man came with the clouds of heaven,
and came to the Ancient of days; and they brought
him near before him." "And when he had spoken
these things, while they beheld, he was taken up, and
a cloud received him out of their sight. And, while
they looked steadfastly toward heaven as he went up,
behold, two men stood by them in white apparel;
which also said, Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye
gazing up into heaven? This same Jesus, which is
taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like
manner as ye have seen him go into heaven."
Look, again, at what takes place when Stephen
dies. This is the description which the Holy Spirit
gives us of his death: "But he, being full of the
Holy Ghost, looked up steadfastly into heaven, and
saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing on the
right hand of God; and said, Behold, I see the
heavens opened, and the Son of man standing on
the right hand of God." Stephen's soul does not,
when his body becomes inanimate, rise, and slip into
heaven unnoticed and unobserved by those who are
there; for Jesus, who is upon the throne, rises to
welcome his faithful confessor up into the joys of his
Lord, and stretches forth his arms to receive the
beloved spirit. Nor can it be asserted, that no one
in heaven, with the exception of Jesus, noticed
Stephen at his entrance there. I believe, on the contrary, that there was not one, whether angel or glorified saint, who did not share in the interest which




172  RECOGNITION OF FRIENDS IN HEAVEN.
Christ himself manifested, and who did not join in
the open acknowledgment which Christ himself vouchsafed to him who was the first martyr of the cross.
What, then, happens when a believer falls asleep in
Jesus?  We may again have recourse to an earthly
analogy. When a child is born, comes into the world,
and is ushered into the domestic circle of a family
where love and union and godliness reign, does no
one in the house know of such an event? Do the
doctor and the nurse, who act the part of attending
assistants, know nothing about the matter? Are they
asleep?  Does the little stranger arrive, and increase
the number of the home-circle, without observation,
until, by something like mere accident, some one in
the house happens to look to the little bassinet, and
sees the stranger nestling there, dressed in white, lying
asleep, and as tranquil as if Peace had come down
from heaven to take its seat upon the throne of silence?
The mother knows something about the arrival of the
little one; and I suspect, moreover, there is not one
individual in the home who does not anticipate the
event, and share in the general excitement. Verily,
the same thing takes place in our Father's home
above, when a child of God is born to the inheritance
of glory, rises at the hour of death from earth, enters
into heaven, and becomes a member- not for time,
but for eternity - of God's great and glorious family.
Again: death to the believer is his coronation. From
this state of many trials and troubles, he goes to




RECOGNITION OF FRIENDS IN HEAVEN. 173
receive a kringdom, to ascend a throne, and to wear a
crown, - a crown that shall never fade away. " Be
thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee a
crown of life."  "To him that overcometh will I grant
to sit with me in my throne, even as I also overcame,
and am set down with my Father in his throne."  It
surely would seem strange for a sovereign to be
crowned without any of his people either seeing or
hearing of a ceremony, which, from time immemorial,
has been attended with such demonstrations of worldly
grandeur and exultation. And how much more illustrious is that high day in heaven, when a child of
God rises from earth, more than a conqueror through
Him who loved him, and enters into his kingdom, that
he may be diademed with the crown of glory that is
never to fade!
Some of these scenes of relationship, as they rise
to the mind, transcend all our earthly experiences of
pleasure. A father may ascertain that his own child
is the individual crowned, and may hear her name
upon the lips of all; hear her name announced as
one worthy of that crown which she is to wear, and
of the high place she is to occupy for ever. But
does not our mind, so pleased with such ecstatic
visions, reject the supposition, that that father shall
not know that it is his daughter who is the object of
all that demonstration?
Thus the public entrance of the children of God
into heaven, the public announcement of their name




174 RECOGNITION OF FRIENDS IN HEAVEN.
as they enter to join the family of the blessed above,
and the tide of new joy that rolls over the assemblies
as a holy welcome given to the new-comer, will secure
their' recognition by their friends who are there befo're
them.
\1     I




CHAPTER IV.
RECOGNITION OF FRIENDS IN HEAVEN (continued).
Ft ROOF SIXTH. -THE CONDITION OR STATE IN WHICH
GOD S CHILDREN ENTER HEAVEN AT DEATH MUST
SECURE THEIR RECOGNITION BY FORMER FRIENDS
WHO ARE THERE.
ace HAT is that state? I will first mention what
it is not. God's children do not enter
heaven at their death inanimate, and deprived of the power of thought. They do not enter
heaven leaving their memories and their intellectual
faculties behind them. They do not enter heaven
stripped of their social affections, and thus rendered
unfitted for the companionship of God's children who
are already there. They do not enter heaven selfish
and careless about their once dear friends, who fell
asleep in Jesus before them.
What, then, is the state in which the children of
God enter heaven? They do so living, and with all
the faculties of their souls retained and in full operation. It is the body merely that may be said to
[1.75]




176 RECOGNITION OF FRIENDS IN HEAVEN.
die at death: the soul lives, and even acquires new
powers and susceptibilities whilst death is taking
place. To the glorified, death is jubilee,- emancipation from sin and suffering and sorrow.  God's
children enter heaven, even as we may suppose an
affectionate child that has been some time absent
enters his or her father's home, to join the beloved
circle who are dwelling there. They enter with the
same interest about their past journey in life, and
about the events that happened to them by the way,
that the pilgrim feels when he returns to his dwelling,
and gives an account to its members of all that he
has passed through. They enter with the same eager
curiosity after those who were dear to them upon
earth, that the emigrant feels when he lands upon
the shore of that country to which his father and
mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, and many other acquaintances and neighbors,
sailed before him, and in which they are settled.
Above all, God's children enter heaven at death with
their mnemor}! in full exercise, and with a fill remnembrance of their past lives, and consequently of their
former friends.
This is evident from various passages of Scripture.
The rich man mentioned in the Gospels remembers
his five brethren, his and their former life; and in
the exercise of judgment, conjoined with nemory, he
infers that his five brethren are in danger of coming
into the same place of torment. The whole of the




RECOGNITION OF FRIENDS IN HEAVEN. 177
passage connected with the rich man and Lazarus
proves that those who are in the great world of eternity- both those who are in heaven and those who
are in hell - have a full and distinct remembrance
of the past.
To the lost, this remembrance is a source of misery:
for they remember their day of grace squandered;
their precious privileges misimproved; the offer of
salvation put away from them; God trifled with,
whilst he called them to repentance, and waited to be
gracious, and wished to save them; Christ and his
great salvation rejected and lost for ever.
To the saved, this remembrance of the past is a
source of joy. Lazarus can thus compare his riches
in heaven with his poverty upon earth, his exaltation in heaven with his degradation and outcast
condition in life, his misery and wretchedness at the
rich man's gate with the delights and joys of his Father's home.
It is difficult to say why the rich man made the
request, that Lazarus should leave heaven for a short
season, and visit his father's house upon a special mission of warning to his brothers. It might be made
in sympathy. He might retain so much of the feelings of humanity, even in hell, as to lead him to pity
the case of his five brothers who had been, during
his life, encouraged in their path of guilt by his evil
example; and he might honestly wish that they might
be delivered from the awful doom to which he had
8*




178 RECOGNITION OF FRIENDS IN HEAVEN.
been subjected. The request might also be made
through a selfish motive. These brothers were perhaps seduced and led into sin through his example;
and thus he might dread the sight and the presence of
them with him in hell, lest this should add fuel to the
fire with which he was consumed. The request of
the rich man plainly implies that the lost remember the past. They have not lost their memories. Have
the saved in heaven lost theirs?  Abraham remembers the past, and reminds the rich man of his former
good things which he had lost for ever. He remembers also the poverty of Lazarus upon earth, which
had been exchanged for the riches of glory.
The passage in the Book of Revelation which I
have already quoted, and in which the souls of the
martyrs who are under the altar put this question,
"How long, 0 Lord, holy and true, dost thou not
judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on
the earth?" plainly-proves that the glorified in heaven
have not forgotten the scenes of earth. These martyrs, who appeal to the truth and to the holiness of
God, remember the earth where they suffered, and
the bloody death which they endured upon it at the
hand of their murderers. If those, who have been
cruelly put to death for the word of God and for the
testimony of Jesus Christ, remember so vividly in
heaven the bloody scene of their death upon earth,
do the rest of the glorified not remember their peaceful death-bed? - the friends who surrounded them




RECOGNITION OF FRIE3NDS IN HEAVEN. 179
there, and who tried, with all the attentions which
experience and love could suggest, to mitigate the
sufferings of their last hours; the minister who
spoke to them of heaven as their Father's house, and of
Jesus as the way to it, and who prayed that God would
manifest his covenant love to them, and sustain them
by the riches of his grace when their heart and flesh
began to faint and to fail, and-that Jesus would
vouchsafe his guidance to them to conduct them in
safety to their eternal home of love; the last look
they got of some beloved one, whom they saw
bathed in tears, when their eyes closed upon all that
is sublunary; when the dark night of death, suddenly
coming down upon them, hid the whole material
things that were around them from their view.
Yes, the whole countless multitudes of the saved
who are with Christ in glory remember the homes
where they once lived; where they were born from
above, and became through grace the new creation
of God in Christ Jesus; where they obtained peace
with God, and liberty of access, through faith, into
the grace wherein God's children stand. They remember all the way by which the God of their salvation led them  whilst struggling here with giant
evils. They remember the dear friends through whose
conversation ard advices and example and prayers
they felt themselves advanced in the divine life, and
prepared for that home of love which they have entered for eternity.




180 RECOGNITION OF FRIENDS IN HEAVEN.
Every song which the redeemed in glory sing,
commemorating in the praises of eternity the finished
work of Jesus and the efficacy of his shed blood,
shows that they have a remembrance of the past, that
they are in full possession of the faculty of memory.
Hence those ascriptions of praise to Jesus which
they raise before the throne: "Thou wast slain, and
hast redeemed us to God by thy blood, out of every
kindred and tongue and people and nation."  "Salvation to our God which sitteth upon the throne,
and unto the Lamb." Can the glorified forget what
they read in their Bibles about the shedding of Christ's
blood upon earth, as they stand with Jesus in white
upon the hill of the heavenly Zion?  Do those who
stood with the Apostle John upon the hill of Calvary,
and who saw the blood of Immanuel crimsoning the
cross, now forgot what they beheld there? Do all in
heaven forget the time when the blood of Jesus was
sprinkled by the Holy Spirit — if I may so express
myself- upon the mercy-seat of their souls; when
they obtained redemption through that oblation, the
forgiveness of sin according to the riches of God's
grace? Do they forget also the means which the
God of their salvation used through the agency of
the Holy Spirit to apply to their consciences and
hearts the blood of atonement; the mother who
first taught them to pray, and to ask for the new heart
from God; the father who so often led their devotions at the family altar, and prayed for them to God




RECOGNITION OF FRIENDS IN HIEAVEN. 181
that he would bestow upon them the great salvation
that was in Christ Jesus, with all the unction and
fervency of a holy earnestness; the minister who
first, by his evangelical preaching, so full of love,
nay, so full of Christ, led them to give heed to the
things that belong to their eternal peace; the friend
that was led by the constraining influences of a Saviour's love to speak to them for Christ and about
Christ upon a particular sabbath evening, it may
be, and in a particular room, when they for the first
time tasted the word of God, and felt upon their
souls the powers of the world to come?
It is said that this somewhat strange effect happens
to a person in the act of drowning; for, some time
preceding death, the events and actions of the individual's whole past life flash in full array upon the
memory, as if a life-panorama were suddenly held up
to view by an invisible hand. May this not be a foreshadowing of what takes place to every, individual for
some moments before dissolution, and through eternity
after?  Is it not possible that the soul of one a-dying
leaves the fallen and motionless body, the weeping,
bereaved relatives, the chamber of dissolution, and
rises and enters heaven, with a far stronger memory,
a clearer, minuteS, and far more vivid recollection of the
whole past of his life, than he ever possessed before?
In heaven, we are to be made peifect in knowledge.
Memory is the storehouse in which our knowledge is
chiefly deposited. If, then, we are deprived of our




182  RECOGNITITON OF FRIENDS IN HEA VEN.
memory, we would be led to wonder why it is that
Christ has conferred upon us a reward, and why there
are differences in glory among the saints in heaven.
Again: the children of God enter heaven in possession of their judgment, and with all their reasoning
powers in full exercise.  Surely no one supposes that
God's glorified children are like those hibernating
creatures, who, during winter, live in a dormant state,
and that the resurrection-morning must first usher in
the spring that is to be followed by an eternal summer
before they awake fully to life and intelligence. Those
who are in heaven have entered it in the full possession
of all their intellecttual powers, and they are exercising
them.
They are doubtless comparing eternity that is now
encircling them with the time that was, and will be no
more; heaven that is, and will be, with the earth that
was, and will not be; the light of heaven, where they
need no candle, neither light of the sun, with the
luminaries of earth, subject to extinction; the appearance of the glorified, compared with the sinful children of Adam; the lingering traces, it may be, and
faint resemblance, it may be, in the form and features
of those whom they meet in heaven, with what their
friends were when they left them.
The question has been put, Does the disembodied
soul of the glorified retain something of the form and
the features of the body in which it once dwelt? Angels
have form and feature.  Souls disembodied must have




RtECOGNAITION OF FRIENDS IN HIEAVEN. 183
such attributes; and it may be that it is the featur'es
of the soul shining in and through the features of the
body that we behold when we look into the face of a
friend: for look upon the same countenance after
death; and, oh, what a change! - so changed, to use
a mean figure, as the face of the lantern is when the
candle is blown out. Whilst the candle burns within,
is it not its form and appearance, and not those of the
lantern merely, that you saw when you looked upon it
and enjoyed its light?
It seems to be the same with the soul and body of
man. The soul, in its disembodied and glorified state,
may assuredly retain something, for any thing to the
contrary known to us, of the form and features of the
body which it once inhabited.  The child bears a
resemblance to the parent. It may be, that through
this, and in this way, the glorified who are in heaven
may come, in the exercise of their judgment and observation, to recognize their friends when they meet them
there, changed, glorified, beautified though they be,
compared with what they were when they last looked
upon them in the world.
There is not merely a something in each individual
member of the human family which constitutes identity: there is a something also which constitutes personality, or individuality. It has been observed, that
amongst the millions and millions of the human family
who have appeared successively upon earth, two persons have not been found whose countenances have




184 RECOGNITION OF FRIENDS IN HEAVEN.
been in every respect exactly alike: each has a peculiarity and an individuality of aspect; and it is only
trite to say, it is this infinite variety that enables us to
distinguish the one from the other.
This personality of aspect, and individuality of appearance, continue to exist during the various changes
through which an individual passes from childhood to
youth, and from youth to old age. The individual
changes in size, and also in appearance; but, in the
midst of these mutations, there is a something peculiar
retained, which never altogether disappears.
For any thing that we can tell, this peculiarity of the
form, expression, and aspect of the countenance, may
continue for ever: indeed, analogy is in favor of the
supposition.  What efforts do we make to discover a
missing relative! and do we not persevere until we
generally succeed? Paul, as we have said, succeeded
in discovering Onesimus in the great and crowded city
of Rome, then the metropolis of the world. Will ye,
after a search made through all eternity, not succeed
in discovering your friends in the metropolis of the
universe? The mystic spouse went into the midst of
the city in search of Him whom her soul loved. She
went up and down its crowded streets. She inquired
at the watchman for her Beloved.  She used all the
means that were within her reach to discover him,
until at last she met him: then, with a heart glowing
in love, she held him, and would not let him go.
And will ye wander in sad disappointment for ever




RECOGNITION OF FRIENDS IN HEAVEN. 185
through the streets of the heavenly Jerusalem, and
inquire at all the glorified whom you meet, and will
your search for them be all in vain? The aspirations
of the spirit say, "No."
Some years ago, a boy, four years of age, disappeared one day whilst playing at a little distance from
his parents' door. The most diligent search was
made by the police, by the distracted parents, and by
their friends, for the little strayed wanderer; but it
was all in vain. Upwards of two years after, the
father of the boy happened, by mere accident, to turn
into the police-office whilst passing it, merely to look
in idle curiosity at what was transacting there, and
to loiter away a few minutes which he had at his
disposal. When he entered, the magistrate upon the
bench had just passed sentence of imprisonment
against a woman who had been found guilty of theft.
She was still seated at the bar, and a little boy was
standing at her side. The moment the father saw
the boy, he recognized him; and, with a burst of
joyous distraction, he cried out, " My child!" flew
towards him, and clasped him in his arms. The boy
knew his father, and, recoiling from  the woman,
clung to him. The woman, however, stoutly and
impudently maintained that the boy was her own son.
The father appealed to the scar of a burn under the
boy's arm, in proof of the truth of his assertion.
When the boy was stripped, the scar was there.
Angels probably have, in the midst of the re



186 RECOGNITION OF FRIENDS IN HEAVEN.
splendent sameness of their forms, this complexional
dissimilarity, this individuality of aspect, and personality of appearance.  When the unfallen angels
meet the fallen, whom they knew and with whom they
once associated in heaven, do they not know them
and recognize them as old companions, though their
countenances doubtless are changed, - dark, scowling, and degraded? I believe the glorified retain,
to some extent at least, the individuality of aspect
which they once possessed upon earth; and by this
they will be known and distinguished by their respective names and forms for ever.
We are not entitled to suppose that God the
Father will not discover our friends to us when we
come to stand before him in glory; that Jesus our
Saviour will not say in those.high courts what he
said to the Apostle John, as he stood at the foot of
the- cross, "Behold thy mother!" that the Holy
Spirit will not impart to us an intuitive knowledge of
our friends, and, by an internal impulse upon our
souls, bring us to their presence, that we may recognize them and discourse with them; that angels will
not reveal to us where our mothers or fathers, sisters
or brothers, sons or daughters, are; that none of the
glorified will listen to our inquiries.  But, even
under such an extravagant assumption, can it be
denied, that I may succeed myself, by virtue of an
intuition not altogether independent of a scrutiny,
aided by memory and intelligence?




RECOGNITION OF FRIENDS INV HEAVEN. 187
Again,: God's children, enter heaven in possession of
all their social affections.  This proves recognition.
God gives us no part either of our corporeal or
mental or moral or social constitution in vain. We
know he has implanted in our bosoms a longing after
immortality, a dread and recoil at the very thought
of annihilation. So has he provided the province for
the realization of this holy aspiration, in the gift of
eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Christianity does not only not destroy the social
affections of our nature: it ennobles and purifies
them.  Grace is not given to eradicate this part of
our moral constitution, but to etherealize it; and in
the recognition of our friends in heaven, and in the
loving intercourse that awaits us there with them,
God has provided one province for the development
of these social affections on and on without end.
I-01  9101
Ti




CHAPTER V.
RECOGNITION OF FRIENDS IN HEAVEN (continued).
PROOF SEVENTIH. -- FRIENDS MEET IN HEAVEN AFTER
HAVING ASSOCIATED FOR A SEASON UPON EARTH:
THIS FACT MUST SECURE THEIR RECOGNITION.
>@ ~OD'S children do not meet in heaven as
children meet in a home, who, born successively into the same family, meet for the
first time: they meet for the second time. It may
not be deemed beneath the dignity and reverence
of our subject if we allude to an Eastern fable: It
happened that a certain soul was destined to inhabit,
for a time, the body of a dove; another, that of a
swallow; and another, that of a lark. In that preexistent state, they lived in the same cage,-with
liberty, however, to roam about wherever they
chose,-and formed plans for taking excursions in
company to and fro through the earth, and over the
sea, and up over the cliffs of lofty mountains; and
then spread their wings, and away, away, over outstretching valleys with their green, grassy sward,
[CSS]




RECOGNITION OF FRIENDS IN HEAVEN. 189
and over woods vocal with their feathery songsters;
and experienced in each other's company numberless
adventures, such as doves and swallows and larks
are subject to. But the time came, when, upon the
principle of the doctrine of the transmigration of
souls, they were to be born and numbered among
the members of the human family. The soul of the
dove passed into a child; that of the swallow, into
the brother of that child; and that of the lark, into a
sister of these two; there being two years between
the births. They were successively born in the same
parents' home, with a full recollection of the past,
and, of course, with their intellectual faculties such
as those of other human beings. They did not at
first know each other as having been prior companions; but, when they grew up, they began to
speak about the past, and about the events that had
occurred to them during the life they had led as
birds, before they became numbered with human
beings. They spoke about their former cage, contrasting it with the home they had entered, and about
their flights with swallows to Africa; with other
doves to the high mountain-tops; with singing larks,
as they went whirring up, on the mornings of many
glad summers, to the very gates of heaven. They
spoke about their narrow escapes from the prowling
sportsman, and the lower animals with which they
accidently came into contact, whilst skimming the
air in their flights together; nor was it long ere they




190  RECOGNITION OF FRIENDS IN HEAVEN.
came to be satisfied that they had met before, and
had lived together, and had talked before in their
own way, as doves and swallows and larks talk, and
had taken frequent flights in each other's company.
They thus became great lovers of each other: and
then it was raised among them as a question, whether
the one life was better than the other; but they all
came to one conclusion. One feared the sportsman's
gun, another the fowler's snare, and the third the
cruel hawk; and they resolved that it was better to
be human creatures than birds.
This simple fable may form the lowlier term of a
contrast, the other term  of which is so much more
grand, we should say rather, sublime; but there is
also in it-which is no contradiction-a similitude.
If we consider the vast difference in the capacity and
sensibility of the higher creature, as compared with
that of the lower, we arrive at the so much greater
certainty, that the thoughts and sympathies of the
earth-born mind must be the prelude and occasion of
that recognition among the glorified, which is so dear
to our hopes, that we cannot even bear to have it
called in question.




CHAPTER  VI.
RECOGNITION OF FRIENDS IN HEAVEN (continued).
PROOF EIGHTH. - THE JUDGMENT-DAY WILL INEVITABLY SECURE THE RECOGNITION OF FRIENDS.
VEN if it be possible that friends who meet in
heaven do not discover each other before,
the judgment will make the discovery. "Behold, the Lord cometh with ten thousand of his
saints to execute judgment upon all."  "Behold, He
cometh with clouds, and every eye shall see him,
and they also which pierced him; and all kindreds
of the earth shall wail because of him."  "I beheld
till the thrones were cast down, and the Ancient of
days did sit, whose garment was white as snow, and
the hair of his head like the pure wool: his throne
was like the fiery flame, and his wheels as burning
fire. A fiery stream issued and came forth from before him; thousand thousands ministered unto him,
and ten thousand times ten thousand stood before
him: the judgment was set, and the books were
opened."  "And I saw a great white throne, and
[191]




192 RECOGNITION OF FRIENDS IN HTEAVEN.
Him that sat on it, from whose face the earth and the
heaven fled away; and there was found no place for
them. And I saw the dead, small and great, stand
before God; and the books were opened; and another book was opened, which is the book of life;
and the dead were judged out of those things which
were written in the books, according to their works."
TWO OPPOSITE VIEWS OF CHRIST'S PROCEDURE AT
THE JUDGMENT.
There are two opposite views which Christians have
adopted respecting the mode of procedure which Christ
will adopt in judging the members of the human
family. One view is, that there will be no such
thing as a personal and individual judgment at all,
and no exposure of every person's name and life before
the mighty hosts of the assembled universe. According to this view, the procedure of the judgment-day
is set forth: The heavens over the earth will rend
asunder; the gates of glory will be thrown open; the
everlasting doors will be lifted up; the Lord Jesus
Christ will be seen by all the assembled hosts rising
in his glory from the right hand of the throne of God,
about to descend for the judgment of the world.
The whole inhabitants of heaven will instantly be in
motion; angels, the spirits of the just made perfect,
about to receive their bodies raised by the Lord from
the grave. Enoch and Elijah, in their already glo



RECOGNITION OF FRIENDS IN HEAVEN. 193
rifled bodies, will follow in the Redeemer's train,
heaven will be emptied for a little space of all its
created inhabitants, and silence will reign for a season
in its previously crowded and vocal courts. The Lord
Jesus will burst upon the view of the startled nations
with all the mighty hosts around him. He will
appear in his own glory, in the glory of the Father,
and in the glory of all his holy angels. The Lord
Jesus left the world, at his ascension to heaven, seated
upon the bosom of a white cloud. He is about, in
bodily presence, to revisit the world, seated upon the
great white throne.  He shall come, not with the roll
of silver trumpets sounding forth the announcement
that the jubilee is come to the prisoners in Palestine,
but with the trump of God proclaiming that an eternal jubilee has come to the prisoners of the grave.
For the moment the glad sound of that trump is
heard, the'dead shall rise.  All who are in the grave
shall hear his voice, and shall come forth.  Thus, in
a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, there will be
seen one rising, moving, wide-spread mass gathering
themselves together, numerous as the sands of the
sea, from the east and from the west, from the north
and from the south, even from the four winds of
heaven; to all, the judgment-throne the centre
of attraction.
When the Lord Jesus talces his seat, some think
that he will simply separate the righteous from the
wicked into two great throngs. The righteous shall
9




194 RECOGNITION OF FRIENDS IN HEAVEN.
assemble and gather together, and in one rejoicing
mass take their position at once on the Judge's right
hand.  The wicked will, at the same moment, move
on from their graves, and take their position at the
Judge's left hand, a mighty mass of trembling criminals, with countenances black with despair, the glare
of whose fright-speaking eyes will show that all hope
has for ever fled. The Judge turns his face towards
those at his right hand, and addresses them: "Come,
ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world."
Then, turning to those on his left hand: "Depart
from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for
the devil and his angels."  The righteous will then
instantly rise with singing and gladness, and will follow the Lord of glory upwards, and enter into heaven.
The wicked will at the same time, with failing and
throbbing hearts, take the last look of the rising' and
ascending assemblage; and, in the hearing of the
burst of praise that is rolling down from heaven, they
will depart to the punishment that awaits them.
According to this view, the whole procedure of the
judgment - day will not occupy more than a few
minutes, or a few hours at most; for, the moment
the sentence is pronounced, the two assemblages on
the right and left hands of the Judge will go at
once to enter their appointed but very different
dwellings.
If this view of the procedzre of the last day be cor



RECOGNITION OF FRIENrDS IN HIEAVEN. 195
rect, friends may meet at the judgment-throne, and
not recognize each other; because there is thus to be
no individual exposure and personal judgment, so as
to proclaim, the name, and to exhibit the life, and to
expose the past conduct and actings, of the person
judged.  Those who have adopted this view found
their opinion chiefly upon the Scripture descriptions
of it given in the twenty-fifth chapter of Matthew's
Gospel. But we should remember that the view
whiich St. Matthew gives of the judgment-day is
simply, that there will then, and not till then, be an
entire separation of the wicked from  amongst the
righteous; but he does not delineate there the procedure which the Judge will observe in the trial of
those before him.  I remark, too, that the view now
given involves the assumption, that there will be a
trial of those merely who shall be living upon the
earth at the last day.  All the rest of the human
family - according to our Protestant interpretation,
that the souls of God's people at their death pass
immediately to glory, whilst the souls of the wicked
go at once to punishment - were separated before.
I believe, however, that the judgment of the great
day will be a very different process from that which
those who hold this view imagine.  There is, accordingly, another view held by devout Christians, and
which I believe to be the correct and scriptural one,that every member of the human family will undergo a
_]ersonal, an individual, and an accurate scrutinizing




196  RECOGNITION OF FRIENDS IN HEAVEN.
judgment and exposure, in the presence of the assembled universe.
The great Judge is not merely to separate the
righteous from the wicked as a shepherd divideth his
sheep from the goats: the Books are to be opened, -
the Book of God's Omniscience, the Book of God's
Providence with each individual, the Book of Conscience. The opening of these books will show to
the whole vast assemblages the principle of justice with
mercy, upon which the righteous are acquitted; and
that of justice without mercy, upon which the wicked
are condemned.
Every believer and sinner, then, may now say this
with himself: "I will be judged as minutely as if
Christ had come down from heaven, and the judgment
had been appointed to sit for my trial alone. My
whole life will be passed in review by Christ, before
the assembled universe: every action I have performed,
every word I have spoken, every thought that has
passed through my mind, will be taken cognizance of
on that great and terrible day."
This, reader, is the nature of the judgment that
awaiteth thee. Prepare for it now! Live above the
world! Live to God! Live for eternity! Walk in
Jesus! Thou art compassed about, even now, by a
great cloud of witnesses, both in heaven and upon
earth.  Thou wilt be compassed at the judgmentthrone by a greater assembly. Therefore lay aside
every weight and thy besetting sin; run with patience




RECOGNITION OF FRIENDS IN HEAVEN. 197
the race that God-has set before thee, ever looking to
Jesus as thy only rescue.
According to this view of the procedure at the judgment-day, friends will recognize each other there; for
their names will be announced before each other, and
their intercourse will be passed in review.  Nay, their
thoughts about their friends, their words addressed to
their friends, their actions performed to or by their
friends, constitute the greater part of their life.  The
Holy Spirit evidently gives us this startling view of
the particularity of the great and last review.  " Let
us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear
God, and keep his commandments; for this is the
whole duty of man.  For God shall bring every work
into judgment, with every secret thing, whether it be
good, or whether it be evil."  "For we must all
appear before the judgment-seat of Christ, that every
one may receive the things done in his body, according
to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad."
We have already seen, that Paul looks forward to the
judgment-throne with the anticipation that he will
meet his Thessalonian converts there, and recognize
them there, and experience them to be his crown of
joy and of rejoicing. If Paul will recognize these
Thessalonians, when their intercourse and acts of
friendship are revealed, will you not recognize your
friends, with whom you have associated, when your
intercourse is passed in review? You will meet
your friends at the judgment-throne; that is certain:




198 RECOGNITION OF FRIENDS IN HEAVEN.
the way in which you have lived together, and acted
towards each other, will be reviewed.  That review
will afford the evidence to the great assize, that the
Judge is proceeding upon the principles of infinite
justice and equity, either in your acquittal or condemnation.
There stands in Christ's glorious presence a father,
joyful and glad, in the front of the great white throne.
His children are beside him, and they are now to him
a crown of joy and of rejoicing; for that man was
not merely the natural father of these children, but
their spiritual father also.  He labored in their behalf,
not merely for the bread that perisheth; but he
wrestled in prayer, at the footstool of God's throne of
grace, for their salvation, and earnestly entreated his
Father in heaven to bestow upon his dearly-beloved
children the bread of life, - the spiritual manna from
heaven, - that they might eat thereof, and never die.
His labor was not in vain.  By his holy example, by
his heavenly conversation, by his prayers for them, so
full of a holy unction and of a holy earnestness, nay,
so full of Christ, and of the very breathings of his
love, he yearned and longed and travailed that Christ
might be formed in their souls the hope of glory.
His desire was granted; his prayers were answered;
and there these children stand in the presence of him
who was once their father; and there he appears before
Jesus, able to say, both in a natural and spiritual
sense, " Here am I, and the children whom thou hast




RECOGNITION OF FRIENDS IN HEAVEN.  199
given me."  If that father and these children know
each other at the judgment-bar, - and it is not possible that their intercourse can be publicly reviewed,
and their pious conduct towards each other publicly
exhibited to their praise, and as the reason why they
are accepted, whilst other families are cast out and
condemned, without becoming known to each other,
— will they lose this recognition of each other after
they rise and enter heaven, to associate there as the
members of the same family for ever?
There stands another father before the great white
throne, with his face displaying his agonies, and his
mouth the chokings of despair; and there his poor
children are quaking in horror beside him.  Their
fear and trembling are not without a cause.  That
father was a drunkard; he was a deserter from Christian ordinances; he gave himself up to a life of dissipation and of ungodliness; he never prayed; he
never read the Bible; he never went to church; he
never spoke to his children about God, about Jesus,
about the coming judgment-day, about heaven, about
hell, about the great realities of the eternal world,
about the necessity and the urgency of seeking by
prayer from God the salvation of their souls. He
succeeded but too well in effecting the ruin of his
children; not that he wished it, but his example
and his whole conduct were exactly such as were
unfailingly calculated to effect their damnation. That
father was not a ministering angel for Christ in ear



200  RECOGNITION OF FRIENDS IN HEAVEN.
nestly endeavoring to secure his children's salvation:
he was an agent for Satan in effecting their ruin. He
died impenitent.  ITs clhildren grew up, walked in
the footsteps of their ungodly father, died also in a
state of alienation from God, and were lost.  Now
they are met for judgment in the presence of Christ;
but, alas I! it is as mutual accusers.  The father
shrinks back and trembles at the sight of his poor
lost children, standing in their agony before him.
Think ye there will be no recognition there?
I make a solemn appeal to the consciences of all
who may read these pages. Remember, your present
life will be passed in review before the assembled
universe. Do not imagine that you will pass in the
crowd almost unnoticed. On the great and terrible
day of the Lord, the book of your present life will
be opened and read, whilst a listening universe is
looking on.  That book will not be a flattering and
high-colored nemoir; a false and unfounded eulogy,
representing more what your life should have been,
than what it really was: it will be a full, an accurate,
and a truthful revelation of all that you have thought
and said and done, as if your moral image were
reflected in the clear, undimmed glass of eternal truth.




CHAPTER VII.
OBJECTIONS ANSWERED.
X    HERE  are four objections which may be
brought against the views which I have
advanced.
OBJECTION FIRST.
The resuirrection-body will be so entirely different from
what it is now, that friends will be uznable to recognize
each other when they meet at the juidgment-throne.
This objection may be stated in a familiar way,
thus: As the butterfly sporting on a summer day has
little, if any, resemblance to the grub that slept wingless and motionless only a little while before among
the clods of the valley; so the glorified body will be
so changed and improved, that all traces of what it
was once will have vanished, and consequently a
recognition and identification of friends will be impossible.
9                C[201]




202          OBJECTIONS ANSWTERED.
ANSWER.
I have already obviated this objection so far, by
referring to the continuity of aspect, personality of
form, and similarity of features, which the body retains
during life in the midst of the changes (and they are
many and great) through which it passes from infancy
to youth, from youth to manhood, and from manhood
to old age.  For any thing I can tell, this continuity
of form and feature through life may be a premonition
of what the body of every individual is to be after
translation. Nay, I understand that naturalists assert
that the winged insect does retain much of the form
and characteristics which it had whilst a grub.
There are several errors, in their religious views, into
which individuals are too apt to fall: 1st, Imagining
that there is a greater difference than what really
exists betwixt a state of nature and a state of grace;
2d, Betwixt a state of grace here and a state of glory
in heaven; and, 3d, Betwixt what the body is now,
whilst in a state of health and of youth, and what it
is to become when it receives its resurrection-form and
glory.
There are individuals who think that a state of grace
is so different from a state of nature, that the moment
you are born again, and become, through the gracious
operations of the Holy Spirit upon your souls,. the
new creation of God in Christ Jesus, you cease to be
yourselves; the whole form and features of your
souls are so changed, that you are, in fact, no longer




OBJECTIONS ANSXTERED.           203
the persons that you were before.  What does God's
grace do to the soul?  It imparts to it a new bias, a
Godward and a heavenward tendency; but it neither
imparts to the convert a new spirit, nor a spirit so
changed that it retains none of the features which it
exhibited before.
The breath of spring does not create a new earth,
but throws into the old soil such a vivifying influence
as to cause the grass to grow, the flowers to appear,
the crops to spring up, and the birds to sing among
the foliaged branches of the trees.  Paul has zeal
before his conversion: he retains his zeal after it.
Peter was forward and outspoken before his regeneration: he is the same in this respect after.
Again: there are those who think that a state
of glory in heaven is so very different from a state of
grace upon earth, that, the moment we enter the world
of glory, we will cease to be ourselves; we will be
lost, and swallowed up, and absorbed, if not in God,
at least in the contemplation of his glory. For any
thing I can tell (and analogy lends its countenance
to the supposition), whilst Newton in heaven finds his
chief enjoyment in communion with God, he may
still be engaged in the contemplation and study of
astronomy; and now a universe in extent and
grandeur and beauty may be expanded around him,
and may be the object of his enraptured gaze, of
which he had no conception whatever whilst in this
world.  I do not believe, that, in a state of glory, we




204          OBJECTIONS ANSWERED.
are to be so very different from what we are now in a
state of grace, that we will actually not be the same
persons; that we will cease to be ourselves.  Glory
is grace in the flower; grace is glory in the bud.
There is a similar error committed by many individuals respecting the extent of the change which the
body is to undergo at the resurrection. Indeed,
according to the views of some, the body of the glorified will be so very different, not from what it was
when laid in the grave, but from what it was during
life, that it will not be the same body in any respect,
and consequently will thus retain nothing of its
former form and features and appearance.  This is a
special error. The Scriptures countenance the doctrine, that, when the body has become glorified, this
corruptible shall put on incorruption, and this mortal
shall put on immortality, when we hear the trump of
God and the stir of the resurrection-morning in our
deep, dark prison; and when we come up out of it,
and take our stand at the judgment-throne of Christ,
wearing and exhibiting in our upraised bodies the very
image of Jesus, we will be both changed and improved: but it does not follow that we will cease to be
ourselves, and that we will retain no trace of our own
peculiar aspect; that we shall have lost for ever that
which constituted previously our peculiar personality
and individuality.  Yes, the very same body is to be
raised by Christ, to become the tabernacle and dwelling-place of the soul for ever; or otherwise that body




OBJECTIONS ANSWERED.              205
is not to undergo a resurrection merely on that great
day, but there is to be a new creation.
Again: the greatness of the change, according to
the opinion of some, would be tantamount to our not
being the same creatures.  It is here forgotten, that,
after Christ's resurrection, his body was not so changed
that his disciples and followers did not know him.
They recognized him, and beheld, in his continued
resemblance to what he was before he went down into
the tomb, that it was he himself. They knew the
tones of his voice; they recognized his veryform and
his very features.  They beheld the marks of the nails
in his feet and in his hands, and the gash of the spear
in his side.
OBJECTION SECOND.
The lives of God's people will not be exposed by Christ
at the jzudgment-throne, and before an assembled universe,
so as to make them known to each other by a fudl exhibition both of their good actions and also of their sins;
for the following passages of Scripture seem to teach
the doctrine, that when their sins are sought for they
will not be found, but will be cast into the depths of
the sea, will have passed into oblivion, and consequently will not be exposed or known: " In those
days, and in that time, saith the Lord, the iniquity
of Israel shall be sought for, and there shall be none;
and the sins of Judah, and they shall not be found:
for I will pardon them whom I reserve."  Who is




206          OBJECTIONS ANSWERED.
a God like unto thee, that pardoneth iniquity, and
passeth by the transgression of the remnant of his
heritage?  He retaineth not his anger for ever, because he delighteth in mercy.  He will turn again;
he will have compassion upon us; he will subdue our
iniquities; and thou wilt cast all their sins into the
depths of the sea."  "Thou hast in love to my soul
delivered it from the pit of corruption; for thou hast
cast all my sins behind thy back."
ANSWER.
These passages of Scripture merely teach, that,
through the blood of Christ, the sins of God's people
will be fully remitted and blotted out, and will be so
completely forgiven and removed, as if cast by God
himself behind his back, and flung into the depths of
the sea.  But these passages do not and cannot prove
that their sins will be hidden from the assembled universe, and consequently that their lives will not be
fully and faithfully exhibited and made known, and
thus afford the opportunity to their friends of recognizing them, for the following reasons:1. The Scriptures elsewhere teach the very contrary,
in language in which there is no metaphor.  " God
will bring every work into judgment, with every secret
thing.   " For there is nothing hid which shall not be
manifested."  "I say unto you, that every idle word
that men shall speak, they shall give account thereof
in the day of judgment."




OBJECTIONS ANSWERED.               207
2. The very object, the grand design, of the judgment-day, is to make such a fall and particular exposure of the lives both of the righteous and of the wicked,
that the Lord Jesus may prove to the satisfaction of the
intelligent universe assembled around him, as the great,
the last, and the grand jury, that he is just, and is acting justly, both when he acquits and when he condemns.
This object can only be gained by a full exposure of
the whole lives of each, even to the minutest particularity.
3. It is only a full exposure of the lives of God's
people, their sins set in array before the assembled universe, that will exalt Christ sqilciently, and bear suitable
evidence to the iz2inite efficacy of the blood of Immanuel,
and to the great and unspeakable benefits that result to
his people through faith in his blood.
Thus the exposure of the sins of God's people at
the judgment-throne will be the means of magnifying
Christ before all who shall be there, and of showing
how much believers owe to Jesus; for, numerous and
aggravated as their sins have been, -evidenced by
the exposure of them, - Christ's blood has washed
them all away.
God's people do not conceal their sins from God
during their life: they confess them in prayer to
their Father in heaven.  God's people, moreover, who
have already entered heaven, do not conceal their sins.
They do not pretend, yonder, that they never had any;
for thus they sing of the blood of Christ in the courts




208         OBJECTIONS ANSWERED.
of eternal glory: "Unto Him that loved us, and
washed us from our sins in his own blood, and hath
made us kings and priests unto God and his Father;
to Him be glory and dominion for ever and ever."' Thou wast slain, and hast eredeemed us to God, by thy
blood, out of every kindred and tongue and people and
nation." Will, then, the sins of God's people be
concealed and hidden, and never be referred to, at the
judgment-throne? Were this really to be done,
Christ would there be robbed of half his glory, because the righteous might be looked upon as acquitted
and saved, because in their lives they had been righteous and holy, and not because, through faith, they
had washed their robes, and made them white in the
blood of the Lamb.
4. If the sins of God's people are not exposed at
the judgment-throne, that the Lord Jesus may receive
the glory due to his name in washing them all away
through the efficacy of his shed blood, then a monstrous injustice has been done by the Holy Spirit, inl the
descriptions of the Bible, to David, and to the rest of
the children of God, whose sins are particularly, andl
with considerable circumstantiality of detail, mentioned
in the Holy Scriptures.  The drunkenness of Noah,
the drunkenness and incest of Lot, the falsehood of
Abraham, the duplicity of Jacob, the deceit of Joseph,
the lies and oaths and curses of Peter, the whole
apostles deserting their Lord, the blasphemies and
persecutions of Paul, and, above all, the sins of




OBJECTIONS ANSWERED.            209
adultery and murder which David committed in the
days of his sad aberration, are all particularly promulgated.
Wherever the Bible has been circulated, the sins
of murder and adultery committed by David have been
particularly noticed. Consequently, all who have gone
up to heaven at death have entered it with the full
knowledge of these two dark and terrible sins; and
thus, when one enters heaven and looks upon David,
he will, by the mental law of association, recall the
account which he has read in the Book of Life.
Nor can we forget that it would only put all God's
children upon an equality with David, and with the
others whose sins are mentioned in, the Bible, were
their sins also exposed and revealed at the judgmentthrone, and this not to their shame and confusion? of
face, but for the magni/fying of the grace of Jesus.
Would it exhibit an impartial display of God's dealings with his children, that David's sins, and the sins
of the rest of God's children whose names are so
mentioned, should be so universally known, both by
all God's translated children and by those also who
are still living upon the earth, and that the sins of all
others should be hid?  Rest assured that God's dealings with his children will not be so unequal and so
partial.  In the exposure which the Scriptures have
already made, there is the foreshadowing intimation
given of the fuller exposure that will yet be made,
when the necessities of judgment call for the revelation.




210         OBJECTIONS ANSWERED.
And thus we have the lesson: Do not dream,
people of God, that your sins will be hidden at the
judgment-throne, but live now so holily and circumspectly, through the exercise of a living faith
upon the Son of God, that your sins then to be exposed may be few, and that your good works may be
many.
OBJECTION THIRD.
The remembrance of our sins, in heaven, which we
committed upon earth, would impair our happiness there;
and consequently we cannot carry up with us into heaven
a fill remembrance of the past.
ANSWER.
The remembrance in heaven of the sins committed
upon earth will not act upbraidingly upon the spirit;
will not be the dark and lingering shadows of remorse,
overclouding and distressing our glorified and enraptured spirit; but will bring up to us through eternity
our obligations to God's eternal love, and to the unspeakable riches of his grace, that has conferred upon
us, once so sinful and all undeserving, the salvation
of our soul: it will bring up to us, and that for ever,
what we owe to Jesus and to his shed blood, and how
muach we should love Him who has loved us, even
with an everlasting love, - a love that many waters
could not quench, and that many floods could not
drown.
N~ay, the remembrance of our sins, in heaven, which




OBJECTIONS ANSWERED.           211
we committed upon earth, great and aggravated, and
all washed away through the blood of Jesus, will
rather be as oil to the flame of our love. Thus we
will be led to sing of Jesus, - a song that will appear
to us to be always new, - whilst the joyful cycles of
a glad eternity are rolling over us: "Thou wast
slain, and hast redeemed us to God, by thy blood,
out of every kindred and tongue and people and
nation."
We cannot suppose David feels heaven's happiness
to be lessened in his experience, because, in the midst
of its glories, he remembers the sins which he committed whilst he remained upon earth; nor that the
sight of Bathsheba beside him in heaven - if she be
there -will bring in his recollections a cloud over its
sky; a gloom, and something like a sombre and sorrowful night, over its scenery. No: rather that he
uses the remembrance of his sins to increase his love
to Him as "the morning-star," whose rising upon his
soul, whilst benighted through his transgressions, dispelled the darkness of remorse, and brought back to
him the dawn of a joyful day.
You will not merely remember your sins in heaven:
you will remember also all that you didfor Christ whilst
in the world.
This remembrance will show you the gain the glorified have acquired by entering among the blessed,
and the troubles they have escaped by being away
from earth; yea, it will add fervor to your devotion,




~212          OBJECTIONS ANSWERED.
and a depth of holier earnestness to your songs of
praise. Just as the remembrance of the dangers which
the pilgrim has escaped, whilst in his travels through
foreign lands, enhances in his estimation the comfort
of his home; so the recollection of earth, with its
checkered scenes, its sorrows, its trials, its tears, its
death, forms a contrast with joys that to us are inexpressible.  Rest is sweet after toil; health, after
sickness; freedom, after slavery; joy, after sorrow;
life, after death; heaven, after earth.
The souls of the martyrs under the altar in heaven
remember the sins of their enemies.  "How long,"
is their cry, " 0 Lord, holy and true, dost thou not
judge and avenge our blood on them  that dwell on
the earth?"  Do these martyrs now remember the
sins of their enemies, and have they forgotten their
own?  It cannot be! Every song which the saved
sing before the throne of God in heaven, giving
honor and thanksgiving and praise to Him who is
upon it, will be enhanced by the recollection, " Thou
wast slain, and hast redeemed us to God by thy
blood." "Worthy is the Lamb that was slain, to
receive power and riches and wisdom and strength
and honor and glory and blessing."
OBJECTION FOURTH.
The recognition of our friends in heaven will become
a sou'rce of sorrow to us there, when we thus discover that
some beloved one is not there beside tus, but is lost.




OBJECTIONS ANSWERED.            213
This objection may be stated also thus: A mother
is saved, and at her death she ascends among the
blessed.  She finds, through the privilege she has of
recognizing her former friends, that her once dearlybeloved child, who died before her, is not there.
Will this knowledge not impair and lessen, if it does
not destroy for ever, that mother's happiness?
ANSWER.
The Lord Jesus Christ is the key to solve all these
difficulties, conjured up by a fruitful imagination.
The objection assumies, that it is the greatness of the
mother's love to her child, and her knowledge she has
gained since she entered heaven that her child is lost,
that takes away her own happiness there. I ask the
objector this question: Does the Lord Jesus Christ
love that mother's child less than she does? and
does he not know this irreparable loss?  If so, does
this knowledge destroy Christ's joy and happiness in
heaven? Besides, I address myself further to the
objector. You deny the doctrine that we will know our
translated friends, or that there will be any recognitioln whatever, which I have endeavored to prove, and
in which I firmly believe; and you advance a mere
suqpposition against the doctrine, as if it were an argument establishing the opposite of that doctrine: for
you siupose, that, if the general position be true,
the mother in heaven, who knows that her child
is not there, will become, if not absolutely mise



214          OBJECTIONS ANSWERED.
rable, at least less happy, where all is represented
as joyful.
But suppose, for the sake of argument, the contrary doctrine true, that the mother does not recognize
any of her former friends, and consequently does not
recognize her own once-beloved child among the
saved, even whilst her child, it is certain, is there:
then, in that case, her child is lost to her. According
to your view, she has not the means of knowing that
her child really is saved; and thus, if she be capable
of reflection, she will be in a state of uncertainty for
ever as regards a fact as important to her as her own
salvation. Yes, if your objection be valid, —but,
thanks be to God, it is not so, -then all who are in
heaven will suffer the misery of not knowing whether
or not dear friends, who once walked with them in
the ways of God upon earth, are among the blessed,
and are, along with them, forming a portion of God's
great family, - the inmates with them, for eternity,
of the same happy home.
By robbing heaven of the social aspect, in which
the Scriptures set it before us as our home, in which
we are to meet with those we loved, and recognize
them amid the light of eternity, you are plucking
from the crown, which we are to wear for ever, one
of its brightest gems; you are taking away one sun
of comfort that will shine upon us from  its high
firmament; you are drying up one river of holy joy,
that will flow and reflow through the souls of friends,




OBJECTIONS ANSWERED.                      215
when they meet each other in their Father's home,
and know even as also they are known.
" A few short years of evil past,
We reach the happy shore,
Where death-divided fiuiends at last
Shall meet to part no more."








PART III.
&1Fte Nntertst tfoine   in  Rentatn  fd'11i  cart,.
" LIKEWISE JOY SHALL BE IN HE]AVEN OVER ONE
SINNERI THAT REPENTETH."
10








CHAPTER  I.
THE INTEREST THOSE IN HEAVEN FEEL IN EA.RTE.; HETHER or not those in heaven feel an
interest in us who are still upon the earth,
is not a subject of mere idle speculation.
The belief that they do is calculated to exert.a
powerful influence upon us in relation to our life and
conduct in the world; but, in order that this influence may be exerted, we must realize and carry about
the thought of it abidingly with us.
The child at school, on the examination-day, feels
stimulated to exert himself to the utmost, that he
may acquit himself well when he beholds his parents
and other visitors present, fixing their eyes upon him,
and deeply interested in his success.  David felt
animated whilst advancing to engage in single combat with Goliath, not only by the view that he was
meeting his antagonist under the protection and
shield of the God of sabaoth, but also by the thought
that Saul, King of Israel, and the whole Jewish
[219]




220    THE INTEREST THOSE IN HEAVEN
troops, on the one side, and the Philistine battalions,
on the other, were looking on, deeply interested
spectators, and were, with trembling anxiety, watching the issue of the meeting of the two very unequal
combatants,  The servant feels an additional motive
to use diligence in his work, when he beholds his
master by his side looking on, and his fellow-servants
also spectators of his activity or idleness.  The competitor at the Olympic games felt himself animated
and stimulated to pnut forth his utmost exertion, and
to strain every nerve, that he might outstrip his
fellow-competitors, and win the crown, when he
looked to the end of the race-course, and saw the
judge of the games sitting there with his eyes fastened upon him, and again looked upon each side of
the arena, and saw there congregated around him
the great crowd of spectators, collected from the
surrounding countries, with their forests of heads all
bent forward in eagerness, and watching all breathlessly his progress towards the goal.
We may suppose what would be the effect upon
lus, who are now in the world, competitors for a
crown of glory that is never to fade, - if we saw the
omniscient eye of Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, constantly looking out from heaven upon us by day, as
visibly as we see the sun in his meridian splendor,
and observe the eyes of angels and of the glorified
fixed upon us by night, with a brilliancy equal to
that of the stars looking out upon us from their




FEEL IN EAR TH.             221
quiet, far-off homes, in the clear, frosty night. Surely the view of the great heavenly assembly looking
on, and witnesses of what we are doing (and yet
all this is being done, though we do not see it),
would lead us to lay aside every weight, and the sin
which doth so easily beset us, and to run with
patience the race that is set before us.
Yes, the men of the world who have not that faith
which is the substance of things hoped for, and the
evidence of things not seen, behold no such sight
above them as this assemblage of spectators; they
hear not the roll of the applauding multitudes in the
skies; and thus the thought, that those in the heavens
feel a deep interest in us, scarcely ever enters their
mind.
The men of the world have but a dreamy view
of heaven and its inhabitants; so dim and visionary and shadowy, that they can scarcely be said
to have realized their existence at all. To speak to
such worldlings about the interest which those in
heaven feel in the inhabitants of the earth, is to talk
to them in an unknown tongue. Even Christians
have generally but vague conceptions of heaven, and
those who dwell in it. They believe in the existence
of heaven, it is true; but it can scarcely be said that
ever they realize it. Even in the view of many
believers, heaven is more a name than a home; it is
more a flitting, unsubstantial vision, than a world, -
the dwelling-place of the glorified.




222    TIE INTEREST THOSE IN HEAVEN
I wish to remind such individuals, that heaven
exists as truly as the earth does; that there are as
truly members constituting the family of God there,
living, active, reflective, interested, not in what is
taking place among themselves merely, but in every
act, thought, and feeling in the human race, as there
are members constituting your family circle, and who
feel interested, more or less, in what is occurring
within your limited sphere. Nor are you to imagine
that space or time have any thing to do with this question. Look at the various mechanical contrivances of
our day which have been the means of bringing the
people of distant nations near to each other. Not
only are the inhabitants of the earth better known to
each other: they now feel far more interest in what
is going on in every part of its surface than they did
some hundred years ago. It may be that this increase of interest is just a visible symbol, but still a
cold and feeble representation, of that interest which
the inhabitants of heaven feel in all that is going on
throughout the whole wide and boundless domains of
God's great universe.
The Scriptures alone can determine this question:
What is the degree and the extent of this interest?
Accordingly, it is the announcements made in the
word of God upon which we must chiefly rest.  Yet,
even if the Scriptures had been altogether silent upon
the subject, there are some considerations, constituting
what may be termed the philosophical argument, which




FEEL IN EARTH.               223
must naturally lead us to infer, not only the existence
of that interest, but also its degree.
PHILOSOPHICAL EVIDENCES FOR THIS INTEREST.
REASON'S PROOFS in favor of the supposition, that
those who are in heaven muwst feel an interest in us who
are dwelling upon the earth.
1. The same God presides over both worlds.
God created, he also reigns over, both heaven and
earth.  " The Lord hath established his throne in the
heavens, and his kingdom ruleth over all." "Heaven
is God's throne: the earth is his footstool."  "And I
heard as it were the voice of a great multitude, and
as the voice of many waters, and as the voice of
mighty thunderings, saying, Alleluia; for, the Lord
God omnipotent reigneth."  "I blessed the Most
High, and I praised and honored Him that liveth for
ever, whose dominion is an everlasting dominion, and
his kingdom is from generation to generation.  And
all the inhabitants of the earth are reputed as nothing; and he doeth according to his will in the
army of heaven, and among the inhabitants of the
earth; and none can stay his hand, or say unto him,
What doest thou?"
The inhabitants of earth feel an interest in what is
going on in heaven.  I pass over here (of course) the
interest which the inspired penmen show, everywhere
in their writings, that they felt for this land of
promise to the redeemed, and simply appeal to yoar




224       PHILOSOPHICAL EVIDENCES
thoughts about heaven who read these pages, and to
your inevitable musings in all hours about what may
be going on there.  It cannot be but that you feel
an interest in a future state, because you cannot
avoid believing in its existence, as well as your destiny in connection with it; and we have thus a kind
of evidence that this interest does not exist on your
side alone, but that it is felt as a reciprocation: it is
shared, and, I believe, in an intenser degree, by the
inmates of your Father's home.
It may be that this interest is somewhat deadened
because you do not possess a physical vision of these
translated beings and their doings.  The Lord holdeth back from your view the face of his throne, and
spreadeth his cloud above upon it; and he hides from
you also the whole inmates of heaven, and he refuses
to show to you what they are doing, and how they
are acting, and how they are spending their glorious
eternity.
But, though you do not see heaven and its glorious
inhabitants, it does not follow that they do not see
the earth, and you who are upon it; and you are not
to measure their interest in you by your interest in
them.
The inhabitants of Britain feel an interest in what
is taking place in the various colonies connected with
the empire: they feel this interest the more, that
these provinces are under the sceptre of the same
beloved sovereign. We know that this interest is




FOR THIS INTEREST.             225
reciprocal. The inhabitants throughout the different
dependencies of our empire repay our solicitude; and
they do more, inasmuch as we are objects of greater
interest to them than they are to us. So we may
infer, that a similar interest, for a similar reason,
exists among the denizens of heaven, in what is
takling place upon the old mother-country, earth.
The same Sovereign rules over both worlds. Those
who are the inhabitants of heaven feel an interest in
the Sovereign who is in the midst of them upon the
throne of his glory; and thus they will naturally feel
an interest in all his subjects, and in the whole
boundless realms over which in his high sovereignty
he reigns.
qy10)cY




CHAPTE1R II.
PHILOSOPHICAL EVIDENCES (contitnecd).
2. Heaven is a Home.
1HOME, if it be a Bethel, the house of God,
the habitation of a pious, loving, Christian
family, is the fountain and centre of interest
towards all who are connected with it. Children Imay
be far distant in a foreign land; but the warm interest
of home goes out after them  and towards them, and
reaches them through letters and presents, and kind
inquiries, and holy and fervent prayers.
If heaven, then, be a home, it is surely legitimate
reasoning to infer that the interest of those who are
in it will be real and deep and fervent towards their
younger brothers and sisters who are still dwelling
upon earth, and who are preparing to join them in
their celestial mansion.
3. The inhabitants of heaven and God's children zcpon
the earth constitute but one family.
"For this cause I bow my knees unto the Father of
our Lord Jesus Christ; of whom the whole family
[226]




PHILOSOPHICAL EVIDENCES.           227
in heaven and earth is named."  "For it pleased the
Father that in him should all fulness dwell."  "And
having made peace through the blood of his cross, by
him to reconcile all things unto himself; by him, I
say, whether they be things in earth or things in
heaven."
The Holy Spirit is in the bosom of one and all
God's children, both in heaven and upon earth, as the
Spirit of adoption, - their life, their love, their centre,
their union. God is their Father; Jesus is their elder
Brother, the connecting link, making the children of
God one, both those who are in heaven and those also
who are still upon earth. You who are believers feel
an interest in many of God's children who are now
in glory, if not in them all.  You feel an interest in
your now glorified mother, who has entered heaven
before you; in your father, who has returned and come
unto Mount Zion with songs and everlasting joy; in
your beloved child, who came forth like a beauteous
flower, which withered in the early spring of life, and
which the Lord Jesus so early transplanted to the
heavenly paradise, to blossom there in immortal youth.
Do these former dear friends of yours, then, who are
now in heaven, not reciprocate this interest? If you
say that they do not, where is this set forth, I ask? and
what is it that prevents them from cherishing this?
It is quite natural for the members of a family to
feel for each other: indeed, it would be  nncatural
were they not to do so.  The great mistake which




228        PHILOSOPHICAL EVIDENCES
many individuals commit, when thinking of this
subject, is this, - they do not view God's translated
children as a portion merely of his family, the other
portion still dwelling in the nations and in the homes
of earth. Avoid this mistake.  Do not separate what
God, by his Spirit, joins together and makes one.
The whole children of God, both in heaven and upon
earth, are one in Christ Jesus.  Those who are up
with God, if they possess the affection of children,
and feel their relationship, through Jesus, to their
younger brothers and sisters who are still in a state
of grace below, must feel a loving care for them. Do
not imagine that those who are in heaven are incapable of thinking, or that they never think about the
earth.
4. Those who are in heaven have a largeness of
understanding and an extent of knowledge far smperior
to the children of God who are still dwelling upon
earth.
~  infer, and, I think, legitimately, that their
increased knowledge will dispose them  to feel an
increased interest towards all the members of the great
family of God.  Take, in illustration, the case of an
ignorant, illiterate individual, who is totally unacquainted with geography, and who can neither read
the Bible, to learn what is going on in heaven above
him, nor even the newspapers, to learn what is transacting in the earth around him. You will find that
individual exceedingly contracted in his views, as




FOR THIS INTEREST.              229
regards the subjects of his conversation, and the
extent of his solicitude.  Indeed, he feels no interest
at all, and this just because his knowledge does not
reach so far, in what so variously agitates the wide,
wide world, in foreign courts and nations, or even in
our own sovereign's palace, in the imperial parliament
of Britain, and throughout our various colonies.
Indeed, the world is almost a blank to such a person,
and its doings make no impression upon him.  His
interest is centred in his own little locality, in the
gossip of the village in which he lives, in the last tale
of scandal that has been set in circulation by some
busybody through the parish.  What the world is to
that ignorant and narrow-minded man, so is heaven
to the mere groundling; yea, even to many a contracted and earthly-minded Christian.
Wherever, accordingly, we find in an individual
enlarged knowledge and increased intelligence, there
we also find an increased interest in the world's doings.
His views are not circumscribed by the boundaries of
his own little locality, and his interest is not absorbed
in its transactions.  What the learned aLre to the
unlearned, the wide-minded to the narrow, so are the
now glorified to the yet untranslated.
5. Those who are in heaven are in possession of sympathy, and are thus capable of feeling an interest in the
whole family of God.
The philosophy of sympathy is the philosophy of
the affections. It is that extraordinary process, which,




230        PHIL OSOPHICAL EVIDENCES
found in the animalcule   and the man, forms thle
princiyle of association in the species. So general is
it, and apparently so necessary, that we cannot even
suppose how organized and sensitive beings could
exist without it.  But it is in its influence over masses,
and in its aspect of a great overruling emotion, that
it becomes of most interest to us.  History affords us
striking examples of such great movings in entire
nations, and our own times are not without signal
cases.
During the Russian war, a thrill of this universal
power went to the very heart of Britain, when the
intelligence reached our shores from the Crimea, and
was circulated through the mnedinm  of the British
press from town to town, and from home to home,
that our brave soldiers there were perishing piecemeal,
not by the bullets or bayonets of the enemy, so much
as by a want of food and shelter, and by the murderous
work in the trenches. During the Indian revolt and
insurrection, the feeling was one of indignancy at the
treason and cruelty of the Sepoys, occupying all
hearts, and pervading the entire nation.  We may
thus learn something of the working of that power
among the inhabitants of heaven.  We are to look
not only for the individual sympathies, but also those
which, being true to the occasion, are general
throughout one great division of mankind; even that
already translated, and directed to the other, which
comprehends the children of the world.  The very




FOR TIHIS INTEREST.            231
name of sympathy implies reciprocation; and we have
only to view it in the increased individual intensity
pertaining to the wish that our friends should be saved
from endless misery, to comprehend the intensity of
the feeling spread, and increasing as it goes, through
such myriads in heaven.
6. The whole of the saved who are now in heaven
were once the inhabitants of this very earth upon which
we now dwell.
It is friom this earth they have entered the kingdom
above. They are now there;.but they were once
here.  Yes, here they were born; here they lived the
shorter or the longer periods which the God of providence and salvation appointed them to spend upon
earth; here, too, they were born again, through the
quickening operations of the Holy Spirit, and became
the new creation of God in Christ Jesus; here they
spent their day of grace, whilst the Sun of righteousness was shining upon them from God's sometimes
bright, and at other times cloudy, firmament; here
they passed their lives in social intercourse with those
who were near and who were dear to their hearts;
here, in the midst of their sympathizing and often
weeping friends, many of them fell asleep in Jesus,
and their immortal and redeemed spirits rose, and
went up, and entered into heaven, where they now
dwell, and are as happy as even God can make them.
And can we deem it possible, that those members of
the human fmnily (and there are multitudes in this




232       PHILOSOPHICAL EVIDENCES.
position, whom no man can number), who have
left God's green earth and gone up into his home,
feel no interest in those they have left behind them,
whose salvation they felt so much interest in when
here?




CHAPTER   III.
SCRIPTURAL EVIDENCE OF THIS INTEREST.
HI heERE  are certain doctrines revealed, and
/ there are also certain events referred to, in
Add~~q Holy Scripture, which plainly show, that
those who are in heaven do feel an interest in us who
are dwelling upon the earth.
DOCTRINES.
1. The doctrine of our redemption.
Redemption is a monument reared for eternity to
prove the interest which Father, Son, and Holy Spirit
have in us. Upon that monument is seen the inscription, "Herein is love; not that we loved God, but
that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins."  The creation of t'he world; of the
successive generations of the human family; the preservation of that great work; the ever-watchful and
providential care which he is exercising over it, whilst
opening the hand of an unwearied and of an inex[233]




234          SCRIPTURAL EVIDENCE
haustible beneficence, and showering down upon us,
his sinful and ungrateful children, innumerable gifts,
both temporal and spiritual, - all show the interest
which the adorable Godhead has in us.
God has never left himself without a witness of this;
giving us fruitful seasons, as well as seasons of refreshing from the presence of the Lord, and from the
glory of his power; filling our hearts with food and
gladness, and feeding us with the manna from heaven.
He is making the outgoings of the morning and of
the evening to rejoice over us.  Day unto day is
uttering his speech, and night unto night is teaching
us the knowledge of his love.
But it is the work of redemption which most conspicuously and strikingly manifests the interest of the
Godhead in his children.  "In this was manifested
the love of God toward us, because that God sent his
only-begotten Son into the world, that we might live
through him."  "Behold what manner of love the
Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be
called the sons of God!"  "For God so loved the
world, that he gave his only-begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have
everlasting life."
Try to realize, for a moment, that unsearchable
love.  When He, the Father, not only covenanted
with Jesus, the Son of his love, for our salvation, but
when he actually bestowed upon the world that wonderful gift, did the Father love Jesus little, and was




OF THIS INTEREST.           235
he thus influenced to give up his only-begotten and
well-beloved Son? No; but he loved the world
and its sinful inhabitants much. And thus, "when
the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth his
Son, made of a woman, made under the law, to
redeem them that were under the law, that we might
receive the adoption of sons."
It now appears that the fulness of the time is come.
The prophecies that for ages had foretold a promised
Deliverer are now about to receive their fulfilment.
Those who are waiting for the consolation of Israel
are engaged in prayer day and night, that God would
remember his covenant, fulfil his promise, and visit
and redeem his people.
And not only the Lord's children here, but angels
who are the undying courtiers in the palace of
eternity, and the whole of the redeemed who are
standing in their white robes before the throne,
are upon the tip-toe of a deeply engrossing expectation which has so long been cherished in the high
courts.
If we ask why Jesus thus comes to earth upon the
mission of our salvation, the answer can be nothing
else than that it is because of the interest which both
the eternal Father and the eternal Son feel in our
ultimate destiny. We are fallen and perishing and
lost, and God pities us, and does not wish us to perish.
Nor has he any other way to save us, consistently
with the principles of his moral government over the




236           SCRIPTURAL EVIDENCE
universe and with the claims of eternal justice, but
this, -— the incarnation and humiliation and death of
his only-begotten and well-beloved Son: yea, so great
is his love, so great his desire that we should be saved,
that he does not withhold, but freely gives up for us,
the Son of his love, to suffer and to die, to deliver
our souls from death, our eyes from tears, and our
feet from falling; to compass us about with songs of
deliverance; to put a new song into our mouth, even
salvation.
2. Christ's mediatorial reign upon the throne of
heaven shows its the interest that exists in heaven towards
us who are upon the earth.
Though Jesus is upon the throne, he reigns not for
himself only, but for our salvation.  The kingdom,
the power, and the glory, all belong to him.  IHe is
the King of Zion, he is the Lord of glory; yet all is
subservient to this great end.  " The Lord said unto
my Lord, Sit thou at my right hand, until I make
thine enemies thy footstool.  The Lord shall send the
rod of thy strength out of Zion: rule thou in the
midst of thine enemies.  Thy people shall be willing
in the day of thy power, in the beauties of holiness
from the womb of the morning: thou hast the dew
of thy youth."
3. In Christ's intercession before the mercy-seat of
heaven, we see the evidence that there is an interest existing in the heavens towards us.
Whilst the Holy Spirit is our Intercessor in the




OF THIS INTEREST.            237
court of conscience, the Lord Jesus is our Intercessor
in the court of heaven.  "We have an Advocate with
the Father, - Jesus Christ, the righteous."  "For
Christ is not entered into the holy places made with
hands, -which are the figures of the true, - but into
heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God
for us."  " Who shall lay any thing to the charge of
God's elect?  It is God that justifieth. Who is he
that condemneth?  It is Christ that died;. yea, rather
that is risen again; who is even at the right hand of
God; who also maketh intercession for us."  Christ's
intercession in heaven is thus graphically referred to
by the Apostle John in the Apocalypse: "And another angel came and stood at the altar, having a
golden censer; and there was given unto him much
incense, that he should offer it with the prayers of all
saints upon the golden altar which was before the
throne.  And the smoke of the incense, which camne
with the prayers of the saints, ascended up before
God out of the angel's hand."
An advocate has an interest in his clients whose
cause he pleads.  The fact that the Lord Jesus, in
the economy of redemption, is our Intercessor with
the Father in the court of heaven, shows the interest
which he feels in us, as he bears us upon his heart,
and pleads our cause, and procures for us the Holy
Spirit, along with all those heavenly blessings which
he died to purchase, and which he now lives and
reigns freely to bestow.




238          SCRIPTURAL EVIDENCE
4. The Holy Spirit's procession from  the Father
and the Son, upon the mission of our personal salvation,
shows the interest in us that exists in heaven.
The interest which the Holy Spirit has in us, manifested in his mission of love to save us, is sadly, and
to a most melancholy extent, overlooked by many
Christians, as well in their conversational intercourse
with each other, as in their prayers, in their preaching, in their writings, and in their actings of faith.
We are impressed with wonder and amazement
when we think of this marvellous work, undertaken
gratuitously by the mighty Maker of heaven and of
earth; passing by the angels who fell; withdrawing
the eye of his pity ftom them in their ruin; looking
down from his throne in his sympathy and in his love
upon us; and sending forth his only-begotten and
well-beloved Son, upon a mission of humiliation and
tears, to redeem us by bearing our sins in his own
body, even to death.
But how little do we feel impressed with right,
realized, and living gospel views of this most wonderful condescension! How much do we make of man's
gratitude to man! The virtue is praised as containing in itself all virtues; and he who is without it is
said to be the very worst of mankind, of whom
almost any evil may be expected. How seldom are
these views applied to the relationship between the
creature and the Creator; between him who gets all,
even that gratitude itself, so much more pleasant to




OF THIS INTEREST.            239
the giver than to the recipient, and him who gives all,
even life itself, yea, salvation itself, but for which
life would be a curse!
With what feelings would you be penetrated, were
you at this moment to look up from the page you are
reading, and see the morning of eternity bursting
forth upon you in its sublimity; and, as you held in
your breath whilst you were listening, to hear the
voice of the archangel proclaiming to a startled
world," There shall be time no longer!" and, moreover,
to see Jesus, the second Person of the adorable
Trinity, coming forth to the judgment; to hear the
minstrelsy around him of attending angels and glorifled saints; while around you there were springing
from  their graves in the churchyards a mighty
throng to meet the train from above! And yet how
strange and awful the thought, that all this may take
place any instant! Nay, the time has already drawn
so near, that the chance of its suddenly startling the
world, even in our day, is so great, that, were an
equal chance to involve the peril of some worldly
possession upon which your heart is set, you would
be filled with horror and dismay. But the difference
is not difficult to account for.  The prophecy has
sounded; but man is asleep, and not only asleep, he
is dreaming of gold, and the conventional distinctions
of a sybaritic age. "What! know ye not that your
body is the temple of the Holy Ghost, which is in you,
which ye have of God, and ye are not your own?"




240'SCRIPTURAL EVIDENCE
5. The existence of the zeans of grace, in the visible
Church of Christ, shows the interest which Father, Son,
and Holy Spirit have in its.
The means of grace are not the institutions of
man: they are the ordinances of the living God;
they are the divine institutions of Jesus, who is the
Head of the Chur6h; and we should never forget
the great truth, that he has instituted them in love to
the world, for the conversion of the unconverted, and
for the edification of the children of God.
By neglecting the means of grace, you despise and
neglect Him who ordained them.  These institutions
of grace ought to be your greatest delight.  When
the Christian sabbath shines upon you who are the
members of Christ's Church, you may see the interest
which the Lord of the sabbath has in you.  When
the church-bells ring throughout Scotland on the
sabbath morning, to invite you, its Christian population, to leave your homes, and go up to your several
churches, that you may join there in the public
worship of the God of your salvation, you hear the
interest which the Lord Jesus has in you: "I was in
the Spirit on the Lord's Day, and heard behind me a
great voice, as of a trumpet, saying, I am Alpha and
Omega, the first and the last.  And I turned to see
the voice that spake with me; and, being turned, I
saw seven golden candlesticks; and, in the midst of
the seven candlesticks, one like unto the Son of mnan,
clothed with a garment down to the foot, and girt




OF THIS INTEREST.            241
about the paps with a golden girdle. His head and
his hairs were white like wool, as white as snow;
and his eyes were as a flame of fire; and his feet like
unto fine brass, as if they burned in a furnace; and
his voice as the sound of many waters. And he had
in his right hand seven stars, and out of his mouth
went a sharp two-edged sword; and his countenance
was as the sun shineth in his strength. And, when I
saw him, I fell at his feet as dead. And he laid his
right hand upon me, saying unto me, Fear not; I
am the first and the last: I am he that liveth, and
was dead; and, behold, I am alive for evermore,
Amen; and have the keys of hell and of death."
When you listen to the man of God, the ambassador
of Christ, preaching to you the glorious gospel from
the pulpit as ye sit in your pews, you see Christ's
interest in you; for, in the voice of the herald of the
cross, you hear the voice of Jesus addressing you,
who is the minister of the sanctuary and of the true
tabernacle, which the Lord pitched, and not man.
When you are privileged to sit down in God's banqueting-house at the table of communion, you see
Christ's interest in you; for he instituted the ordinance of the Supper, and his covenant presence is in
the midst of you, his assembled people, at its every
celebration.  The Lord Jesus meets you there, overshadows you with the cloud of his covenanting love;
and partaking spiritually of his body, which is meat
indeed, and of his blood, which is drink indeed, you
11




242         SCRIPTURAL EVIDENCE.
are able individually, with the mystic spouse, exultingly to exclaim, "I sat down under his shadow with
great delight, and his fruit was sweet to my taste.
He brought me into the banqueting-house, and his
banner over me was love."




CHAPTER  IV.
SCRIPTURAL EVIDENCE OF THIS INTEREST (continued).
DOCTRINES (continued).
HE mission of angels to earth shows us the
interest which those who are in heaven feel
Heaven is the home in which angels permanently
reside. "Their angels do always behold the face
of my Father which is in heaven." " The chariots of
God are twenty thousand, even thousands of angels:
the Lord is among them, as in Sinai, in the holy
place."  "I beheld, and I heard the voice of many
angels round about the throne, and the beasts, and the
elders; and the number of them was' ten thousand
times ten thousand, and thousands of thousands."
" And all the angels stood round about the throne, and
about the elders and the four beasts, and fell before
the throne on their faces, and worshipped God."
The word " angels " means " messengers;" and the
high intelligences thus designated receive their names,
not because they make their way through the heavens
[243]




244         SCRIPTURAL EVIDENCE
to execute God's command, but because they visit the
earth to perform, in behalf of its inhabitants, his messages and will. Angels come down out of heaven,
and meet at this lower creation's natal hour, like a
number of- rejoicing friends assembling in a home
where a child has been born, and sing together creation's birth-song; even as this earth arose at God's
command in its beauty and sinlessness, and took its
place in the circle as one of the orbs in the system of
the sun. An angel from heaven intimates, to the
shepherds of Bethlehem, Christ's advent to the world.
An angel intimates to Joseph, in a dream, ierod's
murderous instructions respecting the young child.
In the garden of Gethsemane, whilst the Lord Jesus
is stretched in his agony with his face upon the
ground, an angel from heaven strengthens him. An
angel rolls away the stone from the door of the sepulehre where Jesus is lying and sleeping coldly and
silently among the dead.  Two angels appear to the
bereaved and sorrowing disciples, in white apparel,
upon the Mount of Olivet, at the very moment that
Christ's ascension is taking place, and just at the
time that he is disappearing from their view behind
the veil of the intervening cloud, and thus addresses
them: "Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing
up into heaven? This same Jesus, which is taken up
from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner
as ye have seen him go into heaven." On the great
day of judgment, angels are "to gather the elect




OF THIS INTEREST.            245
together from  one end  of heaven  even to  the
other."
I believe that what Jacob sees at Bethel is still
talcing place in a mystical way. The ladder of Christ's
mediation rests upon the earth; the top of it is reaching to the heavens; and, without intermission, the
angels of God are ascending and descending upon it
in their missions of watchfulness and love in our behalf. " Are they not all ministering spirits, sent forth
to minister for them who shall be heirs of salvation? "
" Because thou hast made the Lord, which is my
refuge, even the Most High, thy habitation, there
shall no evil befall thee, neither shall any plague
come nigh thy dwelling. For he shall give his angels
charge over thee, to keep thee in all thy ways.  They
shall bear thee up in their hands, lest thou dash thy
foot against a stone." And all this shows us tieir
interest in the earth.
The Bible gives us a description of God's dealings
with this world during the long period of nearly four
thousand years; and, during the whole of that long
history, we are, by many incidental expressions, reminded of the intense solicitude which angels feel in
what is going on, not in heaven merely, but on the
earth also. These missions of angels are not to be
looked upon by us as banishments from heaven,
enforced upon them by Him who is Lord both of
angels and of men. They are, on the contrary, willing embassages of joy.




246          SCRIPTURAL EVIDENCE
Since the canon of Scripture was closed, and since
the period when these inspired descriptions have
ceased to be given of God's dealings with the human
family, have angels ceased to take any interest in the
affairs of earth?  Because their missions of love to
the world and in behalf of man are no longer recorded
by the pen of inspiration, are they no more taking
place? and are these angels not coming forth to visit
us now?  Have they retired up into their holy places
to take their ease, and fold their hands in idleness,
and to sit motionless in their seats of honor, yea, ever
since the beloved disciple wrote these words? —"I
Jesus have sent mine angel to testify unto you these
things in the churches. I am the root and the ofFspring of David, and the bright and morning star."
Have they, in short, like Jesus, one and all now
ascended up, not again to visit earth until the last
day dawns? In other words, have they ceased to
feel any interest in what is going on among the children of the valley?  It cannot be! These missions
and that interest will only terminate, when, at the last
day, the earth itself sfall be burned up.
Angels are not omniscient, like Him who is seated
upon the throne, the Lord both of angels and of men;
but I have already alluded to certain circumstances
which distinctly and plainly intimate that their knowledge is very great. It is as the ocean, whilst ours is
as the small and circumscribed lake. It is as the sun,
that has already been shining six thousand years;




OF THIS INTEREST.            247
whilst ours is as the candle that burns for a while and
goes out. The youngest angel in heaven must be, at
the least, nearly six thousand years old, whilst man
upon the earth is but the creature of a day. Angels
can fly and expatiate through the whole glorious realms
of heaven, nay, the whole boundless universe, as well
as up and down among the nations and the homes of
earth; whilst we are circumscribed by miles.
Angels see the heavens spread around them in all
their glory and magnificence. They know about, and
they probably see from afar, the regions of that terrible hell ihto whose fiery bosom a portion of their
number has fallen, the smoke of whose torment ascendeth upwards full in their view for ever and ever.
They see the earth spread out like a visible panorama
beneath them, as they look down upon it out of the
windows of heaven, or as they fly over it, even as
the eagle flies, and turns its sun-lit eye upon the plains.
They see its inhabitants, and know that through Jesus
they constitute a portion of the family of God. They
know the value of the soul of man, which they beheld at first formed after the image of God, and which
is capable of being transformed, through grace, into
the holy image of the glorified Redeemer. They
know the preciousness of Christ's blood, and the
blessed fruits that result from a participation in his
great salvation. They feel that Christ is their Covenant-head for eternity, as well as the Head of the
Church; for God hath gathered together all things in




248          SCRIPTURAL EVIDENCE
him, both which are in heaven and which are upon
the earth, - even in him. They thus feel that they
belong to the same family in which believers are
numbered.
7. The glorified members of the huiman family who
are in heaven feel an interest in uts who are utfpon the
earth.
Even were there not a word in the Bible referring
to the interest which God's children in heaven feel in
the earth, I would be inclined to infer it from the
fact, that angels who are now their companions, and
who live with them in the same home of love, feel
this interest.  What is the subject of interest to one
portion of a united and loving family is generally
the subject of interest to them all.
Does the sailor who is shipwrecked, but who is
picked up by the life-boat and is borne safely to land,
feel less interest in the deliverance of his comrades
who are still floating in the boiling sea, and struggling with its tumbling billows, than those landsmen
do who crowd the shore in their sympathy, and exert
themselves for their rescue, but who were never encircled by similar dangers? And do angels, who
were never shipwrecked by sin upon the great ocean
of existence, and who stand in no need of the lifeboat of salvation, feel greater interest in the lost children of men, in their everlasting rescue from the
great ocean of God's wrath', than those glorified ones
of the human family do, as they stand in their robes




OF THIS INTEREST.            249
of glory upon the shores of Immanuel's land, and are
beholding the tumbling billows still around their former comrades with whom they once sailed the sea of
life? I feel assured they do not.
Moreover, do not the glorified who are up in heaven
now completely, and in every feature of their moral
image, resemble Jesus? and are they not followers,
imitators, of God? Then we know that Father, Son,
Holy Ghost, feel an interest in the earth, in the spread
of the gospel through the world, and in the salvation
of the poor, perishing children of men who are exposed. to danger through sin. As God is love, so are
those also who are now glorified.
Paul thus expresses the emotions and desires of his
soul towards Israel whilst in the world: "Brethren,
my heart's desire and prayer to God for Israel is, that
they might be saved."  Has Paul no interest in the
salvation of Israel now? If he has not, he is much
changed in his present state of glory up yonder from
what he was whilst in a state of grace upon earth.
Isaiah thus gives expression to the wish of his heart,
whilst down among us in this world, that the salvation
of Israel were come out of Zion, and that the lamp of
the glorious gospel were lifted up upon all the dark
places of the earth: " For Zion's sake will I not hold
my peace, and for Jerusalem's sake I will not rest,
until the righteousness thereof go forth as brightness,
and the salvation thereof as a lamp that burneth."
Has Isaiah no interest in the spread of the gospel
11@




250          SCRIPTURAL EVIDENCE
now?  The apostles, at the command of Jesus, and
immediately after his glorious ascension into heaven
to sit down at the right hand of the throne, went
forth in the name and as the ambassadors of their
ascended Lord, to carry the message of salvation to
the ends of the earth. God knows what they encountered of opposition and persecution and privation
and danger, and even death itself; and have these
apostles no interest in the spread of that gospel now?
Let this exhortation tell: " Rejoice over her," - the
fall of the mystical Babylon, -" thou heaven, and
ye holy apostles and prophets; for God hath avenged
you on her:" an exhortation implying that the apostles and prophets who are in heaven feel an interest
in the spread of Christ's kingdom of glory and grace,
and in the downfall of Antichrist. If they had not,
they would not be called upon to rejoice when great
Babylon falls. If they have not, then they neither
resemble Him who is upon the throne, nor the angels
who stand together with them before it.
Look for a moment to the fulfilment of that
prediction, over which these apostles and prophets
are called uponto rejoice. Lo! spiritual and mystical
Babylon has come up in remembrance before God.
The man of sin is destroyed by the brightness of
Christ's coming. Peter's chair, the incarnation of
superstition and idolatry and of all unrighteousness,
is overturned, and is lying broken in the deserted
palace through which popes and cardinals and proud




OF THIS INTEREST.             251
ecclesiastics once stalked in their lordliness and arrogance, and he, perhaps the last pope, is lying spiritually dead beside that broken font of the fallen chair!
Yes, Popery has tottered, and, like a mighty city full
of iniquity, has fallen with a loud crash. The city
of all abominations is laid desolate at the feet of the
Almighty. Over this consummation - may the Lord
God in his holy sovereignty hasten the period of its
arrival! - the proclamation I have already quoted
comes out from the throne, addressed specially and
particularly to the two classes to whom  I have
referred.
The Apostle John was once in the isle that is called
Patmos, for the word and for the testimony of Jesus.
His whole soul was on fire for the success of the
Redeemner's cause, and for the spread of the gospel,
even as if his lips had been touched by a live coal
from off the altar of heaven. And has that fire been
quenched, its light extinguished?
Look at the emotions of love to the human race
that have throughout a past eternity existed in the
very heart of our Father.  Consider the desires and
longings, and eternal glowings of solicitude, for the
salvation of the world, that exist and circulate in the
bosom of Jesus.  Observe the manifestations which
the Holy Spirit makes in behalf of our salvation,
whilst making intercessions for us with aspirations
that cannot be uttered.  Look at the care which
angels have ever shown for the salvation of the




252          SCRIPTURAL EVIDENCE.
perishing, and for the spread of Christ's glorious
gospel.  Then look at the fact, that the glorified in
heaven constitute a portion of that family of which
Christ is the Head, the other portion being made ulp
of angels; and you will feel, I am sure, naturally
and irresistibly led to infer, along with me, that these
glorified ones, who are standing in their robes of white
before the throne of God, must feel an interest in the
earth, and in us who are upon it.
The glorified who are in heaven felt an interest
once in the spread of Christ's gospel upon earth.
They are at home now, and are living in the presence
of their Father, and are walking through heaven with
Jesus, their elder Brother; but if they have no
interest in the world, and in the children of God
whom they have left behind them here, then they are
unsocial and selfish and unbrotherly children, standing cold and unfeeling and heartless, so far as their
brethren upon earth is concerned, rejoicing in their
own gladness.
It may be that you have been parted by death
from friends once dear to you; may now feel, in the
midst of the business and pleasures and sins of the
world, no inte)rest whatever in those departed friends
who have fallen asleep in Jesus, and who have gone
up and entered into heaven; indeed, you may perhaps
never now think about them at all: but rest assured,
be verily persuaded of this, that they feel an interest
in you still.




CHAPTER V.
EVENTS SHOWING HIEAVEN'S INTEREST IN US.
W HERE  are many such events mentioned in
Holy Scripture. I will refer, in illustration,
only to a few.
i. The overthrow of Paganism, and the establishment
of Christianity, ucndcr the Emperor Constantine, is an
event that awakens the interest of those who are in
heaven, and causes a deeper if not a new tide of
congratulation and joy to flow over all its happy
inhabitants.
Over this transaction the glorified are called upon
to rejoice.  " And there was war in heaven: Michael
and his angels fought against the dragon; and the
dragon fought, and his angels, and prevailed not;
neither was their place found any more in heaven.
And the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent,
called the Devil and Satan, which deceiveth the whole
world: he was cast out into the earth, and his angels
[253]




254           EVENTS SHO WING
were cast out with him. And I heard a loud voice
saying in heaven, Now is come salvation and strength,
and the kingdom of our God, and the power of his
Christ; for the accuser of our brethren is cast down,
which accused them before our God day and night.
And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb,
and by the word of their testimony; and they loved
not their lives unto the death. Therefore rejoice, ye
heavens, and ye that dwell in them."
The following is the commentary given of this
passage by Burkitt, one of the most judicious of
divines: "After Michael and his angels', Christ and
his followers', victory over the dragon and his angels,
over Satan and his instruments, here follows a solemn
thanksgiving for the Devil's downfall. The saints in
heaven join with believers on earth in their song of
confidence and triumph. When they speak of God,
they say, oivr God; and, when they speak of the
Church below, they say, our brethren.  Behold a
sweet communion between the Church militant and
the Church triumphant! Indeed, they constitute and
make up but one Church, one family, one household:
the whole family in heaven and earth is but one."
All the emotions of our moral nature are infectious
and communicative.  Thus, whatever gives joy to
the saints upon earth, we may naturally infer, vibrates
upwards to the heavens, touches the bosoms of the
saints in glory, and circulates through all the hosts
who surround the throne of God.




HEA VEN'S INTEREST IN US.        255
2. The fill of Babylon, the overthrow and downfall
of Popery, is an event that sends a thrilling emotion of
the intensest interest upwards, and throws a gush
of the most delightsome joyousness through the whole
population of heaven.  "And, after these things, I
saw another angel come down from heaven, having
great power; and the earth was lightened with his
glory.  And he cried mightily with a strong voice,
saying, Babylon the great is fallen, is fallen....
Rejoice over her, thou heaven, and ye holy apostles
and prophets; for God hath avenged you on
her."
3. The universal spread of the gospel throughout the
world, the rising of the Sun of righteousness upon
all the dark and benighted regions of the earth, the
knowledge of the Lord going forth as the waters
cover the channel of the mighty deep, the ends of
the earth beholding the salvation of the Lord, is an
event that attracts the notice of the crowding hosts in
heaven, and circulates a tide of holy rapture far and
wide through all their exulting and rejoicing ranks.
"And the seventh angel sounded; and there were
great voices in heaven, saying, The kingdoms of this
world are become the kingdoms of our Lord and of
his Christ; and he shall reign for ever and ever.
And the four and twenty elders, which sat before God
on their seats, fell upon their faces, and worshipped
God, saying, We give thee thanks, 0 Lord God
Almighty, which art, and wast, and art to come,




256            EVENTS SHOWING
becausebthou hast taken to thee thy great power, and
hast reigned."
4. Christ's transfiguration is an event which shows
the interest those in heaven feel in the transactions of
earth. The following is the inspired description of
this most instructive incident: "And it came to pass
about an eight days after these sayings, he took Peter
and John and James, and went up into a mountain to
pray; and, as he prayed, the fashion of his countenance was altered, and his raiment was white and
glistering. And, behold, there talked with him two
men, which were Moses and Elias; who appeared in
glory, and spake of his decease which he should
accomplish at Jerusalem."
Contemplate for a little this meeting that takes
place upon the mount of transfiguration.  Jesus
appears there in his glory. His face shines like the
sun, and his raiment becomes white like the light.
In this transfigured appearance, you see a glimpse of
the glory which he had with the Father before the
world was. You see also, by contrast, the depth of
humiliation into which the Son of God stooped, when
he took our nature into conjunction with his divine,
and came down into this world to seek and to save
the perishing children of men.
Were you to see the highest archangel in heaven
suddenly divested of all his high attributes, his
splendor, and beauty of form, in which he stands
before the throne of God, and to become changed




HEA VEN'S INTEREST IN US.        257
into a worm of the earth; were you to see the sun
in the sky all of a sudden eclipsed, shorn of his light,
and changed into a clod of the valley, you would not
see such a transfiguration, such a change, as took
place, when Jesus, who stood throughout a past
eternity, in all the glory of his divine nature, behind
the veil that hides heaven from us, made himself of
no reputation, and took upon him the form of a
servant, and was made in the likeness of men.
Jesus was rich in the possession of all the attributes
of the Goclhead, rich in the praises of heaven, rich
in the fellowship and communion of the Father and
of the Spirit, through the whole roll of the eternal
ages that are past; but for our sakes he became poor,
that we, through his poverty, might be made rich.
When looking at Jesus shining in such glory as he
exhibited upon the mount of transfiguration, we are
apt to imagine that we see something about him there
and then that is extraordinary; a glory that did not
inherently and eternally and unchangeably belong
to him. But when we remember, that, whilst Jesus
is man, he is also God, that all the fulness of the
Godhead dwells in him bodily, should we not rather
be inclined to wonder why it was that he did not
exhibit that appearance always, whilst associating
here below with his disciples, and whilst walking to
and fro among the towns and villages and homes of
Judaea? Upon the mount of transfiguration he draws
aside the veil; and there, for the first and only time




258           EVENTS SHOWING
during his bodily sojourn upon the earth, he shines
forth in his unveiled glory and majesty. I do not
attempt to describe the Redeemer's appearance at this
moment of his transfiguration.  Any attempt to do
this would only tend to becloud that ineffable effulgence, and subject me to the rebuke, " Who is this
that darkeneth counsel by words without knowledge?"
We must be content with the conviction, that His
unveiled appearance must be glorious, who, on the
morning of creation, said, "Let there be light, and
there was light;" who covereth himself with light as
with a garment; from whose presence, on the morning of creation, there shot a beam that lighted up the
long-previously benighted creation, removed the preceding night of eternal darkness, gave to the sun his
noonday splendor, and to the moon and stars their
silvery twinkling. His unveiled appearance must be
effulgent indeed, and terribly resplendent, in whose
presence the very angels of heaven, through all their
shining and praising ranks, bow down, veil their faces
with their wings, and unceasingly cry, "Holy, holy,
holy is the Lord of hosts: the whole earth is full of
his glory."  That unveiled splendor and manifested
glory must indeed be effulgent and awfully dazzling,
whose appearing in our sky on the great and terrible
day of the Lord is to bring a bright and lovely morning to the long, deep, dark night of the grave, - a
morning that is to flash in upon the slumbering, and,




HEAVEN'S INTEREST IN US.         259
on the part of the living, often-neglected and forgotten, population of the grave.
Fifteen hundred years had rolled over this world,
bringing in their train many changes, since Moses, at
God's bidding, went up to Mount Nebo, and there,
with no human friend near him to close his eyes, died
before the Lord, left his body upon the mount,
ascended from earth, and entered into heaven.  A
thousand years had passed away, since Elijah, without
tasting of death, ascended from earth in his chariot
of fire, with his bright convoy of attending angels;
taking doubtless a fond, lingering, but not a last
look of the mountains and valleys and churchyards
of earth, where others lay buried, whilst he was exempted from going down there to lie among them,
and went up and entered into heaven.
We cannot tell what was passing in heaven, the
unseen world, the home of holy and unchanging love,
when the command went forth from God who is upon
the throne to these two, Moses and Elias, selected
from all the mighty assemblages of glorified saints
who were standing along with them before the throne
of God, to leave for a little the minstrelsy of heaven.
These two glorified saints did not assuredly volunteer
themselves to undertake this mission to the mount of
transfiguration, to pay a visit to earth, where they
once dwelt, and acted a conspicuous part among their
fellow-men.
Neither can we tell whether or not theirs was a




260            EVENTS' SHOWIVNG
solitary, unparalleled, and unprecedented visit to this
earth, upon the occasion of Christ's transfiguration;
nor whether or not they, or many, or all the redeemed, who are assembled in heaven and who dwell
in it, are permitted by God to leave heaven at stated
tinies to visit the world, and to walk with Jesus invisibly, and discourse with him inaudibly to those
around; nor whether or not other patriarchs and prophets were privileged by God to relinquish for a little
the praises of eternity, that they might pay to Jesus
similar visits whilst he remained upon earth.  We do
not know why more of the redeemed did not accompany, upon this occasion, these two bright emigrants
from these far-off shores, to mingle again for a little
among the clouds and obscurities of time, to see in
Christ's appearance the great effulgence he was to
exhibit to the whole population of the skies, when he
ascended and entered again upon the glory which
he had with the Father before this world was. We can
see, however, a peculiar significance in the selection
by God the Father, upon this particular occasion, of
these two special envoys from his court in the
lheavens.
The law and the prophets were until John. Moses
is chosen as the living type of the law, as the impersonification of the Mosaic economy, and as the
representative of all who were then in heaven, saved
from and through that economy.  Elias was distinguished among the prophets of the Lord whilst he




HEAVEN'S INTEREST IN US.         261
remained upon earth, not by his writings, for he has
left none, but by his works, his zeal for the cause of
the Lord, and by his fearless, yea, thundering denunciations against the works and the workers of iniquity;
and he is selected upon this occasion to represent the
pro]phets collectively who were in heaven, one of whom
had thus described the coming and the appearing of
Jesus: " Who is this that cometh from Edom, with
dyed garments from Bozrah? this that is glorious in
his apparel, travelling in the, greatness of his strength?
I that speak in righteousness, mighty to save. Wherefore art thou red in thine apparel, and thy garments
like him that treadeth in the wine-fat? I have trodden the wine-press alone; and of the people there
was none with me: for I will tread them in mine
anger, and trample them in my fury; and their blood
shall be sprinkled upon my garments, and I will
stain all my raiment.  For the day of vengeance is
in mine heart, and the year of my redeemed is
come."
These two resplendent messengers from on high
are thus most discriminately and appropriately chosen
as the representatives of all the children of God who
were then saved; and, in the selection of these two
representatives of the whole Church triumphant, we
see the interest manifested, evidenced, _proved, which all
who were then in glory, and, let me add, of all who
are now in heaven, feel in the earth, in the accomplishment of Christ's mediatorial work upon it, and




262            EVENTS SHOWING
specially in the great, momentous, and solemn event
of Christ's death, which he was to accomplish at
Jerusalem.
How many grave thoughts occur to us connected
with this great event! What consultations the glorified may have had with one another and with angels
before this representative mission to earth took place;
how long, previously to its taking place, the knowledge of it was known and circulated in heaven, — we
cannot tell. Elisha and the sons of the prophets are
aware a considerable time before of Elijah's ascension;
and the whole tribes of Israel are aware that Moses
was to leave them, and go up to the Mount of Nebo,
and die.  The sons of the prophets looked on, and
witnessed Elijah leave the earth and rise towards
heaven in his chariot of flame. The whole assembled Israelites beheld Moses leaving them.  So, for
any thing we can tell, the same thing may have happened to these two glorified saints, when they left the
population of heaven again to revisit the earth.
Alike unknown, though not uninteresting, is the
answer to the questions, whether or not the whole of
the assembled hosts saw Moses and Elias leave their
resplendent ranks; whether or not they accompanied
them to the outskirts of the world of bliss, and saw
them issue forth through the opened gates of the new
Jerusalem, descend and shoot away from  heaven
towards the earth, like two shining stars passing
down from the high firmament, to take their place for




HEA VEN'S INTEREST IN US.        263
a little in the lower earth, and to carry with them
thither the form  and appearance with which they
shone in heaven; or whether or not the whole assemblies of the sklies, whom Moses and Elias came to
represent in the presence of Jesus, saw them reach the
earth, light in their descent upon the mount of transfiguration, and stand there face to face with Jesus in
his glory. It is possible they did; nay, more, it is
highly probable, - it is almost morally certain.
Whilst Moses and Elias thus appear upon the
mount of transfiguration to represent the Church
above, and the interest which the glorified feel in the
earth in the mission of Jesus and in the accomplishment of his work, and whilst the three chosen disciples are there with Jesus, as the representatives of the
Church in gospel times, the Shechinah, the symbolic
cloud of God's presence and beatitude, so well known
in Israel, overshadows the mount, upon which the
Church triumphant and the Church militant, in their
representatives, meet as one, the Lord Jesus Christ
himself being the glorious centre, with the day-dawn
and splendor of heaven appearing as if the sun shone
from behind, and bordered with light, as if fringed
with the emanations of.the day-spring from on high.
Again: notice the conversation which Moses and
Elias held with Jesus upon the mount of transfiguration. They spoke of the decease which he was to
accomplish at Jerusalem.  This conversation most
distinctly and convincingly shows us that the event of




264            EVENTS SHO WING
Christ's approaching death upon Calvary was awakening a deep interest among all the inhabitants of
heaven. Did Moses and Elias, and through them the
whole celestial inhabitants, show such an interest on
the mount of transfiguration in the anticipation of
Christ's death? and had they ceased to feel that solicitude when it was actually accomplishing without the
gates of Jerusalem; when Jesus was extended in excruciating agony upon the cross; when the sun was
turned into darkness, as if he had swooned, and become black in the agonies of death, at the sight of
Jesus, his Creator, writhing in the throes of a fearful
dissolutionS; when the rocks were rending; when
the earth was trembling and shaking and crashing
to its centre; when an invisible hand was tearing the
veil of the temple from the top to the bottom; when
the women were in tears; and when the whole of the
disciples, with the exception of the Apostle John,
were looking on afar off in the deepest anxiety and
consternation?
Whilst the whole of the lower creation, far and
near, above and below, near the cross and far away
from it, was thus convulsed, and manifesting an awful
interest in the bloody tragedy, was God's higher creation unmoved?  Were the inhabitants of heaven
unfeeling,. uninterested, and quite untouched by the
tides of sympathetic sorrow that were flooding' the
world below?   Were they going on with their song
of praise in heaven, just as if nothing unusual had




HEAVEN'S INTEREST IN US.          265
been transacting on earth? Did the glorified then
resemble a little child coining singing with thoughtless joy into the room, and near the bed upon which
his or her father is lying in the agonies of death? But
if the anticipation of Christ's decease was a subject of
such interest, yea, anxiety, to the saints in glory, as is
evidenced by the conversation of Moses and Elias
upon the mount of transfiguration, what must have
been the feeling caused by the accomplishment, the
endurance, the actual suffering, of that decease, to the
inhabitants of heaven!
Look to yonder home. A child of many a hope
and many a prayer is upon her dying bed.  The
cup of affliction is put by God, who rules in providence, into that sufferer's young hand, and death is in
the cup! That is a beloved daughter. Yes, she is the
beloved of the whole household, — the light of her
parents' eyes, the joy of her brothers' and sisters'
hearts.  She grew up in her beauty in that home of
love, and blossomed into womanhood: but, alas for
our fading joys here! an untimely frost has descended
upon her opening spring; and, lo! it has suddenly
withered the rose that but lately spread itself out upon
her healthful cheek; it has caused the lily upon her
brow to fade; it has bedimmed the gleam of gladness
that but lately beamed from her eye; and she is lying
there now in the tremblings and tossings and distressing sinkings of dissolution.
Is there no interest existing in the bosoms of the
12




266            EVENTS SHOWING
other members of that family, whilst the evening of
life is closing in fast around that sickened but still
beloved one of their number, and whilst in silence,
and with the suppressed emotions of sympathy and fear
heaving their bosoms, they look on,' and witness the
sufferings of the poor invalid, and listen to the heavy
groanings that bear evidence that the last closing
scene is already near? The mother is in tears at her
beloved's bedside; she is bending with a heaving
bosom over her; she is wiping the large drops of
perspiration from her forehead; and is ever and anon
wetting the parched lips with wine, and kissing the
fevered brow; the father's bosom heaves with grief;
and the brothers and sisters are feeling most acutely
the pain of parting with one whom they all love so
well.
Is this interest felt, and do these emotions exist, in
the home upon earth, where a beloved member of the
family is sick and about to die? What, then, was
the feeling, oh! what was the soul-thrilling emotion,
that was pervading and stirring the bosoms of all that
were dwelling in yonder home of love, which has no
small family in it, when Jesus, the beloved of all,
was upon the cross, and was sinking in the closing
agonies! Oh! what were the ineffable sympathies
that flowed through the Father's bosom, when from
his throne he looked down upon the world in sackcloth, beheld the Son of his love in the agonies of
dissolution, and listened to him enveloped in the




HEAVEN'S INTEREST IN US.         267
horrors of deep darkness, as, lifting his voice, he
exclaimed, "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?"  What the thrillings and dismay of the
Holy Spirit, when he beheld the darkness of a terrible
night descending upon the bosom  of Jesus, and
pondered the awful spectacle, knowing that, by the
covenanted arrangements of the Godhead in eternity,
he was not, by his enlightening and comforting influences, instantly to remove that darkness, and to bring
into its place the light of returning joy, and the smile
of the Father's love! What the heart-throes of
angels, as they hovered upon their wings of light and
love, trembling with emotion above and around the
cross, and looking down upon the awful spectacle
they saw upon and around the hill of Calvary! And
what the wonder and sympathy of the glorified, as
they beheld the cross, and Jesus upon it, heard his
dying cry, or listened to their Father's declaration,
" The hour is come," the time arrived, amid the revolving cycles of predicted events, when Christ's decease
is actually accomplishing at Jerusalem!
CO; iWI




CHAPTER VI.
EVENTS SHOWING HEAVEN'S INTEREST IN US.
(continued.)
SINNER'S repentance is an event that
awakens an interest in the bosoms of all
who are in heaven.
These are the words of Jesus in reference to this
important fact: "Likewise I say unto you, There is
joy in the presence of the angels of God over one
sinner that repenteth." " I say unto you, That likewise joy shall be in heaven over one sinner that
repenteth."
A  sinner's repentance is an event which often
awakens a lively emotion in the bosoms of all Christians.  Paul's repentance, and establishment in the
faith, was an event hailed as a triumph by all the followers of Jesus; and afterwards thousands of believers sung for joy, and lifted to the God of their
salvation the voice of thanksgiving, for that Paul had
been led, in a season of mercy, to feel the godly sor[268]




HEAVEN'S INTEREST IN US.         269
row for sin that worketh repentance not to be repented
of. The father of the prodigal son felt his bosom
tumultuating with joy and tenderness when he descried from afar the well-known figure of his now
penitent child on his way back to the home of his
youth, with a crushed heart and a contrite spirit; for
he exultingly exclaims, "It was meet that we should
make merry and be glad: for this thy brother was
dead, and is alive again; and was lost, and is found."
The broken-hearted mother, and poor, hungry, neglected, and cheerless children, - previously desolate
souls, - feel an indescribable joy when they see their
formerly drunken husband and father reclaimed
through religion, and become a sober and an industrious man. The Christian mother and father rejoice
over their careless and ungodly son, visited by the
converting and saving grace of God, and turning his
feet into the ways of His testimonies.  The minister
is all sympathy and gratitude when he contemplates
the work of conversion and evangelical repentance
manifesting itself visibly amongst his dear people;
witnesses the glorious gospel of Christ, preached by
him from the pulpit, carried home by the Holy Spirit
to the hearts and consciences of his hearers; and
beholds another and another among them not merely
made to tremble as Felix did, but turned to the Lord,
becoming partakers of the heavenly gift, tasting the
good word of God, and feeling upon their souls the
powers of the world to come. The Lord's people




270            EVENTS SHO WING
upon earth raise anthems of praise and thanksgiving
when they see converts flying to Jesus as the doves
to their windows; when they see troops of pilgrims
pressing onwards towards the celestial city, and weeping prodigals on their way back to their Father's
home, lifting, as they go, the humble eye of an appropriating faith to Jesus, the author and finisher of their
faith.
Who has not felt his inmost soul glow with equal
warmth whilst reading about the Pentecostal awakening that has come down upon the South-Sea Islands,
or the accounts of the late revivals in America, in
Ireland, and throughout many parishes of our own
beloved Scotland?
But, in the passages of Scripture I have already
quoted, Jesus himself announces, in the words of eternal truth, that this interest in a sinner's repentance
is not coifined to earth, - it embraces and fills a much
wider sphere; that, in fact, it vibrates upwards, and
enters the crowded heavens; runs as if with the inaudible
throbbings of an electric conductor from breast to
breast, and from rank to rank, throughout the world
of glory.  "There is joy in heaven over one sinner
that repenteth."
That there is thus an interest felt among the inhabitants of heaven over a sinner's repentance upon
earth, is not a mere probability,- a mere supposition
made by man, in his fanciful musings and imaginative
wonderings, respecting what may be existing in the




HEAVFEN'S INTEREST IN US.        271
world of glory in relation to man's salvation. It is
expressly asserted by Jesus himself, who is the faithful and true witness; whose eyes are as a flame of
fire; who looks abroad through all the boundless
regions of creation, beholding with one comprehensive and omnipresent survey the whole inhabitants of
heaven, of earth, and of hell. " Neither is there any
creature that is not manifest in His sight; but all
things are naked and opened unto the eyes of Him
with whom we have to do."
The assertion which Jesus makes is, that, the moment in which the godly sorrow for sin is undulating
and flowing through the bosom of the penitent sinner,
there is a new joy circulating through the bosoms of
all who are in heaven. At the very moment the publican is in the temple, not daring to lift his face to
heaven, but is smiting upon his breast with downcast
eyes, and is exclaiming, "God be merciful to me a
sinner!" at the moment Paul is asking, struck down
and stretched upon the ground, beneath the effulgent
-glory of Christ's unveiled presence, "Lord, what
wilt thou have me to do?" at the very moment Mary
Magdalene is standing behind her Lord, with her
tears running down her cheeks in such a stream that
therewith she actually washes her Redeemer's feet,
and wipes them with the hairs of her head; at the
moment Jesus, seated in glory at the Father's right
hand, opens the windows of heaven, and pours forth
the'Pentecostal effusion of the Holy Spirit upon the




272            EVENTS SHOWING
multitudes who are assembled in the temple of Jerusalem, listening to the Apostle Peter preaching to
them the gospel in the name of his exalted Redeemer,
and whilst three thousand are crying in the agonies
of conviction, "Men and brethren, what shall we do?"
at the very moment the earthquake is shaking the
prison, and a soul-quake is moving the bosom of
the Philippian jailer, and he is putting the question
to Paul and Silas, " What must I do to be saved?"
at the very moment the poor, humbled, downcast sinner, wherever he is, and however circumstanced, is led
by the gracious operations of the Holy Spirit to feel
that he has a soul that needs to be saved, and who is
crying to God for help,- that individual is the object
of a deep and of an engrossing attention, and of a
thrilling interest, to all the inhabitants of heaven.
The language which Jesus utters, when he tells us
that there is an interest felt in heaven over the repentance of every sinner, at the very moment it is taking
place upon earth, reminds us that there is a communication, such as we too seldom realize, betwixt the
inhabitants of earth and those above. Such a declaration proves, that, however we may dream about the
far-off kingdom, nevertheless the earth is such a near
door-neighbor to heaven, that what is taking place
upon its surface is not only known, but is felt, in the
world of peace; showing that the mode of communication is quick and accurate betwixt the two worlds.
Christ's language, in reference to a sinner's repentahce,




HEAVEN'S INTEREST IN US.          273
reminds us that the earth is not wandering along its
orbit, in the face of these high heavens, unseen,
unnoticed, and uncared for by the glorious and numberless inhabitants who are up in security, and in
possession of the great reward.  The language reminds us, that there is not such a distance, that there
is not such a silent and sepulchral void stretching
betwixt the two worlds, as many of us are apt, in our
unrealizing and contracted views, to imagine; for, in
the words I have already quoted, He who is upon the
throne asserts, that the sight, or the knowledge, by
communication, of the tears of a penitent within one
of the homes of this world, sends up a new and
exulting emotion among all the happy myriads who
are congregated before the throne of God.
And let it not be objected, that the words which I
have quoted are the only two passages in the Scriptures which expressly assert that there is joy awakened,
and consequently an interest excited, among the inhabitants of heaven, over every returning wanderer
upon earth; for even one distinct announcement made
by God himself, in his truth-revealing and blessed
Word, is enough to establish, to the satisfaction of
every believer, any one doctrine or tenet. Besides,
God did not give us the Bible to gratify a vain and
never-satisfied curiosity about heaven, and about what
is going on in it; but to instruct us in the mystery of
salvation, and to point out to us the path that will,
through Jesus, lead us to it.
12*




274            EVENTS SHOWING
The Bible is ovur spiritual chart uzpon the sea of life.
The compass of the mariner gives him no description
of the country towards which he is sailing, -it merely
points silently in the direction in which the poles lie;
and this enables him to sail on in the right course
that leads to his wished-for haven. And when the
Lord Jesus leaves for a season the bosom of the Father, the throne of glory, the praises of the skies,
bows the heavens and comes down, lights upon the
earth, and mingles among the children of this world,
and speaks face to face with perishing men, it is but
seldom, I admit, that he draws aside the veil of eternity, and speaks of what is going on in yonder home.
Instead of doing this, he employs himself almost
constantly in announcing to the lost what they must
do to be saved. He ministers not habitually to the
insatiable cravings of an idle and of a wondering
curiosity, but he soothes and satisfies the emotions of
the penitent's heart, by assuring him, through two
distinct and emphatic announcements, that his condition at the moment of his repentance is the cause of
a new joy, and awakens a holy interest, among all the
inhabitants of heaven; and, consequently, he need not
fear that he will be unpitied by God, and overlooked
and neglected by the members of his great family.
This, my readers, was what the necessity of your condition required.
We find a parallel upon earth. Were any one of
you called to take your stand upon the shore of the




IEA VEN'S INTEREST IN US.        275
tempestuous ocean; were you to look forth, and survey the troubled bosom of the, great deep'upon which
the storm-wind has descended, to heave its waters,
and to roll them into great mountains, light of foot
and giddy in head; were you to behold in the midst
of the foaming waves a vessel that had become all
unmanageable, driven and tossed (for the winds and
the waves have gained the mastery over it), carried
towards the roaring breakers, then dashed upon the
projecting rocks, where it is in no long time shivered
and broken in pieces; were you, in these circumstances, to venture your life for the deliverance of
those who were drowning, to tie the rope round your
waist, and swim out from the shore among the uproar
of waters, to attempt the rescue of the shipwrecked
mariner, as he lay near you floating, tossed up and
down, and every moment about to sink into a watery
grave, — you would not, I suspect, waste precious time
in trying to raise your voice above the noise of the
storm, with the object of describing to him the beauty
of your country, the fertility of its soil, the number of
its population, or even the interest which those crowding the shore feel in his deliverance. Your first and
chief object would be to snatch the drowning man
from a watery grave; to give him such directions as
might enable him to reach the shore.
Sin is a storm-wind that has shivered every one of
the noble vessels of humanity that has been launched
successively from the dockyard of immortality by God




276            EVENTS SHOWING
himself. The great ocean of existence was once
placid and calm, and the noble vessels God was preparing to send upon it were destined by him to sail
over a tranquil sea, and to enter a peaceful haven of
glory upon the shores of Immanuel's land. It is
otherwise now.  Sin has come down like a terrific
whirlwind upon that once-calm sea. And now, in
this very world, where all might have been peaceful
and calm, the storm of God's wrath is upon every
child of Adam; the rolling billows of divine displeasure are around us; the rugged rocks of perdition are
towering and frowning upon us from the shore of the
eternity that is before us; and the foaming breakers
are roaring in our hearing, and they are, alas! not
very far off. Oh! meanwhile we are about to sink.
But, lo, the Ark of Salvation is not far off! It is
riding over the troubled waters, and is sailing tranquilly and peacefully in the midst of the spiritually
shipwrecked and perishing and lost. Jesus speaks,
in the hearing of those who are every moment about
to go down, not so much of heaven, and of what is
going on in it, as of the way in which the perishing
may be saved and may enter it.  Thus it happens,
that Jesus, merely in an incidental manner, refers, in
the two passages quoted, to the interest that is felt
in heaven, and the joy that is awakened there, over
the repentance of a sinner upon earth.
Yozur repentaznce, who close with God in covenant
through faith in Christ Jesus, is the Holy Spirit's




HEAVEN'S INTEREST IN US.          277
work; and, in the greatness of the Agent who performs it, you see the importance of the work that is
wrought and done.  Repentance is the Spirit's work;
and this of itself shows that it is no trifle. Your
repentance is your translation from death into life; it
is your spiritual passage from a state of nature into a
state of grace, from darkness into light, from the kingdom of Satan into the kingdom of God's dear Son.
In the momentous hour of your evangelical repentance, Satan loses a subject who was previously led
captive by him at his will; God gains a once-lost
child; Jesus receives a new subject into his kingdom of grace, and a new gem into his mediatorial
crown; Satan's kingdom, to some extent, totters, and
gives way; Christ's kingdom is advanced.
Your repentance, besides, is an event which you
may reasonably believe is known in hell, as well as
in heaven and upon earth. Fallen angels roam the
earth, and strive to gain the mastery over your souls.
" And you hath He quickened who were dead in trespasses and sins; wherein in time past ye walked
according to the course of this world, according to
the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now
worketh in the children of disobedience."  "Put on
the whole armor of God, that ye may be able to stand
against the wiles of the- Devil.  For we wrestle
not against flesh and blood, but against principalities,
against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of
this world, against spiritual* wickedness in high




278             EVENTS SHOWING
places." When Satan and his fallen legions are dispossessed of the citadel of your soul, are driven from
the garrison of your heart, are vanquished and overcome and thrown back by the mighty and divine
influences of the Holy Spirit, the tidings of such an
event, which these lost and now discomfited spirits
will assuredly carry to the place of woe, will spread
a deeper gloom and a fiercer glare over all the fiery
caverns of the lost. The painful thrill of an ignomninious defeat, such as is felt throughout a kingdom
when a subject is lost, taken captive, and carried away,
thrills through all the burning regions. Yes, those
who are there feel in every such transaction that a
soldier is lost to their army, and a subject is taken
captive, and is carried out of their kingdom; and this
spreads over the whole of hell's vanquished and
screaming population the distress and the horror of a
sore discomfiture.
But; mourning penitent, the tidings of your repentance spread a very different feeling, and create a very
different interest, among the inhabitants of heaven.
Over your repentance, heaven rings jubilee; and multitudes without number, feeling the thrill of a new
sensation and the glow of a higher emotion of joy,
pour forth their seraph-voices in this hallelujah acclaim: " Worthy is the Lamb that was slain, to receive
power and riches and wisdom and strength and honor
and glory and blessing." " For there is joy in heaven
over one sinner that repenteth."




HEA VEN'S INTEREST IN US.       279
Penitents! returning wanderers! lift your eyes to
the heavens. Think of the numbers there who are
thus deeply interested in you. Look up with the eye
of a realizing faith to your high home. Look in upon
the living realities of the world of glory. Survey the
numberless hosts who are before the throne of God,
and who are even notw rejoicing over your conversion,
and over your entrance into the kingdom of grace.
You may have many difficulties to encounter, and
many cold repulses to meet, in making your peace
with your fellow-men, whose character you may have
vilified; whose good name, in the days of your
thoughtlessness, sin, and malice, you may have tarnished; whose property you have filched, it may be,
and embezzled, by your once impenitent hands. You
may have much difficulty in restoring to those you
have injured that which you robbed them of in the
days of your sinning; but your repentance is not
evangelical and true, without reparation made to those
you have injured, and without a full and conscientious
restitution made to those you have defrauded, of that
which you have unrighteously taken from them.
Zaccheus restores fourfold; Paul promised to repay to
Philemon what Onesimus, who had nothing to give,
had taken from him: and let these be your examples.
You may have the scowlings of the ungodly, and
the well-founded suspicions of the children of God, to
bear, in your return to a life of repentance and faith
and new obedience: but take courage; persevere.




280            EVENTS SHOWING
Advance unflinchingly in your present movement
away from your sin, and in your entire and complete
return into the covenant and into the bosom of your
God. You are guilty: but look up; lift your eye to
the throne of heaven. Lo! you see up yonder Jesus,
the Lamb of God, reigning not merely in glory, but
in love also, and in the sovereignty of his grace;
and your comfort under a sense of guilt is, that his
blood cleanseth from all sin. You are polluted; you
feel that your sin has not only made you guilty, but
that it has also made you impure, in the sight of a
pure and holy God: but look up in prayer and in
supplication; the Spirit of holiness is proceeding forth
from the throne of God and of the Lamb, - the pure
river of the water of life. He is the living water
from the upper sanctuary, descending to wash you
and cleanse you, and to give you a meetness to become
partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light.
You are homeless pilgrims. Here you have no continuing city and no abiding-place. You are but
strangers upon earth, as all your fathers were; but
look up. There is a home yonder, already prepared
and furnished and made ready for you: it is the home
of your Father; it is the home into which Jesus is
about to receive you, that you may dwell in his presence for ever; it is the house not made with hands,
eternal in the heavens. You feel, it may be, poor
and neglected, and outcasts, compared with others
who are pampered and rich, and upon whom, in their




HEAVEN'S INTEREST I1N US.        281
-thoughtlessness and thanklessness, God is showering
down the bounties of his providence: few, it may be,
feel the slightest interest in you upon earth; but it is
not so with those who are in heaven, if ye are now
feeling that godly sorrow that worketh repentance not
to be repented of. The day of grace is dawning upon
your path.  The shadows of a dark and dreary and
a too-long spiritual night are for ever fleeing away.
Over your spiritual birth, your repentance through
faith in Jesus, your transition into a new life, there
is, yes, there is, even now, a glow of new and intense
interest circulating among all the inhabitants of
heaven.  God your Father, God your Saviour, God
the Holy Spirit, is even now bending over you in love
from the throne; feels the deepest interest in you, and
readiness to clasp and infold you in the embrace of
everlasting love. Angels are gladdened that you are
now escaped from the wrath to come, and are delivered from the agonies of the second death, and
from yon fearful hell into which you were about to
plunge for ever. " Likewise I say unto you, There
is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one
sinner that repenteth."  The glorified multitudes of
the huiman family- those who have through much
tribulation entered the kingdom of glory; indeed, all
who are in heaven-feel deeply in your fate, and
are rejoicing over your repentance, and return to God.
"I say unto you, that likewise joy shall be in heaven
over one sinner that repenteth."




CHAPTER VII.
EVENTS SHOWING HEAVEN'S INTEREST IN US,
(continued.)
-  ARK the time when the inmates of heaven
feel such a deep solicitude in your welfare.
It is not at the hour of your death, when the
great spiritual conflict of a life of grace is over, and
when you leave the battle-field of your present probation more than conquerors. It is not when you are
falling asleep in Jesus, and when your redeemed and
completely sanctified and already glorified soul is
rising upwards to heaven, encircled by your escort of
attending angels, and observed by those on high with
earnest longings for you to come on, and with this
question upon their joyous lips, " Who is this that
cometh up from the wilderness leaning upon her Beloved?" It is not when you have just nearly finished
your journey up into God's glorious heaven, and when
you are in the act of entering into the gates of the city
of the New Jerusalem, and when the bright assenmblages who are before the throne have just got their
[282]




HEL VEN'S I~NTEREST IN US.       283
attention first fixed upon you after your entrance, and
as they look towards you drawing nigh to join their
ranks. It is not when the Lord Jesus, who has upon
his head many crowns, leads you up to the glowing,
loving, unveiled presence of the God of your salvation,
and crowns you with a diadem of glory never to fade,
and when you are taking your place among the worshippers in heaven, and when you are just beginning
to join for the first time in the anthem that rises and
resounds through heaven.
On the contrary, it is when the first arrow of conviction reaches your heart. It is when the first tear
of godly sorrow is trickling down your cheeks. It is
when the first penitential prayer is yet upon your trembling lips; whilst you are, like the Psalmist, looking
up to God, and are giving utterance to these words:
"Out of the depths have I cried to thee, O Lord!"
It is when you arise in the strength of the Lord God
Almighty, and are taking the first step in your return
to a state of grace, and to covenant peace with your
Father in heaven. It is when the recording angel is
yet in the act of writing down your name in the
Lamb's book of life. Then it is that a new thrill of joy
rolls through the heavens, and is felt and is shared by
all who are dwelling in the world of glory.
Had it not been thus expressly and distinctly revealed in the Scriptures, we could never have known
that any event occurring upon the surface of this
earth was positively known in heaven, or could awaken




284            EVENTS SHOWING
solicitude there, or could spread abroad, far and wide
among the hosts, a new feeling into their always
happy and rejoicing spirits.
We believe, indeed, in the existence of a heaven of
glory above us, with Jesus there enthroned in mercy;
but we have in our thoughts removed heaven to a
mighty distance.  Why have we reasoned ourselves
into this state and belief? The answer is simple.
The realization of a holy heaven that is quite near to us
would give us pain, just as the presence of a holy man
is an annoyance to one who is ungodly and impure.
Yes, we live in this world thoughtless and careless
about those who are in heaven; and we have succeeded, through the sad and unfortunate possession of
an unbelieving and of an undevotional heart, in reasoning ourselves into the belief, that they feel just as
little interest in us; upon the same principle, that,
because we feel but little love in our hearts to God,
we are apt, most improperly and illogically, to infer
that God feels just as little love to us.
This assuredly is wrong. You see an illustration
of the falsity of such reasoning, when you look at
what is taking place among the members of a family
upon earth: and be it remembered, that all God's
children, both up and below, constitute but one family; they Lare all one in Christ Jesus. You have, perhaps,
seen a young man leave his father's home in the country, and take up his residence in the crowded city,
either in the prosecution of business or pleasure or




HEAVEN'S INTEREST IN US.         285
learning.  You have seen him, or heard of him,
meeting there ungodly companions, and being seduced
by them from the paths of virtue and of peace.  You
have at last seen him, who was once so attentive to
his friends and so affectionate to his sisters and brothers, forgetting the father who once watched over him
with affectionate care; the mother who nursed him
and reared him so tenderly and kindly; the brothers
and the sisters, who once, in all the joy of innocent
mirth, gambolled with him through the rooms of the
same happy and loving home.  The prodigal son had
to come to himself before he recalled to his recollection the home of his youth, and his neglected father
who still lived in it, with all the glow of an unquenched
affection in his bosom, and with many fond recollections in his memory clustering in their warmth and
freshness around his absent child. But tell me, my
readers, when the profligate young man succeeds in
thus banishing from his thoughts the remembrance of
his father and of his father's home, and the many kind
and endearing memories connected with his mother and
sisters and brothers, who are still dwelling there,
with hearts glowing in the fire of the old affection, do
his father and mother and sisters and brothers also
succeed in banishing from their thoughts all remembrance of him?  Assuredly no! The prodigal son
had to awaken to a sudden recollection of his loved
and loving home, from which he was distant far, in the
land of the stranger, and in the hungry wretchedness




286            EVENTS SHOWTING
of his misery, before he arose, and began his journey
homewards.  But had the father also forgotten him?
No: the father seems to have been out, as he probably
every day was, looking forth in the direction in which
his still-remembered son had gone when he left, longing, with all the unutterable yearnings of a father's
heart, for his long-lost but still fondly-loved one's
return; when, lo! suddenly and unexpectedly he sees
him from afar; and in a moment, as his son emerges
into view, all the feelings and kind emotions and
past remembrances of a father stream through his
gladdened heart. "And he arose, and came to his father; but, when he was yet a great way off, his father
saw him, and had compassion, and ran, and fell on
his neck, and kissed him."
We were once, as a race, in the happy position of
the prodigal son before he left his father's home. We
dwelt in Eden, beneath the smile of our Father in
heaven, and encircled with the sunshine of his favor
and love. We lived in love with heaven then, and
walked in the covenant of our God.  The earth was
glad around us, our heart was holy and happy within
us, and the heavens above were smiling over us.
The roses of Eden clustered around us, breathing
forth their fragrancy wherever we walked in the gladness of our heart. All was then light and love, both
in our soul and in the creation around us; except in
the place of woe, where fallen angels were lying
chained and burning.




HEAVEYN'S INTEREST IN US.        287
But, in an evil hour, we hearkened to the voice of
the tempter. We sinned. We went out from Eden,
as the prodigal son from his home of love. We went
out from the constant and holy realization of God, and
from habitually holding our pristine high and joyous
communion with him. Soon, as a race, we sunk into
such a state of alienation from God, that these words
of Scripture give us but too true a description of our
position: "Without God, without Christ, and without hope in the world."
In our alienated condition, and whilst we remain in
a state of nature, we live in the world here unmindful of God, and in a state of the most profound
thoughtlessness and carelessness about those who are
in our Father's home.  But tell me, has Father,
Son, and Holy Ghost, -have the living and glorious
and Ihappy and loving inmates of heavens, also forgotten
us? Let the great work of our redemption tell. Let
the love of the everlasting Father, thinking of us
in the high councils of heaven, making his covenant
arrangements for our deliverance, and freely giving
up his Son for our salvation, tell. Let the coming
of Jesus from heaven to earth, upon the great mission of our salvation, tell. Let the descent of the
Holy Spirit from the Father and the Son into the
ruined and dilapidated temple of our soul, to build
it up again in the very image of God, and to make
us the new creation of God in Christ Jesus, tell.
Let the visits of angels to this world of ours, in




288            EVENTS SHO WING
every age of its history, tell; for they are all ministering spirits, sent forth to minister to them who shall
be heirs of salvation.  Let the visit of Moses and
Elias from heaven, to meet with Jesus on the mount
of transfiguration, and to talk to him there about his
decease, tell. Let the deep thrill of interest and of
holy joy that rises to heaven, and the kindling glow
of a generous sympathy that spreads far and wide
almong its rejoicing inhabitants, over every sinner's
repentance, tell.
These things plainly and distinctly bear evidence,
there is a voice that comes out from them, and which
audibly announces to us this great truth, - that
although we, in the midst of our sin and alienation
and spiritual darkness and earthly-nlindedness, have
forgotten God, and all the exalted and holy and happy
innmates of a high and glorious eternity, yet they
have never, no, never, for one moment, forgotten us;
and so deeply interested are they in us, in our
repentance, our conversion, our return to God,
that the sound of our returning footsteps, and the
heaving sigh of our broken heart, sends upwards
a new thrill of joy into the bosoms of all who
are in heaven.
We are not informed by Jesus of the way or mode
in which those who are in heaven gain a knowledge
of our repentance at the very moment in which it is
taking place; nor would it be right in us dogmatically
to assert the precise mode.




lHEA VEN'S INTEREST IN US.      289
This may be done in three different ways: First,
He who is upon the throne - Father, Son, and Holy
Spirit -may announce our repentance the moment
it occurs to those who are before the throne, in the
same way that a sovereign, in his palace upon earth,
makes known to his courtiers any important event
that has taken place in his dominions, the tidings of
which have just reached him; or in the same way
in which a loving father, who is at the head of a
family, communicates orally some remarkable occurrence to the children of his affection, and to the rest
of the inmates who compose his domestic circle, -
such a communication being the spontaneous act of
his love. Second, The inmates of heaven, for any
thing we can tell, may see us, as they look upon us
out of heaven: thus the view of our appearance,
the tears streaming from our eyes, and our countenances bedimmed with sorrow, may be the means of
giving them the knowledge of our repentance; in the
same way that our friends upon earth come to know
our repentance by marking our throes and ejaculations, and entire change in our conduct of life.
Third, Angels ascending from earth may announce
our repentance to the inmates of heaven, when they
rise from our homes, where we are prostrated before
God in the tears and sorrow of evangelical repentance, and repair to heaven.
VWie have reason to believe, that what Jacob witnessed in his dream at Bethel is constantly taking
13




290            EVENTS SHO TWING
place throughout the earth.  The ladder of Christ's
mediation rests upon the earth, whilst its top is reaching the skies; the angels of God are ascending and
descending upon it, - the celestial aides-de-camp that
are carrying on a constant communication betwixt
Christ, the Captain of salvation, and believers, who
are engaged in conflict with principalities and powers,
and the ruler of the darkness, upon the battle-field
of this lower earth.
In every case of repentance, Satan suffers a defeat,
and Christ gains a victory. WVhen the tide of battle
thus runs in favor of the Cross, and when the standard of the gospel is unfurled, and is spread over the
citadel of another conquered heart, angels rejoice,
and watch the issue of the conflict that is going on
betwixt the followers of the Lamb and the slaves of
Satan; and it may be, whenever we are brought to
feel before God that godly sorrow for sin that worketh
repentance not to be repented of, one of these angelic
messengers who has been watching over us feels a
new emotion, yea, a sudden gush of uncontrollable
joy, and, unable to restrain himself, spreads out at
once the wings of an exultant jubilation, rises, leaves
us in our tears, ascends upwards, and still upwards,
till he reaches the world of glory, enters heaven, and
at once announces our name, in the hearing of all
who are there, as now a true penitent,- a child of
God.  It is this intelligence from earth that awakens
a new joy in heaven because another child is born




HEA TEN'S INTEREST IN US.        291
into God's great spiritual family; another wanderer
is arrested in his path of alienation and sin, and his
returning footsteps are already directed towards the
opened door of his Father's home; another captive is
snatched for eternity from the hand of the spoiler;
another gem is placed by the hand of eternal love in
Christ's mediatorial crown, to shine there for ever;
another perishing immortal is saved. Yes, over this
event a new tide of joy rolls with its crystal waters
of exultation over the gladdened population of the
skies; a new harp is struck; a new worshipper joins
the praising myriads; a new chorus rises in the
temple of glory; a louder anthem of praise ascends
in its roll of symphony before the throne of God.
I now address myself to you who may read these
views. I ask, Is Jesus upon the mediatorial throne,
high and lifted up, having all power in heaven and
upon earth?  Is he sending the rod of his strength
out of Zion? and has it struck the flinty rock of your
heart, so that the waters of contrition are flowing
forth? Is Jesus now riding forth in the chariot of
the everlasting gospel, conquering and to conquer?
Has he girded his sword upon his thigh in his glory
and majesty? and have his arrows pierced your previously hard and stony heart, doing thereto what the
rod of Moses did to the rock of Horeb, — turning
the rock into a standing water, and the flint into a
fountain of waters?  Has the Holy Spirit descended
from the eternal Father, and from the glorified Son




292            EVENTS SHO WING
of his love, upon the mission of your personal salvation, and, in his living and quickening operations of
grace, entered into the chamber of your heart? Has
he just commenced the work of conversion there, of
regeneration, of the new birth, working within you
the good pleasure of God's goodness, and the work
of faith with power; the commencement of a great
spiritual transition from a state of death into a state
of life; the beginning of a passage out of a state of
darkness into the marvellous light of the glorious
gospel of the grace of God? Is the morning of a
spiritual day just beginning to dawn upon your benighted soul? Is the day-star of eternal promise,
with its orient twinkling, just emerging into view,
and flinging its bright radiancy around you? Are
you now, in short, before God, and beneath the
glance of his pitying eye, a sincere penitent?
You may, in these circumstances, as I have said,
be neglected and uncared for by the men of the world.
The votaries of pleasure, in the midst of their music
and dancing, may turn away from you, and may have
no pitying look to bestow upon you. Your present
state and spiritual transition, however, let me remind
you, is not unnoticed, and is not unobserved. Nor is
this joy over you confined to earth: soon it is to be
known and proclaimed in the high court of the Lord.
The cry, "A reprieve!" sends a deep and throbbing
sensation among the assenbled crowds who surround,
in breathless anxiety and perturbation, the scaffold,




HEAVEN'S INTEREST IN US.        293
upon which is already standing the poor condemned
criminal, pinioned, agitated, trembling, and pale,
when, just at the right moment, that reprieve comes
down from the throne, and is borne and is held up -
that the executioner may stay - in the hand of yonder
approaching furious rider, whose galloping steed, with
its nostrils distended and its sides panting, is all white
over with foam.  The cry, " Victory!" lifted by the
coursing aide-de-camp on the field of battle, raises a
shout of joy from the hearts of the soldiers of the
victorious army; and the sound follows that flying
messenger as he gallops along the fatigued but brave
and still undaunted ranks, making known to all the
victory is won.  The cry, "A penitent, a penitent! "
announced by the ascending angel, who has just left
you in your tears, entering, even now at this very
moment, into heaven, agitates the whole inmates of
glory, even as a breeze, suddenly springing up on a
calm, peaceful summer afternoon, sweeps with its
rushing surges over the forest, and moves the leaves
wherever it passes, or descends upon the surface of
the lake, and causes the eddying ripples to circulate
over the bosom of its previously silent and sleeping
waters; and, wherever that cry runs, the whole population on high is moved; the song that rises from
heaven's congregated assemblies becomes louder in its
swellings, as it rises in one loud, sweet roll of commingled melody before the throne of God, and thousands upon thousands pour forth their seraph-voices,




294       HEAVEN'S INTEREST IN US.
loud as the noise of many waters, and deep as the
rumbling roll of mighty thunderings, saying, saying,   lleluia, Alleluia! the Lord God omnipotent reigneth!"
Let us be glad and rejoice, and give honor to Him;
for the marriage of the Lamb is come, and another
and another spiritual bride upon earth is making herself ready: "for there is joy in heaven over one sinner
that repenteth."




CHAPTER  VIII.
EVENTS SHOWING HEAVEN'S INTEREST IN US,
(continued.)
ARK the universality of this joy in heaven
over your repentance.  "What man of you,
having an hundred sheep, if he lose one of
them, doth not leave the ninety and nine in the wilderness, and go after that which is lost, until he find
it? And, when he hath found it, he layeth it on his
shoulders, rejoicing. And, when he cometh home, he
calleth together his friends and neighbors, saying unto
them, Rejoice with me; for I have found my sheep
which was lost.  I say unto you, that likewise joy
shall be in heaven over one sinner that repenteth,
more than over ninety and nine just persons, which
need no repentance." All who are in the shepherd's
house, together with the friends and the neighbors
who assemble there, mutually share in the joy that is
felt when the previously wandered sheep is brought
back to the fold.
r295]




296            EVENTS SHOWING
There is the same universality of joy among those
who are in the woman's house, when, after a diligent
search, she recovers her lost piece of money; and
which is graphically illustrated in the following parable: "Either what woman, having ten pieces of
silver, if she lose one piece, doth not light a candle,
and sweep the house, and seek diligently till she find
it? And, when she hath found it, she calleth her
friends and neighbors together, saying, Rejoice with
me; for I have found the piece which I had lost.
Likewise I say unto you, there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner that
repenteth."
The same universality of joy among all who are in
the home is illustrated and taught us in the parable
of the prodigal son; who, rising up from the lap of
sinful indulgences in the land of the stranger, returns
to his home, and is received by his father with kisses
of joy. Nor does the father alone rejoice over his
son's return. No: through these words of inspiration, look in, and see what is passing in that home
over the return of that young man, who is shaking
hands with all who are around, and who is now
arrayed with the best robe, with a ring on his hand,
and with shoes on his feet. "And the son said unto
him, Father, I have sinned against Heaven, and in
thy sight, and am no more worthy to be called thy
son. But the father said to his servants, Bring forth
the best robe, and put it on him; and put a ring on




HEAVEN'S INTEREST IN US.         297
his hand, and shoes on his feet; and bring hither the
fatted calf, and kill it, and let us eat, and be merry:
for this my son was dead, and is alive again; he was
lost, and is found. And they began to be merry."
If, then, heaven is a home, and there is now a
great family in it, surely, upon all the principles of
fair and analogical as well as logical reasoning, I am
entitled to infer that the same sympathy, that the
same communication and interchange of thoughts and
feelings, that pass and repass and circulate among
the members of an affectionate family upon earth, are
existing and circulating and reciprocating among all
the members of God's great family above. Angels
constitute merely a part of that family: they are one,
through Jesus, with the glorified who are there. All
who are in heaven constitute but one family, living in
love in the same home: thus whatever is the cause of
awakening a new or a higher tide of joy in the bosoms
of a portion of that family will be shared in and felt
by all who are continually rejoicing in the presence of
God above.
If this, then, be true, - and that it is, analogy
asserts, and the Scriptures do not deny, but, on the
contrary, most unequivocally and distinctly confirm, -
if you are even now a convicted and converted penitent, and a humble suppliant at a throne of grace, the
joy that is felt in heaven over your repentance is not
confined to one portion merely of heaven's exulting
inhabitants: it will run and stream from bosom to
13*




298           ETVENTS SHOWING
bosom, from rank to rank, and from one congregated
mass to another, till it reaches the outskirts of Immanuel's land.
There are some, it may be, now in heaven, who were
nearly and most affectionately related to you whilst
they yet remained with you upon the earth; and in
Christ Jesus, your and their new Covenant-Head, they
are nearly related to you still. Let me give one example, for the sake of its universality and influence.
Had you a dear, dear, fond mother once, who first
learned your infant lips to pray to your Father who is
in heaven? Did you often and often bow the knee, in
the joyousness and gladsomeness of youth, beside her
in prayer? and, in the lisping accents of childhood,
did you ask from God the new heart which he alone
can bestow? Can you look back through -the bright
vista of memory upon the time, as upon a vision of
devotion commingled with love, when you saw her
oft and oft upon her knees, in secret prayer, at the
footstool of God's throne of grace? Did you hear her
pray, not for herself alone, but for you, whose name
she sent up in earnest supplication to her heavenly
Father?  Did she ask the God of salvation to bless
you, her then hope and delight, whilst you wondered
to whom your mother was addressing herself? for you
saw no one in the room besides yourself, and she was
not speaking to you, but about you. Did you grow
up, and come to mature years, and live thoughtless
about your mother's pious and heavenly instructions




HEAVEN'S INTEREST IN US.        299
and holy example? Did your dear mother die whilst
ye were yet in your alienation from God? Did you
visit her upon her death-bed? Do you remember the
impressive sight you witnessed, as you entered into
her death-chamber, - her pale and haggard countenance; her sickly, failing eye, with which she looked
out upon you from her dying pillow, as if from the
very confines of the eternal world? You cannot but
remember how thin and. how pale her hand was with
which she pressed yours, when she bade you a sorrowful adieu; nor how agonizingly anxious that look
was with which she gazed into your face, and charged
you, in the name of the great God, no longer to
trifle with your soul and with the things that belong
to your peace, but, as in the view, and already near
the verge, of an approaching eternity, to wrestle with
God day and night for the salvation of your soul, and
to seek through the blood of Jesus for the pardon of
your sins. Did you see your dear and beloved mother
die, and go the way of all the earth? - attend, with
others, her funeral? Did you encircle her newly
opened grave? Did you let down the coffin, the lid
of which hid from your view her changed countenance,
into the cold and narrow bed of death; see the grave
filled up; bow to the mourning and sympathizing
attendants, who had met with you to perform the
last sad office of friendship to the sleeping deadl?
You left your mother there in her sleep. Oh, deep
is the sleep of the dead! Dreamless is their still and




300            EVENTS SHOWING
unbroken repose! Low is their bed of dust! Cold
is their pillow! Did you, for a season, after her
death and funeral, forget your mother's dying exhortation; the heaven into which she had ascended as her
eternal home; the God whom she was praising, and
in whose presence she was singing the song of salvation, and enjoying the beatific vision? - forget Jesus,
whose face she was looking upon amid the light of a
glorious eternity? and did you live in the world as if
you were never to die?
Is it different with you now?  Has God awakened
you and brought you to yourself by the afflictive dispensations of his providence, by the preaching of his
Word, or by the vision of your mother in the. dreams
of the night?  Whilst in your dreams, did the vision
of your mother, all love and all smiles, kneeling at a
throne of grace as of yore, and praying for you, pass
before your gazing and restless eye? Did that vision
cause the young and comparatively holy and hallowed
recollections of the past to rush in upon your soul
with a startling gush of reproach and shame? Did
God's Spirit descend upon you through that vision,.and awaken you to the light and the gladness of a
new spiritual day?  Is the resurrection of your risen
Redeemer the symbol of the spiritual rising from
the dead which you are now undergoing through the
quickening operations of the Holy Spirit upon your
soul?  Are you rising with Jesus to newness of life?
Are you now, in one word, a penitent?




HEAVEN'S INTEREST IN US.        301
Certain thus as it is that your now departed mother
felt a deep, an agonizing interest in your salvation,
whilst she yet remained with you, let me now ask,
Has she ceased, now that she is in your Father's home,
to remember you, to long for your salvation, or to
feel any interest in your spiritual welfare and in your
eternal destiny? Oh, no! She has an interest in you
still, and she has upon her redeemed soul a full remembrance of you as she stands before the throne of
God; and assuredly Christ has an interest in your
present repentance as well.
I might take another example also, for the sake of
its universality, and power over the heart. Had you
once a beloved father, who entered for you into covenant with Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, when you
were given up to God in the ordinance of Christian
baptism? Did he walk himself with Jesus in faith
and in love, and in the covenant of his God? Do
you remember the time when he first took you up,
leading you by the hand to God's house of prayer;
when you sat beside him in your family-pew, and
looked with the commingled feelings of wonder and
of awe to the man of God in the pulpit; and when
you, for the first time, listened to the minister addressing you, and the congregation around you, about
something which you felt was undoubtedly of great
importance? for he looked so serious, and spoke so
earnestly, and the people appeared so attentive; but
you did not understand what he was speaking about.




302            EVENTS SHOWING
Do you remember also the time when your father, as
the high priest of your little family circle, morning
and evening, led your devotions, and prayed with all
the unction of a holy fervor for your salvation, and
how humbly, how holily, and how devoutly he walked
with God?
These holy scenes of your youth now appear to you
like far-off visions of happiness, and of heavenly joys
that are gilding the retrospected horizon of the past.
Your father died whilst you were yet young. Did
you grow up a giddy and thoughtless and ungodly
young man? Were you to-day, the sabbath of the
Lord, in God's house of prayer? Did you feel an
unusual interest in the exercises of the sanctuary,
whilst the man of God brought before you, and described so vividly and alarmingly, the case of your
alienation from God, and God's desire, notwithstanding, that you should be saved?- God upon a throne
of mercy, still waiting to be gracious; Jesus, a mighty
Saviour, able and willing to save you; the Holy
Spirit striving with your conscience to lead you to flee
from the wrath to come, and to close with Jesus in
covenant through faith; the day of grace fast passing away; eternity, an awful eternity, already near,
lowering over you, and opening its bosom to your
view, full of blackness and of tempest and of fire?
iNo time to lose! Whilst Christ's ambassador was
to-day proclaiming the gospel of his grace, did you
feel that the Spirit of God was verily present with




HEAVEN'S INTEREST IN US.        303
you, carrying home the word preached to your heart
with demonstration of the Spirit and with power?
Did you quake and bow before God, like the willow
before the passing wind, and put the question, " What
must I do to be saved? " In your chamber, all alone,
after your return from church, the world shut out,
and you shut in with God, do you feel an awfulness
of solemnity, a deep and terrible silence, as if Nature
were hushed by some great voice speaking out of eternity, and were in the act of listening? and are you
led to listen, as if with suppressed breathing, for the
occurrence of something that is to startle the nations,
for the bursting-forth of Jesus from heaven into your
view in all the glories of his fully manifested presence,
for the resurrection of the dead, for the judgment
of the world?  Are you now constrained to pour out
your earnest desires before God in prayer? Are you
opening the door of your heart for the entrance of
the Holy Spirit of God to create you anew, and to
awaken within you that godly sorrow that worketh
repentance not to be repented of? Is this your
prayer?-" Come from the four winds, O breath!  and
breathe upon me." "Awake, O north wind! and
come thou south; blow upon my garden, that the
spices thereof may flow out. Let my beloved come
into his garden, and eat his pleasant fruits."
Under the Spirit-breathing influences from a risen
Saviour, are ye now born from above?  Have ye
become spiritually alive? - truly now, and sincerely,




304           EVENTS SHOWING
a penitent in the presence of God? Oh! there may
be a tide at this moment of bitter and harrowing sorrow for sin circulating through your bosom; but over
you, and above you, and towards You, there is joy in
heaven.
Your guardian angel has witnessed the tear of your
penitential sorrow; has had his attention arrested by
the long, deep-drawn sigh which is heaved bythe
throbbing heart; has seen you upon your knees; and
has witnessed the earnestness and the fervor of your
supplications at a throne of grace.
What has this view of you led him to do? He
has already ascended; he has risen up, from your side
and from your room, with a holy alacrity, upon the
wings of exultation and delight; he has even now, it
may be, just entered his native skies, his bosom heaving and tremulous with the glad tidings which he
bears up from your chamber, and which he is about
to announce to all who are in heaven. Yes, up yonder, in the world of glory, in yon home where the
bright and the blest are spending a happy eternity,
and in which your already glorified father dwells,
when the ascending angel enters and announces your
name, and proclaims in the hearing of all heaven's
listening hosts that you are now a penitent, he will
exult.
And so we might extend those examples to cases
not of such universal application, but with scarcely
less influence. Have you a sister now in heaven, who




HEAVEN'S INTEREST IN US.        305
once walked with you in the ways of God upon earth?
or a brother now there, with whom you once took
sweet counsel, and went up to the house of God in
company? Have you a son now there, who remembered his Creator in the days of his youth, and who
once longed, with all the unquenched and unextinguishable fervor of a young convert, that you should
turn your face towards Zion, and begin without delay
to accompany him in his journey to heaven, and
advance side by side with him in the divine life? Or
have you now a daughter up yonder, who once gave
to you, and to those around you, a lovely specimen
of sweet and heavenly piety whilst she yet remained
with you? Have these, who once walked with you in
the covenant of your God, and who dwelt with you
once in the same home of love here, fallen asleep in
Jesus? Have they left you in your bereavement? and
has this world, by their departure, become to you a
vale of tears? Are they now the inmates of heaven?
and are they become, through grace, the happy members of your heavenly Father's great and glorious
family?  They had a deep interest in your salvation
whilst they remained with you. Have they lost that
interest now?  Have they become in heaven so selfish
and so careless about your salvation, that the tidings
of your spiritual deliverance produce no emotion in
their bosoms, even whilst the whole population of
heaven are rejoicing over your repentance? It cannot be!




306           EVENTS SHOWING
Finally, did you promise one or all of these, when
you stood beside them in their death-chamber, and
when you looked upon them breathing heavily upon
their bed of dissolution, that you would no longer turn
your back upon God, and trifle with your immortal
interests, but that you would begin in real earnestness
to live for Jehovah, and to spend your day of grace
in seeking from God the salvation of your soul?
Surely you have not forgotten that promise, or
failed to fulfil it?  Oh! I earnestly entreat you, I
beseech you by the mercy of God, by the grace of
Jesus, by the compassion and love of the Holy Spirit,
by the terrors and by the agonies of hell, by the
glories and by the joys of heaven, and by the interest which you still have in these departed friends
of yours who are now in heaven, remember your
promise which you made to them before they left you.
Remember it so as to act upon it even now! Arise
in the strength of the Lord God Almighty! Return
to your Father! Close with Him who is ready and
willing to receive you into covenant with himself!
Shake off at once and for ever the lethargies of your
spiritual slumber!
Do this; and I tell you, that your return to God,
the closing of your soul with Jesus by an act of
appropriating faith, and by the transition of true
repentance, will, even this very moment, send upwards
a new thrill of joy into the bosoms of your departed
friends, as well as into the bosoms of all who are in




HEAVEN'S INTEREST IN US.         307
heaven; and the song of your spiritual espousals will
now, even now, be sung, not only by your dear departed friends who have entered heaven before you,
but by ten thousand times ten thousand, as they exultingly exclaim, " Let us be glad and rejoice, and
give honor to Him; for the marriage of the Lamb
is come, and another and another spiritual bride is
making herself ready." Yes, reader, they are all
ready to lift a special song of thanksgiving to God
over thy repentance.  " The Spirit and the bride say,
Come; and let him that heareth say, Come; and let
him that is athirst come; and whosoever will, let him
take the water of life freely."
Heavenly-mindedness is one feature in the spiritual
image of every believer. " Our conversation is in
heaven; from whence also we look for the Saviour,
the Lord Jesus Christ." " If ye, then, be risen with
Christ, seek those things which are above, where
Christ sitteth on the right hand of God."  " Set your
affection on things above." " But God, who is rich
in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us,
even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us
together with Christ (by grace ye are saved), and
hath raised us up together, and made us sit together
in heavenly places in Christ Jesus."
I am in the hope, that the views I have given in the
preceding treatise may, by the blessing of God, lead
Christians, by a prayerful perusal of them, to lift




308             EVESNTS SHO WING
their thoughts to heavenly things, and to converse about
the home which Jesus is preparing for them  in the
skies, and in which they are to meet and spend their
eternity with the members of God's family who are
there, in all the cordiality and in all the endearments
of love and of friendship.
Again: I trust that I have succeeded to the satisfaction of my readers in establishing the doctrine of the
recognition of friends in heaven as one of the undoubted
verities of the Christian faith.  I have viewed this doctrine of future recognition, not merely as a problem of
abstract theological speculation, but as a question, that,
if believed and entertained, will have a great practical
influence upon the hearts and lives of all men. The
belief that we are to recognize our friends in heaven,
and associate with them for ever there, with the full
remembrance of the past, throws the whole sublimity
of eternity over our present relationships and friendships, and also over our Christian efforts to establish
each other in the faith and in the divine life.
The belief that we are to meet our friends and know
them  in heaven must act as a check -upon all sinful
actings with them, and also as a poweiful motive to
walk with them here in the love and holiness, as far as
possible, that distinguish the communion of saints;
looking forward and looking upward to the time when
we will meet and walk with each other through the
heavens, and follow the Lamb whithersoever he
goeth.




HEAVEN'S INTEREST IN US.          309
Further: I have set before you, my readers, the
interest which those in heaven have in the ear'th and in
you, as a motive for action in the ways of God. Have
all who are in heaven, including, it may be, your
departed father and mother, and son and daughter, and
brother and sister, and other once dear, dear friends,
this deep and glowing and unquenchable interest in you
and in your salvation?  Surely, then, it is not too
much to expect that you should awaken, through this
realization, to give heed to the things that belong to
your peace, and to take some interest in your own
spiritual emancipation.
Finally: I am in the hope, that the views I have
given of heaven as a home may prove a source of comfort to your souls who are the people of God.
Are ye poor? Like Jesus once, have you not a
home upon earth? Do not despond. Look up in
hope. You have a home in yonder joyous heaven.
Soon you will be in it; and the remembrance there of
your present homeless wanderings and privations will
make its rest and its riches appear, if possible, more
delightful in your estimation.
Are ye in bereavement? Have you lost dear, yes,
dearly and fondly beloved friends, who have fallen
asleep in Jesus? Have you, in your present state of
separation, the good hope, through grace, that they
are now in your and in their Father's home?  Mournersi
in Zion! your present separation from these once
dear friends of yours is not for ever. Soon you willi




310         HEAVEN'S INTEREST IN  US.
mneet them again in an eternal home of love, and recognize them, and speak with them in the language of
heaven, and walk with them in white through its courts
of glory.  Oh! it will be to you the very bower of love
to be with them again in the same home.
Are you upon your bed of dissolution    Are you
going the way of all the earth?  What is death to
you, believers?  IT IS GOING HOME.  God's home
of glory is up yonder!  Its door of love is open!  You
are about to enter it!   Yonder you will see your risen
Lord, and meet your friends in his home of love, and be
with them for ever!
/'I'~
IBoston: Printed by John Wilson and Son.




BY THE AU'THOR OF "HEAVEN  OUR HOME,"
MEET FOR HEAVEN:
A STATE OF GRACE UPON EARTH
THE ONLY PREPARATION
FOR A STATE OF GLORY IN HEAVEN.
LIFE IN HEAVEN.
THERE FAITH  IS CHANGED INTO  SIGHT
AND
HOPE IS PASSED INTO BLISSFUL FRUITION.
ROBERTS  BROTHERS, PUBLISHERS,
143, WASHINGTON STREET, BOSTON.




REV. J. H. INGRAHAMI'S
POPULAR WORKS.
THE PRINCE OF THE HOUSE OF DAVID;
or, Three Years in the Holy City: being a Series of Letters
relating, as if by an Eye-witness, all the Scenes and Wonderful Incidents in the Life of Jesus of Nazareth. In one
volume 12mo, cloth, gilt. Price $1.50.
THE THRONE OF DAVID; from the Consecration of the Shepherd of Bethlehem to the Rebellion of
Prince Absalom; a Series of Letters addressed by an Assyrian Ambassador to his Lord and King on the Throne of
Nineveh. In one volume 12mo, cloth, gilt. Price $1.50.
THE PILLAR OF FIRE; or, Israel in Bondage:
being an Account of the Wonderful Scenes in the Life of
the Son of Pharaoh's Daughter (Moses). In one volume
12mo, cloth, gilt. Price $1.50.
ROBERTS BROTHERS, PUBLISHERS,
143, WASHINGTON STREET, BOSTON.




No. 143 WASHINGTON STREET, 1
Boston, October, 1863.
MESSRS. ROBERTS BROTHERS
LIST OF PUBLICATIONS.
-    OEMS.  By JEAN  INGELOW.  In one volume.
16mo.  Cloth, extra, $1.00.
"The new name undoubtedly belongs to a new poet, and this new
volume will make the eyes of all lovers of poetly dance with a gladder
light than if they had come upon a treasure-trove of gold.... Here
is the unmistakable touch and breath of freshness; the clear early
carol and dewy light. Here is the presence of Genius which cannot
easily be defined, but which makes itself surely felt in a glow of delight such as makes the old world young again. Here is the power to
fill common earthly facts with heavenly fire; a power to gladden wisely
and to sadden nobly; to shake the heart, and bring moist tears into
the eyes, through which the spirit may catch its loftiest light." - London Atheneurm.
" It would be a great injustice to confound this volume with the
mass of so-called poetry..... It contains something more than common-place thoughts clothed in tolerably pretty words. Nor is her
volume, like too many of those of even the more tolerable verse-writers
of the day, made up of a mass of comparative rubbish, relieved here
and there by an isolated piece, to which it is not impossible conscientiously to award praise. One of the most striking characteristics of
Miss Ingelow's poems is the remarkable evenness of their quality; and
there is nothing in her volume which may not fairly claim to be regarded good.... Miss Ingelow's volume can scarcely fail to win for
itself a warm welcome from all lovers of true poetry, and warrants us
in anticipating that she will at some future time take a permanent
place among English poets." - London Spectator.




2   JIMESSRS. ROBERTS BROTHERS LIST.
FHE POETRY OF THE EAST. By WILLIAM  ROUTNSEVILLE ALGER.  In one volume.
12mo. Cloth, extra. Price 75 cents.
This is a complete Introduction to Oriental Poetry in all
its families and departments; from  the great epics of India,
Persia, and Arabia, to their innumerable varieties of lyrical,
descriptive, and aphoristic verse. It gives a critical account
of the chief Eastern authors and their works, and illustrates
them by hundreds of specimens. It is the only work of the
kind in our language; and as such, no less than from its intrinsic merits, it possesses a unique value and charm.
"Its characterizations of the different branches of Eastern poetry
are remarkably happy and accurate." —H. H. Wilson, late President of the Royal Asiatic Society.
"It is full of wisdom and beauty." - John G. Whittier.
" Extraordinary sentences for extraordinary readers." - Ralph
Waldo Emerson.
"The modesty, enthusiasm, and interest of this book will keep it
firesh and valuable." - George William Curtis.
"' A golden volume, replete with sage thoughts and memorable sayings-a costly anthology, in which every specimen is either rich or
strange." - Frederic7 H. Hedge.
"It will richly repay study to all who can find benefit in change of
mental aliment, and who are willing to be led by a scholarly hand
through the gorgeous and crowded Athenaeum of Eastern literature."
- T. Starr King.': A masterpiece of Oriental scholarship."
" It reveals to our reading world a new realsn of incomparable fascination."
OEMS.  By CHARLES SWxAIN.  In one volume,
with a fine portrait from  a recent photograph,
I~   engraved  by  Smith.  Blue  and  gold.  Price
$1.00.
This edition of Charles Swain's Poems embraces, in addition to the best poems in the different volumes published in
England, several pieces which are now printed for the first




MESSRS. ROBERTS BROTHERS LIST.   3
time. There are upwards of three hundred songs, many of
them  so well known as to be almost "household words"
throughout the land.
" Many of his songs have been wafted by their own verial sweetness
across the sea; and his felicitous description of Scott's funeral, (Dryburgh Abbey,) attended by a procession of the romancer's immortal
characters, is too graphic a tribute to genius not to be recalled with
delight." -H. T. T.uckerman.
SULWER LYTTON'S DRAMAS AND POEMS.
In one volume, with a fine portrait on steel, by
Schoff. Blue and gold. Price $1.00. Containing the Dramas of THE LADY OF LYONS, RICHELIEU, and MONEY, and Minor Poems.
" No living English writer is more read on the continent of Europe
than Bulwer. His works have been translated into nearly all the living languages of Europe." - New Anzerican  yclgoedia.
EAVEN OUR HOME. WE HAVE NO SAviouR BUT JESUS, AND NO HOME BUT HEAVEN. Crown 8vo. Cloth, extra. Price $1.00.
OPINIONS OF THE ENGLISH PRESS.
" The author of the volume before us endeavors to describe what
heaven is, as shown by the light of reason and Scripture; and we
promise the reader many charming pictures of heavenly bliss, founded
upon undeniable authority, and described with the pen of a dramatist,
which cannot fail to elevate the soul as well as to delight the imagination....  Part Second proves, in a manner as beautiful as it is
convincing, the doctrine of the recognition of friends in heaven —a
subject of which the author makes much, introducing many touching
scenes of Scripture celebrities meeting in heaven and discoursing of
their experience on earth. Part Third demonstrates the interest which
those in heaven feel in earth, and proves with remarkable clearness
that such an interest exists not only with the Almighty and among
the angels, but also among the spirits of departed friends. We unhesitatingly give our opinion, that this volume is one of the most de



4   MESSRS. ROBERTS BROTHERS LIST.
lightful productions of a religious character which has appeared for
some time; and we would desire to see it pass into extensive circulation."- Glasgow Herald.
" This work gives positive and social views of heaven, as a counteraction to the negative and unsocial aspects in which the subject is so
commonly presented." - English Churchman.
"Amid the works proceeding from an overteeming press, our attention has been arrested by the perusal of the above-named production, which, it seems, is wending its way daily among persons of all
denominations. Certainly'Heaven our Home,' whoever may be the
author, is no common production." - Airdrie Advertiser.
"In boldness of' conception, startling minuteness of delineation, and
originality of illustration, this work, by an anonymous author, exceeds
any of the kind we have ever read." - John O' Groat Journal.
" We are not in the least surprised at so many thousands of copies
of this anonymous writer's being bought up. We seem to be listening
to a voice and language which we never heard before. Matter comes at
command; words flow with unstudied ease; the pages are full of life,
light, and force; and the result is a stirring volume, which, while the
Christian critic pronounces it free from affectation, even the man of
taste, averse to evangelical religion, would admit it to be exempt from'cant.' "- London Patriot.
"The name of the author of this work is strangely enough withheld.   A social heaven, in which there will be the most
perfect recognition, intercourse, fellowship, and bliss, is the leading
idea of the book, and it is discussed in a fine genial spirit." - Caledonian lliercury.
IN  PRESS.
EET FOR HEAVEN. A STATE OF GRACE
u PON EARTH THE ONLY PREPARATION FOR
A  STATE  OF  GLORY  IN  HEAVEN.  By the
Author of " Heaven our Home."   Crown 8vo.  Cloth,
extra.  Price $1.00.
OPINIONS OF THE ENGLISH PRESS.
"This forms a fitting companion to' Heaven our Home,' —a volume
which has been circulated by thousands, and which has found its way
into almost every Christian family." - Scottish Press.
" What we shall be hereafter - whether our glorified souls will be




MESSRS. ROBERTS BROTHERS LIST.   5
like unto our souls here, or whether an entire change in their spiritual
and moral condition will be effected after death -these are questions
which occupy our thoughts, and to these the author has principally
addressed himself." - Cambridge University Chronicle.
" The author, in his or her former work,' Heaven our Home,' portrayed a Social Heaven, where scattered families meet at last in loving
intercourse and in possession of perfect recognition, to spend a neverending eternity of peace and love. In the present work the individual
state of the children of God is attempted to be unfolded, and, more especially, the state of probation which is set apart for them on earth to
fit and prepare erring mortals for the society of the saints.
" The work, as a whole, displays an originality of conception, a flowof language, and a closeness of reasoning rarely found in religious
publications.
"The author combats the pleasing and generally-accepted belief
that death will effect an entire change on the spiritual condition of our
souls, and that all who enter into bliss will be placed on a common
level." — Glasgow Herald.
" A careful perusal of this book will make it a less easy thing for a
man to cheat himself into the notion that death will effect, not a mere
transition and improvement, but an entire change in his moral and
spiritual state. The dangerous nature of this delusion is exhibited with
great power by the author of' Meet for Heaven.' "- Stirling Observer.'This, like the former volume,'Heaven our Home,' by the same
anonymous author, is a very remarkable book. Often as the subject
has been handled, both by ancient and modern divines, it has never
been touched with a bolder or a more masterly hand." - John O' Groat
Journal.
IN PRESS.,IFE IN HEAVEN. THERE, FAITH IS CHANGED
i    INTO SIGHT, AND HOPE IS PASSED INTO BLISSFUL FRUITION.  A New Work by the Author
of " Heaven  our HoIle,"  and  " Meet for Heaven."
Crown 8vo.  Cloth, extra.  Price $1.00.
This new work is a companion volume to " Heaven our
Home," and "' Meet for Heaven," and embraces a subject of
very great interest, which has not been included in these
volumes.
The two works above mentioned have already attained in
England the large sale of 100,000 copies.




6    IMESSRS. ROBERTS BROTHIERS LIST.
REV. J. H. INGRAHAM"S POPULAR WORKS.
HE PRINCE OF THE HOUSE OF DAVID;
or, THREE YEARS IN THE HOLY CITY. Being
a series of Letters of Adlina, a Jewess of Alexandria, supposed to be sojourning in Jerusalem in the
days of Herod, addressed to her father,,a wealthy Jew
in Egypt, and relating, as if by an eye-witness, all the
scenes and wonderful incidents in the Life of Jesus of
Nazareth, from his baptism in Jordan to his crucifixion
on Calvary. By Rev. J. H. INGRAHAM. One volume.
12mo. Cloth, gilt. Price $1.50.
THE PILLAR or FIRE; or, ISRAEL IN BONDAGE.
Being an account of the wonderful scenes in the life
of the Son of Pharaoh's Daughter, (Moses,) together with
picturesque sketches of the Hebrews under their Taskmasters.  By Rev. J. H. INGRAHAM.  One volume.
12mo. Cloth, gilt. Price $1.50.
THE  THRONE  OF DAVID, FROM  TEE CONSECRATION OF THE SHEPHERD OF BETHLEHEM TO
THE REBELLION  OF PRINCE ABSALOM.  Being an
illustration of the splendor, power, and dominion of the
reign of the Shepherd - Poet - Warrior - King and
Prophet - Ancestor and Type of Jesus; in a series of
letters addressed by an Assyrian Ambassador,. to his
lord and king on the throne of Nineveh. By Rev.
J. H. INGRAHAM. One volume. 12mo. Cloth, gilt.
Price $1.50.




MESSRS. ROBERTS BROTHERS LIST.    7
JUVEATILES.
HE HISTORY OF SANDFORD AND MERTON. By THOMAS DAY, Esq. A new edition;
revised throughout, and embellished with very
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pOPULAR   FAIRY  TALES;  containing  the
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With numerous illustrations.  Square 16mo.  Fancy
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THE  FAIRY LIBRARY, containing —
Popular Fairy Tales- First Series;
c  "    c"  - Second Series;
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FABLES AND NURSERY  READINGS, containing Eighteen approved Nursery Fables, interspersed
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S IMPLE LESSONS FOR LITTLE LEARNERS,
on a popular plan. Part First, words of one and
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FLIES; or, Dialogues in short sentences, adapted to children from the age of three to eight years. With charac



8    MESSRS. ROBERTS BROTHERS LIST.
teristic illustrations. One volume. Square 16mo. Fancy
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FAREWELL TALES. By Mrs. HOFLAND, author
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One volume. Square 16mo. Fancy cloth, gilt. Price
63 cents.
THE  LITTLE LEARNER'S LIBRARY, containing — Simple Lessons for Little Learners;
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FIRESIDE TALES, IN PROSE AND VERSE. By
MARY HOWITT. With illustrations.  One volume.
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THE   SCOTTISH   ORPHANS;  a Moral Tale,
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ARTHUR MONTEITH, a continuation of the Scottish
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The Turtle Dove; and other Stories. By Mary
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Blackford;
Arthur Monteith; a sequel to the Scottish Orphans.
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