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My FATHER'S House;

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JAMES M. MACDONALD, D.D.

THIRD EDITION.

NEW YORK:
CHARLES SCRIBNER, 145 NASSAU STREET.

Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1855, by
CHARLES 3CRIBNEK,
In the Clerk's Office of the District Court for the Southern District of New York.

W. H. TINSON, STEREOTYPER, 24 BEEKMAN ST.
GEO. RUSSELL, & CO., PRINTERS, 61 BEEKMAN ST,

ato tii

REV. GARDINER SPRING, D.D., & LLD.

THE FOLLOWING WORK

iJUapuifuIIs SitKtriJtJr.

TBI AUTHOR

PREFACE

Heaven, if mere speculation oe put entirely aside, cannot
be too often the theme of our thoughts, our tongues, or our
pens. Every one, who has been called to part with pious
friends at death, and knows that he must soon follow them,
unless his mind has become wholly worldly and callous, or is
debased by ignorance, or vice, will often reflect on the state,
and home of the departed. As a guide to such reflection,
this volume has been prepared. It does not of course aim
to supersede, nor even aspire to a place by the side of, such
works as Baxter's and Howe's ; it discusses, however, the
teachings of Scripture upon some topics, which it did not
fall within the design of those incomparable writers to
notice at all. The highly practical and touching nature of
the subject, the author has studied to keep in view, through
out : and should any of those numerous persons or families
to whom he has been called, during the course of his minis
try, to proffer the consolations of the Gospel, refer to the
following pages, they will discover in them a discussion of
those topics, with which he sought to fortify their minds, in

v; Preface.
the hour of bitter trial. In presenting them here, he prays
that he may be made the instrument, not only in further
consoling the afflicted, but in persuading believers " to give
the more earnest heed to the things which they have heard,"
and unbelievers to neglect no longer the " great salvation."
The author has carefully sought not to invade the reserve
with which the Word of God surrounds this subject. Like
the bounds which were set about Sinai in the wilderness, it
was doubtless designed to protect "the city of the living
God," from irreverent approach, or from a trifling and pro
fane gaze. Moreover, probably all that we are able " to
bear now " (John xvi. 12.), has been revealed ; and any
attempt to attain to greater " definiteness," in respect to
the locality, the particular scenery, and the employments of
heaven, cannot promote reverence or true devotional feel
ing. Nevertheless, " those things which are revealed belong
unto us, and our children, for ever," and we should be as
careful to study and teach them, as we are to stop at the
boundary, which separates them from the domain of specula
tion. It has seemed to the author, that a work, stating, distinctly
.x carefully, Christian doctrine on the subject of this
> olume, is peculiarly called for, at a time when a morbid
interest in so many quarters, is manifested, and delusions
are so rife, respecting the world of spirits. The sublime
verities of the Bible, as the only authorized messages from
the spiritual world, are best suited to expose the puerile
weakness of all other professed messages ; and are, therefore,
the best safeguard to those who are in danger of being led

Preface. vii
astray. It is the uninstructed mind, or it is the mind un
settled and afloat, as to the truth of Christianity, or as to
its fundamental doctrines, or that has not learned to receive
the Word of God with docility, and submission to its
authority, that is in danger of being carried away by every
wind of doctrine, by sleight of men and cunning craftiness.
James Madison Macdonald.
Princeton, JVew Jersey,
August 20, 1855.

CONTENTS.

L
IMPERFECT KNOWLEDGE.
Our limited knowledge of the present, past and future — The glory of heaven
not to be conjectured from the believer's adoption— Heaven an attractive
and profitable subject — Important caution — Apocalyptic descriptions — A
dangerous mode of interpreting sensible images— Passages from Augustine,
Baxter and John Howe — An apostle's ignorance,  9—25
II.
FALSE VIEWS.
Superiority of the religion of the Bible to every other — Its revelations of a
future life fitly crown the divine dispensations — The Bible ignored — Scandi
navian bards and Druids — Aborigines of North America — Ancient skeptics
representatives of modern— Indian philosophy — Modification of Brahmin-
ism — Early Greek schools — Pantheism, ancient and modern identical —
Socrates and Plato— Cicero — Mohammedan paradise— Swedenborgianism and
modern "spiritualism" — Give back the uncorrupted Word of God! — True
views as divinely revealed,  26 — 52
ni.
THE GLORY OF HEAVEN.
A preceding caution not to be misinterpreted — The caution further urged —
Low and unworthy views of Christians — True glory of heaven, what — Divine
perfections displayed — Perfect subjection of all the inhabitants of heaven to
the will of God — The peace of that world never disturbed — God worshipped
in the beauty of holiness— No interruption to the perfect service — The works
of God understood — Progress in knowledge — Love — All confirmed in hou-
kess— Holiness indispensable as a qualification for heaven, . . . 68 — 67

X Contents. FAtU
IV.
THE PLACE.
Heaven not a mere state of being— Enoch, Elijah, ascension of Christ, resurrec
tion— Heavin, where— Dr. Chalmers— Q. S. Faber, B.D.— John xiv., S, 8—
2 Peter ill., T, 10, etc.— Doom of the earth— Its destruction not annihilation-
Man's complex nature, in a future state— Sir David Brewster quoted— The
reticence of Scripture— Jesds the way, angel guides, .... 68—88
V.
NO MORE SEA.
The sea a vast cemetery— Giving up its dead— A glorious issue— Animated
figures of the Apocalypse — Heaven suited to the glorified bodies and souls
of the redeemed — The constitution of things changed — No depravity to be
hemmed in— No unrecovered provinces of moral darkness— No instability
there — No Mystery— No feeble types required— Christ in his glorified
humanity,  84^-96
VI.
no pain; no sorrow; no more death.
Suffering among beings, made perfect, conceivable — Want — Considering thfl
p0or — No poverty in heaven — Old age — The young preacher, and his pulpit
hearers — Personal deformity, etc. — The deaf-mute — The cripple of more than
fifty years — Sickness — Consumption — The earth mellow with graves — Death —
War — Pestilence — Death a conquered foe — The anticipated shout, . 97 — 114
VII.
NO NIGHT THERE.
The Phenomena and uses of night^Its mission accomplished — The Father
of lights, without parallax — Absence of night, in its figurative sense, the
most important — Metaphorical sense of " night " and " darkness," " day "
and " light " — Ignorance of God, wide-spread and long-continued — Repre
sentatives of heathenism — Not a shadow of this darkness in heaven — Uni
versal and perpetual day — Hnperfect knowledge of natural things — Mistakes —
Heresies — None of these in heaven — Harmony of holiness and truth — Capa
bility of intellectual improvement — Man's knowledge of himself— Perceptions,
clear and infallible — Intuition of truth — No spiritual night — David — Job —
Cowper— Henry Martyn— Edward Payson  115— 185
vm.
NO TEMPLE THEREIN.
The figurative and the literal— No literal temple in heaven — Ordinances at an
end— Neoessary now— The piety which professes to have outgrown worship
and ordinances, counterfeit or fugitive— Significance of the tabernacle and
temple— The " Holy Place " now open to all sincere worshippers— No priests

Contents. xi
or human proxies— Christ the great High Priest— An earnest of greater"""
things— The "Holy of Holies" becomes the "Father's" house— ChriBt's
glorified humanity " the tabernacle of God "—Nature of true religion, and
acceptable worship— Vanity of imposing external forms— President Hopkins
quoted  186—151
IX.
SEEING GOD.
No likeness or image of God— Theophanies— Abraham at Mamre— Jacob at
Bethel — The gate of heaven — The burning bramble — The ground holy — The
pillar of cloud and of fire — A perpetual Theophany— Shekinah— Spiritual
presence on earth — David — Peter — Thomas — Paul — John — John Welch —
Brainard and Martyn — Rutherford and Leighton — Rev. John Macdonald —
Dr. Payson — A pious elder — A small ray of heavenly light — Spiritual mani
festations in heaven — Dr. John Dick quoted — The unveiled vision — John
Howe quoted— Bishop Patrick quoted — Tillotson quoted— Bishop Hobart
quoted— Robert Hall quoted — Will there be any objective glory? — Howe's
and Tillotson's opinions — The glorified humanity of Christ — " God manifest"
thereby  152—178

ABSENT FROM THE BODY.
New home of the separate spirit — 2 Corinthians v. 6, 7, 8, considered — Philip-
plans i. 28, 24 — Dr. Campbell quoted — Promise to the dying malefactor — Dr.
Gregory quoted — Martyr Stephen — The moment of death — Dr. J. A. Alexan
der quoted — Hades — Psalm xvi. 10 — " Paradise," heaven — John xx. 17 —
Christ's prayer on the cross — Parable of the rich man and Lazarus —
Paul's vision, 2 Corinthians xii. 2-4— Departed saints in Christ's presence-
Doctrine of the primitive church— Brigham quoted— Bishop Sherlock-
Consolation  173 — 137
XI.
THE BODY RESTORED.
Death reigning — New Testament doctrine — 1 Corinthians xv. 18, 14 — What the
denial of a resurrection involves — The apostle's analogy— Objection considered
 Observation and experiment— Prof. Dod quoted — Bush on the resurrection —
Dr. Blagden quoted— Lines of John Flavel — Mistake of the skeptical— Bush's
theory refuted— Pres. Davies and Melville— The latter quoted— The resurrec
tion-body— 1 Corinthians xv. 89— Bloomfield— Precious Faith, . . 188—201
XII.
RELATION OF THE JUDGMENT TO HEAVEN.
A further preparatory stage— The first sight and sound after the resurrection—
The advent— Great purpose of the lastjudgment^-The process— The figura
tive and literal— The books opened— The Judge— His humanity— His divinity

Xli CONTENTS. FAGS
—Not an arbitrary decision which saves the righteous — Works aB the evidence
of faith — Inquisition made for them — Prominence given to works of charity —
The saved, once sinners, who deserved perdition — Doubts removed and calum
nies refuted — The Judgment, when — Reason why the day is unknown, 202 — 216
xtn.
ANGEL-COMPANIONS.
Society of heaven— Angels constitute no inconsiderable part of it — Their nature
—Their intelligence — Purity — Congenial companions — Their indebtedness to
Christ — John Howe quoted — " The children of the resurrection " equal to the
angels — Heavenly hierarchy — No emulations — Sweet intimacy— Their interest
in the plan of redemption — Coeval with man's revolt — Their agency — Super-
naturalism — Their presence on earth — Their ministry to Christ — Their joy
over a repentant sinner — Ministering spirits to the heirs of salvation — Their
presence at the death-bed — Mrs. S. L. Smith— Lazarus and the angels — Never
weary of celebrating redemption,  217—285
xrv.
RECOGNITION.
Identity and resemblance in the resurrection — The Son of God the chief attrac
tion of heaven — Dr, A. Alexander quoted — The Armenian princess — Christ's
glory and honour seen in the redeemed — Recounting the dealings of God —
Recognition will enlarge the views of the divine mercy, etc. — Heaven a world
of knowledge— The communion of saints— Hymns of Miller and Fawcett
quoted— Worship of heaven, social— Dr. Alexander again quoted — Andrew
Fuller — King David — Luke xiii. 28 — Matthew viii. 11 — Muston's " Recogni
tion " quoted — Colossians i., 28 — Dr. Paley— 1 Thessalonians ii. 19, 20 —
Mant's " Happiness of the Blessed " quoted— Dr. McKnight— Objection —
Practical use,  236 — 255
XV.
LITTLE CHILDREN IN HEAVEN.
The dying infant always an infant— A home without children— Perfect children
— Rule by which the heathen are judged— Will not condemn infants  No
future punishment denounced against them— Saved without personal accept
ance of the righteousness of Christy-Imputation of Adam's sin— Romans v.
12-21— Blessings purchased by Christ exceed the evils incurred by Adam-
Longfellow quoted — Infant salvation not inconsistent with any of the doc
trines of grace — Regeneration of infants — Sovereignty of divine grace 
Psalm viii. 2— -Rev. Mr. Bchauffler quoted— J. Montgomery quoted— Matthew
xviii. 5, etc. — Matthew xix. 14— John Newton quoted — Dr. Scott, Dr. Russell
Calvin, Dr. Hodge, and Dr. Bethune quoted— God's kingdom filling up— All
dying infants saved— Infanticide overruled — Loss of infants afflictive  The
Bhadow by the hearthstone—Beauty in death— Christianity— Dr. Chalmers
quoted— The irreligious parent bereaved of children, addressed, , 256— 2T8

Contents. xiii PAQl
XVI.
WHO WILL BE THERE.
Mt Sinai and Mt. Sion — Happiness affected by society — Apostle John's descrip
tion of the heavenly society — Spirits of the just made perfect—Some whom
we know are in heaven— Abel— Enoch— Noah— Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob-
Joseph— Moses— David— Elijah— Sarah, Miriam, and holy women— Isaiah,
Jeremiah, and David — Thief that died on the cross— Stephen the martyr, and
Saul the persecutor— Peter— John — The mother of our Lord— Mary Magda
lene, and Mary of Bethany— Cloud of primitive martyrs— Luther, Zuingle,
Calvin, Knox, we may expect to meet there — Also Watts, Edwards, etc. —
Christ the door — Practical question,  279 — 296
xvn.
WHO WILL NOT BE THERE.
The oracles of God have spoken — Cain — His crime and punishments-Antedi
luvians— Their wickedness — Cities of the Plain — Their immorality and
destruction — Pharaoh — His impiety and destruction — Balaam— Saul — Ahab —
Belshazzar — Herod the Great — Herod Antipas — Herod Agrippa— Judas
Iscariot — Impenitent thief— Pilate — Monsters of uninspired history — Com
panionship of the lost — Spirits of wickedness executing one another's punish
ment,  297—818
XVILT.
NOTHING THAT DEFILETH.
Exclusion of impure elements from the heavenly society — Idolaters — The law
which condemns them— Case of Cornelius — Covetous men — The idolatry of
Gold — Extortioners — Revilers — The impure — Liars — Profane swearers— Sor
cerers and necromancers — Why they were excluded from Canaan — Danger
of familiarity with delusions — Drunkards— Future blessedness and preseut
character — Our existence knows no interruption — The same intellectual and
moral faculties in the future world — Death but a transition — Does not regene
rate character — Reason, Memory, Conscience, Society among the lost — Mu
tual workers of iniquity retributors of wrath — Malignant passions, 819 — 389
xnr.
THE GUIDE.
Darkness and difficulties of the way — Reason bewildered — Man's conscious
guilt — The attributes of God 6een in his works, insufficient — An old question
unsolved — A lifeless statue — Her priests — Their teachings unsatisfactory —
Lord Bolingbroke — The true light— Sinai and Calvary — Their teachings — The
justified also glorified there— Intellectual light deficient— The Bible all suffi
cient — Faith superior to sense— A pregnant text — Skeptics among nominal
Christians— The false banner — A parti-colored array — Province of Reason
in Religion  . 340—849

xiv Contents. rxam
XX.
THE PREPARATION.
An ice-palace— Gay hopes— The tesi>— Building too low— The Rock of Ages-
Holiness essential— What is it ?— Holiness of God — Of angels— Of man in
Paradise— Covenant of works — Another economy — Effects of apostasy-
God's remedy— The righteousness of Faith — Faith described— The merits of
Christ abjured — Rev. E. S. Gannett, D.D — No mercy of God, out of Christ —
Necessity and nature of regeneration — Salvation by grace not repugnant to
good works — The moral law unrepealed— Rule of the last judgment — No
mixture of good and evil in heaven — Reason for explicitness — A solemn
appeal — Lost time — How much remains? — The crumbling sand-bank — Death
ever active — The grave illumined— The pilgrim— Dr. Spring quoted — " The
Hill clear "—Glory,  850-S69

Mt FATHER'S House.

i.

IMPERFECT KNOWLEDGE.
OF the present we know little. Of the past we
know less even, than of the present. An epitome
of the world's history is all that has been written.
We have an outline of the origin and progress of
nations, of revolutions, and decisive battles, of tyrants
and great warriors. Of the future we know least of
all. We know that Jehovah will reign for ever. We
can understand some of the predictions of Scripture.
We know that Christ's kingdom is to come on earth,
and His will to be done, even as it is done in heaven.
We know that*our souls are to exist for ever. We
know that Grod has provided an eternal home, in
His presence, for all who believe on His Son, Jesus
Christ. But we know comparatively little of that
perfect and blessed world. 1*

10 Mt FATHER'S Hodsd.
The adoption of believers is considered, by an
Apostle, as one of the most astonishing expressions
of the Divine condescension and love. He exclaims
in view of it, " Behold what manner of love the
Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be
called the sons of G-od !"* But he declares that
it is impossible from this, the greatest of all honours,
bestowed upon believers in this world, to conjecture
the future glory of the saints. It may serve to
remind them, " how great they shall be made ;" but
" it doth not yet appear what they shall be," when
they shall see the Son of God as He is, and be
made like Him.
Heaven is a most attractive subject to the Chris
tian mind. The believer knows well that he is n6t
to continue here for ever; he knows that he shall
remain in this world but a very short time. Soon,
he expects to put off this tabernacle, and then he
hopes to be " present with the Lord." When our
pious friends die, we try to follow them, in our
thoughts, to that better land to which we believe
they have been taken. We try to imagine what are
their employments and joys. It wouM be well if our
thoughts were more occupied with heavenly things,
and less taken up with the vanities of a fleeting
world. How large a place this subject fills, in the
* 1 John iii. 1, 2.

Imperfect Knowledge. 11
inspired writings! Baxter and Howe gave then-
thoughts much to the joys of heaven ; and what they
have written is worthy of being often perused and
pondered. The more the mind becomes interested in
the sacred employments and divine joys of the
celestial world, the less it will be fascinated by the
fashion of this, which passeth away.
But, in our thoughts and inquiries respecting
heaven, there is an important caution to be observed.*
It is this, not to lessen the glory and perfection of
that place, by our manner of applying the sensible
images and illustrations, which we feel constrained
to borrow to assist our minds in forming some
adequate conceptions of it. There are some subjects
that set all rhetoric, as well as speculation, at defi
ance ; and this is one of them. Our imagery must be
taken from sensible things, from a world, which,
however it may present to us many objects of beauty
and sublimity, is marked with imperfection every
where. Our mental faculties, moreover, are feeble ;
in comparison with what they shall be, they are as
the undeveloped powers of childhood. Heaven is a
spiritual world ; this is ^material, and we, the inhabi
tants of it, are creatures, of sense. These considera
tions should make us cautious, lest we detract from
the glory of heaven, by our very attempts to arrive
at some adequate conception of it.
We have a description of the New Jerusalem in

12 Sir FATHER'S House.
the Apocalypse; but it would be manifestly
improper, because it would be bringing down the sub
ject to a very low level, and render the whole incon
gruous, to apply to it a literal interpretation.
" And he carried me away," says John, " in the
spirit, to a great and high mountain, and showed me
that great city, the holy Jerusalem, descending out
of heaven from God, having the glory of God : and
her light was like unto a stone most precious, even
like a jasper stone, clear as crystal; and had a wall
great and high, and had twelve gates, and at the
gates twelve angels, and names written thereon,
which are the names of the twelve tribes of the
children of Israel ; on the east, three gates ; on the
north, three gates ; on the south, three gates ; and on
the west, three gates. And the wall of the city had
twelve foundations, and in them the names of the
twelve apostles of the Lamb. And he that talked
with me had a golden reed to measure the city, and
the gates thereof, and the walls thereof. And the
city Meth four-square, and the length is as large as the
breadth: and he measured the city with the reed,
twelve thousand furlongs. .The length, and the
breadth, and the height of it are equal. And he
measured the wall thereof, an hundred and forty
and four cubits, according to the measure of a man,
that is, of the angel." * The inspired writer next
Rev. xxi. 10-17.

Imperfect Knowledge. ' 13
enumerates the precious stones of which the founda
tions, the walls, and the gates of the city were com
posed. Now it would be a perversion of this subline
vision of John to view the measurements, so particu
larly given, as literally describing the plan and size
of the heavenly city ; and the inscriptions upon the
gates and foundations, and the splendour of the gates
and walls, composed of so many precious stones, as a
literal description. The city is represented as com
ing down from God out of heaven. John from the
top of a lofty eminence beholds it. It was thsee-
hundred and seventy-five miles square. The wall
was two hundred and sixteen feet high. But there
were eminences within the walls so lofty that the top
of the highest pinnacles upon their summits was
three hundred and seventy-five miles above the base
of the walls. The idea of a city of such dimensions,
literally descending from heaven to earth, would be
maintained by no sober interpreter of the Word of
God. The dimensions are given simply as emblem
atical of magnificence, and to remind us that we are
not " to form any gross conceptions of the city."
This beautiful city, shining with pearls and gold, is
compared to a bride, arrayed in her marriage attire.
In the figurative description, there is nothing
grotesque or disproportioned ; every part is appro
priate ; and it is well sustained, throughout. It was

J4 Mr FATHER'S House.
twelve thousand furlongs, or fifteen hundred miles,
in circuit. To the eye of the Apostle, there rose within
the walls of this vast city, as it floated down from the
empyrean, mountain-ranges, upon the loftiest summit
of which towered the acropolis, three hundred and
seventy-five miles above the nethermost of its twelve
foundations. These foundations were decorated with
precious stones of every hue, azure, and green, and
red, and blue, and golden. The wall, which sur
mounted them, was composed of the same precious
stone which adorned the first foundation, jasper. On
each side of the square were three gates ; each one
composed of a separate Pearl. The material with
which the city was built, within the "walls, was "pure
gold like unto clear glass." That is, the gold was
resplendent, like glass, in the beams of the setting
sun. Even the streets were paved with the same
resplendent material. But no sun shone in it, or
upon it; it rather shone itself, as with its own in
herent, unborrowed light. It was illuminated with
the presence, and glory of God. It had no temple,
like that which adorned the earthly Jerusalem ; it
was itself a temple — a temple-city; or rather, the
Lord God Almighty and the Lamb were the temple
of it. It would be impracticable and absurd, to
attempt *a literal interpretation of this description of
heaven. All this vastness, these precious stones and

Imperfect Knowledge. 15
gold, were simply designed to set forth the grandeur
of that world, and especially its perfection as " having
the glory of God."
Nothing can be more exciting to an imaginative
mind than to dwell upon the abode, the employments,
and the joys of the pious dead ; and hence the impor
tance of the caution not to adopt the creations of a
fertile, inventiTe imagination, in forming our ideas of
that blessed world. The chief danger lies in so
employing and interpreting sensible images as to
bring down to the level of a material standard, and
to our feeble capacities, which can judge only from
what is physical and imperfect, the spiritual glories
of a world, in which no sin or imperfection can dwell.
If we would form right views of heaven, we need to
have our minds thoroughly imbued with scriptural
truth, and to be guided by the Holy Spirit. The
theme is too lofty, too holy for our unassisted thought.
With the Word and the Spirit of God for our guide,
we may be saved from falling into the transports of a
crude fancy, or from being charmed with the beauti
ful frost-work of an unchastened imagination.
Evidently guided thus, Augustine, in his Medita
tions,* exclaims, " O heavenly Jerusalem ! our com
mon mother, the holy city of God, thou beautiful
spouse of Christ, my soul hath loved thee exceedingly,
and all my faculties are ravished with thy charms.
* Chapter xxv.

16 Mt FATHER'S House.
O what graces, what glory, what noble state appear
in every part of thee ! Most exquisite is thy form,
and thou alone art beauty, without blemish. * * *
O how happy will my soul perceive itself, when it
shall be admitted to see thy glory, thy beauty ; to
view the gates, the walls, the streets, the stately build
ings, the splendour of thy inhabitants, and the trium
phant pomp of thy Kong, enthroned in the midst of
thee ! for thy walls are of precious stones, and thy
gates of pearl, and thy streets of pure gold, continu
ally resounding with loud Hallelujahs. *****
No successions of night and day ; no intervals of
darkness; no difference of seasons in their several
courses ; nor is the light derived from artificial helps,
or natural luminaries, the same as ours ; no lamps, or
candles ; no shining of the moon or stars, but God of
God, Light of Light, even the Sun of Righteousness
shines in thee, and the white immaculate Lamb, He
it is that enlightens thee with the full lustre- of His
majesty and beauty. * * There are the melodious
choirs of angels ; there the sweet fellowship and com
pany of the heavenly inhabitants ; there the joyful
pomp of all those triumphant souls, who, from their
sore trials and travails through this vale of tears, at
last return victorious to their native country. There
the goodly fellowship of the Prophets. * * There
the twelve Leaders of the Christian armies, the blessed
Apostles • there the noble armies of the Martyrs ;

Imperfect Knowledge. 17
there the convention of the Confessors; there the
holy men and women, who in the days of the flesh
were mortified to the pleasures of sin and the world.
****** And. O how happy shall I be, how
exquisitely, how incessantly happy, if, when this
body crumbles to dust, I shall be entertained with
that celestial harmony, and hear the hymns of praise
to their eternal Bang which troops of angels and saints
innumerable are ever singing in full concert."*.
" Think of Christ," exclaims Fdchard Baxter, " as
in our glorified nature. Think of glorified saints as
men made perfect. Suppose thyself a companion
with John, in his survey of the New Jerusalem, and
viewing the thrones, the majesty, the heavenly hosts,
the shining splendour which he saw. Suppose thy
self his fellow-traveller into the celestial kingdom,
and that thou hadst seen all the saints in their white
robes, with palms in their hands, and that thou hadst
heard those songs of Moses and the Lamb. If thou
hadst really seen and heard these things, in what a
rapture wouldst thou have been ! And the more
seriously thou puttest this supposition to thyself, the
more will thy meditation elevate thy heart. Do not,
* Vid., " Pious Breathings, being the Meditations of St. Augustine,"
etc., made English by George Stanhope, D. D. Fifth Edition, 1720.
Have we not here the original of that favourite hymn, " Jerusalem,
my Happy Home," by David Dickson, and without the allusions to
the Virgin, the Magdalene, the Magnificat, and the Te deum
foisted upon it. by pov^'i versifiers ?

18 Mr FATHER'S House.
like the Papists, draw them in pictures ; but get the
liveliest picture of them in thy mind that thou pos
sibly canst, by contemplating the Scripture account
of them, till thou canst say, "Methinks I see a
glimpse of glory ! Methinks I hear the shouts of joy
and praise, and even stand by Abraham, and David,
and Paul, and other triumphant souls ! Methinks I
even see the Son of God appearing in the clouds, and
the world standing at his bar to receive their doom,
and hear him say, ' Come ye blessed of my Father,'
and see them go rejoicing into the joy of their Lord !
My very dreams of these things have sometimes
greatly affected me ; and should not these just sup
positions much more affect me ? What if I had seen,
with Paul, those unutterable things?' Or, with
Stephen, had seen heaven opened, and Christ sitting
at the right hand of God ? surely that one sight was
worth his storm of stones. What if I had seen, as
Micaiah did, ' the Lord sitting upon His throne and
all the host of heaven, standing on His right hand and
on His left V Such things did these men of God see ;
and I shall shortly see far more than ever they saw,
till they were loosed from the flesh, as I must be." *
John Howe describes the blessedness of the right
eous in heaven, thus: — "And what do we think of
the ravishing aspects of His love, when it shall now
be open-faced, and have laid aside its veil ! When
* " Saints' Rest," Chap^cv.

Imperfect Knowledge. 19
His amiable smiles shall be checkered with no inter
vening cloud ! when the full sense shall be unfolded
to the life of that description of the Divine nature,
" God is love," and the soul be put no longer to
read the love of God in His name, shall not need
to spell it by letters and syllables, but behold it in His
very nature itself. This day hath long been expected,
and lo ! now 'tis dawned upon the awakening soul.
He hath now traced home the rivulets to their foun
tain, the beams to the very Sun of love. He hath
got the prospect at last into that heart, where the
great thoughts of love were lodged from everlasting ;
where all its counsels and designs were formed. He
sees what made God become a man ; what clothed a
Deity with human flesh ; what made Eternity become
the birth of Time ; what moved the heart of the Son
of God to pitch His tabernacle among men, and
engaged Him to the enterprise of redeeming sinners."*
But the highest flight of sanctified imagination
falls far short of the glorious reality. There is a
height to which no human fancy has ever soared, and
which is unknown and unexplored except, by angelic
and beatified spirits. Eye hath not seen it; ear
hath not heard it; nor the mind of man conceived
it. Not even inspired men were able fully to com
prehend the glory of that world. "It doth not tet
appear what we shall be." God revealed many
• "Blessedness of the Righteous," Chap. v.

20 Mt FATHER'S House.
things to the apostle John, and inspired him to write
them, for the instruction and edification of the
Church. He was the author of the gospel that bears
his name ; and of three separate epistles, and of
that wonderful book, the Apocalypse. But, although
he had been made the inspired medium of such
revelations, there were some things of which he was
as ignorant as uninspired men. Inspiration was not
the capacity, of knowing everything. Nay, this
inspired Apostle possessed that degree of knowledge,
which rendered him truly modest, and afraid to be
wise above what had been revealed to him, or others.
He hesitated not to acknowledge that he did not
know how great, or how happy the saints in glory
were to be made. He confessed that he was unable
perfectly to understand, even from so great a
distinction, as the sonship of believers, what they
would be in heaven.
Who, I ask, was this Apostle who was afraid to
say, what saints would be in heaven ? He was that
"beloved disciple," who might venture to propose a
question to the Lord, which none of his companions
had courage to ask. He leaned upon the Saviour's
bosom, at the Last Supper, and was treated with an
affectionate tenderness, well suited to encourage him
to propose any inquiries for additional information,
respecting the doctrines of his Lord and Master.
When Jesus so affectionately, and freelv conversed

Imperfect Knowledge. 21
with His disciples about the mansions He was going
to prepare for them, and the place where He was
soon to take up His residence, how natural it would
have been for John to ascertain all that might pro
perly be communicated respecting the locality, the
inhabitants, and the joys of those mansions. More
over, John had seen angels, on the morning of the
resurrection of Christ. He was with his Master, on
the mount of Transfiguration, and there saw Moses
and Elijah ; he saw the Saviour -transfigured, His face
shining as the sun, and His raiment white as the light.
But he who had seen angels, who had seen saints
refulgent with glory, and Christ Himself, wearing an
aspect of incomparable splendour and majesty, still
professes not to know what saints will be in Heaven ;
and, speaking as an inspired man, he of course,
teaches that this knowledge is withheld from all
other men, in the present state.
But, further; it was this same Apostle, who, in
Patmos, had a vision of the New Jerusalem. He
had seen a door opened in Heaven, and One seated
upon a throne, and round about the throne a rainbow
in sight like unto an emerald. He had seen the four-
and-twenty elders in white raiment, with crowns of
gold. He had seen the seven lamps of fire, and
the sea of glass before the throne, like unto crystal.
And he had listened to the voices of the blest,
saying, " Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory,

22 Mr FATHER'S House.
and honour, and power; for Thou hast created all
things, and for thy pleasure they are and were
created." His description of that New Jerusalem,
which he saw coming down from God out of Heaven,
prepared as a bride adorned for her husband, has
been always admired. He portrays its grandeur,
and magnificence, and the employment and joys of
its inhabitants. But John still professes not to know
what the saints shall be in Heaven. It is knowledge
that makes men modest ; which makes them sensible
how little they know. It is ignorance which makes
them bold and presumptuous. It was because John
knew so much, that he was willing to acknowledge
he knew comparatively so little, about Heaven. It
were well, if Christians were more like him, in
respect to all those subjects about which God has
not seen fit to reveal everything that might possibly
be made known. If the Apostle had fully under
stood the power of an endless life, in developing the
spiritual nature of man, in a world where everything
will be favourable to such development; if he had
known in what the resemblance of a glorified saint
to Christ consists, he would not have said, "It
doth not yet appear what we shall be." He rested
satisfied with the knowledge that there will be such
a resemblance. The expectation of being like Christ
was enough for him ; it ought to be enough for us.
The words, " When He shall appear, we shall be like

Imperfect Knowledge. 23
Him; for we shall see Htm as He is," probably
contain the best account of Heaven, as to its
highest perfection and chief bliss, of which our
language is capable. To understand the sensible
drapery, with which the Scriptures sometimes invest
this subject, is far less important than that moral
similitude to Christ, in which we are taught, that
the glory and blessedness of the pious dead will
consist. The subject has not been selected merely because
it is attractive in itself, and appeals so strongly to
the principle of curiosity in man, but to remind
those who may favour these pages with a perusal,
amidst the busy cares, the alluring pleasures, and
the often painful trials of this life, that there is a
better world than this. The author will endeavour
to bear the peculiar reticence of the Scriptures,
in regard to Heaven, constantly in mind. He
will study not to forget that there are numerous
doors, at which human curiosity may knock, which
God has not opened; and through which we have
no right to attempt to force an entrance. He
will study to avoid unprofitable speculations, and
to give to all he may have to offer a practical and
seasonable direction. He will seek, by establish
ing his readers in the sublime verities respecting
the immortality of the soul and a future state,
as they are revealed in the Christian Scriptures,

24 My FATHER'S House.
to forestall those popular delusions and errors which
are afloat respecting the spiritual world, and to for
tify them against " the sleight of men and cunning
craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive."
The definite topic to which he proposes to call
attention, is the Hewen of the Bible, as distinguished
from those of false religions, and the carnal hopes and
unsanctified imaginations of men, and from all those
false and delusive theories, which, from time to time,
gain a brief ascendency over the popular mind. It
will demand a holy caution and fear, that we may not
prefer curious or fanciful speculations to that sober
truth contained in the Divine Oracles. May that
Saviour, who has passed beyond our feeble sense, and
now sits enthroned amid the Sapphire blaze, grant
His blessed spirit, and enable both the writer and
the reader to say,

" I seek not fancy's glittering height,
That charmed my ardent youth ;
But in Thy light would see the light,
And learn Thy perfect truth.
The gathering clouds of sense dispel,
That wrap my soul around ; ¦
In heavenly places make me dwell
While treading earthly ground.
Illume this shadowy soul of mine,
That still in darkness lies ;

Imppbfkot Knowledge. 25
0 let the light in darkness shine,
And bid the day-star rise !
Impart the faith that soars on high,
Beyond this earthly Btrife,
That holds sweet converse with the sky
And lives eternal life."*

e J. Taylor.
2

26 Mt FATHER'S Hocsi.

II.
FALSE YIEWS.
EVEB.Y comparison of the religion of the Bible
with false religions, illustrates its superiority, and
confirms its exclusive claims to a Divine original.
We cannot open the sacred books of Pagans, without
being struck with the unworthy views and feeble
conceits, which they entertained of the Divine charac
ter and government. Their views of the creation,
and destiny of the world, and the race which inhabits
it, their codes of morals, all betray the human origin
of these writings. But, when we open the inspired
Volume, the beauty, the elevation, the perfection
which characterize its revelations of God, the duty
which God requires of man, and human destiny,
prove its Divine authorship. .
On the subject of the future life, we have in the
Bible, in contrast with the uncertain and contra
dictory doctrines of heathen poets, philosophers, and
priests, and in contrast also with the vagaries of men
who have set themselves up as the authorized mes-

False Views. 27
sengers of Heaven, to teach independently of His
written word, clear and definite instruction leading us
forward where we are fully satisfied the mere reason
of man could never have led ; and never betraying,
by the least wildness or presumption, that we are
under the direction of a blind or uncertain guide.
It inspires all who commit themselves to its guidance
with unshaken confidence. It illuminates the Future.
That which it points out as the highest glory of man,
we are made to feel is the only destiny worthy of his
moral and intellectual nature. The Heaven of the
Bible fitly crowns the Divine dispensations towards
man ; it is the perfection of his being ; it is worthy
of a God.
It is impossible to understand our indebtedness
to the word of God, on this or any other subject,
because it is impossible to understand what our
degree of ignorance would be, if we had never pos
sessed it ; or what theirs is, who are still destitute of
it. Could we shut it up, and ignore its teachings,
we might discover how little we should then
know in respect to Heaven. We may gather and
collate all that our fellow-men, guided only by the
light of nature, or such traditionary light of a revela
tion as may remain to any of them, have taught and
believed, and appropriate it all, or all that we choose
to select from the heterogeneous mass, to compensate
for our discarded Bibles, and it will only serve to

28 Mt FATHER'S House
make our darkness like that which was sent as
a plague upon Egypt, "a horror of great dark
ness." If we make our appeal to the bards, who embodied
the popular religious belief of our idolatrous fore
fathers, we learn that while their invisible world
was seated in the clouds, it was peopled with
heroes possessed, of human passions, devoted to
the same pastimes and employments, which had
occupied them while on earth. With glittering
swords, they rode on steeds won in battle, and had
daily encounters with their enemies. The battle
over, they bathed in fountains of life-giving water,
and, being instantly healed of their wounds, sat down
to a sumptuous banquet, and passed the hours of the
night in singing war-songs, and drinking from the
hollow skulls of their enemies. The Druids, who
were the supporters of a superstition, the most terrible
ever known among men, who made their abode in
caves and the trunks of decayed trees, sacrificing hu
man victims, by hundreds together, give us no better
answer, when we would know what awaits the spirits
of men after death. Having made this world terrible,
by their cruel penalties, sporting, as it were, with
human gore and bones, they sought to extend their
authority into the next, by working upon the fears of
their timorous votaries. They taught the doctrine ol
the transmigration of souls ; and even all their ideas

False Views. 20
of future happiness, so far as we can now learn, were
borrowed from this eternal migration.
If we make our appeal to the idolatrous Aborigines
of this country, and ask them what are their highest
hopes of happiness beyond the grave, all that we
learn is that they expect to go to some remote part of
the continent, where they shall be restored to their
hunting-grounds, resume the much-loved chase, and
be engaged in the daring exploits, and wild adven
tures of the forest. " They say there is a great King
who made them, who dwells in a glorious country to
the southward of them, and that the souls of the good
shall go thither where they shall live again." * One
of England's most eminent poets has clothed the
" poor Indian's " hope in its most attractive light.
He makes him " see God in clouds," and " hear him
in the wind," and to expect

" Beyond the cloud-topped hill, an humbler heaven ;
Some safer world in depth of woods embraced,
Some happier Island in the watery waste ;
Where slaves onee more their native lands behold,
No fiends torment, no Christians thirst for gold."

If, now, we turn, and ask the wisest ancient phi
losophers, what prospects of future happiness they
have to offer to pilgrims in this vale of tears, we find
* Wm. Penn to " The Free Soc. of Traders of Pa."

30 Mt FATHER'S House.
that many of them were in fearful doubt, as to there
being any future existence whatever. We find that
one sect * utterly denied the soul's immortality, and
contended that it was material, introduced into the
system by respiration ; that it grew with the growth
of the body, and was nourished by material food;
and that when the body died, it also ceased to exist.
In them we have the representatives of the older class
of modern infidels, a class of infidels among whom
David Hume stands preeminent for ability and the
boldness of his speculations and skepticism. That
the human soul is nothing and there is no hereafter,
are not discoveries which modern infidelity can
claim the honour of having made. It has only
brought to the surface what was cast up, and again
submerged many ages ago.
We find that in the most ancient schools of meta
physical science — those of India — the doctrine of the
immortality of the human soul was acknowledged
only in this imperfect form, that, as the soul of man
emanated from the great Soul of the universe, so it
will be re-absorbed into it upon the death of the
body ; thus denying that it has any distinct, personal.
existence, in the highest state of happiness, in another
world. This is the hypothesis of Hindooism, one of
the oldest superstitions in the world. The character
of its multitudinous divinities is sufficient to show
* The Epicureans.

False Views. 3J
how poor a world is the keavon for which it teacues
its votaries to sigh. They are described }n the Yeda,
as possessing limited physical and mental faculties ;
and " as to morality, there is not the first element of
truth, modesty, or goodness in one of them ;"* they
are charged with intoxication, licentiousness, and
almost every conceivable vice and crime. These
sacred books teach that animals, as well as men, have
souls, and that all are emanations from the great
Spirit of the universe. They teach the doctrine of
metempsychosis, that is, that, as all living creatures
are supposed to have souls, at death they pass into
new bodies; for example, the soul of a man may
pass into the body of a dog, or a worm ; or the soul
of a dog or an insect may become that of a man.
The soul which resides in a human body is in a state
of probation, and may, by bodily mortifications, and
penances, be released from further transmigration,
and at death ascend to the highest Heaven, and
finally reach the highest bliss, by being re-absorbed
into the Deity, the universal Source of being. The
Hindoos believe in four degrees of future happiness :
first, that of dwelling in the heaven of the inferior
gods; second, that of becoming an inferior god;
third, that of dwelling among the superior gods, in
the highest heaven ; and fourth, re-absorption in the
* " India and the Hindoos," by F. D. W. Ward, p. g75.

32 Mt FATHER'S House.
Spirit of the supreme Divinity* Their books
describe Heaven in the oriental style, as full of gold,
and precious stones, cool waters, and shady bowers.
"As to absorption, the highest state of Hindoo
felicity ; it is considered as the only state which secures
the soul against further migrations ; because the soul
then ceases to have a separate or individual existence.
It is lost in the universal spirit of Brahm, and like
him, or as a reunited portion of him, enjoys eternal
sleep, without ideas or consciousness."f This highest
state of felicity can hardly be distinguished from
annihilation ; it practically amounts to annihilation,
because it represents the soul not only as inactive and
unconscious, but as becoming an integral portion of
the spirit of their supreme Deity, as it was before its
emanation or existence ; whereby it loses for ever its
distinct, personal being.
That modification of Brahminism, which is the
religion of Burmah, Siam, Japan, and China, instead
of a quiescent, universal, divine Spirit, appears to
place the essence of Deity in nature itself; and its
disciples are, probably, a sort of pantheists. But they
hold the doctrine of transmigration of souls, and
believe in a succession of heavens of different degrees
of glory, where reside ranks of divinities who were
once men on earth, whose deification is a reward of
* Ward's View, Book v. chap. 3.
t Ruftner's Fathers of the Desert, p. 3C.

False Views, 33
their good works done on earth. But the character
and employments of these divinities are no better
than those of the Brahminical theology. The highest
felicity in the future world to which the disciples of
Boodhism aspire, is to be absorbed in that essence of
godhead which they believe resides in nature itself,
and animates and governs the whole universe.
It was from this ancient Indian Philosophy, that
the earliest Greek schools derived their doctrines
respecting a future state. So close is the similarity,
that one of the earliest of the Greek Philosophers *
is supposed to have been a Hindoo who had wandered
into Greece. He taught that every being emanated
from God, and would finally be re-absorbed in Him,
and for ever lose the fruition of personal existence.
He seemed to consider the body as a kind of tomb or
prison to the soul, in which it must, by purifications,
seek for the rewards of another life. The philosophy
of Pythagoras, who undoubtedly was the greatest
light of Greece, before the rise of Socrates and Plato,
was founded on the same principles. He taught that
there is an infinite supreme divinity, pervading
nature as its soul ; he taught, also, the transmigration
of souls, that men after death are exalted for their
virtues to be demi-gods ; and, although, it was his
doctrine that the soul, after death, has for a certain
period, an individual existence, sometimes floating in
* Orpheus.

34 Mt FATHER'S House.
a cloudy vehicle, or sleeping in the regions of the
dead, he conceived that, at length, it would return to
the eternal source whence it had sprung, and for ever
lose its individual existence. And here again we
must notice the striking manner in which extremes
sometimes meet. The most modern school of
skeptical philosophers — such men as Hegel, Strauss,
Cousin, Carlyle, Emerson and Parker — are in fact,
aiming to revive the ancient pantheism of India,
while they are recommending it as the latest result of
human experience, as some new discovery, which
shall compose all strifes, and furnish a resting-place
for the long-tossed mind. " The soul of man is divine,
is a part of God." Incense is offered to that idol that
holds the chief and firmest place in the heart, Pride :
and man is taught instead of worshipping God, his
Saviour, to worship himself. Individual immor
tality is lost ; Life is a dream ; death is absorption.
The souls of men, as "parts or particles of God,"
return to their source, and part for ever with their
distinct, individual existence.
About four hundred years before Christ, nearly
contemporary with the Jewish prophet, Malachi,
whose name concludes the prophetic roll of the Old
Testament, there appeared at Athens the greatest
philosopher of antiquity. Having sought in vain
elsewhere, let us make our application to him for
some information respecting the highest destiny for

F A LS E V IE W.S. 35
which man can hope, in that mysterious future,
which lies before him. If the entire pagan world
could select some one to speak for them, their suffra
ges would no doubt fall upon Socrates. His accom
plished, and world-renowned pupil, Plato, would say,
" Let him speak for us." The Poman Cicero, wonld
say, " Let him speak for us." The whole band of
modern defenders of natural, in preference to revealed,
religion would exhibit characteristic folly, if they did
not respond to these ancient oracles of the schools,
and say, " Let him speak for us." There was in him
a purity of life, a strength of belief, and a simplicity
and clearness of views, respecting moral truths and
the future life, which placed him far in advance of
his ingenious and learned countrymen. He appears
to have held, as we learn from the writings of his
disciples, that the human soul is allied to the Divine
Being, not, by a participation of essence, but, by a
similarity of nature ; and that good men will be con
tinued in existence after death, in a state in which
they will be rewarded for their virtue. " If what I
advance, " says he, " upon the immortality of the soul
proves true, it is good to believe it ; and, if after my
death, it proves false, I shall still have drawn from
it, in this life, this advantage— of having been less
sensible here of the evils which generally attend
humanity." Again he is reported to hare styled it
" a glorious hazard," for a man to risk his belief of

36 Mt FATTIF.R'S House.
this doctrine. Before he drank the fatal hemlock he
expressed the belief that death would introduce him
into the presence of the gods, and into the society of
righteous and good men. "As for those," was his
language, " who have passed through life with pecu
liar sanctity of manners, delivered from their base
earthly abodes, as from- a prison, they are received on
high in a pure region, which they inhabit ; and as
philosophy has sufficiently purified them, they live
without bodies, through all eternity, in a series of joys
and delights, which it is not easy to describe, and
which the shortness of my time (he was momentarily
expecting the messenger with the poisoned cup) will
not permit me to explain more at large." And is this
all — these ardent longings, these dubious hopes, these
glorious hazards, these presentiments of an immor
tality in which the body is to have no share, this com
panionship with deities of an impure mythology — is
this all, thou prince of philosophers, oracle of the
pagan world, whom moderns as well as ancients,
Christians as well as heathens, unite to honour,
which thou hast to offer, in respect to a state of happi
ness and perfection after death ? His disciples taught
that the soul is a compound produced by an emana
tion from the Diety, uniting itself with some portion
of the soul of the world, as they termed it, and some
portion of matter. They endeavoured to prove that
tliis compound soul had a pre-existent being, and is

False Views. 37
immortal in its own nature, and that, as it existed
in a separate state prior to its union with the
body, it will probably continue to exist in the same
manner after death. They taught that it is only by
the enlightening and purifying influence of philoso
phy that the immortal mind can be recovered from the
defilement of its present state, and that it is impos
sible for those whose condition and habits prevent
them from spending their days in abstract contem
plations — thelabouringpoor — to attain true happiness
in the future state. They taught that those, who,
during the present life, purify their affections and
minds, by divine contemplations, are exalted after
death to celestial abodes, and a bright star becomes
their happy dwelling-place. And is this all? A
material soul, or rather semi-material, if such a term
may be applied to the absurdity ; and no heaven for
the labouring poor ; a mere grove of Academus, for
the reveries of philosophers, transferred from earth
to a bright star, in the visible heavens.
The greatest philosopher of Kome,* after stating,
and yielding his entire assent to, the views of Socrates
and Plato, makes some advance in disclosing what
kind of heaven he supposed existed for the soul. At
death, he describes the soul ascending above the
region of the clouds, until it finds a place which is its
natural seat, where it becomes fixed, supported, and
* Cicero, Tusc Quaest.

38 Mt FATHER'S House.
nourished in the same manner as the stars. Here, it
is free from bodily passions and appetites, and is
engaged in the endless pursuit of knowledge. This
was all. The presence of a holy God, and resem
blance to Him, freedom from all sin, love, and praise,
did not enter into the elysium of the Poman sage.
What he says upon the entire subject reveals the
unsettled, dissatisfied state of his mind.
I am not satisfied; I cannot be satisfied. I see
nothing but a tangled web of contradictions. There
is a great enigma which remains unsolved. I see
my fellow men die, — my parents, my children, my
neighbours. One extremity of the grand human pro
cession, marching across this earthly stage, disappears
in the Cimmerian darkness of the sepulchre, as the
other emerges into light, upon it. I dwell among
graves. " I hear a cry of anguish ! it is the moaning
of an infant, gasping in its mother's arms. I see it,
pale and quivering, in its agony ; I hear the wail of
sorrow, which woman alone can utter, as she bows to
weep over those she has borne. "Shall the dying
ever live again ? What answer shall I give ? Shall
they live again ? And if they do, will that life be a
blessing or a curse ?"* Oh ! give me back my Bible.
Give me back the Blble !
But there have been men who, possessing the
Scriptures, have been willing to modify their reve-
* Rev. J. F. Berg.

False Views. 39
lations respecting the glorious destiny which awaits
the righteous beyond the grave, or to exchange them
for their own polluted dreams. Let us, for a few mo
ments, that we may learn to value our Bibles aright,
follow their presumptuous, bewildered steps. More
than twelve hundred years ago, in a remote country,
known as the land of spices and frankincense, there
appeared a remarkable man, a descendant of Abra
ham, through the line of Ishmael. He professed to
be a reformer, sent to restore the religion of " Abra
ham, the orthodox." He even professed to believe
the revelation that had been given by Moses and
Jesus Christ. The Koran, the great book of his faith,
he claimed, contained the very words of God ; and
God is represented as speaking in every instance.
Much of it may be traced to the Bible, especially to
the doctrines and precepts of the New Testament ;
and its wild and beautiful legends respecting angels,
prophets, patriarchs, and good and evil genii, to the
Talmud and Mishnu of the Jews. The Moslem
heaven, as described in the Koran, was " debased
by the sensualities of earth, and infinitely below the
ineffable purity and spiritual blessedness of the
heaven promised by our Saviour."* When the true
believer has passed all his trials, and expiated all his
sins, he refreshes himself at the Pool of the Prophet.
This is a lake of fragrant water, a month's journey in
* W. Irving's Mohammed and his Successors, p. 78.

40 Mt FATHER'S House.
circuit, fed by a river which flows from paradise.
The water of this lake is sweet as honey, cold as
snow, and clear as crystal ; and he who once tastes of
it, will never more be tormented with thirst. After
the .true believer has drunk of this water of life, the
gate of Paradise is opened to him, by the angel
Rushvan. The soil of the garden is of the finest
wheaten flour, fragrant with perfumes, and strewed
with pearls and hyacinths, instead of sands and peb
bles. Some of the streams are of crystal purity, run
ning between green banks, enamelled with flowers ;
others are of milk, of wine, and honey, flowing over
beds of musk, between margins of camphire, covered
with moss and saffron. The air is sweeter than the
spicy gales of Sabea, and cooled by sparkling foun
tains. Here, too, is the wonderful tree of life, so
large, that a fleet horse would need a hundred years
to cross its shade. The boughs are laden with every
variety of delicious fruit, and bend to the hand of
those who seek to gather. The inhabitants of this
blissful garden are clothed in raiment sparkling with
jewels; they wear crowns of gold, enriched with
pearls and diamonds, and dwell in sumptuous palaces,
or silken pavilions, reclining on voluptuous couches.
Here every believer will have hundreds of attend
ants, bearing dishes and goblets of gold, to serve him
with every variety of exquisite viand and beverage.
He will eat without satiety, and drink without inebri-

False Views. ££
ation ; the last morsel, and the last drop will be
equally relished with the first.
The air will resound with the melodious voice of
Izrafil, and the songs of the daughters of Paradise ;
the very rustling of the trees will produce ravishing
harmony, while myriads of bells, hanging among the
branches, will be put in dulcet motion, by airs from
the throne of Allah. Above all, the faithful will be
attended by Houris, beings of resplendent' beauty,
free from every human defect or frailty, and renew
ing their youth and beauty, for ever.* This is the
paradise which Mohammed promised to the meanest
of the faithful. The great body of his followers
construe everything in a literal sense.
Nearly allied to the paradise of the Arabian
impostor is the heaven peculiar to that religious
system known as Swedenborgianism. Its author
was a man of wonderful genius and profound
erudition. In respect to his visions, and religious
speculations, it is a charitable opinion that his power
ful intellect, distinguished as it was by a most inven
tive fancy, and lofty imagination, had become
disordered by his habits of intense study, and long-
continued meditation. In different parts of his
writings he tells us what things he saw in the other
world, and records the conversations he had with the
spirits of the dead, for a long course of years. In a
* Irving's Mohammed — Appendix.

42 Mt FATHER'S House.
word, he comes before the world with a new revela
tion, most essentially modifying that contained in the
Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments. He
describes three heavens, and three classes of angels ;— -
" the angels of the supreme heaven," — " the angels
of the middle heaven," — and " the angels of the ulti
mate or lowest heaven." In this lowest heaven those
Christians dwell, " who are in truths of a general
kind, derived from the literal sense of the word," i.e.
nq£ Swedenborgians. His doctrines, respecting a
future world, are in many respects at variance with
God's Word. He holds that all the angels in heaven,
as well as all the devils in hell, once belonged to the
human race, and lived in this world, as we now do.
Notwithstanding the words of Christ, that in the
future world, they neither marry nor are given in
marriage, he maintains that marriage and conjugal
love in heaven will embrace all joys, and all delights,
from first to last. " The general description which
Swedenborg gives of the employments and joys of
heaven falls immeasurably short of what we find in
the Scriptures. He seems to attach but little impor
tance to the Scriptural idea that the spirits of just
men in heaven are perfect in holiness ; that they are
with Christ and see Him face to face, and are like
Him; that they inherit glory, honour, and immor
tality, — an exceeding and eternal weight of glory.

False Vie ws. 43
His heaven, as he commonly describes it, is too
earthly,"* grovelling, and sensual. It is inferior
even to that of the pagan, Cicero, who looked for a
heaven in which he would be raised above all
corporeal appetites and pleasures,f and where the
soul, with an unquenchable thirst after knowledge,
would successfully pursue it, through ages that have
no end. The view, already taken, of the origin of
this religious system, is the most charitable one that
can be suggested ; viz., that his mind had been
thrown into an abnormal state, by some disturbing
cause. We have living examples of the same mental
state, among those who profess to be his disciples,
or who unconsciously have adopted many of his
principles. It matters little whether you call it
a dreaming, Mesmeric, or deranged state ; it is
an unnatural, unhealthy, disordered state of the
faculties, which may come upon any man who
disregards the laws of his nature, whether physical,
intellectual or moral. We are, indeed, fearfully and
wonderfully made.
This is eminently true of our bodies as shown by
the revelations of physiology ; but it is even more
so of our intellectual part. Who knows himself?
What spiritual anatomy can make one acquainted
• Dr. Wood's Leot. p. 133.
t Profecto beati erimus, cum, corporibus relictis, et cupiditatum
et aemulationum erimus expertes. Etc. — Tusc. Quaest.

44 Mv FATHER'S House.
with his interior self? But we may learn enough to
fill us with fear. The mind will revenge itself for
abuses. If men are determined to follow what they
wish to be true, or what coincides with a perverted
inclination, rather than what they might easily know
is both true and right, they may at length be given
up to believe the flattering falsehood. If a man
attempt to feed his mind with error, it will be no
surprising thing, if it should evince symptoms of
irregular or disordered action. And so long as the
mind is connected with a mortal body, such action
may be caused by the diseased condition of that
body. In men of genius and sensibility, the imagi
nation is sometimes so powerful as almost to absorb
the other faculties ; so that the events of their lives
may be said more properly to have passed within,
than without them. This may have been the case
with Swedenborg, and may account for those
subjective states of his mind which he transferred,
with all its ignorance and prejudices, to the spiritual
world. We should, then, neither experiment our
selves, nor permit others to experiment, where we
have the power to prevent it, upon excitable temper
aments, and morbid or weak nerves. As there are
some physical constitutions to which an intoxicating
draught is a maddening potion, so there are minds
which may easily be thrown into a disordered or in
sane state, by strongly-excited passion, by over-work,

False Views. 45
by physical disease, or by a persistent study of things
which border on the mysterious and marvellous.
We should as scrupulously protect the mind against
the one, as the body against the other. We have
only to examine the revelations of Swedenborg to
satisfy ourselves that his mind, by some disturbing
cause, had been thrown into an abnormal, that is to
say, a dreaming, or perhaps insane state. Take the
following " Pelation :"
" 1. When they are dead and revive as to their
spirit, which commonly happens on the third day
after the heart has ceased to beat, they appear to
themselves in a body like that which they had before
in the world, so that they know no otherwise than
that they are living in the former world ; yet they are
not in a material body, but in a spiritual body, this
appearing to their senses, which are also spiritual, as
if it were material, although it is not so. 2. After
some days they see that they are in a world where
there are various societies instituted, which world is
called the world of spirits, and is intermediate
between heaven and hell. All the societies, which
are innumerable, are wonderfully arranged according
to natural affections ; the societies arranged accord
ing to good-natured affections communicate with
heaven ; and the societies arranged according to evil
affections, communicate with hell. 3. The novitiate
spirit is introduced into various societies both good and

48 Mt FATHER'S House.
evil, and examination is made whether he is affected
by truths, and in what manner ; and whether and in
what manner he is affected by falses. 4. If he is
affected by truths, he is withdrawn from evil societies,
and introduced into good societies, and also into various
ones, until he comes into a society corresponding with
his own natural affection, where he enjoys the good
corresponding to that affection ; and this until he has
put off his natural affection, and has put on a spiri
tual affection, and then he is elevated into heaven."
He then proceeds to describe the wanderings from
one evil society to another, and at length the ever
lasting confinement in caverns or workhouses, of
all those who have been affected by " falses," espe
cially those " who have confirmed themselves in
doctrine and life, in faith alone unto justification."*
These and other similar "relations" read like a record
of distempered visions which sometimes haunt the
mind of a deranged man, or mono-maniac. They
are strikingly analogous to the messages which some,
in our day, profess to bring from the world of spirits,
only that they have the advantage over the latter of
having proceeded from a man of greater genius and
erudition: than has yet been found in the ranks of
our " spiritualists," so-called.
Precisely that explanation which is adapted to the
Apocalypse Revealed, vol 1., § 153.

FiLss Views. 4j
reveries of Emanuel Swedenborg is applicable to all
the professed revelations connected with the modern
delusion.* God has revealed to us in His Word the
condition of departed souls. It is a more reliable
testimony (Luke xvi. 31), as might easily be shown,
than could be gathered from one professing to have
returned from the invisible world, appearing visibly
to us, in the house, or by the way. The spirits of
the righteous dead have a nobler and more dignified
employment than to be returning, at the beck of
mortals, to this world, to give them information, or
receive information from them.
" Who are these that darken counsel by words
without knowledge?" With the partially extin
guished lamp of revelation, giving to the shadows' of
the night only a more bewildering mockery, they
stumble, they wander from the path, and perish.
Tes ; give us back the Bible — the whole Bible — the
* Compare Judge Edmonds's account (Christian Spiritualist,
November 4, 1854) of the interview he says he had with the spirits
of. some of those lost in the Arctic, with the above extract
from the "Apocalypse Revealed." The Judge is only another
Swedenborg with less learning, less consistency, and less reverence.
Swedenborg represents himself as trying to convince Aristotle
that the earth is round, when that old Greek in his work (De
Coelo, ii. B. xiv. c. 8,) had by the same arguments, as are now
employed, proved it to be a globe. Edmonds represents himself as
conversing with the spirit of John F. Lane, the hero of a fictitious
story.

48 My FATHER'S House.
uncorrupted Word of God. It is too much to ask us
to surrender this Book, or to substitute any other in
the place of it. We need it to enlighten our way
through this world. Without it, not a single star
dawns on man's sombre pathway. We need it to
enlighten our steps through the valley of the shadow of
death. The light of that city beyond the grave, shin
ing like a sun, but without a sun, having the glory of
God, like the Shekinah which rested between the
golden cherubim, pierces even the gloom of the grave,
and falls like sunbeams, through the rifted cloud, on
this side the Jordan. Welcome, thou Book of God !
Welcome, light of heaven ! Welcome, divine philo
sophy 1 " A perpetual feast of nectared sweets,
Where no crude surfeit reigns." *
There are several points, in the false views of
heaven now presented, in striking contrast with the
heaven of the Bible.
1. The conscious state of happiness to which the
most enlightened Pagan nations are looking beyond
death, is represented as impure, and one in which they
have no security against a return to the earth, to trans
migrate through the bodies of insects, animals, and
men. How absurd to look for happiness in a world
* Milton.

FalseViews. 49
where the fires of the worst passions and lusts burn
and rage ! What better than a pandemonium, though
called heaven, and located in a cloud, or the brightest
star that gems the evening sky ! But even in this
they have no security against a return to the poverty,
and pain, and miseries, of earth. They may be again
cast out, to wander hundreds of years, in the bodies
of swine, of dogs, or of cattle, until, permitted once
more to enter a human body, they have another
opportunity, by self-inflicted tortures, or bodily aus
terities, to prepare themselves for their celestial pan
demonium. How unlike the " rest" which rem aineth
for the people of God ; in which by His power,
through the perfect mediation of Christ, they will be
confirmed in holiness and happiness, for ever ! " And
God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes ; and
there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor cry
ing, neither shall there be any more pain ; for the
former things are passed away." " They are before
the throne of God, and serve Him, day and night in
His temple," and " shall go no more out."*
2. The only state of future happiness, known to the
most intelligent heathen, in which they are not
exposed to apostasy, and a return to all the miseries
of earth, and even to the miseries of hell, is a state
of unconsciousness in which, without ideas, they lose
their individual existence, and are as if they had
Rev. iii. 12 ; vii. 15 ; xxi. 4.
3

50 Mt FATHER'S House.
never been. But, in the heaven to which Christians
aspire, the soul not only retains its personal identity
and consciousness, but enters on a state of higher
knowledge, and of endless progress in knowledge,
and assimilation to the Lord. " And the glory which
Thou gavest me, I have given them ; that they may
be one, even as we are one ; I in them, and Thou in
me, that they may be made perfect in one ; and that
the world may know that Thou hast sent me, and hast
loved them, as Thou hast loved me. Father, I will
that they also whom Thou hast given me, be with me
where I am, that they may behold my glory."
"Now we see through a glass darkly; but then
face to face : now I know in part ; but then I shall
know even as also I am known." *
3. And what was the elysium of the great mass of
the polished nations of Greece and Pome, as embo
died by their poets, of the Scandinavian warrior, and
of the Aborigines of our own forests, but a repro
duction, upon another theatre, of the very pursuits
of this world? In bloody battles, or in light and
airy sports, or in sensual and inglorious repose, they
found the very archetypes of the heaven for which
they longed. They looked for war-charriots, for wild
adventures, for sumptuous banquets and couches, in
that spirit-land. How dark were our prospects ! did
not our religion assure us of something better, beyond
* 1 Cor. xiii. 12 ; John xvii. 22-24.

False Views. 51
the grave, than the renewal — I will not say of our
present pursuits, strifes, and hostilities — but even of
our most unadulterated joys. " There remaineth,
therefore, a rest for the people of God." "And I
heard a voice from heaven, saying unto me, Write,
Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord from
henceforth ; yea, saith the Spirit, that they may rest
from their labours." "Flesh and blood cannot
inherit the kingdom of God ; neither doth corruption
inherit incorruption."*
4. Even the heaven to which the philosophic Plato
looked forward, had no mansions for the illiterate
labouring poor. It was a home for the elite. It was
an abode exclusively for men of study and mental
abstraction, who had recovered, to use his own form
of expression, some portion of their original, intel
lectual visions of truth and beauty. Alas! for the
poor of this world, were there no other remedy for
the woes of their condition than the " divine philo
sophy " of the Grecian sage ! Blessed be God ! we
have something better than philosophy, or rather,
a philosophy which is truly " diviDe." We have the
Gospel, by which those who are cast down may be*
lifted up — the poor made rich in faith, and heirs of
eternal life. "And to you who are troubled, rest
with us, when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed."
"They shall hunger no more, neither thirst any
* 1 Cor. xv. 50 ; Rev. xiv. 13 • Heb. iv. 9.

52 My FATHER'S House.
more ; neither shall the sun light on them, nor any
heat."* 5. Finally : How infinitely does the heaven of the
Bible transcend the sensual paradise of the Arabian
impostor, and that of the Swedish philosopher!
"And there shall, in no wise, enter into it any
thing that defileth, neither whatsoever worketh
abomination, or maketh a lie." "For, in the res
urrection, they neither marry nor are given in
marriage, but are as the angels of God."f
" Oh, happy country! where
There entereth not a sin ;
And death, who keeps its portals fair,
May never once come in.
No grief can change their day to night ;
The darkness of that land is light ;
Sorrow and sighing God has sent
Far thence to endless banishment.
And never more may one dark tear
Bedim their burning skies ;
For every one they shed while here
In fearful agonies,
Glitters a bright and dazzling gem,
In their immortal diadem." J
• Rev. vii. 16 ; 2 These* i. 7. f Matt. xxii. 30 ; Rev. Ed. JT.
J C. Bowles.

The Gloet op Heaven. 53

III.
THE GLORY OF HEAVEN.
THE caution not to degrade the heaven of the Bible,
by attempting to conceive of it through a misap
plication or mistaken use of sensible images, or by
crude fancies of our own invention, must not be
interpreted into a prohibition, or proscription of the
subject. The hope of the Christian must become
a feeble thing, if he has not some clear and defi
nite idea of that heaven to which he is looking
forward. There is enough revealed to give direction,
and scope to our thoughts upon this subject. But it
is of immense practical importance to have scriptural
views as to the nature of the true glory of heaven.
Men are prone to cherish the hope of happiness,
mere happiness, after death, while they do not con
sider their want of the only qualification which could
render them happy in heaven. They picture to their
minds some place replete with glories, addressed
merely to the» senses, amidst which they imagine
they could pass the ages of eternity happily away.
Their notions are shadowy and vague, originating in

54 Mt FATHER'S House.
a lively fancy, rather than in scriptural knowledge.
It is even possible that they have suffered themselves
to be misled by the figurative illustrations of the
Word of God. Heaven is no more than a vast city,
literally filled with palaces, whose streets are gold,
and whose walls and gates are built of precious
stones ; or a splendid temple, filled with every object
that can please the eye, and every sound to charm
the ear. There are others, perhaps, whose concep
tions are even more gross and earthly; for which
they are in reality more indebted to the Alcoran,
than to the Bible. In their carnal paradise, they
dream, they could be blessed, and forget that, with
out holiness, no man shall see the Lord.
And may it not be true that even Christians some
times imbibe low and unworthy views, and overlook
the chief element in the blessedness of the righteous ?
May they not be so fascinated by the mere drapery
with which the Scriptures invest this subject, as to
lose sight of the true essence of " the glory that is to
be revealed." It is glory, an inconceivable, and
eternal weight of glory. Heaven is at.t. Glory!
And the Word of God gives us such glimpses of it as
are sufficient to guide, and give all necessary scope
to our meditations in respect to it. What then is
that glory ? What may we now learn respecting it ?
It gave a lustre brighter than the noon-day sun to
that city, which John saw coming down from God

The Globt op Heaven. 55
out of heaven. It was this that made it clear as
crystal, and resplendent as with gold and precious
stones It illuminated the caves of Patmos, and
made that desert island, to the exile, like the golden
threshold of the New Jerusalem. Hence we learn,
That, in heaven, the glory of the Lord will be
peculiarly displayed. It will fill the place. That
divine abode will need no sun, neither moon, to shine
in it ; for the glory of God will lighten it, and " the
Lamb is the light thereof." The import of this lan
guage is, that God will make a peculiar manifestation
of the perfections of His character to His redeemed
people; He will display His truth, His justice, and His
mercy, in the system of providence, and the glorious
plan of salvation. He will reveal Himself as the God
of holiness. In the material universe, we have the
most sublime demonstrations of His might and domi
nion ; but heaven will be the theatre where God
will unveil the milder features of His character, and
exhibit, before adoring multitudes, its spotless
purity, and His inconceivable glory. It will be their
blessedness, and the theme of their everlasting
anthems, that they are permitted to have a near and
unintercepted view of that holy Being, who cannot
look on sin. The dazzling splendours that surround
the eternal throne, proceed from the immaculate
perfections of Him who fills it. He will for ever be
the great centre and source of bliss and joy to the

56 My FATHER'S House.
innumerable company of angels, and the spirits of the
just made perfect. But, how would this be possible,
if they were destitute of holiness, or the love of it ?
Heaven, pervaded with so sacred a Presence, would
be a cheerless, dreary abode to an unholy being ; he
would prefer to dwell in almost any other section of
the divine empire. God would be to him a consum
ing fire ; His presence would fill him with remorse
and dismay. The absence of darkness, pain, disease,
sorrow, and death, could make no heaven for an im
mortal being, destitute of the love and fear of God.
But let a principle of holiness be implanted in the
heart of man, and the nearer you bring him towards
the great Fountain of truth and excellence, the greater
will be his bliss. He may even be brought to regard
death as a happy and desirable event, as it will bring
him near to God. It is this which supports him in that
hour of trial, when heart and flesh are failing, and
the curtain is about to be withdrawn, and he is no
longer to see his divine Pedeemer through a glass
darkly, but face to face. " As for me," exclaims the
Psalmist, " I will behold thy face in righteousness ; I
shall be satisfied, when I awake, with thy likeness."
Secondly, the eternal glory of the inhabitants of
heaven is promoted and secured, by their perfect
subjection to the will of God. Every precept of
His law has their acquiescence, and they yield
implicitly to all the obligations which divine autho

The Globt op Heaven. 57
nty imposes. There, there are no conflicts of the
flesh with the spirit, such as those who are striv
ing to enter into the kingdom of heaven experience.
Every faculty is brought into sweet and holy sub
jection to the divine will ; every impulse of the soul
is in complete harmony with the raptures of the
seraph who stands nearest the throne; and every
aspiration is after higher attainments in the know
ledge of God. There, affections never grow cold and
languid ; but, with renewed freshness and vigour, are
directed towards the grand Object that first gave
them proper exercise. As new discoveries in the
Divine character, government, and plans -are revealed,
— to their love is imparted a warmer glow, and their
adoring lips speak out new ecstasies of joy. In the
presence of their ascended and glorious High-Priest,'
faith is swallowed up in sight and hope in fruition ;
but their gratitude, like the sweet incense of a sacri
ficial altar, is nourished, by an inextinguishable flame.
They cast their crowns before the throne of God and
the Lamb, and the same lowliness of mind pervades
the bosoms of all who are numbered in the bright
retinue that fill the mansions of the blest. "The
Lord sitteth upon his throne, high and lifted up, and
His train fills the temple. Above it stand the
Seraphim : each one hath six wings ; with twain he
covered his face, and with twain he covered his feet,
and with twain he did fly. And one cried to another
3*

5g Mt FATHER'S House.
and said, Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of Hosts ; the
whole earth is full of His glory."
The society of the just in heaven is never dis
quieted by the strife and collision of parties. The
peace of that world is never marred. There, no
tongue of slander spreads its secret poison; no
thoughtless, disparaging jest awakens resentment, or
calls forth the secret tear; no jealousy and suspicion
ever annoy ; no covetousness harrows the mind, or
creates distrust. No licentious desire sheds its bale
ful and polluting influence; no revengeful passions
bring mourning and distress ; but every wiU .bows,
with a chastened spirit of submission, to the sway of
the great Jehovah.
In heaven, God is worshipped in the beauty of
perfect holiness. No irreverence, no wandering
thought, no worldly affections or desires, come in to
rob the soul of spiritual peace and joy. The vast
assembly, swayed as by a common impulse, render
their heartfelt homage ; and no discordant feelings, no
earth-born emotions, mar their 'spiritual and exalted
services. "We shall then have enlightened under
standings without Scripture, and be governed with
out a written law ; for the Lord will perfect His law
in our hearts, and we shall be all perfectly taught of
God We shall have joy which we drew not from
the promises, nor fetched home by faith and hope."
Neither will there be interruption nor end to the

The Gloet op Heaven. 59
perfect service and blessedness of heaven. Increas
ing knowledge produces a continual and resistless
flow of holy affection. The Divine glory, the won
ders of creation, providence, and grace, are unfolded,
and what we know not now is fully disclosed and
clearly discerned. The many intricacies of the
Divine economy, so replete with perplexity and mis
giving to our present, darkened understandings, are
there cleared up, and made to reflect the wisdom,
justice, and mercy of the Deity. The mysterious dis
pensations of this probationary state ; the fearful and
unexpected judgments which have filled nations with
distress ; calamities which have shrouded households
in mourning ; events which have seemed to threaten
the prosperity of Zion ; the afflictions of the righteous,
the premature death, the infirm health, the tottering
reason of those who gave promise of eminent useful
ness, will stand in light clear as the noon, and be
realized as the exhibitions of the infinitely wise and
unsearchable counsels of Him who worketh all in all,
and reigneth for ever and ever. " There" as an old
writer has remarked, " all knots shall be untied, all
mysteries unveiled ; the just connexion of the least
link in the chain of Providence will be easily seen in
that land of vision, where all is clear, yet all amazing;
and the unequal reflections made here, as if Divine
Wisdom were careless or baffled, will be turned into
admiring acknowledgments of that care and goodness,

60 Mt FATHER'S House.
which run through all the windings of Providence.
Triumphant souls shall see, admire, and celebrate
that infinite wisdom and goodness, in the very things
they were too apt to complain of here, and shall own
how necessary they were, for bringing them there."
In heaven, the works of God will be understood.
There are many curious parts and ordinances of
creation which still remain unexplored, and which,
it is probable, will never be fully understood, until we
are possessed of an angel's activity, and an angel's
intellect. This is the infancy of our being ; we use
the language of children ; we have their understand
ings ; but when we become men, we shall put away
childish things ; now we know in part ; but then we
shall know even as also we are known. The disso
lution of our globe, even should it never be restored,
would leave a vast number of the works of God
untouched, and unimpaired, where, as in a bright
mirror, may be seen the reflection of the attributes
of Him who made them. What variety! What
magnitude ! What extension ! Our knowledge will
be greatly increased, our faculties greatly invigor
ated, and our intellectual views immensely expanded.
But, most of all, will the scheme of redemption receive
new illustrations, and be invested with a luminous
glory, and crowned as the brightest expression of
infinite benevolence in the celestial world. Wheu
the Lord's redeemed ones shall see him as He is, and

The Glort op Heaven. 61
behold the fruit of the agony of His soul in the multi
tude of the saved, which no man can number, they
will regard the method of salvation, by Jesus Christ,
as reflecting the richest and loveliest glories of the
Divine nature. They will perceive that the work of
redemption is the end of all the other works of God ;
that all His works of providence, all the revolutions
in the world, and the creation of the world itself,
were subservient to it. They will then understand
that " God created the world to provide a spouse .
and kingdom for his Son ; and the setting up of the
kingdom of Christ, and the spiritual union of the
spouse to Hlm, are what the whole creation laboured
and travailed in pain to bring to pass ; and that this
work of redemption is so much the greatest of all the
works of God, that all other works are to be looked
upon as parts of it, or appendages to it, or as some
way reducible to it ; and that all the decrees of God,
some way or other, belong to that eternal covenant
of redemption which was between the Father and
the Son, before the foundation of the world."*
Inasmuch, then, as holy beings will advance in
holiness as their knowledge of God, His ways, and
works, increases, we may rest assured that they will
never grow weary of doing the will of God. New
ages wiU find them entering upon it, with fresh
activity, fervour, and joy. No fatigue, no coldness,
* Edwards' Works, vol. iii., p. 427.

62 My FATHER'S House.
no reluctance, will render the worship of heaven a
weariness to the saints ; but while eternity endures,
they will cease not, day and night, to cry, " Worthy
is the Lamb that was slain to receive power, and
riches, and wisdom, and strength, and" honour, and
glory, and blessing!"
But, further ; the saints on high will be perfect in
love; and their obedience, proceeding from the
heart, will be cordial and sincere. In this world,
piety is often drooping and depressed ; or, if active,
still inconstant and constrained. The merest trifles
are sufficient to dampen its joys, and lead to a relax
ation of its duties. Let but a momentary cloud come
over our horizon, and doubt and dejection fill the
soul with disquiet, and cause it to mourn like the
sparrow on the house-top. And, alas ! how often
does obedience prove a yoke of bondage; the dis
ciple fulfills his obligations, not with a cheerful
readiness, but with the spirit of a slave or a hireling.
It is not his meat and drink, to do the will of his
Father; he imbibes the spirit of the world, is be
trayed into neglect of prayer, and duty becomes a
forbidding, repulsive task. Not so in heaven. Love
warms every heart, and with resistless influences
leads to joyful acquiescence in the will of God. It
banishes gloom and despondency; emancipates the
soul from the thraldom of fear, and imparts activity
and vigour to all its faculties, for enjoying, and

The Gloky op Heaven. 63
glorifying God. It dispels every shadow, and ex
cludes every lukewarm and inconstant affection ;
it gives warmth to desire, spreads a hallowing in
fluence over the soul, and links it, with enduring
bonds, to the throne of the Eternal. Love is the
grand principle of attraction, binding every soul to
one glorious centre. Nothing can ' counteract it ;
nothing can ever disturb it. It operates by a gentle,
but sure and immutable force. God is obeyed, and
obeyed cheerfully, not merely because He is a right
ful Lawgiver and Governor, not merely because His
injunctions and prohibitions are founded in everlast
ing truth and mercy, but because He is loved.
It is this love which is the great essential element
in the blessedness of heaven. The spirits of just men
made perfect, are inexpressibly happy in obeying and
serving God, because He is the object of their
supreme affection. And what other foundation has
this love, but infinite rectitude ? Pest assured, reader,
whoever thou art, rich or poor, learned or unlearned,
that without holiness you can never see the kingdom
of God. You may picture to yourself a future state
of carnal repose, and sensual gratification, but it will
prove a delusion. The mansions which the Saviour
has gone to prepare for His followers are mansions of
spotless purity. " And there shall in no wise enter
into them anything that defileth, neither whatsoever
worketh abomination or maketh a lie." In the pre-

64 Mt FATHER'S House.
sence of God, there is, indeed, fullness of joy, at His
right hand there are pleasures for evermore; but they
will be the inheritance of those, and those alone,
who, by patient continuance in well-doing, seek for
glory, honour, and immortality.
Finally; all the inhabitants of heaven are confirmed
in holiness, for ever, and thus is the happiness of that
world unalterably secured. Could sin be introduced
there, it would no longer remain the seat of supreme
and unmingled blessedness. Could sin invade a sin
gle bosom, it would essentially alter the character of
the place. But the unnumbered host of heaven in
all their various ranks, from the highest to the lowest,
are pervaded by the same spirit of love and obedience
to God. The ten thousand times ten thousand, and
thousands of thousands, who occupy the seats of
heavenly glory, all possess the same elevated and
sacred character. A "fullness 'of joy," "perpetual
pleasures," render them undesirous of any change.
They have no need of varieties and diversions.
What once pleased can not cease 1o do so. Hence
they can never grow weary in the service of God.
" The sun will sooner grow weary of shining ; the
magnetic needle of turning to its wonted point ;
everything will sooner grow weary of its centre ; and
the most fundamental laws of nature be sooner anti
quated, and made void for ever. Wisdom guides
and fixes the eye of the holy soul, and determines it

The Globt op Heaven. 65
upon God."* It sees Him as He is, and becomes
like Him ; and is confirmed by the fruition of God's
presence in holiness for ever. In heaven, no grovel
ling influence, no unholy passion, no temptation, can
gain entrance, to mislead, to blight, and to destroy.
We have seen that the foundation of the blessed
ness of the saints in heaven is their conformity to
the will of God. Transformed, by the grace of God,
to be the children of light, they view, with joyful
satisfaction, the bright display of His attributes of
holiness and goodness. And, in this world, we are
to enter upon the cultivation of those holy disposi
tions, which will assimilate us to the inhabitants of
heaven, and thus prepare us to join their blissful
society. Be assured, I repeat it, that you could
never be happy in heaven, without such preparation,
even if it were possible without it, to be admitted
there. Men are never truly happy in this world,
until they are made subjects of the renewing and
sanctifying grace of God. They may have a show
of happiness, but it consists in outward appearance
alone. Multitudes wear the exterior of gayety,
while the heart is corroded, with anxious care, or is
the seat of the bitterest grief and the strife of
passion. Will you go to scenes of festivity and
mirth, where, to the noise of viols, the dancers revel,
to 'find the happy ? Ah ! these are but the weak
* J. Howe,

66 My FATHER'S House.
devices of the wretched, to cheat their hearts, for a
a season, into forgetfulness of their misery. Will
you go to the mansions of the great and affluent?
Alas ! robes of office cannot shield the bosom, nor
are marble walls a protection against misery. No
wealth can erect above the most lordly roof the
gilded point, which shall turn off the bolts of
affliction from the heads of those who dwell below.
How many hearts throb with anguish, beneath
purple and fine linen ! How many are sleepless and
miserable, on beds of down ! Sin, unforsaken —
unforgiven, has robbed them of their peace, and sets
at defiance the ¦ most artful and costly appliances to
render them happy. They may woo Peace ; but
Peace, heavenly guest, quickly follows her mate, and
flies far from the heart which Innocence has deserted.
Nay, to whatever portion of the habitable universe
they may betake themselves, a heart unreconciled to
God would rob them of all settled peace. If they
could leave this planet of ours, and with the wings
of the morning, fly to some fairy region, some beau
tiful world, beautiful as the most gorgeous imagina
tion can picture, richly furnished with all that could
delight flesh and sense, where the ear would be
soothed with the most enchanting melody, and the
taste regaled with the most delicious viands, to dwell
in splendid mansions, attended by companions of
congenial tastes and dispositions, caressed and served

This Glohy op Heavpn. 67
by a retinue of dependents, without any interruption
from the example or reproof of good men, they
might think they would certainly be happy. But
how soon would they learn, that, with a sinful heart,
even in this paradise of their own creation and
selection, misery would still haunt their steps. The
truth is, that no change of scene, in the universe of
God, is of itself sufficient to yield happiness to those
who cherish the enemies of their peace in their own
hearts. Heaven is a place of blessedness, because
it is pure ; and the redeemed are happy there just
because they have been prepared for that world, by
being made partakers of holiness.

63 My FATHER'S Housa.

IY.
THE PLACE.
HEAVEN is sometimes called Everlasting Life,
Eternal Life. Is it then to be conceived of as a
mere state, and not as a defined place of residence
and action ? That heaven has locality th * Scrip
tures, particularly in the great doctrine that the
self-same bodies, which are laid in the grave, shaU
be raised up by the power of Christ, do not leave us
to doubt.
That heaven is not merely a state of being, but a
place, is most clear from the translation of Enoch.
He did not " see death and was not found, because
God had translated him."* It is said in Genesis,
" God took him."f He was removed, in body and
soul, to another dwelling-place to be with God. We
have a similar proof in the translation of Elijah, who
was carried bodily, " by a whirlwind into heaven. "|
*Heb.' xi. 5. f v. 24. J 2 Ki.i.u-s, ii. 11.

The Place. 69
The prophet Elisha saw him ascend. Nearly a
thousand years after his translation, he was seen
again in this world on the Mount of Transfiguration,
in the same body in which he " went up." There
must be some place where the bodies of these trans
lated saints are residing. That place is heaven.
The ascension into heaven of Christ, in our nature,
proves the same thing. He had shown himself to
His disciples, after His resurrection, and given them
ample opportunity to examine His body, and satisfy
themselves that it was the very same which hung
upon the Cross. He had told them that He should
ascend to that Father who had sent Him ; that He
should return to that heaven from which He came
down. And in their presence, while they were
beholding Him, He returned to the world of glory.
He did not leave His human body, but bore it with
Him. The heavens received Him out of their sight ;
and to His disciples was given the assurance that, in
due time, the same heavens would reveal Him again.
In His glorified human nature He departed for a
place which is beyond the ken of mortals. That
place is heaven.
The martyr Stephen, just before his death, saw
heaven opened, the glory of God, and Jesus standing
on the right hand of God.* This was not a mere
illusion of the mind, but an actual vision, granted
* Acts vii. 55, 56.

70 My FATHER'S House.
to him that his faith might not fail in that trying
moment. Paul also had a vision of heaven, " the
third heaven." He calls it the third, in allusion to
the distinction which the Jews made on this subject.
The first was the atmosphere, or the aerial heaven ;
the second, the region of the heavenly bodies,, the
sun, moon and stars ; and the third, the heaven
where God reigns in glory, and will crown His
people with eternal felicity. Of this place Paul had
a vision, and heard " unspeakable words which it is
not lawful for men to utter."* The grand scene of
the visions of the apostle John, in Patmos, was laid
in heaven. He saw the throne of God surrounded
by a bright retinue of ministering spirits, and the
glory and order of the heavenly world. He beheld
the place where departed, happy spirits take up
their everlasting abode. Such representations of
the Word of God are suited to impress a mind, not
given to the refinement, that the soul, after death, is
for ever separated from matter, from time, and from
space, that heaven must have locality.
But, as already intimated, the Scripture doctrine
of the resurrection of the bodies of the redeemed
necessarily involves that of the locality of heaven.
The heaven into which Christ entered with His
glorified body — into which Enoch and Elijah entered
with their original bodies, changed and glorified, it
* 2 Cor. xiii. 2-4.

ThePlaoe. 71
is true, but still substantially the same, and into
which, at the last day, all the saints shall be
admitted, clothed with a body like unto Christ's,
must be an external, tangible abode — as tangible, to
say the least, as the bodies which are to inhabit it.
But where is this glorious place ? Our Lord
endeavoured to comfort His disciples with the assur
ance that He was going to prepare it for them, and
that He would come again and receive them to Him
self. But did He tell them where, or in what part of
the universe, heaven is located? Dr. Chalmers,
in a well-known discourse upon the words, " Never
theless, we according to His promise, look for new
heavens, and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteous
ness,"* suggests that by the convulsions of the last
day this world may be shaken, and broken down
from its present arrangements, and the whole of its
existing frame-work fall to pieces, and by a heat so
fervent as to melt its most solid elements ; and that
out of the ruin of this second chaos other heavens
and another earth may be made to arise ; and a new
materialism, with other aspects of magnificence and
beauty, emerge from the wreck of this mighty trans
formation; that in the place of eternal blessedness
there will be ground to walk upon — scenes of luxu-
rianee to delight the corporeal senses — and the kindly
intercourse of friends, talking familiarly, and by
* 2 Pet. iii. 13.

72 My FATHER'S House.
articulate converse togother. Bjit he very carefully
avoids expressing the belief or intimation that the
limits of the new earth are to constitute the fixed
boundary of heaven, the inheritance of the saints.
Others, however, have contended that the place
which our Lord promised to prepare for His followers
will be this planet of ours, in a restored or perfected
condition, as one of the many mansions ;* and that
this preparation will not be made till after the resur
rection of men, at the second coming of Christ. The
*
words, " In my Father's house are many mansions,"f
etc., unquestionably refer to heaven. But when our
Lord says, " I go to prepare a place for you," it is not
necessary to suppose that He had reference to some
particular planet or star, which then remained to be
beautified, and otherwise prepared for their reception,
and to which they were to be confined. Heaven or
the " Father's House," may, on the contrary, be as
extensive as the sidereal heavens, or as the entire
created universe, with the exception of that region
denominated the " outer darkness," into which repro
bate angels and men will be cast. The Saviour, by
His going to prepare a place, meant that He must
appear in Heaven as our great High Priest and
interceding Lord. It is His intercessory work, as the
Lamb slain "from the foundation of the world, which
* Vid. " The Many Mansions," &c. by the late G. S. Faber, B.D.
t John xlv. 2, 3.

The Place. 73
prepares heaven for His people. When they die, He
comes again and receives them to Himself. Absent
from the body they are present with their Lord, in
His Father's house — their bliss to have its perfect con
summation at the resurrection of their bodies. Into
the very heaven, where Christ is gone, they are
admitted ; they have a place in its many mansions.
Can we believe that the promise to Peter, and James,
and John, and their companions, "I am to come
back and receive you to myself," has not yet been
fulfilled ? that heaven has not yet been prepared for
them, nor for the translated Enoch and Elijah; for
David and Isaiah? that the dying Stephen saw the
gates of heaven open only to delude his faith and
mock his hope, and that the Lord Jesus has not yet
received his spirit into that blessed world ? or that
Paul, after an absence of eighteen hundred years
from his body, is still absent from his Lord ? Impos
sible. Christ is present at the death of every
believer, and may, therefore, be said to come back, to
receive his departing spirit. The soul goes forth to
Htm, into the many mansions of His Father's house.
Science teaches us, — -to adopt with some modification,
the language of Sir D. Brewster — 'the history of our
earth, its form, and size, and motions ; it surveys the
Solar System, measures its planets, and pronounces
the earth to be but a tiny sphere, and to have no
place of distinction among its gigantic compeers. ,
4

74 Mt FATHER'S House.
The telescope establishes new systems of worlds, far
beyond the boundaries of our own, and' inspires the
Christian with an interest in worlds and systems of
worlds — in life without limits, as well as in life with
out end. On angels' wings, he soars to the zenith,
and speeds his way to the horizon of space, without
reaching its ever-retiring bourne ; and in the infinity
of worlds, and amid the infinity of life, he descries
the home, and the companions of the future.*
But even were we to admit that Christ's coming,
in the passage in question, must be his second com
ing, at the end of the world, it is impossible to make
it appear that the place which He promised to pre
pare for His people is this earth, however changed
by the last conflagration, and renewed by divine
power. Our Lord assured Bis disciples that He was
going away to prepare a place for them, and then
(that is, the place being prepared) He would come
back, to receive them to Himself. With this, His
own declaration, even understanding Him to refer to
His second advent, the theory that this earth is to
be made ready for the eternal residence and only
heaven of the saints, after His appearance in the
clouds, to raise the dead, and judge the righteous
and the wicked, is in diametrical opposition. Christ
declares that He was going away to prepare a place
for His followers, and then would return to receive
* More Worlds than One. pp. 17, 18.

The Place. 75
them; the theory asserts that Christ is to return
before that place is prepared, or that it is not to
be prepared until after the resurrection, and the day
of judgment.
In the third chapter of the second epistle of Peter,
there also occur expressions which have been much
relied upon, to establish the doctrine that this earth
of ours, after renewal, is to be the seat of heaven, for
the redeemed of our race. They are such as these :
" But the heavens and the earth, which are now, by
the same word, are kept in store"eserved unto fire
against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly
men." " The day of the Lord will come as a thief in
the night ; in the which, the heavens shall pass away
with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with
fervent heat ; the earth also, and the works that are
therein shall be burned up." "Nevertheless, we,
according to his promise, look for new heavens and
a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness."*
But, admitting that these words are to be consid
ered as literal throughout, does it follow that this
earth is to be the seat, the exclusive seat, of the
everlasting residence of the saints? Indeed, we feel
much inclined to the literal interpretation of the
passage ; i. e. that it teaches that the present earth,
after its predicted destruction, will come forth
renewed; and yet, we cannot hold that any such
* 2 Peter iii. 7, 10, 13.

76 Mt FATHER'S House.
pre-eminence is to be assigned to it, as that it
shall become the exclusive seat, or boundary, of
the future heaven of the saints. It appears to be
clearly the teaching of the Apostle, that our material
globe is to be, at length, overwhelmed with a fiery
deluge, — that the watery deluge, in the days of
Noah, was both a figure and a pattern of that by
fire, which awaits ' it, in " the day of the Lord."
He expressly says,* that as the former world was
overflowed with water, and perished, so the present
heavens and eartn " are kept in store, reserved unto
fire, against the day of judgment and perdition of
ungodly men," that in " the day of God, the heaven,
being on fire, shall be dissolved, and the elements
shall melt with fervent heat." "The Lord Jesus,"
says the apostle Paul, " shall be revealed from
heaven, with His mighty angels, in flaming fire,
taking vengeance on them that know not God, and
that obey not the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ."t
In accordance with this teaching of the Bible that
a destruction, by fire, is to be the doom of our earth,
God has already given us some sign's from above.
" We see in the heavens themselves some traces of
destructive elements, and some indications of their
power. The fragments of broken planets — the
descent of meteoric stones upon our globe — the
wheeling comets, welding their loose materials to the
* 2 Peter, iii. 6, 7, 12. t 2 Thess. i. 7, 8.

The Place. 77
solar surface — the volcanic eruptions on our own
satellite — the disappearance of stars, are all fore
shadows of that impending convulsion, to which the
system of the world is doomed." The awful text,
" the earth and the works that are therein shaU be
burned up," is written visibly upon the heavens over
our heads. It is an extraordinary fact which Astro
nomy reveals, that several stars, in different constel
lations, seem to have totally disappeared. In the
year 1572, a star in one of the constellations, was
observed, all at once, to become so brilliant that it
surpassed the splendour of the brightest planets, and
might be seen even at noon-day. Gradually it grew
dim, until it was lost to sight. Another star in 1604
appeared to undergo a similar change. And Geology
reveals the fact that fire, as well as water, has already
effected the mightiest transformations in our planet.
On the face of every precipice and broken crag, — in
every excavation and quarry, may be seen records of
periods of wild disorder, and the effects of mighty
changes and convulsions. " Thus placed on a planet
which is to be burned up, and under heavens that
are to pass away; thus treading as it were on the
cemeteries, and dwelling on the mausoleums of
former worlds, let us learn the lesson of humility and
wisdom, if we have not already been taught it, in the
school of revelation."
The sceptic may reject the idea of the burning of

78 Mt FATHER'S House.
the world, but, how easy for the Creator to cause the
elements to melt, with fervent heat ! There is a sub
stance, diffused throughout nature, one of the com
ponent parts of the air we breathe, the basis of the
water we drink, the principle of vegetation, and
which contains also the very principle of combustion.
In its decomposed state, it will cause iron or steel to
take fire, and blaze under its energy. Let the
Creator but command this invisible fluid to be sepa
rated from its compound, and exert its energies
unrestrained, and a universal conflagration would
commence ; rocks and metals, as well as inflammable
substances would blaze everywhere. It is true that
rocks, sand, and water, will not burn, but, when
decomposed, they are found to be made up of ele
ments, that are either combustible, or the supporters
of combustion. Let this invisible fluid be set loose,
and it would at once decompose the water of the
rivers, lakes and oceans, and form a mixture with
one of its elements, which, if brought in contact with
the fires on the surface, or in the bowels of the earth,
or, with so much as a burning taper, would produce
an explosion which would shake the earth to its
centre. Even the rocks, we are told, have a metallic
base, which, when brought into contact with water,
will produce an explosion of greater or less violence.
Were the whole atmosphere at once dissolved, fear
ful concussions and detonations, of which it, is iinpos-

ThePlace. 79
sible to form any adequate conception, would ensue,
and both sea and land be enwrapped in sudden fire.
Thus does science harmonize with revelation, and
teach how easy it would be for the Most High to
bring to pass His word, that the earth shall be burnt
up, and the heavens, or its surrounding atmosphere,
shall pass away with a mighty noise.
But we are not to conclude that this destruction of
the earth, by fire, will be its annihilation, any more
than that the disappearance of stars that once shone
with superiour brilliancy, proves that they have been
blotted from existence. The inundations, igneous
changes and transformations, through which our
earth passed before it was habitable by the human
race, and which changes may have been as great as
that which wiU be produced by the fires of the last
day, did not prove its annihilation. The earth,
having been subjected to the curse, on account of
man's sin, shall be purified by those fires, and may
afterwards be renewed, surrounded with new aerial
heavens, and beautified beyond what eye hath seen
or ear heard, or the heart of man conceived, and
then become one of the many mansions in the House
of the Father, an apartment of heaven, which the
redeemed shall visit and occupy, from time to time,
as they do other apartments of that blessed abode ;
nay, perhaps regard with peculiar interest, as having
been the place of their rebellion, their Saviour's

80 Mt FATHER'S House.
atoning sufferings, their reconciliation, their disci
pline and training for heaven. The Scriptures
plainly' teach that heaven is a place already existing ;
but there is nothing contradictory to their teachings
in supposing that new " mansions," or apartments
may, from time to time, be added thereto. The
grand feature of the new heavens and the new earth
which are to succeed the present, and form a part of
the Christian's future home, is that " righteousness "
is to dwell therein. It seems to be the Apostle's
object simply to declare that the scene of our pres
ent sins and sufferings is to be reclaimed from the
curse, become the dwelling-place of righteousness,
and is then to be included in those blessed regions.
The Word of God clearly teaches us that man, in
his future state, will consist of a soul residing in a
corporeal frame. He will still have a complex
nature ; he will not be spirit alone, nor a merely
corporeal substance. He must therefore have a home
on which he may reside, suited to the nature of his
corporeal frame, not "an abode of dimness" and
mystery, so remote from human experience as to be
beyond all comprehension," " a lofty aerial region,
where the inmates float in ether, or are mysteriously
suspended upon nothing,"* but a home suited to the
body of the resurrection, a place of residence and
action, "from which he may travel, by means
¦* Dr. Chalmers.

The Place. 81
unknown to us, to other localities in the universe."
" From their past and present history, the Christian
turns his eager eye to the future of the sidereal
systems, and looks to them as the hallowed spots in
which his immortal existence is to run. Scripture
has not spoken with an articulate voice of the future
locality of the blest, but reason has combined the
scattered utterances of inspiration, and, with a
voice, almost oracular, has declared that He who
made the world, will, in the worlds which He has
made, place the beings of His choice." " In what
regions of space these mansions are built — on what
sphere the mouldering dust is to be gathered and
revived, and by what process it is to reach its desti
nation, reason does not enable us to determine ; but
it is impossible for immortal man, with the light of
revelation as his guide, to doubt for a moment that
on the celestial spheres his future is to be spent — ¦
spent doubtless in lofty inquiries — in social inter
course ; in the renewal of domestic ties — and in the
service of his Almighty Benefactor. With such a
vista before us, so wide in its expanse, and so remote
in its termination, what scenes of beauty — what
forms of the sublime — what enjoyments, physical
and intellectual, may we not anticipate, wisdom to
the sage — rest to the pilgrim — and gladness to
the broken in heart ! "*
* More Worlds than One, pp. 24, 262.
' 4*

g2 Mt FATHER'S House.
Heaven is a subject on which the Bible sets limits
to its information. There are mysteries in respect to
which it does not encourage an impertinent famili
arity, or seek to gratify a vain curiosity. We should
not attempt to invade this reticence, or to overleap
the bounds which are set about the Sacred Mount.
What has been termed " definiteness " may be
sought at too great an expense — at the expense of
reverence and devotion.
It is, doubtless, infinitely more important for us to
read in the Divine Charter, our " title to a treasure
in the skies," than to be able to determine the exact
locality of heaven. " We know that Jesus is the
way to it, and that the holy souls will find it after
their dismissal from the body. Angels, who know
the way, will conduct them to it in perfect peace and
safety. Our principal business is to prepare for it,
by following ' peace with all men, and holiness, with
out which no man shall see the Lord.' The certainty
of the place, wherever it may be, is unquestionable ;
and, if our preparation for it be equally certain, we
have nothing to fear either in life or in death."*
We may suppose aU the glories of all created worlds,
objects of grandeur and sublimity, brought together
there and combined, as they are nowhere else in the
universe, and yet our conceptions will fall infinitely
short of the reality ; it will still be true that eye
•Edmonson's Scripture Views of Heaven, pp. 31, 32.

The Place. 83
hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither hath it entered
into the heart of man to conceive the things which
God hath laid up for them that love him.
We speak of the realms of the blest,
Of that country so bright and so fair ;
And oft are its glories confessed —
But what must it be to be there 1
We speak of its pathways of gold,
Of its walks decked with jewels so rare,
Of its wonders and pleasures untold —
But what mast it be to he there ?

84 Mt FATHER'S House.

10 MORE SEA.
JN the symbolical " new earth," which John saw
in vision, " there was no more sea."* There
will, in that world, be no physical or moral uses
for that vast expanse of waters which covers three
parts of the present dwelling-place of our race.
And, as a treacherous, stormy element, there will
be nothing in heaven, of which the ocean may be
employed, even as a figure.
The sea is a vast burying-place. The ashes of
myi'iads of our race, in its coral tombs, or among
its shining pearls, await the archangel's trump. The
fate of empires, in bloody contests, have been decided
upon its bosom. Here the Persian, and the Greek,
the Poman, and the Ottoman, and the Spaniard,
sleep their last sleep :
" The battle thunders will not break their rest."
* Rev. xxi. 1.

NoMoeeSea. 85
Many a hardy mariner, — many of those who go down
to the sea in the peaceful pursuits of commerce, or
for health, or pleasure, or who make it their highway
to a new home, have found their graves in its sun
less depths. Yes ; there are richer treasures than
" Wedges of gold, great anchors, heaps of pearls,
Inestimable stones, unvalued jewels,
All scattered in the bottom of the sea,"
fbrj there sleep many of our race, heirs of immor
tality. There sleep many of the saints of God. No
account shall it be required to give of the gold and
gems sealed up in its secret coffers. But of the
relics of the dead it has in charge, it must, at a
future day, give a faithful reckoning. Every one
of its dead will be reclaimed, and must be surren
dered. The youthful Lowrie, hurled by Chinese
pirates into the waves, throwing back upon the
junk's deck the Bible which he had devoted his
life to teach to the nation of his murderers, at the
same time lifting a glance heavenward, as if he
would say, in the words of his dying Lord, " Father,
forgive them, they know not what they do;" — the
veteran, toil-worn Judson, all spent with labours for
Christ, who, although spared the dreaded " necessity
of burying a wife in the sea,"* sleeps not beneath the
palm-trees of Burmah, but will come from his ocean-
* See Dr. Judson's Obituary of Mrs. Sarah B. Judson.

86 Mt FATHER'S House.
bed to meet " those beloved beings whose bodies are
mouldering at Amherst and St. Helena ;" the proto-
missionary of America, the friend of Africa, Samuel
J. Mills ; the young labourers from Corisco, husband
and wife; the clergyman, Cowles, on the deck of
"The Home," shattered in health but unshaken in
faith, amid " the perils of the sea ;" the eloquent
Cookman who shared in the mysterious fate of
" The President ;" all these will hear and obey the
summons to come from this honoured grave; they
shall hear that tjumpet, at the sound of which the
sea shall give up the dead which are in it.
At the second appearing of the Son of Man, seated
on the throne of judgment, both the sea and the land
will give up the human bodies they contain, the cor
ruptible clothed upon with incorruption, the mortal
with immortality, the natural with the spiritual body,
all prepared for eternal companionship with the souls
which once inhabited them here. And then the sea,
and the land, and the heavens, which are now, shaU
flee away, and there shall be a new heaven and a
new earth, but no more sea. This new heaven and
new earth, in which there is to be no sea, is to be the
residence of the blessed and glorified, after the finish
ing of all God's purposes in respect to the present
material earth.
It greatly softens the terrors of the final dissolution
of all things when we connect with it the glorious

NoMoeeSea. g7
issue which the Word of God reveals. The earth and
the heavens are to flee away, to give place to those
which are far more glorious. The apostle John had
already had the scroll of the Future unrolled before
his astonished gaze. God had shown him that heaven
with all its principalities was on the side of that little
church, which was beleaguered with enemies. He
had seen celestial beings hurrying on swift wings to
succour those whom the hand of power oppressed.
He had seen the lightnings flash, and heard the
thunder of God's power against the persecutors of
His people. He had seen, in prophetic vision,
Jewish, Pagan, and Papal enemies destroyed. He
had looked upon the earth in its Millennial purity
and beauty. He had seen Satan liberated and going
out to deceive the nations. He had looked upon the
great battle of " Gog and Magog." And now behold,
the end approaches. He has a vision of a great
white throne set for judgment, and the passing away
of heaven and earth. Graves open ; the sea gives up
its dead; and small and great stand before God.
The books are opened ; the righteous rewarded ; the
wicked condemned.
Thus, the passing away of the present heavens and
earth, when considered in the light of that great,
divine plan, which is unfolded in prophecy, is to
be regarded, as but one stage in that plan, as
unfolded in the Apocalypse, in which God the Father,

88 My FATHER'S House.
Son, and Holy Ghost — angels, men, and devils-
heaven, earth, and hell, — the resurrection, the final
conflagration, the judgment-day — and the retribu
tions of an eternal state, are made successively to
pass before us. When Jehovah has accomplished aU
His purposes of judgment and mercy, in respect to
this lower world, the stage will be taken down, and
another scene opened on a new and grander theatre.
The writer of the Apocalypse uses strong and ani
mated figures. He does not mean that at the end of
this world, heaven will then be new created, and thus
contradict what is elsewhere clearly taught in the
Scriptures, that it is a place already prepared, into
which the translated Enoch and Elijah, and the risen
and ascended Forerunner, have entered, in glorified,
humanity. But he means that at the resurrection,
and after the judgment-day, eternity will succeed to
time, and the saints united to their glorified bodies
will enter upon a higher state of happiness, and into a
place to their bodies at least new, and infinitely supe
rior to their former dwelling-place. He expressly
says that no place was found for the present heavens
and earth, and that there was no more sea.
In the heaven into which Enoch and Elijah entered,
—into which Christ entered, and all the saints, at their
resurrection, will be admitted, clothed with a body,
like unto Christ's, where the righteous receive their
reward, where discipline and trial will be succeeded

NoMokeSea. 89
by eternal holiness and joy, there will be no rigorous
cold, no torrid heat, no wastes of Arctic snow and
ice, no howling deserts, no blustering wind, no
sea, — nothing to occasion fear or uneasiness; but,
contrariwise, everything which can contribute to the
perfect enjoyment of both soul and body, for ever.
In that land of wealth, none shall encounter peril ;
none toil for paltry gold. No pain or sickness there;
no voyaging for new continents or climates, or, for
healthful breezes. The spiritual body will not be
dependent on material food, the supply of the harvest-
field, the flesh of animals, or the product of the sea.
Hunger and thirst, as well as winter and storm, will
have for, ever passed away. This corruptible will
have put on incorruption ; for flesh and blood shall
not inherit the kingdom of God. We shall have
bodies, but not like our present, full of weakness,
exposed to disease, dependent for nourishment and
life on food and drink ; but spiritual bodies, knowing
no decay, having a principle of immortal life, and
youth, and beauty. The constitution of things will
be changed from what it is now. Humanity will
have been purged of its last taint of corruption. It
will have no cumbrous weights, to clog or impede
its activity. Swift wings will speed it on, in the
service and adoration of heaven's King. The employ
ments of heaven will perfectly harmonize with the
powers and highest bliss of both the souls and glori-

90 Mt FATHER'S House.
fied bodies of the redeemed. These employments
will involve no weariness, danger, or hardship. The
activity of the inhabitants of heaven will have a
worthy object; and that object can never be missed.
Now, after the greatest labour and hardship, we are
often defeated and disappointed ; we see the prize on
which we had fondly fixed our gaze, and had fol
lowed, perhaps, through weary months or years of
earnest effort, for ever elude our grasp. The ship,
which has visited distant seas for spices, or gems, or
oils, founders at the harbour's mouth ; the storehouse
which contains the accumulated fruits of a life's toil
is consumed in the conflagration of a night. Not so
in heaven. There will be no unrewarded effort, no
disappointment, there. Every faculty will have the
highest incentive tb action ; and every effort wiU
meet with its certain and full reward.
In addition to lofty and almost impassable moun
tains, nature has fortified the separate divisions of the
earth, by interposing vast expanses of water. They
check the spirit of bloody conquest and despotic rule.
Not only are the peaceful or the weak, protected -
against the warlike or the powerful, but the vices
and corruptions, which are propagated by example,
meet a somewhat difficult barrier, in those great
bodies of water which separate the human race into
distinct kingdoms or nations. But in heaven, the
depravity which has arrayed our race in jealous and

NoMoeeSea. 91
hostile divisions, which has so often incarnadined the
wave, and fattened the soil with human blood, — and
which, like leaven, diffuses evil principles, and vices,
far and wide, will have no existence. Its last trace
will be left in the graves whence the bodies of the
saints shall arise. The inhabitants of heaven,
gathered out of every kingdom, and nation, and
tongue, will form, not merely one great kingdom, but
one great, united, loving family. All will honour
the same God as their Father, the same Jesus, as
their Saviour. And although we are taught, that,
as one star differeth from another in glory, so also
shall it be in the resurrection of the dead, yet the Hot
tentot, and the Greenlander, the Asiatic and the
European, the African, and the American, the prince
and the slave, shall all sit down with Abraham, and
Isaac, and Jacob, in the kingdom of their common
Father and Pedeemer. All the true people of God,
of every nation, and of every communion, will meet
there, in perfect harmony and love, prepared for
eternal and perfect union in the same lofty service.
No barriers or bounds, no lines of separation, or
jealous distinction, will be ever known there. God
has employed the ocean, and will employ it on a still
grander scale, in diffusing religion and civilization
over this revolted earth of ours. We have an open
highway, from our very doors, over which Commerce
is bearing, on its wings, the Gospel of peace. I see,

92 Mr FATHER'S House.
in its extension, the agency, under God, which gives
assurance that idolatry and every false religion must
cease from the face of the earth. But, in heaven,
there will be no unrecovered provinces of darkness,
cruelty, and guilt ; all will be filled with the light of
holiness. And in heaven, too, there will be no long
transit of latitude and longitude to obstruct the inter
course of the redeemed with every part of God's holy
empire ; but, with the celerity of angels, they will pass
from one section of it to another. The whole family
of God will be brought into the most intimate and
endearing relations, and know even as also they are
known. Again ; what is more unstable than water ? What
is more easily agitated, in its lesser quantities, or
more given to change in its vaster collections?
How different is the ocean in a calm, than when
visited with the tempest! Now it mirrors all the
glories of the o'er-arching sky, reduplicating every
fleecy cloud, as it sails quietly on, in its lofty path ;
but let the tempest, in its wildness and wrath, sweep
over it, and its billows, as if ten thousand giant mon
sters were struggling to rise from the depths below,
toss man's frail bark like a feather, or beat, with
deafening thunder, on the shore. Now, its smooth
surface and a favouring breeze court the mariner
from his secure haven ; the next day he is battling,
and struggling amid its breakers. Of this life,

No Moee Sea. 93
indeed, it is an appropriate emblem. Now, the sun
of prosperity shines, we have favouring gales. We
have health, friends, possessions. Anon, that sun is
obscured, or sets in tempest. Friends die; health
fails ; riches take to themselves wings and fly away.
But in heaven there will be no change, no insta
bility, no inconstancy. He who is the same yester
day, to-day and for ever, is the Bang of that country.
A past eternity has witnessed no change in Him ; an
eternity to come will witness none. Heaven itself
will undergo no change ; it will need no change.
The inhabitants of heaven will never change, or
desire change. They will not be subject to the
painful changes which affect our earthly lot. Those
who once knew the vicissitudes of Christian experi
ence — now triumphing in hope, now mourning over
departed joys — confirmed in holiness and likeness to
God, will know those vicissitudes no more.
There is mystery, moreover, in the sea. It may
¦well be styled, " the great deep." It has doors and
bars which say, not only to its own proud waves, but
to inquisitive man, " Hitherto shalt thou come, but
no further." It seems to own an allegiance to the
satellite of our planet, which it refuses to the sun.
Whence its saltness ? Who knows its depth ? Who
has gone down and explored its secret caverns?
Who has "entered into the springs of the sea,"
or "walked in. search of the depths?" "What

94 Mt FATHER'S House.
undescribed monsters, what unimaginable shapes,
may be roving in the proibundest places of the sea,
never seeking, and perhaps from their nature unable
to seek, the upper waters, and expose themselves to
the gaze of men ! Where are the bodies of those
lost ones over whom the melancholy waves alone
chant requiem? What shrouds were wrapped round
the limbs of beauty and of manhood, and of placid
infancy, when they were laid on the dark floor of
that secret tomb? Who shall tell the bereaved to
what spot their affections may cling, and where their
tears may be shed, throughout that solemn sepul
chre ?" * O, mysterious sea ! without divine revela
tion, the whole world would be another just such
mystery as we see in thee ; even with it there are so
many mysteries of nature, of providence, and of
grace, that all that feeble man can say is, " I will
wait." But, in heaven, all mysteries will be cleared up.
Every hard doctrine will be understood; and we
shall discover how perfect, in all its parts, is the
system of divine truth. We shall be able to go to
the very bottom of that of which we now see but the
surface. The bars and doors which now say " Hith
erto shalt thou come, but no further," shall be thrown
open, and that which is secret now, shall be seen to
be but the hidden and manifold wisdom of God.
* Rev. Mr. Greenwood, Boston.

No Mo be Sea. 95
And those mysteries in our own histories, which at
present make up the intricate web of Providence,
shall be all unravelled, and we shall see how neces
sary they were to bring us to that world, where the
light shall be brighter than the noon. The disap
pointed hope in respect to some beloved child, or
husband, or wife, — the failure of some cherished
worldly enterprise, — the delay of our wishes, and the
defeat of our plans, will then be seen to have been
the orderings of God's wise and gracious providence,
and a part of that discipline necessary to teach us to
say, " Abba, Father," or to prepare us to bow, with
humble adoration before the throne of His glory, and
shout, " Worthy is the Lamb."
In heaven, feeble types amd images will all be done
away. Now, we need something to help us — to lift
our minds up towards the majesty of Jehovah — some
scaffolding to raise our pigmy thought towards the
Infinite One. We have His Word. We have the fir
mament and the sea — types of every kind of vastness
— immensity, eternity, omnipotence, infinity. But in
heaven, the redeemed will be admitted into the very
presence-chamber of the King of kings. They shall
enjoy the beatific vision of God. They shall no longer
look through a glass darkly ; and having reached the
summit, the scaffolding will be removed. " Blessed
are the pure in heart.; for they shall see God."
What that means, we ^shall be able to fathom when

96 My FATHER'S House.
admitted to the blissful vision. We shaft see the
King in His beauty. We shall see Christ in His glo
rified body. We shall see all the grandeur of the
divine attributes, beaming in softened glory from
that body which once hung on Calvary's cross. It
was with the veil of His flesh, that He concealed His
Divinity, when on earth; and through the veil of
His glorified humanity in heaven, the redeemed shaU
see God. O, blessed are the pure in heart ! " And
I saw a new heaven and a new earth ; for the first
heaven and the first earth were passed away; and
there was no more sea." " And there shall be no
more curse ; but the throne of God and of the Lamb
shall be in it ; and His servants shall serve TTtm ; and
they shall see His facejjind His name shall be in
their foreheads. And there shall be no night there ;
and they need no candle, neither light of the sun ;
for the Lord God giveth them light ; and they shaU
reign for ever and ever." Blessed, thrice blessed are
the pure in heart !

No Pain: No Sokeow; No moee Death. 97

VI.
NO PAIN; NO SORROW; NO MORE DEATH.
THE saints in heaven will enjoy complete deliver
ance from all those physical evils, which so
marred their peace and comfort, in this world. It
is easy to conceive of suffering, even among beings
made perfectly holy ; but the Word of God teaches
us that there will be entire freedom in heaven, from
every cause of sorrow, fear, pain, or anxiety, by
which we are, at present, disquieted. While in the
flesh, the believer often suffers much from the expec
tation of evil, or an apprehension of impending
calamity. His forebodings are one of the evidences
of a sinful, fallen state ; and are, no doubt, enhanced
by the many cases of extreme suffering, which may
always be met with, among men.
Want is one of the most familiar evils, in our
world. In whatever direction we turn our eyes,
many may be found, who know not, one day, on
what they shall subsist the next, and often have no
S

98 My FATHER'S House.
description of food whatever, in their houses ; and,
frequently, at the most inclement season of the year,
are destitute of fuel, and comfortable garments. Ah!
we little think, as we sit by the bright and cheerful
fireside, or partake of the rich bounties of Providence,
on our tables, how many shiver, houseless, in the
blast, or sit benumbed, over the few embers, on then-
desolate hearths !
" How many shrink into the sordid hut
Of cheerless poverty !"
Poverty appears to have been coeval with society ;
and, so long as this is an apostate world, we* may
expect the words of the law-giver of Israel, " The poor
shall never cease out of the land,"* and the words of
the great Prophet, like unto Moses, "Ye have the
poor always with you,"f to be fulfilled. And the
remark, although it appears not strictly to belong in
this place, must be allowed, that God has distributed
His stewards and almoners, side by, side, with those
who need their bounty. " Blessed is he that consi
dered the poor ¦"% aye considereth — that they have
feelings as well as wants, and that a favour may be
bestowed almost as great in the manner, as in the
matter, of the gift. There may be as much true
charity in a kind word, or a kind tear, as in the
silver and gold which accompany them ; and more,
* Deut. xv. 11. f Matt. xxvi. 11. | Ps. xli. 1.

No Pain; No Sorrow; No Moke Death. 99
than when that gold is coldly or proudly given; and
the recipient is made to feel that he is only despised,
for the stern necessity which makes him one. But
in heaven there will be no want: "They shall hungei
no more, neither thirst any more." " For the Lamb
which is in the midst of the throne, shall feed them,
and shall lead them unto living fountains of waters."*
That which creates so many distinctions and jeal
ousies, here on earth, will create none in heaven.
All will be put into possession of riches that perish
not, treasures that are incorruptible, undefiled, and
that fade not away ; not the gold and silver of earth,
which men now toil, and often impoverish, if they do
not sell, their souls, to gain. The wealth of this
world can be enjoyed but for a moment, that of
heaven is an everlasting inheritance. Wait a little
longer, thou poor, perhaps despised, and suffering
saint, and heaven will dawn on thee! and all its
riches, through the love of thy redeeming, interced
ing Lord, be poured at thy feet !
Our life begins with the helplessness and sufferings
of infancy, and, if protracted, ends with the deore
pitude and dotage of old aqe. Threescore, 01
fourscore years often make sad havoc in the memory,
and other intellectual faculties, as well as in the body.
Sometimes, " in the wreck of mind, the whole cargo
of knowledge seems to be lost." The clouds return
* Rev. vii. 16, 17.

100 My FATHER'S House.
after the rain ; the keepers of the house tremble ; the
strong men bow themselves ; fears are in the way ;
and the grasshopper becomes a burden. The bloom
ing, beaming countenance, and the sparkling eye,
and the strength of manhood are gone. Those that
look out of the windows are darkened ; the doors are
shut in the streets when the sound of the grinding is
low. Impaired organs of sight and hearing are"
among the most common infirmities of the aged. A
minister, at the early age of twenty-two years, on one
of the first occasions, when he attempted to preach
the gospel, found himself in an inland country village.
On entering the pulpit, two venerable men were
already seated there. They had not the appearance
of clergymen ; and he could hardly conjecture for
what purpose they were there. But, when he arose
to preach, they stood up, and, proceeding to arrange
an acoustic apparatus, of simple contrivance, leaned
over the pulpit by his side, to catch his words. The
text was Ps. lxxxix. 15, "Blessed is the people that
know the joyful sound." The inexperienced youth
who stood between these two aged disciples, and
attempted to show why the Gospel is a joyful sound,
and what it is* to know it, might well feel his insuffi
ciency ; he felt assured that they could easily distin
guish the "joyful" from an "uncertain" sound; —
could well "understand" what they took so much
pains to "hear." And well does he remember, in

No Pain; No Sorrow; No More Death. 101
the congregation, where he first performed the duties
of a pastor, another bald crown, that, Sabbath after
Sabbath, for many months, rose in a similar position,
by his side. Long since, these old men disappeared
from the earthly sanctuary. They have gone where
there are no impaired faculties, no decays ; where the
inhabitants are ever blooming, and ever young.
But bodily infirmities are not confined to the aged.
Suffering, mental as well as bodily, from some per
sonal DEFORMITY, FEOM DISMEMBEEMENT, OE FROM
impaired faculties, is too common, in our world, to
justify us in disregarding any part of Pevelation,
from which consolation may be derived, through the
prospect of better things. Let the blind and the
deaf be pointed to heaven. Let it be told them that,
there, none shall be debarred from the pleasures of
vision, or of sound. Every eye shall see Jesus as He
is ; every ear shall listen to the praises of Him, which
fill heaven ; and every tongue shall join to swell the
anthem, " Thou art worthy." Ah, well does the
writer remember a dear youth,* who fell under his
pastoral care, in the earlier years of his ministry.
He had never heard the sweet sound of any human
voice. At the early age of seven or eight years, he
had been placed under that admirable system of
instruction, which has been devised for deaf mutes ;
* T. S. P., Jr., son of the late T. S. P., Esq., N. L., and grandson
of the second Gov. Griswold of Conn.

102 Mt FATHER'S House.
and soon became well versed in the several branches
of a common English education. He was naturally
much addicted to violent fits of anger ; but, when
about fourteen years old, a great, and most gratifying
change took place in him. He addressed letters to
his mother from the Institution of which he was a
member, and acquainted her with his deep religious
anxiety. When he returned home, in the Spring, in
addition to their own instruction, his parents judi
ciously placed such books as Edwards on the Affec
tions, the History of Pedemption, and Doddridge's
Rise and Progress, in his hands. In the last-named
work, he became intensely interested. He spent
nearly a week, hardly allowing himself time enough,
for necessary exercise, in its perusal. When he had
finished it, he went to his mother, and told her that
the burden which had weighed him down was
gone ; that he loved Christ, and was happy. Hence
forth, he contended earnestly and successfully, with
his irascible temper. He was most scrupulous and
exemplary in his observance of the Sabbath, and the
outward duties of religion. He took the greatest
interest in the spiritual welfare of his brothers and
sisters. Oh a table, in his little apartment, in a
retired part of the house, might be seen the book
which he prized above all others, the Bible, the gilt
worn off from its edges, and its leaves turned down
here and there, all showing how much he read that

No Pain; No Sorrow; No more Death. 103
holy book. Sometimes he came to the house of God,
and with his quick, beaming glance seemed to say,
' Would that I could hear !' and to gratify his wish
to know what was said, on a particular occasion, the
manuscript of the discourse was sent for his perusal.
Frequently, he came to my house, with his slate
under his arm, for conversation. I soon discovered
that religion, the love of the Saviour, was the subject
which was uppermost with him. But a violent
disease smote him ; he faded with the Autumn
flowers, about two years after his mind was first
directed to religion. Sickness did its work, in a few
days. When I went to see him, he tried to make me
understand that his sufferings were very great, but
that his chief grief was, that he could not read the
Word of God. As his father, sitting by his bedside,
would spell out, with his fingers, some of the pro
mises, or his favourite passages from the Bible,
although his poor body was racked with pain, his
countenance expressed by smiles, an inward peace,
or brightened up, as if light fell on it, from within
the veil.
On a November Sabbath morning, just as the bells
were ringing, to call the people to the house of the
Lord, death set him free — summoned him to go up
to a temple, not made with hands, to enjoy a per
petual Sabbath in the presence of God. The snows
of fifteen winters have whitened the narrow mound

104 My FATHER'S House.
where his body sleeps, and the birds of as many
summers have sung from his headstone, or built their
nests in the branches that hang over it. In a recent
summer ramble, I spent a pensive hour near the
spot, where we laid his dust, and where I could read
many familiar names of others, known and loved,
who have already fallen asleep in Christ. I thought
of the words, which we almost seemed to hear whis
pered in the bleak gusts, when we laid it there:
"Receive my clay, thou treasurer of death!
I will no more demand my tongue,
Till the gross organ, well refined,
Shall trace the boundless nights of an unfettered mind,
And raise an equal song."
But the ear that never listened to the Gospel, or the
songs of Zion on earth, now listens to the wonders of
redemption, recounted in the New Song ; and the
voice that was never fashioned to the language of
praise and prayer, here below, shall mingle with
those of angels, and the spirits of the just made per
fect, in raising " an equal song."
The author cannot forbear to couple with the fore
going another incident, because it is one of the latest,
in his pastoral experience, and therefore fresh and
vivid in its impression, and because it similarly illus
trates the adaptation of religion to our present trying
necessities, and of its glorious prospects to support

No Pain; No Sorrow; No More Death. 105
and cheer the most afflicted of our race. It relates
to a man,* who, impotent like him whom Christ
healed at the pool of Bethseda, had been in that
situation, or a more helpless one, a much longer
period; for, while the man whom Christ healed,
appears to have had some strength and power of
motion left in his limbs, this man had none ; while
that man had been impotent less than forty years,
this man had been so more than fifty. When a mere
youth, not more than thirteen years old, this afflic
tion had come upon him. For the last thirty years
of his life, he had not been carried across his thresh
old more than three times; In the seclusion of his
own dwelling, sitting apart from the active world,
hearing only the distant sound of its busy stir, almost
unknown and forgotten by it, he spent the years of a
long life. But he did not spend them idly. In addi
tion to a mechanical employment, by which he con
tributed to his daily support, he stored his mind with
useful information. Twenty-six years ago, he lost
his best earthly friend — that friend whose heart
turned towards him with the greatest tenderness, as
her first-born, and the smitten, helpless one of her
flock — and who loved and cared for him only as a
mother can love and care for such a child. That
was to him a dark and bitter day. But God had
already raised up one to take the place of that mother.
* W. B., of P., who deceased March 12th, 1855.

1j6 Mt FATHER'S House.
Twenty years ago, by the blessing of God, on the
reading of the Scriptures, and religious books, and
such private instruction as he occasionally received,
he began to give evidence of sincere piety. The tes
timony of the few that knew him is uniform, that
his conversation and deportment were eminently
Christian. If a neighbour, in his hearing, uttered
censorious or angry remarks, he was ready to pour
the soothing words of peace upon his mind. My own
acquaintance with him was of very recent date. I
knew not that there was such a man in the town,
until, in the course of my first pastoral visitation, I
called at the house in which he lived. I was not
long in coming to the conclusion that he was a
humble child of God. And it was not long before I
was ready to ask : What doth hinder this man to be
baptized? True ; it would be impossible for him to
make a public profession of his faith in Christ, in the
presence of the congregation. And this I considered
might have been "the reason why the privilege had
not been extended to him before. But, then, might
he not be baptized as the Philippian jailer and the
Ethiopian eunuch, and many others were, by the
Apostles, in a less public manner ? I proposed it to
him. The subject was new; he hesitated, but, at
length, requested that he might be admitted to the
ordinances of Christ's house. It was a few days
before the regular season for the communion of the

No Pain; No Sorrow; No More Death. 107
Lord's Supper ; and he was in his usual health, or
even somewhat better than he had generally been,
for more than a year. But when the officers of the
church called with me two days after, to attend to
the usual examination in such cases, we found him
on his bed. He had been taken with a chill on the
evening of the very day when he made his request
to be admitted to the church.
On the Sabbath, when the elders, and a few friends
assembled at his house, he was still upon his bed,
and evidently suffering much, from pain and weak
ness of body. He was able, however, and with
apparent satisfaction, to attend upon the appointed
services. To the questions, "Do you believe in God
the Father, and in Jesus Christ His only Son, our
Lord," &c, he answered in a firm, distinct voice, " I
do." The ordinances were administered ; and seldom
have I been present at a more affecting scene. We
were all ready to exclaim, " This is none other but
the house of God ; and this is the gate of heaven."
The next day, a little before noon, that voice was
heard again, in a distinct and solemn utterance. He
called to his sister, and said, '-' The messenger is come
— the messenger is come; and I am ready;" and,
with a few more words, fell asleep in Christ. In the
resurrection, the long useless, withered limbs, and
the deformed body, which we carried to the grave,
shall come forth, having gathered strength and

108 My FATHER'S House.
beauty, for the life everlasting. In heaven, life, and
the laws of life will suffer from no diseases or dis
asters. In that world, there will be no scarred or
emaciated frames ; no lame, or palsied limbs ; no
sightless eyes, deaf ears, mute tongues ; no impaired
senses; no enfeebled, idiotic, or insane minds. * There
the " thorn in the flesh " * shall have departed from
Paul; he shall have no more occasion to glory in
" infirmities," for " the power of Christ," in all its
fulness, will rest upon him. There, the blind Milton
shall see glories, such as his gifted pen never des
cribed; the sad, and often distracted Cowper never
sing, " Where is the blessedness I knew ?" or string
his harp to notes of grief.
In heaven, there will be no Sickness — no Death.
Here, our infants wail almost with their first breath ;
and, id some cases, life is but one prolonged sickness.
To painful nights, the wished-for morning brings no
relief. In Winter, the sufferers may long for Spring ;
but when it returns, with its mild breath, its buds and
birds, it brings no health to them. Instead of asking,
" Who is sick?" we may rather ask, " Who is well?"
Should an angel be commissioned to place a mark upon
the door-post of every house into which disease enters
not, in some of its forms, whose house would bear the
friendly " token ?" Would any " Goshen " be found
for the dwellings of men ? All, with the exception o:
* J Cor. xii. 7-10.

No Pain; No Sorrow; No More Death. 109
those who fall by a violent or sudden death, come at
length to lie down upon the bed of sickness. But,
blessed be God ! there is a world, where none of the
inhabitants shall ever say, " I am sick." In the
separate state, that is, between death and the resur
rection, the soul cannot suffer, through the medium
of the body ; for the body will then be resting in the
grave. And the miracles of the morning of the resur
rection shall be seen to be the antitypes, of those
which Christ performed in the days of His flesh ; for,
then, not only the grave and the sea shall again heed
His voice, not only the eyes of the blind shall be
opened, and the ears of the deaf unstopped, and the
lame man leap as a hart, and the tongue of the dumb
sing, but diseases, and all their secret germs, shall be
left in the grave, — the rightful possessor of all that
is corrupt and corruptible. No burning fever, no
lingering consumption — that scourge so quiet and
flattering, yet so desolating — no worn, haggard
countenances, shall be seen in the celestial city.
Ah ! look upon this sorrowful group, these little
ones, -as they gather in childish amazement, around
the bed of suffering. What earthly friend will love
them as a mother, or a father loved? In one instance,
during my pastoral life, have I seen, side by side,
under the sam^ roof, a mother and a daughter,
withering before the same insidious disease ; and in
another, a third victim marked by this destroyer, ere

110 My FATHER'S House.
the first had been carried out ; and all three, in less
than one short year, lying side by side, in the grave.
How often we see the rose blooming, in mocking
contrast, on the wasted cheek of youth and beauty !
Who will be the light of that sad dwelling, when a
few more suns have set ? Mark the anguish of those
paients, whose heads begin to whiten, with the frost
of years, as they bow over the coffin of a son who had
just ripened into manhood, and upon whom they
thought ere long to lean, as a staff to their tottering
steps. The very earth is mellow with its graves.
Those who have borne, on their shoulders, their
fellow men, are, in their turn, borne to the same
resting-place. The funeral procession has become so
familar a spectacle as almost to have lost its " touch
ing moral."
But it was man' himself (let it never be forgotten)
who unbarred the gate, and let the destroyer in upon
his race. He disregarded the warning. He ate. He
died. First, a brother lifted up his hand against his
brother, and a lifeless corpse fell prostrate at his feet.
It was such a sight as human eye never looked upon
before. A fearful shadow haunted him, and has
haunted all the race from that hour. Death was in
the world.
Then War whetted his glittering weapons, and
went forth to his wholesale butcheries. Not one
brother, in the depths of the forest, or in some gloomy

No Pain; No Sorrow; No More Death. Ill
dell, shut in by rocks and trees, smites another, but
ranks, clad in mail, with their keen weapons, stand
out confronted on the open plain, in the broad light
of heaven. They rush to the encounter. Swords
are sheathed in throbbing hearts. Even a victory
must be purchased at so great an expense of human
life, that it has been pronounced by one* of the most
renowned of modern captains, " the greatest of all
calamities except a defeat." Go, look upon the bat
tle-field, fattened with human gore, where human
limbs and trunks — swords that fell from hands tthat
could wield, them no longer — banners that floated
gaily on the morning breeze, now torn and smeared
with blood and dust — the horse and his pale rider
side by side — are strewed in wild confusion over the
ground; and estimate, if you can, the woe which
death has brought into the world.
But lo ! another emissary is summoned to the
work. He comes not with the gay trappings, the
clarion-blast, the pomp and circumstance of war. It
is the Pestilence. How dreadful its approach !
How terrible to stand and gaze at its steady, awful,
not to say sublime march ! It cometh up from the
desert. It climbs the mountain-steppes, and descends
into the fair vales of Asia ; it riots amid torrid heats,
nor meets a barrier in the frosts of Russia. It
embarks on the ocean for new continents, feeding on
* The Duke of Wellington.

112 My FATHER'S House.
the unhappy mortals who voyage with it. It walketh
in darkness. It comes to the pillow of those who
went to their rest in apparent health, and ere the
morning dawns, they are writhing in the agonies of
dissolution. It destroyeth at noon-day. It meets
men in the chief places of concourse, in the resorts
of gaiety, in the marts of business, interrupts their
pleasures, and breaks up their ambitious schemes, and
golden enterprises. For the most lordly mansion,
there is no charmed circle. It mocks at pharmacy
and sanitary metes and bounds — at armour and
weapons of defence. The warrior, who has returned,
unscathed amidst the iron hail of many a battle
field, has no soldiery with which to drive back, no
shield to turn aside the arrow of the destroyer.
Exposed to numberless accidents, and a great variety
of diseases, it is impossible for men who reflect, not
to feel that their happiness and their hopes, so far as
this world is concerned, are dependent on a very
slender thread, which may be snapped at any
moment ; that " Earthly things
Are but the transient pageants of an hour ;
And earthly pride is like the passing flower,
That springs to fall, and blossoms but to die." *
Therefore, the disclosure of Christianity, that there
* Kirk White.

No Pain; No Sorrow; No More Death. 113
is a world in which " there shall be no more death,
neither sorrow nor crying, neither shall there be any
more pain,"* is precisely adapted to our necessities.
This may be a world into which men are born to die,
which already contains more graves of the dead, than
living men ; nay, the very earth may become one
vast catacomb, entombing the dust of the myriads
who have flourished, for their brief day, on its sur
face. But, God be praised ! there is another, into
which saints shall be ushered to live — to live for
ever. I see one foe after another driven from the
field. The great Captain of salvation bears His
sword upon His thigh. Lo! His enemies fall before
Him, and every conquest hastens the hour, when but
one enemy shall remain, who shall see in his own
solitary grandeur, as the last left on the field, and in
the fallen carcases all around him, his certain, imme
diate doom. Nay, he is already a captive foe. In
tasting death, Christ conquered death for every
believer. " He spoiled principalities and powers ;"
He disarmed them, despoiled them of all their power.
and when the last morning dawns, it will be seen
that His victory was complete. He entered the ter
ritories of the grave — stormed the very citadel of
death, and returned with the monarch of that pale
empire chained to His chariot-wheels. As He issued
from the portals of the sepulchre, He bore aloft a
* Rev. xxi. 4.

114 My FATHER'S House.
banner, on which was inscribed, "I am the Lord,
strong and mighty, the Lord mighty in battle I" "I
am the King of Glory!" "I am He that was dead
and is alive again !" " I am the Resurrection and
the Ldte !" His resurrection was the pledge of His
victory, and the victory of His people over the king
of terrors. The holy dead, by the might of their
great Forerunner, shall rise, never more to die.
" Oh ! Death, where is thy sting ? Oh ! Grave, where
is thy victory ?" is the anticipated shout of the Lord's
people, when they shall see their bodies ransomed
from the power of the grave, and the deserted tomb
become a monument, that Death has lost the victory
for ever. And as they shout, they shall rise to new
worlds, over whose gates it shall be inscribed : There
SHALL BE NO MORE DEATH.
Blessed, unspeakably blessed shall all those be,
who enter those regions of Life and Light, and over
whom "the second death" shall have no power.

No Night There.

Til.
NO NIGHT THERE.
THE Bible teaches that our " Father's House " will
be totally unlike the present abode of mortals.
It will have no sun, no moon, no night, no curse.
" Flesh and blood shall not inherit the kingdom of
God." In attempting to give us some idea of what
heaven is, by telling us what it is not, it specifies the
exclusion of just those things which belong to man's
present painful experience, or are great character-
istical features of the material planet he inhabits.
There is nothing on earth from which he can form an
adequate conception of the spiritual glories of that
world. It will be as unlike the present, as the " spi
ritual body," which shall be raised from the grave,
will be unlike the "natural," committed to it. And
just as we should be cautious not to think of the
Divine Being as like ourselves, so we should be
careful not to conceive of heaven only as a sort of
better earth, than that which we now inhabit.

1.16 My FATHER'S House.
In that beautiful description, in the closing chapters
of the Apocalypse, it is twice* asserted that there
shall be no night in heaven. It is said that the city
had no need of the sun, neither of the moon to shine
in it ; for the glory of God did lighten it, and the
Lamb is the light thereof. And they need no candle.
Our varying positions, arising from the motion of our
globe in its orbit, and its diurnal revolution, give to the
sun, which enlightens our system, the appearance of
many daily and annual changes ; hence its different
positions at morning, noon and night, in spring and
autumn, summer and winter. The succession of
winter to summer is just as constant, as the annual
revolution of the earth around the sun; and the
succession of night to day as certain, as its diurnal
motion, on its axis. For one half our time night
enshrouds us. The moment of our noon-day bright
ness is the moment of midnight gloom to our anti
podes. The coming on of evening to us is the dawn
ing of morning to others. After a few hours, we, in
turn, lie in the deep shadow of the illuminated half
of our revolving sphere. But, there shall be no such
alternation of light and darkness in heaven; night
will have accomplished its full mission, and the
season of everlasting day have commenced. The
Being, who is the Sun of that world, who is the
Father of lights, the Creator of the material sun, and
* Rev. xxi. 25 ; xxii. 5.

No Night There. 117
all other celestial orbs, is without parallax* or shadow
of turning, — will know no rising, no setting, no
tropic ; and its inhabitants shall behold Him as He
is, in His meridian effulgence, for ever, and be
delivered from all obscure and erroneous views of
His character, His ways, and works. For, as the
natural sun appears to have many changes and
motions, which it really has not, but are in fact
appearances which arise from our changing situa
tions in respect to it; so in the present state
we have many erroneous and obscured visions of
the Deity, which are phenomenal, rather than real,
and are to be ascribed to our present point of obser
vation. In the present system of nature, the night seems as
necessary to us as the day. Men and animals need
repose, which is favoured by the silence and dark
ness of the night. At the going down of the sun, as
the shadows of the evening deepen, birds hie to their
nests or their perch, animals to their enclosures or
lairs — all save those who make the darkness a cover
to their search for prey — and men betake themselves
to their homes and places of rest :
" All the air a solemn stillness holds."f
Even the flowers and plants seem to welcome night,
• James i. 17. t Gray.

118 My FATHER'S House.
and to gather refreshed life from its dewy moisture.
But more especially to man, wearied by labour, worn
out by affliction, disheartened by disappointment,
exhilarated by pleasure, excited by passion, is it a
blessing. It comes with its friendly interruption to
his follies, and sorrows, and cares. Men, it is true,
in their zeal and thirst for knowledge, sometimes
complain that they are so soon exhausted, and that
so many hours out of every twenty-four, must be
passed in the unconsciousness of sleep, to restore the
wasted energies of mind and body. In order to live,
we must seem daily to die. Not so in heaven.
Nature will not require this restorative influence ;
and, therefore, there shall be no night there. In
"their ceaseless activity in the service of God, the
spirits of the just will find their sweetest rest, and
" shall feel always the freshness of the morning."
' But is not the night beautiful ? Does it not come
gently on, with grateful twilight? And is not its
darkness relieved by the radiance of stars, or the
beams of that lesser light which God ordained to
rule it ? And will not every species of beauty be
concentrated in heaven ?' Yea, indeed, such beauty
that all that now passes under this name will be for
gotten for ever. Even the beauties of the night,
when the moon walketh in brightness, or the firma
ment is studded with its " beamy fires," will be so
far excelled by those of the new heavens and new

No Night There. 119
earth, that " the former shall not be remembered,
nor come into mind."*
'But does not the night,' it may be further
inquired, 'reveal nature to us in its vastness and
grandeur, as it never could have been revealed by
the. day — the brightness of whose sun hides other
worlds with which the universe is replenished ? Is it
not then that the astronomer turns his tubes towards
the heavens, and discovers to us an extent of the divine
empire, such as would have been beyond our boldest
conception, without the interposition and aid of such
a teacher ?' True, all very true ; but our dependence
upon darkness to reveal to us a creation, of which
our earth is but an inconsiderable part ; nay, that the
very light of our system should but serve to dazzle
and conceal, argues the imperfection of the present
state, and of our own faculties. " Be it so," exclaims
Melvill, in his celebrated sermon on this subject,
" be it so, that night is now our choice instructor,
and that a world of perpetual sunshine would be a
world of gross ignorance ; I feel that night is to
cease because we shall no longer need to be taught
through a veil ; because we shall be able to read the
universe illuminated, and not require, as now, to
have it darkened for our gaze. It is like telling me
of a surprising increase of power ; I shall not need
* Isaiah lxv. 17.

120 My FATHER'S House.
night as a season of repose ; I shall not need night
as a medium of instruction."*
But, upon the literal import of the words, " there
shall be no night there," it is unnecessary to dwell.
They were, no doubt, designed to teach us that
heaven, as a place of residence and action, will be
perfectly suited to the glorified spiritual bodies of the
saints. As the inspired description, of which this
passage is a part, is symbolical, its figurative must
obviously be its most important and instructive
sense. To this, let us attend.
The metaphorical sense in which "night" and
"darkness," and their correlates, "day" and "light,"
are used in the Scriptures, is marked with consider
able uniformity. A few examples will illustrate
what this almost uniform sense is. The apostle
Peter exhorts believers to take heed to the sure word
of prophecy, as unto a light that shineth in a dark
place, until the day dawn and the day star arise in
their hearts.f That sure word is compared to a
lamp shining in a dark place, and the effect of taking
heed to it, like the dawning of the morning in the
believer's heart. The apostle Paul, when speaking
of the nearness of eternity, reminds Christians that
the time of sin and sorrow is nearly over, and that
of holiness and happiness at hand, by the expression,
* Miscellaneous Sermons, xi. p. 390. American Edition.
t 2 Peter i. 19.

No Night Therb. 121
"the night is far spent, the day is at hand."* Light
is the favourite image, both in the Old and New Tes
taments, of true, saving knowledge, of joy, prosperity
and deliverance from trouble ; whilst darkness and
night are used for ignorance, unbelief and error.
The works of the heathen are styled " works of
darkness." The " power of darkness " represents the
dominion of sin. The punishment of the wicked is
"the blackness of darkness," or "chains of dark
ness." The human mind, under the influence of
error or ignorance, is said to be " darkness," and its
unbelief of the Gospel is said to be the " love of dark
ness " rather than light.
Hence, we may interpret the absence of night as
meaning that there shall be no intellectual and
no spiritual darkness nsr heaven. Knowledge shall
never give place to ignorance, nor truth to error.
What we know we shall know with certainty, and
without any admixture of error. God will be seen
as He is, and His presence enjoyed without interrup
tion, and without any decays of spiritual affection.
Ignorance of God has long covered, as with a pall
of darkness, large portions of the earth. With such
intellectual and moral faculties as we know belong to
man, this wide-spread and long-continued ignorance
is a most astonishing, if not inexplicable pheno
menon. The only key to the mystery, inspiration
* Rom. xiii. 12.
a

122 My FATHERS House.
furnishes in declaring that a judicial seiience of
blindness has gone forth from God against men,
who, having the truth, hold, restrain, or oppose it,
by unrighteousness. Knowing God, but glorifying
Him not as God, they become vain in their imagi
nations, and their foolish hearts are darkened.*
Behold man, the boasted possessor of an intelligent
power which conceives, judges and reasons, placed in
the midst of a universe which reveals the existence
and perfections of the Creator, and in a world in
which God has revealed himself by the manifestation
of His Son and Spirit from heaven ;' and how amazing
is it that for so many thousands of years, and over so
large a portion of his race, such gross darkness should
prevail! IT we take a map and darken all those
parts of it which represent countries where this igno
rance prevails, how few and limited are the portions
which remain ! As the ocean covers three parts of
the earth's surface, so does this dark pall now cover
three parts of its inhabited portions. There is the
entire continent of Asia, a territory containing two-
thirds of the population of the globe — there are Tur
key, Tartary, China, Hindostan, Persia, Arabia,
Siberia — in a word, that whole land from Nova-
Zembla to Siam, and from the Dead Sea to the East
ern Ocean, shrouded in the darkness of Pagan idola
try or Mohammedan delusion. And there is the
* Rom. i. 18, 21.

No Night There. 123
entire continent of Africa — not only the parts known
to the civilized world, but the vast unexplored
regions of the interior — from the shores of Barbary
to the Cape of Good Hope, and from the Red Sea to
the Atlantic, presenting, with the exception of a few
bright lights, which have been kindled on its coasts,
one unbroken front of clouds and darkness. And it
we include those portions of Europe and America,
which are destitute of a religion such as the Bible
teaches, we have three-fourths of the earth's surface.
and two-thirds of its population, over which igno
rance and spiritual blindness reign with almost undis
puted sway. Take one of this vast benighted popu
lation, and let him stand in your presence. He
comes, perhaps, from the shadow of the Himmalehs,
or from the fertile plains of Tanjore. You perceive
that he has the form and features of a man, like your
self. Like you, he has a mind. Pie can think and
reason. He has a soul. He can be gay, and he can
be sad ; he can smile, and he can weep. He does
not need to be convinced that there is a Power above
him, and a future before him. But how little he
knows! How little respecting the God who made
him, and the end for which he was made — respecting
the creation of material things, and the government
which God exercises over, and the purposes He means
to accomplish by, this creation ! It is impossible for
us to conceive of the darkness of the most enlight-

124 My FATHER'S House.
ened Pagan mind. It is mind in ruins. Or, per
haps, our representative of heathenism comes from
the interior of Southern Africa. He has neither
home nor shed, neither flocks nor herds — he burrows
like an animal in the ground, or makes his nest in
the thicket, with less skill than that of a stupid bird.
Wild garlic and aloes are his fruits of the field, and
lizards, locusts and serpents are the meat of his table.
Such is the ignorance which, for ages, has spread a
midnight pall over the earth.
But not a shadow of this darkness will be found in
heaven. The glory of God will be revealed to every
inhabitant, and will be seen not as now, through a
glass darkly, but in its unobscured brightness, with
out variableness, or shadow of turning. No conti
nents or islands of darkness there. The whole of that
happy land will be enlightened with the glory of the
Lord. The intelligent, moral nature, which belongs
to man. and gives to him his value, can never, as in
this world, become analogous to what physical exist
ence would be, under a total and permanent eclipse
of the sun. Instead of night, with all the phenomena
incident to night, it will be universal and perpetual
day. Instead of beams of material light coming
from the sky, revealing one order of things, and faint
and delusive glimpses, derived from the primary and
almost forgotten instructions of their Creator, reveal
ing another order of things, involving infinitely

No Night There. 125
greater interests, God will, to the inhabitants of
heaven, reveal Himself, His holy character and will,
as He was never revealed in this world, to the most
favoured of men, not excepting even those inspired
to communicate His written Word to the world.
More melancholy than gems left unpolished and
neglected by the way-side, or than soil which might
bring forth much fruit, but is permitted to remain
fallow, is the spectacle of a mind without knowledge,
— left to vague, and often perverted notions of right
and wrong, abandoned to seek its pleasure in sensual
gratification, or in habits of cruelty ; and averse to
the happiness of domestic life. We are not to judge
of the collective state of the people, even in the most
favoured parts of the world, from the refinement, and
moral elevation of the few. We are not to forget
that while the ethereal summits of certain tracts are
conspicuous, and fair in the lustre of heaven, there
are gorges and chasms of society sunk in a gloom
which the light of noon-day scarcely penetrates.
But, in heaven, there will be no such diversities and
painful contrasts; there will be none immersed in
clouds of fog below, while others from sun-illu
mined heights, look' far beyond the obscured region,
to other eminences bright as their own. All the
Lord's children, from the least to the greatest, shall
be taught of Him in that world ; for it shall be full ot
the knowledge of the Lord. There will be no

126 Mt FATHER'S House.
darkened mind there, groping or feeling after God,
if haply it may find Him ; for God will pervade and
brighten that whole place with His presence and
love. We are hardly permitted, by constantly recurring
disasters, for a moment, to forget, that the present, in
respect to natural things, even, is a state of very
imperfect knowledge. How little has science yet
accomplished for the security of that which men
most cherish and value — life ! Knowledge, at its
best estate, has hitherto been little better than dark
ness. In some of the most important and critical
junctures, men have to go forward, as in the dark.
They know not but that the next movement will
bring them to the verge of the precipice. But in
heaven, this state of imperfect knowledge, which
exposes us to so many fatal mistakes, will be left
behind. We shall have left a world, where the very
elements appear to be arrayed in a hostile attitude
to man. Our knowledge, while it must for ever
remain infinitely short of the knowledge of the
Divine Mind, will yet be so perfect as to secure us
against every species of disaster, suffering, or morti
fication, arising from mistake.
But, more than all, there will be in heaven none
of those errors which have proved so disastrous in
the moral history of the most enlightened portion of
our race. Even Christianity has erected no insur-

No Night There. 127
mountable barrier to such errors ; its doctrines, sc
pure, have bee» obscured and perverted into hurtful
heresies. Since its introduction, the world has known
a period of a thousand years, which may well be
denominated the "dark ages." The refutation of
error has not proved its destruction; for almost every
generation has witnessed the reviviscence of some
exploded doctrine of a by-gone age, defended by its
supporters, with all the pride and zeal of original dis
coverers. The return of delusion' — the self-same
delusion which had been dissipated by the light of
truth, again, and perhaps again, is like the succession
of night to day ; so that the watcher, from his high
place, surveying the Church militant, has never yet
had occasion to cease the cry, " The morning cometh,
and also the night." It might have been supposed
that Christianity, at its introduction, would bring
with it enough to produce speedily and permanently,
an immense difference in regard to the power of
human knowledge to forestal destructive errors and
heresies. But heathenism rushed " into treacherous
conjunction with Christianity," retaining its own
quality under the sanction of this new name, and
quickly reduced it to surrender almost everything
distinctive of it but that arrogated name. And
thousands of men may still be found who rest their
confidence on penance and priestly absolution, still
worshipping relics and wafers, and regarding the

128 My FATHER'S House.
Tirgin and saints, as in effect, the supreme regency
of heaven. There still lingers enough of night for
the spirit of delusion to walk abroad with great
power. Nor does that spirit always assume the
garb of ritualism, but quite as often presents itself in
the vesture and mail of a proud philosophy. How
often are we called to mourn over the swerving of
minds, gifted with genius and adorned with learning,
from that simplicity which is in Christ ! But, in that
brighter, better world, to which Christian hope points
the believer, " Error has no place ;
That creeping pestilence is driven away ;
The breath of heaven has chased it. In the heart
No passion touches a discordant string,
But all is harmony and love." *
A holy heart will never prompt its possessor to dis
relish or to obscure the truth. There will be so
perfect a harmony between that truth, and a heart
complete in righteousness, that knowledge will be for
ever secured against one of the most fruitful causes
of its perversion. Never shall we understand the
power of holiness in quickening and aiding the mind
in its pursuit after truth, until we arrive at heaven.
Then shall we discover the natural aflinity' there is
between goodness and truth, and that the former is
* Cowper

No Night There. 129
as much in order to the latter, as the latter is in order
to the former.
And then, too, and not tiH then, shall we under
stand the capability of improvement, and the quick
ness, clearness, and grasp of comprehension of that
wonderful power of intelligence, with which our
Creator has gifted us. It is now in the first stage of
its development. Its loftiest movements are only
like the creeping of an infant, in comparison with
the firm and stately gait of manhood. It is now in
bondage ; its body is not only its organ, but sets
limits to the very motions and developments which
it aids, and becomes its prison-house. How slow its
progress, from the period of spontaneous receptivity,
at the low starting-point of its existence, to the full
unfolding of its powers ! How slow are the impres
sions which pour in upon it, from the external world,
in awakening the first, clear, intelligent impulse !
But, the mind at length being awakened, and intro
duced into a new world, a world within itself, how
long it is before it can feel at ease as one at home !
How often it reasons and judges falsely ! How soon
it reaches maturity, and begins to decline to " second
childishness ! " If one has occasion to exclaim, with
. reference to his physical nature, " I am fearfully and
wonderfully made," how much more occasion has he
td exclaim thus, with reference to his intellectual and
moral constitution ! What a mystery is man to him-

130 Mt FATHER'S House.
self! Who has ever satisfactorily solved it ? Years
are required, even under' the most favourable circum
stances, before a man is so much as qualified to look
in upon the world within himself — and other years,
before, even with all the aid he can derive from
others, who have pursued similar inquiries, he can
lisp out any intelligible result. What diverse and
contradictory systems of mental science have been
propounded to the world! The very history of
Philosophy attests how great a mystery is man to
himself. But if we are now feeling our way, as men
grope in the dark, let us rejoice that there is a world
which has no night, where we shall know, even as
also we are known. There, human knowledge which
is merely seminal and imperfect, will have vanished
away. We shall look back upon it, as .men of
ripened and matured minds look back upon the
simplicity and crudeness of the thoughts of child
hood. We shall no longer see in doubt, or by guess,
as the ancients did through their windows composed
of the laminm of pellucid talc, or thin plates of
horn,* but we shall see things in their reality. Our
knowledge will no longer be of things as they seem,
but of things as they really are. We shall no longer
gaze, like men travelling over a strange road in the
dimness of the evening, who are liable to mistake
shadows for realities. When that which is perfect "is
* 1 Cor. xiii. 12.

No Night There. 131
come, then that which is imperfect shall be done
away. We shall perceive the full meaning of those
words, " Then shall I know even as also I am known."
Our intellectual perceptions will be always clear and
infallible. Our mental faculties, will be as com
pletely under our command, as are now the members
of our corporeal frames, and we shall be as able to
study and understand ourselves, and arrive at know
ledge, which is of internal origin, as we are now to
study those things, which are addressed to the senses.
The light of heaven will instantly let men into such
a knowledge of spiritual philosophy, that they will
look back upon the doctrines of the profoundest
thinkers, as the feeble speculations of the infant
mind. Then will be realized, and more than
realized, what some of these men have dreamed,
respecting the direct intuitions of truth, and con
ceptions which are accessible only to the pure
reason. The sphere or range of intuitive knowledge
will not only be greatly enlarged, but those portions
of knowledge which must still be referred to the
reasoning faculty, as their source, will be both more
readily and agreeably attained, on account of the
perfect command which the mind will have over its
faculties — no longer limited and cramped by a body
of flesh and blood, but clothed upon with a spiritual
body, of immortal life and vigour. With an incon
ceivable celerity and an unerring certainty, it will be

132 My FATHER'S House.
guided to its conclusions. It will be so purged of all
obscuring influences, and so quickened and invigo
rated, and exalted to an eminence so much more
commanding than any which it is possible for earthly
scholars to reach, that human sciences, as we now
conceive of them, like the material heavens and
earth, which are destined to pass away, shall not be
remembered, or come into mind.
" And there shall be no night there," — no moral or
spiritual night. Now, our imperfect knowledge of
divine truth, but especially our partial sanctification,
cannot secure us against great and painful vicissi
tudes of Christian experience. Now, the believer
rejoices in the Lord; he has a lively faith, an
animating hope; not a cloud obscures his pros
pects ; his tongue cannot express the deep, spirit
ual joy, which is his portion; he reaps of that
gladness which is sown for the upright ; his light
is as the noonday. But he cannot be always secure
of this elevated experience. A change may come,
and come suddenly ; his light be turned into obscur
ity, and his noonday brightness into the darkness
of night. He writes bitter things against himself.
Hear David, from whom we have so many strains
of hope and rejoicing, — hear him, when it is no
longer day, but night with his soul : " My tears
have been my meat day and night, while thev
continually say unto me, where is thy God? When

No Night There. 133
I remember these things, 1 pour out my soul in me.
Why art thou cast down, O, my soul ? and why art
thou disquieted in me ? O ! my God, * * * deep
calleth unto deep, at the noise of thy water-spouts ;
all thy waves and thy billows are gone over me."
Hear another of God's ancient servants, when under
similar darkness : " Even to-day is my complaint bit
ter; my stroke is heavier than my groaning. Oh!
that I knew where I might find Him I that I might
come even to His seat. I would order my cause
before Him, and fill my mouth with arguments." *
* * * Oh ! that I were as in months past, as in
the days when God preserved me ; when His candle
shined upon my head, and when, by His light, I
walked through darkness." Mourn not for the can
dle, thou, suffering, patient one, for thou shalt soon
be where they need no sun. Hear one* of the
sweetest of modern poets, who had learned to put
his trust in a " bleeding Calvary :"
" The billows swell, the winds are high,
Clouds overcast my wintry sky ;
Out of the depths to thee I call ;
My fears are great, my strength is small.
Amidst the roaring of the sea,
My soul still hangs her hope on thee ;
Thy constant love, thy faithful care,
Is all that saves me from despair."
* Cowper.

134 Mt FATHER'S House.
"My soul," writes Henry Martyn, on one occasion,
"was filled with greater misery, and horror than
I ever before experienced. I know not how to
describe my feelings, or how I got into them."
Owing to a morbid temperament of body, some
Christians, like the late Edward Payson, of Port
land, are peculiarly liable to periodical paroxysms
of deep, religious depression ; " and they may be
said to have their compensation, for the dark and
cloudy day, by being favoured with one of peculiar
brightness in quick succession. If their gloom was
uninterrupted, it would be overwhelming, but after
a dark night rises a lovely morning, without the
shadow of a cloud." * But there will be no such
night in our Father's House. There will be no
east wind — no rough wind — blowing there ; no mor
bid temperaments ; no disordered nerves ; no imper
fect views of God's truth ; no partial holiness. The
uninterrupted, unobscured light of God's counten
ance will shine upon every soul. " The Lord God
giveth them light." From the glory collected and
concentrated in the person of His Son, who is the
brightness of His glory, the Father will pour a flood
of light over the happy beings who are admitted to
His presence.
There is a better inheritance than can be gained
here ; there is a world, the grandeur, the lustre, the
* Dr. A. Alexander's Rel. Exp., p. 52.

No Night There. 135
riches of which infinitely excel those of this world.
It now stands open. Christ has bled ; God invites ;
and many are passing into it. There is another
world for those who love darkness rather than
light, in which there shall be no day. Sad fate!
to sink from a world like this, in which there is
so much gloom, but where day alternates with
night, to one of unrelieved darkness, on which no
morning shall ever dawn.

136 Mt FATHER'S House.

thl r
NO TEMPLE THEREIN.
THE redeemed are said to be made pillars in " the
temple of God;" and to serve Him, day and
night, in " His temple." * But this language is
figurative ; is borrowed from an order of things with
which the Jewish mind was familiar — in which the
Supreme Being manifested Himself only in con
nexion with altars and temples ; and, therefore, it
means that the redeemed shall dwell in the presence
of God, and behold His glory. But when the writer
of the Apocalypse says, " I saw no temple therein," \
he must be understood as speaking literally, and as
denying that there will be any such visible structure
in the New Jerusalem, as was the chief ornament
and attraction of the old. Old things shall have
passed away; not only the sacrifices and oblations,
which belonged to the tabernacle and temple service,
and which have been already superceded by spiritual
*Rev. iii. 12 ; vii. 15. f Rev. xxi. 22.

No Temple Therein.. 137
Christianity, but the ordinances of the Christian
church, Baptism and the, Lord's Supper, their end
having been attained, will cease for ever. Every
worshipper will be a priest unto God; and as the
Lord God and the Lamb are the temple of heaven,
and are everywhere present, throughout the vast
extent of that world, every place will be to him what
the temple was of old, what Christian sanctuaries
now are to sincere worshippers — only, there shall be
no hidden, inner sanctuary, no veil between Him and
them, and instead of trembling faith, perfect vision ;
for " they shall see His face."* .
The absence of a temple, of rites, of ordinances, is
a proof that these concluding chapters of the Book of
Revelation, which describe " a new heaven and a
new earth," do not describe the state of the church,
during the latter day of glory. Never, on earth,
will Christians attain to a state when faith shall be
unnecessary, or when ordinances, to assist the weak
ness of their faith, may be dispensed with. A day
of brighter glory awaits the church below, when
Satan shall not be permitted to deceive the nations ;
but it will be a day in which the saints shall still serve
God in a body of flesh and blood — a day of the
Spirit's work and trophies, in renewing and sancti
fying the hearts of men, when the Sabbath shall be
sanctified and public worship celebrated, Baptism
Rev. xxii. 4.

138 My FATHER'S House.
and the Lord's Supper, not by a few scattered com
panies, but by entire nations of men.
The absence of a temple, like the absence of the
sea and of night, is designed to impress us with the
total dissimilarity of the "Father's House," the
eternal home of the saints, to the place in which
they are now pilgrims and sojourners. Sanctuaries,
places sacred to worship, and ordinances, are now
indispensable. While there may be much supersti
tion, and among some professed Christians, in respect
to the holiness of places and buildings — even of their
very brick and .mortar — consecrated to religious uses,
there is a manifest propriety in withholding our
houses of worship from all such uses as may tend to
beget associations of a worldly or trifling character.
The worshippers in a Christian church should not
only feel that they are engaged in hallowed work,
but that they are in a hallowed place. Reverence is
essential to the spirit of devotion ; but reverence is
endangered when the place of prayer is frequently
perverted to the use of worldly, it may be, gay and
trifling assemblages. When men turn from the
marts of business, the avenues of trade, from the
fields and shops where they toil, or from their own
hearthstones,6 where they are often weighed down by
the cares of life, to the courts of the Lord's house, let
the sacred associations of the place appeal to their
hearts, awe them into reverence, if they do not

No Temple Therein. 139
awaken the spirit of devotion. We may go even
further, and ask, where is the Christian, however
great the progress he may have made in divine
knowledge and grace, who would be willing to
forego the privileges of public worship ? who is not
rather ready to exclaim, " How amiable are thy
tabernacles, O 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."*
Never does, never can the faith of Christians become
so strong, so independent of its appointed helps, as to
be able to neglect with safety public ordinances.
We may well stand in doubt of a religion which
rejects those aids which God himself has provided ;
we may well suspect a holiness which professes to
have outgrown the ordinances of Christ's appoint
ment. It is sometimes met with, but soon reveals its
counterfeit, or at the best, fugitive, character. While
we are present in the body, and absent from the
Lord, the sanctuary, and the ordinances of the sanc
tuary, are perfectly adapted to our necessities, and
will so remain to whatever state of holiness men may
attain, on earth. We can never dispense with them,
until we have dropped the present corruptible body,
and are clothed upon with our house which is from
heaven. Heaven is described in the Apocalypse, by an
* Ps. lxxxiv. 1, 2.

140 My FATHER'S House.
evident reference to the tabernacle and temple, under
the Jewish economy. Let us therefore make use of
this reference, in our attempts to form right concep
tions, on this subject. " And I heard a great voice
out of heaven, saying, Behold the tabernacle of God
is with men, and He will dwell with them." *
It was whilst the children of Israel were encamped
before Sinai, that God gave commandment to make
him a Sanctuary, that He might dwell among them.
Moses received a pattern of it, and of all the appen
dages and instruments appertaining to it, in the
mount. So freely did the people contribute gold,*
silver, precious stones, blue, purple, scarlet stuffs, and
fine linen, that it became necessary to restrain their
liberality. The men, who were appointed to the
work, after labouring, probably, with all the re
sources, and skill, known to Egyptian art, for nearly
a year, completed it ; and it was set up by Moses
on the first day of the first month of the second
year, after the exodus. When reared up "a cloud
covered the tent of the congregation, and the glory
of the Lord filled the tabernacle." " The cloud of
the Lord was upon it by day, and fire was on it by
night, in the sight of all the house of Israel, through
out all their journeys." f The tabernacle of God
was, even then, with men ; but not as it shall be in
the land of eternal rest. The cloud by day, and the
* Rev. xxi. 3. t Ex. xl. 34, 38.

No Temtle Therein. 141
fire by night, was a perpetual Theophany, the she-
kinah, by which the Lord revealed himself to the
senses of men, under the former dispensation. The
tabernacle was a tent, a temporary place of wor
ship, designed for the use of the Hebrews, during their
journeyings. But, it was more than four hundred
and eighty years, before it was succeeded by the
temple which Solomon erected. This vast structure,
so far as the holy-place and the holy of holies, were
concerned, was substantially a copy of the taber
nacle. Within the inner court, or second enclosed
space, stood the altar of burnt-offering. The holy-
place contained the altar of incense, the golden
candlesticks, and the table of shew-bread. The
holiest of all contained the two cherubim, with
expanded wings ; and, beneath the two interior wings
the original ark of the covenant was placed, contain
ing still the two tables of. the law, but without the
pot of manna, and Aaron's rod, which had already
disappeared. The kingdom of God in Israel had
now gained a firm foundation; no other essential
change had occurred. When the temple had been
consecrated, the cloud filled the holy of holies, and
the glory of the Lord filled the house, so that the
priests could not stand to minister.
Until the erection of the Temple, the people of
Israel offered their sacrifices, and celebrated public
worship, at the tabernacle. It was the place of the

142 My FATHER'S House.
shekniaii, the habitation of the Lord ; and, therefore,
it was the only place where sacrifices could be law
fully offered. It was lawful to offer sacrifices, else
where, only when the Lord specially appeared to an
individual, in some other place ; and, only then,
during the continuance of that appearance. Let us
look now at the significance of these structures ; for,
as they were substantially the same, one being but an
enlarged copy of the other, their significance must be
the same. It will assist us to understand the import
of the Apostle's language, when he says, "I saw not a
temple in it," that is, in heaven. Let us draw nigh,
and with the Jewish worshipper, enter the enclosed
space which surrounds the tabernacle, called its
court ; for here he may enter and approach the altai
of burnt-offering which stands before the door of th«
tabernacle. But he can proceed no further; he maj
not lift the gorgeous and richly wrought curtain
which hangs before the entrance, and enter th«
sanctuary or holy-place. He may not approach God
in this direct manner; others, ministers whom God
himself hath appointed and consecrated, — priests,
must enter that holy-place for him, and, in his nama
and behalf, offer gifts and supplications, commune
with God, and receive the answers to his prayers.
But there is still an inner sanctuary, a holy of holies;
and into this the ordinary priest may never enter.
Here the high-priest alone may enter; and he but

No Temple Therein. 143
once every year; and then must come with the
blood of the offering, and enveloped in a cloud of the
incense of prayer. On the great day of atonement,
the most important and solemn of all the Jewish
festival seasons, this entrance into the holiest of all,
was made by the high-priest. This admission, once
a year, of one individual into the inner sanctuary,
taught the important lesson that the admission of the
people of God, into the immediate presence of God,
to the unveiled vision of His glory, should not be for
ever denied ; — taught that the period would come
when tabernacles and temples would be no more,
and the Lord God would be the only Temple of His
worshippers. The new dispensation has already effected an
important change, an important advance in respect
to the privileges of God's worshippers. The taber
nacle worshippers could approach God only by and
through a priest who was called to this " office of
God, as was Aaron." Christianity has for ever abol
ished all human proxies and priesthoods in God's
service. It makes all the functions of the priestly
office to centre in a High Priest not "taken from
among men," but " called of God," thus " Thou art
my Son, to-day have I begotten Thee ! Thou art a
priest for ever, after the order of Melchizedek." He
offered His own blood a sacrifice for those who come
unto God by Him, and passed into the heavens,

144 My FATHER'S House.
where he "continueth ever," and exerciseth "an
unchangeable priesthood" (or, as the margin hath it,
" which passeth not from one to another.)" He is able
to save all those for whom " He ever liveth to make
intercession." "For such a High Priest became us
who is holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sin
ners, and made higher than the heavens; who
needeth not daily, as those high priests, to offer up
sacrifice first for His own sins, and then for the
people's ; for this He did once when He offered up
Himself." "We have such a High Priest, who is
set on the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in
the heavens ; a minister of the sanctuary and of the
true tabernacle, which the Lord pitched, and not
man." " He is the Mediator of a better covenant
(than the first), which was established upon better
promises." He has "not entered into the holy
places made with hands, but into heaven itself now
to appear in the presence of God for us."* All
human mediators are for ever put aside ; all bloody
offerings or sacrifices abolished ; all distinction
between priest and people in respect to approaching
in their individual character, as the worshippers of
God, effaced. As Christ has a visible Church on
earth, he has appointed the Christian Ministry, and
instituted ordinances and offices therein, to be per
petuated to the end of the militant state. But there
* Vid. Hebrews iv., v., vii., viii., ix.

No Temple Thkkeix. 145
are no more priests among men. Ministers and
people, in their approach unto God, must stand on
the same footing ; one can no longer be the proxy
of another ; each one, for himself, must approach the
mercy seat, through the atonement and intercession
of the great High Priest, who hath passed into the
heavens, to appear in the presence of God for us.
The court of the tabernacle or temple to which,
. under the Old Testament, the people were confined,
has been transformed into a " holy place." The cur
tain which no one, who was not a priest, would have
dared to raise, has been rent in twain ; priest and
people, all through the one great Sacrifice, have com
mon access to that sacred enclosure. All alike, who
enter there, are priests unto God, and may come
boldly to that mercy seat, above which stand the
cherubim with spreading wings, gazing in secret
amazement on the awful mystery at their feet,* and
obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of
need. And this, that Christianity has done, is an earnest
of greater things, which it reveals, respecting the
future, when believers in Christ shall have dropped
corruption, and been made both kings and priests
unto God. Then the distinction which continues to
exist between the holy place and the holiest of all
will be abolished for ever; the second veil which
* 1 Pet. i. 12.
7

146 My FATHER'S House.
hides the inner sanctuary will be removed, and both
the court and the holy place be included in the most
holy. The holy of holies will then be the Father's
house, with its many mansions ; it will encircle the
whole camp of Israel ; nay, it shall grow into a
great, enduring "house," not Like the temple of
Solomon, confined to a single hill in Jerusalem, but
more like that which Ezekiel saw when he was
brought, "in the visions of God," into the land of
Israel, too extensive for the mountain of the temple
to contain it, from the threshold of which waters
issued forth, which increased as they flowed, until
they became waters to swim in — a river that could not
be passed over — on whose banks grew unfading trees,
yielding fruit every month — waters which reached and
sweetened even the dead sea of man's depravity, and
diffused life wherever they flowed.* It is no longer a
temple ; its very vastness, no less than its lack of rites
and ordinances, has deprived it of that character.
That which was a tabernacle in the wilderness — which
was a temple in Jerusalem — which is a Christian
sanctuary wherever sincere worshippers are assem
bled — has grown into a strong city, having the glory
of God — a light like unto a stone most precious — a
jasper stone, clear as crystal. All manner of precious
stones garnish its walls. It has twelve gates, each
a separate Pearl. An angel stands at each gate, and
* Ez. xl.-lxviii.

No Temple Therein. 1*i
on them are inscribed the names of the twelve tribes.
On its twelve foundations are inscribed the names of
the twelve apostles of the Lamb. The street of the
city is pure gold, like transparent glass. "And I
saw no temple therein ; for the Lord God Almighty
and the Lamb are the temple of it." Not only does
the temple disappear, but even the figure of the tem
ple, which this inspired seer had before applied to
heaven, is dropped, as no longer appropriate to the
consummated state of the kingdom of God. The
waters which seemed, in Ezekiel's vision, to spring
from beneath the threshold of the temple, have
become " a pure river of water of life, clear as crys
tal, proceeding out of the throne of God and the
Lamb. In the midst of the street of it, and on
either side of the river, is the Tree of Life, which
bears twelve manner of fruits, and yields her fruit
every month ; and the leaves of the tree are for the
healing of the nations. And there shall be no more
curse : but the throne of God and of the Lamb shall
be in it ; and His servants shall serve Him ; and they
shall see His face, and His name shall be in their
foreheads." They shall see His face. Faith,
feeble at the best, and often wavering, shall be
turned into perfect, unobstructed sight. It is this
vision which will constitute the bliss of heaven, the
fulfillment of what was prefigured, by the entrance,
once a year, of the Jewish High Priest into the holy

148 My FATHER'S House.
of holies, to appear before the mercy-seat, there to
commune with God, from between the golden cheru
bim. The tabernacle of God will still be with
redeemed sinners in the sense that they shall see
Jesus as He is, in His glorified humanity, and,
through our nature, which He wears, enjoy com
munion with Him. for ever. This glorified human
ity will be the tent or tabernacle, in which His
divinity will dwell, and from which it will shine
forth with a lustre which will fill all His saints with
ineffable delight, but upon which no mortal could
look and live. But here let us pause.
Are we not, let it be asked, impressively reminded
of the nature of true religion, and of acceptable
worship ?
Multitudes, it is to be feared, are attempting to
incorporate the spirit of the old covenant into the
new. Thus we find those who offer themselves to be
the priests of their fellow men, their mediators with
God — who offer their services for money — and, alas !
too many who appear to be willing to accept these
services ; who hand over the keeping of their souls,
and the work of prayer to their fellow men, and
expect, with the gift of money, to purchase indul
gences or the pardon of their sins, through the prayers
of these men. They are worshipping at a tabernacle
which men have pitched, and not the Lord. The gate
of the sanctuary which Christ opened, rending the

No Temple Therein. 149
veil which concealed its mysteries, so that the people,
as well as the priests, might enter and approach the
altar of incense, and offer up their own supplications
to God, they have shut up again. They say to
the people, " stand back ; come not into the holy
place ; stand back ; we are holier than you ; give
us money, and we will go in and supplicate for you. "
And, alas! too many, thinking, perhaps, to escape
from a mighty care, appear to be willing to hand
over the business which lies between their souls and
God, to these pretenders, falsely called priests.
O, that men might learn that under the new cove
nant or testament, there are no human mediators,
no priests, except the one great High Priest, who
has entered, once for all, into the holy of holies, and
appeared before God, where He ever liveth to make
intercession ! O, that they might know that, through
the altar of an infinite sacrifice — the cross of Christ,
standing " without the gate," * — they have the same
right to enter the holy place, and commune with God,
as those who claim to possess a priestly character.
Perish the hand that would exclude them ; grow
dumb the voice that would bid them stand afar off.
Let us learn, too, that acceptable worship consists
not in outward pomp and display, or in imposing
external forms. What multitudes, it is to be feared,
who gather in cathedrals and churches, in which the
Heb. xiii. 12.

150 Mt FATHER'S House.
fine arts have been employed to collect and parade
whatever can make a powerful appeal to the senses,
there are, who utterly fail to look beyond these
gorgeous decorations, and pay their homage to a
God whom the highest heavens can not contain.
They may be awed as they stand beneath the lofty
arches, in the "dim religious light," that steals
through the ornamented panes ; but the very objects
which surround them, the statuary, the frescoes, are
so many obstructions in the way of their approach to
that Great Being, who, to be worshipped acceptably,
must be worshipped in spirit and in truth. The
Jewish economy was distinguished for its forms, and
those external appendages which were designed to
appeal to the senses, at a time when the light of
revelation shone, as through a glass, very dimly.
But when Christ, the true light came, He introduced
a more spiritual economy ; He gave the world clearer
instructions than it had received before ; and having
fulfilled the law and the prophets, especially having
made the one offering of Himself for sin, the Mosaic
ritual ceased. Having waxed old it vanished away.
The temple was no longer needed. The Lord Htm-
belf, not in the symbol of a cloud, as in the temple
of Solomon, but in the person of the God-man, Jesus
Christ, filled it with His glory ; and then it passed
away, not one stone being left upon another, and
never to be restored. All structures, of similar pre-

No Temple Therein-. 151
tensions, although they may be baptized with the
name of Christian, are in violation of that simple,
and spiritual system, which distinguishes the present
from the former economy ; and which has its consum
mation in that eternal world of which John said,
"And I saw no temple therein." Let us build
houses of worship ; let them be substantial, commo
dious, inviting ; but " far rather would I find," as has
been nobly said, " in the simplicity of the place of
worship, a confession of its inadequacy to lead the
mind up to God, than to find any beauty of architec
ture, or any gorgeousness of decoration that would
lead me to admire the work of man, and draw the
mind from God." *
What most we need, as worshippers, is the mani
fested presence — as real as when of old the cloud so
filled the house that the priests could not stand to
minister — of that Great Being whom we profess to
make the object of our homage. Pather would I wor
ship in the humblest cabin with slaves, if the pre
sence of the Lord were there, with Paul in the upper
chamber of a private dwelling, or with prisoners in a
dungeon, who make the grim walls re-echo to their
praises, as did two Apostles of old, than beneath
fretted domes, where incense ascends in fragrant
clouds, but where God, by the renewing and sancti
fying influences of His Holy Spirit, is never known.
*Pres. Hopkins.

152 Mt FATHER'S Housb.

IX.
SEEING GOD.
AMONG the strongest expressions, employed in
the Scriptures, to describe the blessedness of
heaven, are those which refer to God's presence, or
speak of its inhabitants as enjoying the vision of His
face. When our Lord declares that the pure in heart
shall see God — when the apostle John declares that
believers shall see Christ, at His appearing, that they
shall see the face of God and the Lamb, they refer to
the same thing, — to this blessed and glorious vision
of God's face in heaven.*
We are not to suppose that there is any objective
or sensible glory, which belongs to the being of God.
He is a pure Spirit. We are forbidden to form, even
"inwardly in our mind," any likeness or image of
God. There is nothing, beneath or above, that is
like Him. But a visible glory was often shown to
men, in a former age, and under another dispen-
* Rev. xxii. 4 ; 1 John iii. 2 ; Matt. v. 8.

Seeing God. 153
sation. Such Theophanies were vouchsafed to the
patriarchs, rulers, and priests, — nay, to the whole
nation of Israel. They serve to teach us that seeing
God is language which implies his peculiar presence,
and such knowledge of Him as we never can have, in
the present imperfect state. Jehovah appeared unto
Abraham, in the plains of Mamre.* Jacob, when
he slept at Bethel, on his solitary journey to Mesopo
tamia, had a vision of a " ladder set up on the earth,
and the top of it reached to heaven ; and' behold the
angels of God, ascending and descending upon it.
And behold the Lord stood above it, and said, I am
the Lord God of Abraham, thy father, and the God
of Isaac. ***** And Jacob awaked out
of hi$ sleep, and he said, Surely the Lord is in this
place, and I knew it not. And he was afraid and
said, How dreadful is this place ! this is none other
but the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven."f
It is said he was afraid ; but we are not to suppose
that it was a base, slavish terror, that seized his
mind. He stood awed, and felt his own littleness,
in that august Presence. When he awaked, and the
vision had passed away, he saw no ladder, no angels,
no symbol of a higher presence. He looked up at
the stars, or at the clouds which curtained them from
his view, but never had the darkness been more
sublime. He needed no dazzling throne to make
* Gen. xviii 1. f Gen. xxviii. 10-19.
7*

154 My FATHER'S House.
him feel that God was there. He felt that this dark
ness was His secret place, and the " thick clouds of
the skies," " His pavilion round about Him."* His
exclamation, " This is none other but the house of
God, and this is the gate of heaven !" proves that,
mingled with his emotions of awe, were those of
pleasing rapture. He had never been so near
heaven — he had never been in such company
before ; he stood, as it were, at the very portal of
that blessed world. When God called Moses from
those pastoral pursuits, in which he had been
engaged for forty years, in the solitudes of the
peninsula of Sinai, to send him back to Egypt as the
deliverer of his oppressed brethren, He " appeared to
him in a flame of fire, out of the midst of a bush."
The burning bramble was an image of His enslaved,
Buffering people ; the fire, of His consuming, purify
ing holiness. The bush burns, but is not consumed ;
the people of His covenant would be purified, by
their trials, but could not be destroyed. When the
Lord saw that His astonished servant turned aside to
gaze upon this great sight, He called and said,
" Draw not nigh hither, put off thy shoes from off
thy feet ; for the place whereon thou standest is holy
ground. * * * And Moses hid his face ; for he
was afraid to look upon God."f He was a creature,
he was in the flesh ; and it was not permitted him to
* Ps. xviii. 11. f Ex. iii. 2-6.

Seeing God. 155
draw any nearer, to subject to a closer examination
this sensible manifestation of Deity. It made the
very ground holy. It was on this spot, or near this
very spot, that, at a subsequent period in his history,
he was to hold high and sacred converse with
Jehovah as the Law-giver of His people Israel, and of
all the nations of the earth. When the covenant-
people took their departure, under his leadership,
from the land of oppression, lo ! another marvellous
sight, a miracle which ceased not, during their wan
derings of forty years in the wilderness. It is a
pillar of cloud before them, pointing out their way,
advancing when they are to march, and stationary
where they are to encamp. As evening comes on and
the light of day fades, that cloud grows luminous,
brightens as the darkness increases, until it glistens,
a pillar of fire, at the head of the advancing columns,
or sheds its friendly illumination over the reposing
encampment. When the tabernacle had been set up
in the wilderness, a. cloud, the symbol of Jehovah's
presence, descended between the wings of the cheru
bim, above the mercy-seat. There it remained a
perpetual Theophany ; it never departed during the
long period that passed, before the temple was built.
When that great structure was completed, and the
ark of the Lord was borne to its place, in the oracle
of the house, the shekinah went with it, and never
disappeared from between the cherubim, until the

156 Mt FATHER'S House.
destruction of Jerusalem ai-d the temple, by the king
of Babylon. It was this symbol which made the
inner apartment of the tabernacle, and the oracle of
Solomon's temple, the holy of holies. The annual
admission of the high-priest to this sacred enclosure,
while it clearly pointed to the imperfect character of
man's communion with God, in the present state,
also pointed, as shown before, to a nearer approach
unto God in the world to come, and to the unveiled
vision of His glory.
God is present everywhere. There are no soli
tudes in this universe. No man can ever be alone.
" Take the wings
Of morning, and the Barcan desert pierce,
Or lose thyself in the continuous woods
Where rolls the Oregon, and hears no sound
Save his own dashings — "*
yet, the Lord is there ; " in the void waste as in the
city full." But He is, in a peculiar sense, nigh unto
them that fear Him, in their afflictions, temptations,
and when called to pass through the valley of the
shadow of death. Sometimes He makes a special
manifestation of His presence and nearness, so that
although they see no cloud, no fire, no sensible glory,
they feel that the ground on which they stand is
holy, or lies near the very threshold of heaven. Other
saints, besides the patriarch Jacob, have had their
* Bryant.

Seeing God. 157
Bethels — have known seasons when they have been
visited with a joyful, and perhaps almost overwhelm
ing sense of God's presence, and goodness. There
was an era in Job's experience when he could say,
" I have heard of Thee by the hearing of the ear ;
but now mine eye seeth Thee."* The psalms of
David abound in expressions and exclamations which
show a deep and affecting sense of the majesty,
glory, and condescension of God, and of the sweet
singer's delight in Him. Hear the astonished Peter,
when he fell down at Jesus's knees, crying out,
" Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord ! " f
Hear the believing Thomas : " My Lord and my
God."J Hear the noble Paul : " Oh ! the depth of
the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of
God ! how unsearchable are His judgments, and His
ways past finding out!"§ Hear the loving and
beloved John: "Behold what manner of love the
Father hath bestowed upon us that we should be
called the sons of God." j In the published memoirs
of godly men, it is a marked characteristic, that
often in their closets, they seem to have been over
shadowed as with the presence of the Highest.
They have the most humbling views of themselves—
a most lively faith in the Lord Jesus Christ — a most
tender compassion for perishing souls — a most ardent
* Job xlii. 5. f Luke v. 8. J John xx. 28. § Rom. xi. 33.
II 1 John iii. 1.

158 My FATHER'S House.
affection for all true Christians, by whatever name
called — a most affecting view of the vanity of the
world, and solemnn sense of the nearness and impor
tance of eternity. It was an experience like this
that led an eminent minister* of the times of the
Peformation in Scotland to cry out: "Lord, stay
thy hand ; thy servant is a clay vessel, and can hold
no more ; " which touched, as with hallowed fire, the
lips of holy Rutherford and Leighton; which ani
mated Brainerd and Martyn with a zeal which
expired only with life, and which consumed them in
the vigour of their youth ; which prompted a devoted
missionary f of our day to write: "Oh! that this
Sabbath might not end! I feel a sweetness and
tranquillity as if I were not far from the gates of
heaven ; " it gave to Edward Payson such '-' songs in
the night," that he sometimes appeared more like an
angel, circling in the radiance of the throne, than a
poor mortal, the earthly house of whose tabernacle
remained yet undissolved. The same powerful pre
sence of God is sometimes felt in our places of public
worship. And, then, with what convincing power
does the truth of God come home to the hearts of
men ! The unbelieving are pierced to the heart, and
cry out, "What shall we do?" and Christians
exclaim, " How good it is to be here ! How dear
* Rev. John Welch.
t Rev. John Macdonald, late Missionary of the Free Church of
Scotland, Calcutta.

Seeing God. 159
are thy dwellings, O Lord of hosts ! " There may be
no cloud, such as filled the temple of old,* before
which the priests could not stand to minister ; there
may be no visible fire, no noise as of a mighty rush
ing wind, as on the day of Pentecost ; but the Spirit
of God fills the place where the worshippers are
sitting. On a Monday morning, a few years ago, an elder
of the church, one of those men whose lives adorn
the doctrine of God our Saviour, and who thus
become living epistles, known and read of all men,
addressed a letter to the author, a portion of which
is subjoined. I would merely premise that the writer
had long been in infirm health, by which he was
almost entirely. cut off from the privileges of public
worship ; and that he had enjoyed only the most
limited advantages of education in youth ; it will,
however, be observed — proving that grace refines
the intellect as it renews, and sanctifies the heart —
that there is a tenderness, a sweetness, as well as a
simplicity, in his expressions, which may well remind
us of some of the letters of Leighton : " When I
awoke, on Sabbath morning, my thoughts were
directed to Christ as an all-sufficient Saviour. I
thought of Moses smiting the rock in Horeb to sup
ply the famishing Israelites. So Christ, our Pock,
was smitten to supply the wants of a perishing
* 1 Kings, viii. 10, 11.

160 My FATHER'S House.
world; and, in meditating on Him in this light, I
became deeply affected; my heart became melted
into tenderness ; my tears flowed so freely that I
actually wet my couch with them. And this happy
influence continued with me more or less through
the day. Before I rose from my bed, my heart was
drawn out in prayer that He would be with me
through the day — that He would be present in the
house of worship, and fill it with His glory — that
every heart might be affected by the word preached ;
and also, that you might be divinely assisted in
preaching the Word. [The solemnity and visible
emotion on that day were very marked, and are
probably remembered, by more than one.J When
I came to perform family worship, it was with much
difficulty that I could command my feelings, so as to
get through with the duty. After my family had
gone to church, I read the one hundred and nine
teenth psalm ; and I think I could adopt much of
the language as my own. While reading, my eyes
were often blinded with tears. It really appeared
that my heart was dissolved in tenderness. I spent
most of the time while my family were at church in
prayer. God appeared so nea/i to me that I could
not do much else but pray. The same objects for
which I prayed in the morning seemed to fill my
mind ; and especially that a divine influence might
fill the house of God. I could tell you much more ;

Seeing God. 101
but my pains admonish me that I must bring my
letter to a close. Oh ! my dear brother, is it not
wonderful that God thus condescends to visit his
creatures ? And if a small ray of heavenly light, let
into our souls, affords us so much happiness, what
will it be when we behold the Sun in His glory ?
Oh ! sir, sometimes, when I think of these things, and
of my dear friends who are now enjoying it all, and
then of my own condition, I must confess it makes
me feel a little home-sick."* Has not many a Chris
tian, under the dispensation of the Spirit, although
apart from all miraculous appearances and signs,
enjoyed just as high a privilege, to say the least, as
was granted to Jacob at Bethel, and to Moses at
Horeb ?
Yes; we may well ask, "if a small ray of heavenly
light let into our souls, affords us so much happiness,
what will it be when we behold the Sun in His
glory?" " If such the sweetness of the streams,
What must the fountain be ?"
What must it be to enjoy those spiritual manifes
tations of Deity, which will be addressed to the
enlarged, the immortal faculties of saints in heaven ?
Ah ! it may suit our present attainments in grace and
knowledge, to think how much happiness we shall
* Letter of Mr. A  D  , March 14, 1849.

162 My FATHER'S House.
derive from being reunited in heaven to dear friends,
to a parent, a child, a brother, a sister, to a husband
or a wife, whom, perhaps, we followed, many weary
years ago, with bursting hearts, to the grave. But
if we ever reach that world, the happiness of being
restored to dear friends, — the happiness of the father
in clasping the son, on whom he thought to lean in
old age ; of the mother, -in gathering to her bosom
the babes which the remorseless grave wrested from
her embrace ; of the brother, whose quick eye was
the first to mark the hectic brighten on the cheek
of a gentle sister, ere it turned to ashy paleness,
when he looks upon the angelic beauty of her
glorified form — this happiness, I say, will be as
nothing in comparison with the delight of being
in the presence of God and the Lamb, and seeing
His face. " And I saw no temple therein ; for the
Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are the temple of
it. And the city had no need of the sun, neither of
the moon, to shine in it ; for the glory of God did
lighten it, and the Lamb is the light thereof." As
the light of our material sun diffuses itself over our
earth, fills our atmosphere with his beams, so the
presence and glory of God will fill heaven ; and the
nations of them that are saved shall walk and rejoice
in the light of it, " Knowledge will be infused into
the mind without the operose process of instruction
and inquiry. Here, our views are limited ; and we

Seeing God. 163
see only the skirts of His glory ; there, the revelation
will be as ample as our finite faculties will permit.
What the saints already know will shine with new
light, and present itself to their minds with an evi
dence and satisfaction which they never formerly
experienced; and many things will be disclosed to
them which it had not entered into their hearts to
conceive ; mysteries will be explained, difficulties
will be solved, and excellencies will rise to view, in
the Divine nature, of which no vestige was discover
able in His works. How glorious will He appear
when every veil is removed, and He is contemplated
in the fullness of His attributes ! The sight will be
transporting, and will excite the highest admiration
and joy."*
The purely spiritual glory of God in heaven is, no
doubt, that, which excelleth ; it more immediately
radiates from Him, as a" Spirit, and belongs to His
nature and image. Its perfect manifestation is the
unveiled vision of His face, and must afford the
highest bliss to the spiritual nature of creatures, in
the highest state of advancement ; it satisfies its long
ings ; it bows reverently before the vastness which is
set before it; it asks no more. It would be the
height of rashness, if not sacrilegious, to attempt to
describe this glory ; it has not, and can not enter into
the heart of man to conceive of it And there are
Dr. John Dick, Lect. LXLTI.

164 My FATHER'S House.
words which are unspeakable, and things which are
unbearable and unbearable ; even as there are things
which are inconceivable, by men. Ah ! how can we,
who are of the earth, comprehend the pure, spiritual
glory of the Godhead? God has proclaimed His
Name in His word, and in His works demonstrated
the glorious attributes of His character, but still how
little we know of Him ! how feeble and imperfect are
our conceptions not only of His character as a whole,
but of any one of its individual attributes ! How
vain, then, to attempt to describe, or even to com
prehend, that spiritual glory, which will for ever
attract, and fill the most enlarged contemplative
power of an immortal spirit ! All that we can say is,
that the perfections of the divine character will be
unveiled to the contemplation of the redeemed.
They shall see Him as He is. They shall know, even
as also they are known. " Conceive One Gloet
resulting from substantial wisdom, goodness, power,
truth, justice, holiness, that is, beaming forth from
Him, who is all these, by His very essence, neces
sarily, originally, infinitely, eternally, with whatso
ever else is truly a perfection. This is the glory
blessed souls shall behold forever."* "They shall
see the beauty of His person ; the splendour and
brightness of His understanding; the largeness of
His love ; His uncorrupted justice ; His unexhausted
* Howe.

Seeing Goo, loo
goodness ; His immovable truth ; His uncontrollable
power ; His vast dominions, which yet He fills with
His presence, and administers their affairs with ease,
and is magnified and praised in them by the throng
of all His creatures."* "The sight of God prima
rily and immediately denotes our perfect knowledge
of God, in the other life, in opposition to those
obscure and more imperfect discoveries and appre
hensions which we have of Him in these earthly
bodies. We see Him now many times as He is not ;
that is, we are liable to false and mistaken concep
tions of Him ; but then, we shall see Him as He is.
The clearness of our knowledge will free us from all
error and mistake about Him. But we are now,
many times, at a loss what conceptions to have of
God; we are hard put to reconcile one perfection
of God with another, and to make them consistent
and agree together. We believe His providence,
but we are puzzled many times how to make that
accord with His justice' and goodness ; but in heaven
we shall see the harmony of all these, and that it was
nothing but our ignorance which made us imagine
any disagreement in them." f "Then the false sus
picions and secret murmurs which we may have
directed against God's government of the world will
be silenced before the glorious exhibition of His
holiness, His justice, and His mercy Then the
. * Bishop Patrick. t Tillotson.

166 My FATHER'S House.
prosperity of the wicked, the success of the unjust,
the triumphs of the oppressor, will appear to have
been permitted for purposes infinitely more wise and
benevolent."* " In the contemplation of the Divine
Being, we are in no danger," says Pobert Hall, " of
going beyond our subject; we are conversing with
an Infinite Object, in the depth of whose essence and
purposes, we are for ever lost. This will probably
give all the emotions of freshness and astonishment
to the raptures of the beatific vision, and add a
delightful zest to the devotions of eternity. This
will enable the Divine Being to pour in continually
fresh accessions of light ; to unfold new views of His
character, disclose new parts of His perfections, open
new mansions in Himself, in which the mind will
find ample room to expatiate. Thus shall we learn,
to all eternity, that, so far from exhausting His
infinite fullness, there will remain infinite recesses
in His nature unexplored; scenes in His counsels
never brought before the view of His creatures ;
that we know but ' parts of His ways ;' and that,
instead of exhausting our theme, we are not even
approaching nearer to the comprehension of the
Eternal All." That immediate and enlarged know
ledge which the blessed in heaven shall have of the
divine glory, comprehending much at one view, as it
were by intuition, in which respect they may be said
*Bp. Hobart's Serm., Vol. n. p. 392.

Seeing God. 167
in a great degree, to know, even as also they are
known by God, may be called sight, inasmuch as the
act and comprehension of the bodily eye in vision, is
" the most perfect imitation of this act of the mind."
But may not the Divine Being, by some sensible
glory, not belonging to His essence, and which it
would be too much for man, while in the flesh, to
behold, manifest Himself to the redeemed in heaven?
To see what angels and the glorified in heaven loot
upon, with steady gaze and joyful exultation, would
rend the veil of the flesh and cause our present
tabernacles to break in pieces. Is it wholly incon
ceivable that the Most High should grant to them
some adumbration of Himself, some symbol as the
sign of His presence ? John Howe maintains that
there may be in heaven some such " umbrage," or
" shadowy representation," as an object to the
" proper sensitive powers and organs " of the resur
rection body.* Archbishop Tillotson, on the other
hand, thinks that the expression, Seeing God, is to
be taken strictly in a spiritual sense. " We are not
to dream that we are to see God," he says, " with
our bodily eyes, for being a pure spirit, He can not
be the object of any corporeal sense ; but we shall
have such a sight of Htm as a pure spirit is capable
of — we shall see Him with the eyes of our minds and
understandings. And, in this sense, we do, in some
* Blessed of the Righteous, Ch. m.

168 My FATHER'S House.
degree, see God in this life, by faith and knowledge ;
but it is but darkly. When we come to heaven our
understandings shall be raised and cleared to such
a degree of strength and perfection, that we shall
know God after a more perfect manner than we are
capable of in this state of mortality. And this per
fect knowledge of Him, together with the. happy
effects of it, those affections which it shall raise in us,
and that blessed enjoyment of the chief good which
we are not able to express, is that which is called the
sight of God." *
But whatever may be true as to the figurative or
literal sense of the beatific vision, as commonly
understood, the subject seems to be relieved of
all difficulty when we consider that the Shekinah,
or visible symbol of the Divine presence, will be seen
in the glorified humanity of our Lord Jesus Christ.
God was " manifest in the flesh " by that material
body of Christ, which men saw with their eyes, and
which their hands handled; which they had no
power to destroy, without His permission; through
which His disciples saw the rays of Bis divinity
stream forth, changing the fashion of His counte
nance, until it shone above the brightness of the sun,
and imparting to His garments a lustrous whiteness
as " no fuller on earth could whiten them ;" which
was suspended on the cross ; which the tomb could
*Serm. I. on 1 John, iii. 2.

Seeing God. 169
not confine ; and was seen and handled by them,
after His resurrection. This very body they saw
go up into heaven; and there, glorified, it still
manifests God, manifests Him as He could not be
manifested to mortal eyes. The Deity took our
nature that He might suffer therein, and might con
verse with finite creatures on earth. He therefore
took a body which did not seem to differ from their
bodies. He still wears our nature in heaven, that
creatures who are still finite, and who could not
sustain the dread presence of God, and live, may
enjoy communion with Him there. But 0, how glo
rious ! The Transfiguration-glories may have been,
in part, designed to give us some conception of His
body of glory. His people, too, shall be around
Him, with their vile bodies fashioned like unto His
glorious body. And this humanity, shared alike by
the Redeemer" and the redeemed, this communion,
this vision of God manifest in the mediatorial King,
will be eternal. The tabernacle of God will be with
men for ever, in the sense that the glorified humanity
of our Lord will be the tent or tabernacle in which
the glory of His divinity will reside, and through
which its splendour will shine forth, with a bright
ness which shall fill all heaven- with unspeakable
joy. The saints in heaven will behold the once
crucified, but now exalted and reigning Saviour—
every one exclaiming, " He loved me and gave Him-

170 Mt FATHER'S House.
self for me ;" " Thou wast slain and hast redeemed
us to God by thy blood, out of every kindred, and
tongue, and people, and nation." Christ will not
lay aside His glorified humanity when He lays aside
His mediatorial kingdom. He will never cease
to reign; He will only cease to mediate for the
redeemed, made perfect and confirmed in holiness
for ever, beyond the peradventure of a fall ; but His
kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and to His
dominion there shall be no end. As the Father did
not cease to reign when He delivered the mediato
rial kingdom to the Son, so the Son will not cease to
reign when He delivers back the mediatorial king
dom to the Father. He will still stand at the head
of His redeemed church, and in His glorified body
will be the great object of homage to the members
of that church. He will smile on them ; He will
welcome them ; He will love them ; and every per
fection and every excellence that can be named, in
all the beauty of holiness, will shine forth from Him,
and attract every eye. They will know that they
are looking upon Him who atoned for their sins by
His death on Calvary ; who interceded for them in
the presence of the Father ; who gave them His
Spirit to renew^ and sanctify their hearts ; who suc
coured them in temptation ; who supported them
in death; and crowned them with eternal glory:
and as they behold His complacent and gracious

Seeing God. 171
smiles, their souls will be filled with rapturous
delight. " We shall be like Hlm ; for we shall see Him as
He is." How great a hope is this ! We are not
only to see Him but to be made like Him. Yerily,
the words carry in them an amazing sound. " Were
the dust of the earth turned into stars in the firma
ment, were the most stupendous poetical imagina
tions assured realities, what could equal the greatness
and wonder of this mighty change?" There is a
sense in which to desire to be like God is unlawful.
He has incommunicable attributes, in which no
finite creature can ever share. But the saints will
be made to resemble Him, according to their finite
capacities, in moral excellences. That image of God
in which man was originally created, in knowledge,
righteousness and holiness, will be perfectly restored
in heaven. They will possess bodies fashioned like
unto Christ's glorious body, according to the work
ing whereby He is able even to subdue all things
unto Himself.* And how reasons the Apostle John ?
what inference does he draw from the expectation of
being like Christ, at His appearing ? " And every
man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself,
even as he is pure." Our hope of heaven is baseless,
will do us no good, unless the cherishing of it
tends to purify us, and assimilate us to Htm, whom
* Phil. iii. 21.

172 My FATHER'S House.
we expect to behold, at His appearing. They
shall have heaven, who thus learn to- love it, and
whose hearts are framed to its purity and spiritual
j°ys.

A B S K X T PROM the Body. ] 73

ABSENT FROM THE BODY.
THE state of the soul, immediately after death, is
not a matter of vain speculation. It cannot be a
matter of indifference to those who mourn the
departure of friends from this world ; or who them
selves expect soon to die, to inquire into the expe
rience of the soul, immediately upon being separated
from the body. Such an inquiry "bears directly
upon points which touch the best feelings of our
nature, which involve the satisfaction and repose of
our own personal anticipations, and which limit or
increase the sources from which the Christian
mourner may derive an immediate consolation." It
is a moment of great solemnity, when, as we watch
for the last breath of some suffering friend, we see
the chest heave for the last time, and the body settle
into the repose and stillness of death. ' Whither
has the soul gone? Does it survive? Can it be
conscious, active, and intelligent, separate from the

174 My FATHER'S House.
body ? Into what new scenes has it been ushered ?
What is now its experience ?' Without the inspired
word of God, death would be an unsolved mystery,
and questions like these could not be answered. Let
us make this word a lamp to our feet, in attempting
to follow the spirit to its new realm of being.
" Therefore we are always confident, knowing that
whilst we are at home in the body, we are absent
from the Lord (for we walk by faith, not by sight) ;
we are confident, I say, and willing rather to be
absent from the body, and to be present with the
Lord."* These expressions plainly teach that death,
instead of interrupting the consciousness, activity,
and intelligence of the soul, awakens it, as out of a
former sleep, and introduces it, from a state of
mournful disconsolate absence, to the immediate
presence, and close embraces of the Lord of life.
How strangely mistaken had the Apostle been if his
death, or his absence from the body, had rendered
him less capable of enjoying the presence of his
Lord ! As, after the resurrection the soul will be no
longer absent from the body, the phrase, " present
with the Lord," must denote the life and bliss of
saints, immediately following their death. The
Apostle does not mean apparent, but real time. Nor
would he have used the language, " We are * * *
willing rather to be absent from the body, and
* 2 Cor. v. 6, 7, 8.

Absent f n o m the Body. 175
present with the Lord," if he had held it impossible
to be present with the Lord, without the body. In
another epistle, he uses this language, " I am in a
strait betwixt two, having a desire to depart, and
to be with Christ ; which is far better ; nevertheless,
to abide in the flesh is more needful for you."*
How could language more clearly prove that the
righteous, at death, go immediately into the presence
of Christ ? Paul would not have said it is better to
die than to live, if at death, the soul becomes
insensible ; he would never have been in a strait,
betwixt living and dying ; for it would be far prefer
able to live. His language declares the soul's
immediate happiness, in the presence of Christ. " It
is evident," says Dr. Watts, " that the Apostle hoped
to be present with the Lord, immediately, as soon as
he was absent from the body ; otherwise, death would
have been to him of little gain, if he must have
been sleeping, till the dead shall rise, at the general
resurrection."f And here, again, "the commence
ment of his presence with the Lord is represented as
coincident, not with his return to the body, but with
his leaving it; with the dissolution, not with the
restoration of the union.";]:
When our Lord was dying on the cross, one of the
thieves crucified with Him, prayed, "Lord, remember
* Phil. i. 23, 24. t Essay on Separate State.
t Dr. Campbell, VI. Dis.

176 My FATHER'S House.
me when Thou comest into Thy kingdom, and was
answered, " To-day, shalt thou be with Me in para
dise." The penitent must have been acquainted with
the Jewish doctrine of a future state, to commence
immediately after death. Our Lord did not attempt
to disabuse his mind of any error on this point. Any
explanation of our Saviour's words, which would
postpone the happiness of the dying thief to some
future, indefinite period, " would be sadly trifling
with the trembling penitent's feelings ; and would be,
besides, perfectly incompatible both with the charac
ter of the Saviour, and with the solemn and impor
tant purposes for which he was then suffering."*
The martyr Stephen, just before he fell, "looked
up steadfastly into heaven, and saw the glory of
God, and Jesus standing on the right hand of God."
As his enemies stoned him, he called " upon God,
saying, Lord Jesus, receive my spirit." He evi
dently expected to be immediately received into the
very heavens he saw opened, and into the presence
of that Saviour whom he saw, standing on the right
hand of God. He believed the words of that
Saviour, that men may kill the body, but are not
able to kill the soul — that the soul has no such
dependence on the body as necessitates it to sink into
insensibility when the body dies. Embracing a
notion so unintelligible, because so inconsistent with
* Dr. Gregory's Evid. of the Christian Religion, Vol. II. p. 272.

Absent from the Body. 177
the nature and attributes of the soul, and only to be
conceived of as synonymous with at least a temporary
annihilation, the guilty might hope to escape from
present remorse of conscience, by taking refuge in
the land of darkness and oblivion; and the just
might shudder at the dreary void immediately in
prospect, at the hour of death.* But no; death,
while it consigns the body to darkness and insensi
bility, for a season, in the grave, is the portal of the
soul to a more vigorous and active life. O what a
moment must that be, when it passes, from amidst
things which are seen and temporal, to mingle in
scenes which are invisible and eternal !
" 0 the pain, the bliss of dying !" —
the pain which attends the sundering of ties that
have bound us to earthly stations and friends, and
the dissolution of the body and soul ; but the greater
bliss of the cheering presence, which attends the
believer, in the dark valley, and of the immediate
presence of Christ, as soon as he has passed beyond
its shadow. We cannot follow the departing spirit,
as it leaves earth and all its scenes behind, and enters
into the instant presence of God, revealed in Christ.
" Infinite love," it has been well said, " can and will
save the poor, trembling, shrinking soul, newly come
into the sublimities of a strange world, from the
* Polwhele's Essay.

178 Mt FATHER'S House.
shock of a surprise, which otherwise would astound
or annihilate ; and so hold back the face of that
throne, and so spread a cloud over it, and so mitigate
its splendours, that the frail creature born into an
untried state shall be able to bear it."* In its first
wonder it will perhaps cry out,
" And is this heaven ? and am I here 1
How short the road ! how swift the flight !
I am all life, all eye, all ear ;
Jesus is here, my soul's delight.
Is this the heavenly Friend who hung
In blood and anguish on the tree !
Whom Paul proclaimed, whom David sung ?
Who died for them, who died for me ?"
But the question we have been considering may
assume a somewhat different form — Whether the
souls of men, at death, pass immediately into heaven
or hell, or are detained in some middle state of happy
or wretched existence, until the resurrection of their
bodies? Do the Scriptures acknowledge any other
places for souls, in the separate state, than that
heaven, where the redeemed behold the face of God
in light and glory, waiting for the full redemption
of their bodies, and that hell, where the wicked remain
in torments and utter darkness, reserved to the
judgment of the great day ? Those who contend that
the disembodied souls of men, before the resurrec-
* Consolation, by Dr. J. W. Alexander, p. 403.

Absent from the Body. 179
tion, are neither admitted to heaven, nor banished
to the world of everlasting perdition, maintain that
there is an unseen place, called in Scripture, Hades,
in one compartment of which, the souls of the just
dwell in peaceful happiness ; and that within view
of this, there is another for the custody of wicked
spirits, where they await the judgment of the great
day. It will be simply necessary to show that Hades,
does not denote a middle place of departed spirits,
but merely the state of the dead. There is a single
passage, in connection with which all that is essential
to a clear understanding of the subject may be
presented. It is the passage contained in the six
teenth Psalm, and which is expressly applied by the
Apostle * to our Saviour ; " Thou wilt not leave my
soul in hell, neither wilt thou suffer thine Holy One to
see corruption." It has been often cited to prove that
the soul — the rational, spiritual soul of our Saviour,
went to that place or world (Hades) where the souls
of men are said to be detained, entering neither
heaven nor hell, properly speaking, till the resurrec
tion. But while the word soul with us means the
thinking, immortal part of man, the Hebrew word,
here translated soul, means primarily breath ; then
life or the vital principle ; then the spirit or soul ;
and here probably denotes nothing more than me or
elf. There is not a single instance in which it
* Acts ii. 27.

180 My FATHER'S House.
can clearly be made out, that it was ever applied to
the soul, when separated from the body. In this
passage, it must be explained in part by the meaning
of the word Hades, translated hell. This Greek word
literally means a concealed or covered place. Turn
ing back to the sixteenth Psalm, where the passage
stands in its original form, " Thou wilt not leave my
soul to hell ; thou wilt not give thy Holy One to see
corruption," the word hell is used in its wide old
English sense as corresponding to the Hebrew Sheol,
which the Seventy translated by the word Hades.
Sheol is often used as parallel to death ; it means
here the grave as a general receptacle; or the state.
of the dead: "Thou wilt not leave Me to the grave, or
the state of the dead ; thou wilt not suffer thy Holy
One to see corruption." Two apostles * have quoted
these words to show that Christ's buried body was
saved from the first approach of putrefaction, and
that, in this sense, they were inapplicable to David.
And this, doubtless, is their grand import. While
therefore the word (Sheol or Hades), under considera
tion, may mean something more than simply grave,
or sepulchre, namely the state of the dead, the power
of death, or the unseen world beyond the grave ; it
is impossible to make it appear from this text, that
Christ descended into hell, when He died, in the sense
of going to the region where departed spirits are
*Acts ii. 29-31 ; xiii. 35-37

Absent from thu Body. J.SX
detained until the resurrection — and did not ascend
into heaven.
The paradise to which the Saviour referred, in His
promise to the crucified malefactor, was heaven, the
supreme heaven, and not some mansion, of this
name, in the world of separate spirits, assigned to
the righteous as their place of residence, until the
resurrection. To disprove this, much has been
attempted to be made of His words to Mary, after
His resurrection from the dead ; " Touch me not ; for
I am not yet ascended to my Father."* But surely
His telling Mary that He had not yet ascended to
His Father, with His risen body, did not mean that
during the time His body was lying in the sepulchre,
He did not go into the presence of His Father. As
He yielded up His spirit on the cross, He cried,
"Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit."
And was not that prayer answered ? Did not His
spirit go into the presence of His Father ? Surely,
then, that paradise to which He promised the dying
penitent admission, was no other place than that
heaven where the face of God is beheld, in light and
glory. Our Lord cautioned Mary against delay, but
to hasten with His message to His disciples, " I am
not now ascending, i. e. going immediately to ascend
to my Father; therefore make no delay — you will
have opportunity hereafter to see Me before I return
* John xx. 17.

182 Mt FATHER'S House.
to my Father and your Father, to my God and your
God." Much, also, has been attempted to be made of the
parable of the rich man and Lazarus, as teaching that
there must be a place of departed souls, supposed to
be divided into two parts, separated by an impassable
gulf, but which are entirely distinct from heaven and
hell. It properly belongs to the very scope and
design of this parable to show what becomes of the
souls of good and bad . men, when they die: It is
said that the rich man died, and in hell (Hades)
lifted up his eyes in torment. If hell, in this
instance, does not mean the place of future everlast
ing torment,* but an invisible world, having two
apartments, where the good and bad await the resur
rection of their bodies, why is the rich man alone
represented as going there ? Why is it not also said
that Lazarus went to hell or Hades ? When Lazarus
died, he was carried by angels to Abraham's bosom.
So far from its being derogatory to heaven to suppose
Abraham's bosom to be figurative of it, the use of
this figurative phrase would, to His Jewish hearers,
be the highest expression of the happiness and glory
of heaven.
But that the word " paradise," as used in Scrip
ture, means heaven, the highest heaven, and not a
* See Prof. Stuart's Essays on the Words denoting future punish
ment.

Absent from t ii ij Souv. 183
compartment in some mansion, short of that world,
we have incontrovertible" evidence in the account
which Paul gives of his wonderful vision,* in which
he uses " paradise," and " the third heaven " as
synonymous and convertible terms. He knew a man
in Christ caught up to the third heaven, caught up
into paradise, where he heard unspeakable words.
The third heaven, according to Jewish belief, was
the abode of Jehovah, and this was the paradise into
which Paul was caught up.- His experience was,
perhaps, somewhat similar to that of believers in
Christ, at their death. He did not know whether he
was in the body or out of the body. We know that
they are out of the body, for they leave their dust to
be deposited by our hands in the grave. But their
spirits are caught up to the third heaven, into para
dise to hear, and see, and know, what no mortal
tongue can ever utter. As we stand weeping around
the cold, inanimate body of some, dear friend, who
was a friend of Christ, just as the last pulse has
ceased to throb, his soul has passed through the
wonderful experience of being caught up to the
Lord to see Him as He is. Yerily, this must be so ;
for did not our Saviour, just before His crucifixion,
comfort His sorrowing disciples with these words, " I
go to prepare a place for you ; and if I go and pre
pare a place for you, I will come again and receive
* 2 Cor. xii. 2-4.

184 Mt FATHER'S House.
you unto Myself, that where I am there ye may be
also !" He fulfilled this promise. He came again,
at their death, and received them ; and they are now
where He is. Many of them expired amidst aggra
vated tortures, with the martyr's prayer on their lips,
"Lord Jesus, receive my spirit." Where Christ
is, there is heaven. Can it be supposed that the
Saviour would attempt to comfort His friends with
the promise that they should see Him and enjoy His
presence again after thousands (nearly two have
expired) of years ; and that they were to pass this
long interval of conscious existence out of His pre
sence? Or, take the passages which have already
been referred to — in one of which the Apostle
expresses his willingness to be absent from the body
and present with the Lord ; and in the other, expres
ses his desire to depart, and to be with Christ, and
adds, " for to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain !"
Where is Christ ? Is not Christ in heaven ? Did
He not ascend to His Father and our Father, to His
God and our God ? And is not His session, at .the
right hand of His Father, where He maketh inter
cession for His people, a cardinal doctrine of the
word of God? How could Paul, then, be in His
presence, and not in heaven, in the presence of
God, the Father ? Was Paul cherishing a mis
taken, groundless hope ? Was it not " gain " for
him to die ?

A.BSENT FROM THE BODY. Jg5
I have no hesitation in subscribing to the opinion
that the righteous do not receive their full reward,
and are not to expect it till the day of judgment. I
have no hesitation in receiving what is said to be the
doctrine of the primitive church, that "the soul is
but in an imperfect state of happiness till the resur
rection, when the whole man shall obtain a complete
victory over death, and by the last judgment be
established in an endless state of consummate happi
ness and glory." * While the body sees corruption in
the grave, no man can be said to be fully delivered
from death. By the original constitution of his
nature, he consists of soul and body ; and his perfect
happiness, therefore, requires the united glory and
happiness of both parts of the whole man. Death,
the last enemy, is not destroyed till the resurrection.
" A soul in a state of separation," says Bishop Sher
lock, and I concur in the strong and impressive
statement, " how happy soever, otherwise it may be,
has still this mark of God's displeasure on it, that it
has lost its body, and, therefore, the reunion of our
souls and bodies has, at least, this advantage in it,
that it is a perfect restoring of us to the divine
favour. We have no reason to doubt that this
reunion of soul, and body will be a new addition
of happiness and glory."
To die, is something more than to fall into an
* Bingham's Christian Antiquities.

186 My FATHER'S House.
unconscious sleep. Death is neither the extinction,
nor the suspension of our being. It brings to a close
our probationary existence, but is the introduction to
a state of endless happiness, or of endless woe. Think
of the solemn scenes which are just before you. Let
not that world, in which you will soon be no stranger,
be a stranger to your thoughts. Ah ! what spectacle
is this ? — men travelling on the shore of a boundless
ocean, on which they must soon set sail, but giving
not a moment's reflection to the voyage ! Awake,
O awake, ere it be too late, from this fatal slumber
of the soul !
This topic is replete with consolation to those
bereaved of pious friends. Let not your thoughts
linger too much about the grave, where their bodies
await the archangel's trump. True, their dust is
precious, and they are still united to Christ, and " do
rest in their graves," and in Him will rest till the
resurrection. But the spirits, which animated their
tabernacles of clay, which imparted to them all
their life and loveliness, have been " caught up " to
those populous mansions, where the saints of all ages,
and of all communions, meet in blessed harmony.
There, they grieve no more; they sin no more.
There, they are holy ; and they are happy. " Weep
ye not for the dead," " Weep not for us," could they
address us, would they not say, and with an elo
quence which immortals alone know how to use —

Absent from the Body Jg7
" weep not for us ; weep for yourselves. The victory
is ours, the conflict is still yours. The crown is ours,
the cross is still yours. Weep not for us." God
grant that we may fight on till death, that the crown
of victory may be ours too.
" No eye shall ever shed a tear there ;
None shall feel, or grief, or fear there ;
Every face a smile shall wear there ;
Xn that Land of the Blessed."*

' Durant.

188 Mt FATHER'S Hous*.

XI.
THE BODY EESTOHED.
THE Redeemed, on their departure from tms
world, as has been shown, enter into the presence
of the Lord, and upon an endless career in knowledge
and holiness. But, while the body is in the grave,
death, the last enemy, still reigns, and the soul
cannot enjoy that perfect bliss, which will be its
eternal reward, when it is no longer a separate soul,
but is united with a glorious body like unto Christ's.
The New Testament doctrine, in regard to those
who embrace the hope set before them, is this : —
The believer dies, and his body is committed to the
grave; it moulders away. It is sown in weakness
and dishonour ; it is sown a natural body. A
narrow mound denotes the place where it lies. It
matters not by whom we are honoured, or by whom
despised ; what have been the advantages, or disad
vantages of our birth and condition in life. Our
strength must perish, our beauty consume away, our

The Body Restored^ 189
worldly honours and affluence be left behind, and
the grave become the repository of our dust. But
the morning of the resurrection shall reclaim the
bodies of all who sleep in Jesus from the humiliation
of the tomb. They shall be raised in power, and
glory, incorruptible, immortal. The apostle Paul
states the fearful alternative, which remains to us,
upon the denial of the doctrine of the resurrection ;
" H there be no resurrection of the dead, then is
Christ not risen ? And if Christ be not risen, then is
our preaching vain, and your faith is also vain."*
Such denial necessarily involves that of all revealed
religion, makes faith vain, divine ordinances and
institutions vain ; makes the Apostles and Prophets
false teachers, and Christ himself an impostor. To
deny the resurrection, is to make the Gospel a fable,
and the wonderful works of Christ, impositions and
delusions; nay more, it makes even the history of
those times, written by Pagan authors, who were
contemporary with Christ, and His apostles, equally
fabulous. "In short, there is no such thing as history
in the world. We are in a maze of doubt and
uncertainty; the greatest unbeliever is the truest
believer ; and the most unsettled skepticism must be
the most certain religion. There is neither Pedeemer,
nor redemption ; no reality in the relation of things ;
no evidence in our senses ; no hope in life or death ;
* 1 Cor. xv. 13, 14.

190 My FATHER'S House.
no heaven or immortality ; no providence, wisdom,
or truth in all that is, or all that appears to be ; but
the whole medley of things is a mere illusion, and
the very being of God is a lie. This is the creed of
those, who, without faith to receive the truth, have
a vast credulity, which can swallow everything
beside." The Apostle, selecting one of the numerous effects
of Spring, the growth of seed, powerfully reasons
upon this subject. He derives a striking analogy
from the laws of vegetable reproduction. But, it. is
obvious there would be no appropriateness, and no
point in his analogy, if the buried bodies of men are
not to be raised up from the grave. The sown seed
is buried in the earth ; and as it decays in its grave,
the germinating principle becomes active, and it
bringeth forth much fruit. The same grain of wheat
that is sown does not itself come up, but it puts forth
a stalk, which bears an ear or head of wheat. Some
thing more ample, more affluent comes up. We
sow not that body that shall be. Precisely so in
respect to the bodies of Christ's buried saints. As
committed to the grave, they are poor corruptible
flesh and blood — perhaps enfeebled and emaciated by
age and disease, or blackened and consumed by fire,
or fractured and lacerated, in some fearful disaster ;
— as raised up again, they are glorious, immortal,
incorruptible, like unto Christ's glorious body. But

The Body Restored. 191
what becomes of this beautiful and instructive
analogy, if the true doctrine of the resurrection be
that, at death, every individual believer emerges
from his material into a spiritual body, and the mate
rial body is given over to a corruption, from which
there is no redemption ? If the Apostle had designed
to teach that such is the fate of our bodies, sown in
the grave, he would have drawn his comparison from
seed that is sown, and utterly perishes, without send
ing up a single blade. But he meant to teach that
there is a connecting link between that body of flesh
and blood which the grave receives, and those
glorious, immortal fabricks, which will be built there
from — that there is a germ, in the graves where we
shall slumber, from which, at His almighty fiat, who
created us from nothing, a new body shall spring,
when the last trumpet blows, "breaks up old marble,"
and echoes, through* all the caverns of the sea. In
the objection that there is no vital principle resident
in the body which is committed to the grave, and
nothing which can have the least tendency to repro
duce it, at the last day, philosophy is utterly at fault.
Who can assert, on the mere ground of science, that
there is no connecting link between the one body
and the other? We should never know that any
vital principle remained in the plants, which appear
to die on the approach of winter, or in the grain of
wheat that falls into the ground, if we had not the

192 Mt FATHER'S House.
advantage of observation and experiment. "We
present," to adopt the language of a late eminent
professor,* in the College of New Jersey, " to the
imagination the dispersed corporeal elements of a
man, and invite the philosopher to show us by proof,
by inspection, by experiment, or by analogy, that
the vitality of those elements is annihilated, by
dispersion. Sound reason can hardly evade the
conclusion that the continued existence of vitality, in
the dispersed particles, is, in the present lack of
all positive proof to the contrary, a matter of fair
presumption." Wherever our clay falls at death, we must rise
again. Let our bodies be devoured by vultures or
beasts of prey, by worms, or fishes of the sea ; yea,
let " the luxuriant vigour of the wheat crop, waving
over the field of Waterloo, be owing to a source of
fertility which the Belgic husbandman never con
veyed to the soil." Let " the putrescent relics of the
goodly structure, which once enshrined a human soul,
be resolved into the dust of the earth." Let that
"dust spring up in the varied forms of vegetable
life." Let " the beasts of the field crop the grasses
and the herbs which derive their succulence from the
constituent material of the bodies of buried men."
Let "the flesh, which was fed by the flesh of the
fathers, go to the sustenance of the sons."f Yea, let
* Rev. Dr. Dod. f Bush on the Resurrection, p. 41,

The Bodt Restored. 193
our bones be scattered in disjointed fragments, and our
dust blown, " no mound or stone tell whither," God
will re-unite their scattered parts, and bring us before
His tribunal. This is the decree of heaven. The
light of nature may fail to support our expectation
of living, in another world, and possessing essentially
the same bodies we now have ; but God has decreed
that all who are in their graves, shall, at some future
period, rise again. "Indeed, who shall say, on the
very principles urged against this doctrine, that the
particles of the bodies of the dead, which have long
since been mingled into innumerable other bodies, of
either animals or plants, and mixed with the waters
of the sea, or dust of the earth, and been scattered by
the four winds of heaven, it may be into far distant
lands, from the place in which they originally laid, —
who shall say that these very elements, into which
they have been changed, may not be conveying
them — as the down of the thistle bears its seed — to
the very spirit which is hereafter to assume them as
its clothing? Already the stormy wind, fulfilling
God's word, may be bearing on its wings the ele
ments of resurrection-bodies to their destined use!
God can make — and may even now be making — the
rank grass, moaning in the melancholy breezes, over
the obscurest grave, the very animals that may crop
it, or the birds that may consume its seeds, vehicles
to bear to their destined uses, the bodies of the buried
9

194 Mt FATHER'S House.
dead."* Is anything too great, or too difficult for
Him to accomplish? Can not HE who framed our
bodies out of the dust of the earth, after they have
been dissolved, bring together again their original
atoms, and quicken them to immortal life ?
" We see in winter swallows, worms, and flies
Deprived of life ; yet in the spring they rise.
Some chymists in their art are so exact
That from one herb they usually extract
Four different elements ; what think you, then,
Can pose that God who gave this skill to men ?" f
The difficulty with the skeptical on this subject lies
in their limiting the power of God. They " err, not
knowing the Scriptures, neither the power of God ;"
for it is the same omnipotence of Jehovah, by which
our bodies were created from nothing at first, which
shall open the gates of the tomb, and raise them up,
after they have slept their appointed time, in the
dust. Things that are impossible with men are
possible with God. And they err, — not knowing
the Scriptures: for, if the Bible makes any one
thing plain, it does, that the literal body of Christ
was raised, and that, as He was the first fruit of
them that slept, the harvest — at the general resur
rection — will be of the same nature; that is, a
harvest of literal bodies of those who have rested
in their graves, united to Christ. " God hath raised
•Sermon of Rev. Dr. Blagden, Boston, 1850. t Flavel.

The Body Restored. 195
up the Lord, and will also raise up us by his own
power." The flesh of Christ, as he saith in David, *
was to rest in hope ; it was to lie in the grave, but it
was to be saved from the first approach of that decay
which must otherwise have been inseparable from
death. This is a doctrine very different from that
which it is said the judgment of reason must form
— that a spiritual body was developed or disengaged,
at the time of Christ's death ; and this was His resur
rection ; and that a resurrection similar to this, is the
only one in which believers in Him will partake.
But as the Scriptures teach that the body of Christ
was raised from the grave, they teach the doctrine
of a general resurrection ; for an inspired Apostle
maintains that the proof of the one is involved in the
other. If Christ arose, in His material body — the
very body that was crucified and buried — then it
follows, from the express 'declarations of the word of
God, that His people are to rise, in like manner, in
the bodies which they laid down at death. And we
should as soon think of denying that Christ was cru
cified and buried, as that His body was raised from
the tomb. But this is denied. It has been contended
that His material body did not rise at all ; but that
the body, in which He appeared to His disciples,
was a miraculous, surreptitious body, temporarily
assumed, rendered necessary, on account of those
* Ps. csvi. 10, U.

196 My FA^J^^S House.
carnal apprehensions which they cherished,* and
that the true resurrection-body of Christ, that with
which He ascended to heaven, immediately after
His crucifixion, and again after His illusory or quad
resurrection, on the third day, was purely a spiritual
body, which was eliminated, or disengaged, at the
moment of His death. But the idea appears impious
that our risen Lord should seek to impose on His
followers, by temporarily assuming a body, perfectly
resembling His former one, even having the prints
of the nails by which it hung upon the cross, which,
however, was not the same, but an entirely new and
different one. Men may talk learnedly respecting the
" ulterior developments " of the " essential genius "
of the Christian economy ; but we must still believe,
as, it is admitted, the Apostles believed, " that the
body which they saw and handled, was the veritable
body of their crucified Lord ; and that, in their
preaching the resurrection of Jesus, they had no
other idea than that of the reanimation of His body
of flesh." f We must believe that "the measure of
their intelligence," on this subject, is, and ever must
be, " the limit of ours." " Now, if Christ be preached
that He rose from the dead, how say some among
you that there is no resurrection of the dead ? But,
if there be no resurrection of the dead, then is Christ
not risen." The resurrection of Christ being estab-
* Bush's Work, p. 156. f Bush.

The Body Restored. 197
lished, the doctrine of the general resurrection is
established. "If we believe that Jesus died and
rose again, even, so them, also, which sleep in Jesus
will God bring with Him."
" Our flesh shall feel a second birth,
And ever with Him be."
These clay tabernacles, like that of thft wilderness,
which was so constructed that every joint, socket,
and pin could he taken apart, and perfectly put toge
ther again, although their parts may bo separated,
and scattered from one another after death, will be
brought together, and raised up at the general
resurrection of the dead. Let it be deemed extrava
gant to describe the graves opening at the voice of
the archangel, and the trump of God, and the bodies
of the dead coming forth ; let it be pronounced a
caricature of the belief of sensible men. Let such
preachers as Pres. Davies, and Melvill be styled
declaimers who indulge in pulpit rhapsodizings, and
portray a scene calculated to work on the passaons,
but which has no foundation in Scriptural tri th,*
still we shall not hesitate to abide by the lette of
God's Word, and describe graves as opening, al vhe
peal of the last trump,
• * * " faithful to their trust,
To render back their long-committed dcst."f
* See Bush. f Young.

198 My FATHER^SJSouse.
" Sure as that the Mediator rose, sure as that He
shall return, and sit in awful pomp, on the judgment-
seat, so sure is it that the earth shall yet heave at
every pore ; and that even had it received in deposit
the bodies of none save the unrighteous and the
infidel, it would give up the dust, with a most faithful
accuracy ; so that the buried would arise imperish
able ; and the despisers of Christ, being of one flesh
with Him, must share in the resurrection of that flesh,
though not being of one spirit, they shall have no
part in its glorification."*
We are not to speculate, too curiously, as to the
nature of the resurrection-body. We know, for we
are expressly told, that it will not be flesh and blood,
in their present corruptible state. " Flesh and blood
cannot inherit the kingdom of God." A corruptible
body is not suited to an incorruptible state. But
that it will be, in some sense, material, essentially
different from spirit, the Apostle seems to intimate,
when he says, in the same connexion, " All flesh is
not the same flesh ; but there is one kind of flesh of
men, another flesh of beasts, another of fishes, and
another of birds."f The argument is, that as
throughout the animal creation, there is a great
difference between the flesh of the bodies of one
class as compared with that of another ; so, at the
resurrection, there will be a great difference between
* Melvill. t 1 Cor. xv. 39.

The Body Restored. 199
the bodies which shall arise, as compared with those
that were committed to the grave. The Apostle
means to infer from the vast variety of animal bodies,
the power of the Deity to produce from a mass of
corruption, a glorious and immortal body. " It is
not more incomprehensible," observes Mr. Locke,
" that a glorious, immortal body should arise from a
mass of corruption, than that all this vast variety of
splendid forms should arise from nothing." Could
we ascertain the nature of the change which took
place in the bodies of Enoch and Elijah, when they
were translated, or the nature of Christ's glorious
body, we should then know with what bodies the
saints will be raised ; for Christ, at His advent, "shall
change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like
unto His glorious body, according to the working
whereby He is able even to subdue all things unto
Himself." In speakingjjjof his body, after His
resurrection, our Lord described it as material, and
as bearing the marks of His crucifixion. He said to
His doubting disciples, " Behold my hands and my
feet, that it is I myself; handle Me and see, for a
spirit hath not flesh and bones as ye see Me have."
With this body, no doubt, wearing a brightness and
splendour like that seen at His transfiguration, He
ascended into heaven. When John had a vision of
Htm in Patmos, His countenance was like the mid
day sun, and His feet as burning brass. Such is

200 Mt FATHER'S House.
the glory that will be put upon all those who are
raised with bodies fashioned like unto Christ's. The
Apostle clearly states the peculiar properties of the
glorified body : 1. Incorruptibility. 2. Glory. 3.
Power. 4. Spirituality. To speak of a spiritual
body would be solecistical, unless we understand the
word spiritual in a peculiar sense. But as matter
enters into the composition of a sunbeam as well as
into that of metal, it is easy to conceive of the power
of God as so refining the bodies of saints, that they
may be said to be spiritual. How " etherial must
those bodies be, which will need neither food, nor
rest, and will never experience pain or fatigue,"*
But we are not to speculate too curiously. "It is
sufficient for us to be assured that the bodies of the
righteous will be raised in a spiritualized state, and
yet be, in a certain sense, the same with those that
were buried."f As the botty never loses its identity,
or its general characteristical appearance, by the
changes which it undergoes in this life, we may infer
that the resurrection-body, whatever glory and
beauty may adorn it, will be recognized to be the
same that died and was buried. Change of matter,
will not destroy identity and similarity.
It is in this precious faith, that we have borne the
remains of some of our friends to their rest — and
have been supported, if not comforted, as we per-
* Dr. John Dick. f Bloomfield's Notes.

The Body Restored. 201
formed for them the last mournful offices. The
graves of those whom we loved, plead for the doc
trine of the resurrection; and shall our tongues
be silent? If these should hold their peace, it
would not prevent the very graves from crying
out. The dry leaves of autumn, and the snows
of winter may fall over them ; but spring will
return with its leaves, its blossoms, and its birds ; —
the rivulet will again leap in gladness, and the
breeze waft odours of May. Be still, throbbing
heart, be still !

202 My FATHER'S Housi

XII.
RELATION OF THE JUDGMENT TO HEAYEN
THE resurrection past, there is one further stage,
before the members of the invisible church shall
enter upon the enjoyment of perfect and full com
munion with Christ, in glory. The first sight upon
which, at the voice of the archangel, and the trump
of God, they shall open their immortal eyes, will be
the form of the Son of Man, coming in the clouds of
heaven. The first sound that shall break from their
immortal lips, will be to welcome His advent in
joyful, triumphant strains — " Lo, this is our God, we
have waited for Him; He comes to save us." He
will come in the clouds of heaven, attended by His
holy angels. The trumpet shall break, with startling
sound, and echoing through the universe, shall pene
trate every tomb, enter the cold, dull ear of the dead,
and waken them from their long repose. Behold,
the Son of Man coming, In power and great glory,
to judge the nations of the earth ! See the golden

Relation of the Judgment to Heaven. 203
crown upon His head, and the great white throne on
which He sits! Behold, He comes, who was once
the babe of Bethlehem ; for whom no room could
be found in the inn ; who was laid in the manger,
despised and rejected by men ! Behold, He comes
for whose destruction, the sword of a tyrant was
besmeared with the blood of the innocents! He
comes, who was hurried, by night, to His sanctuary
in Egypt! He comes, who toiled, for years, at a
trade, in His obscure home, in Galilee 1 Who some
times fled from the stones which enraged men were
ready to hurl at Him ! Who suffered the contradic
tion of sinners ! Who groaned in spirit, and wept at
the grave of a friend ! Who, sometimes, was hungry
and athirst ! Who fell down to the ground, praying,
and sweating, as it were, great drops of blood,
His soul " exceeding sorrowful," even unto death !
Behold, He comes, who once stood before Pilate's
and Herod's bar, mocked and buffeted ! Who sunk
exhausted under the tree which He bore on His way
to Golgotha ! Who hung on Calvary's cross, crying
out, " My God, my God !" and when He yielded up
His spirit, " It is finished !" Whose dead body, in the
sepulchre, was insulted by the great stone with which
His enemies barricaded the door, and the Poman
cohort, who were set to guard it ! He comes ! But
not, now, under a cloud of weakness and infirmity ;
not, now, to be made sin, but without sin, unto salva-

204 My FATHER'S House.
tion. In the clouds of heaven He comes ; not to suffer
and to die, but to judge the world: " Behold He
cometh in clouds, and every eye shall see Him ; and
they, also, which pierced Him ; and all the kindreds
of the earth shall wail because of Him." " Behold,
the Lord cometh, with ten thousand of His saints, to
execute judgment upon all, to convince all that are
ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds,
which they have ungodly committed, and of all their
hard speeches which ungodly sinners have spoken
against Him." Every eye shall see Him. Those
who persecuted Him : the Herod, who sought His
life, whose fierce executioners slew without pity,
owning not even the sanctity of the tomb, shall see
Him ; the men of Nazareth, who took up stones to
hurl at Him, shall see Him ; the Jewish priests and
rulers, who plotted His death ; Judas who betrayed
Him ; Antipas, who set Him at naught ; and Pilate
who condemned Him ; the tyrant's minions, who put
on Him the cast-off kingly raiment, forcing a reed into
His hand, in mockery of a sceptre ; who smote Him
and cried out, " Hail, king of the Jews ;" the men
who scourged Him, at the command of the Poman
governor, and compelled Him to bear His own cross,
till He fainted beneath the burden ; who stood over
His body and forced the nails through His hands and
feet, and the soldier who pierced His side with a
spear ; — these, all these, shall see Him.

Relation of the Judgment to He a vex. 20a
We, too, shall hear the archangel's, summons ; and
wherever our dust may be reposing, whether in the
silent grave-yard of our native village, or in some
lonely spot, on strange and distant shores, or in the
bottom of the sea, it shall be obedient to that voice.
Every charnel shall disgorge itself of its tenants.
" Myriads upon myriads of atoms, the dust of king
doms, the ashes of all that have lived — not a solitary
particle but holds itself ready, at the sound of the
last trumpet, to combine itself with a multitude of
others, in a human body, in which they once met,
perhaps a thousand years before." Monarchs and
princes, who were carried to their sepulchres in state ;
poets, orators, and statesmen, and the crowds who
died unknown to fame ; and the wretched children
of woe, the beggar, the outcast, and the slave — shall
all come alike, without any marks of distinction ; the
king unsceptred and uncrowned ; the beggar, without
his tatters, the scholar without his laurels, and the
slave without his chain. And while the dead are
rising from their graves, the living shall be changed ;
in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, they shall
drop corruption, and put on incorruption ; they shall
drop a mortal body, and put on an immortal one.
All nations, the ancient, the modern, the less as well
as the more powerful, the small and the great, shall
stand before God. The entire race of Adam will
be there ; all who have lived, in every age. They

200 My FATHER'S House.
shall come from every region, from the North and
the South, from the East and the West, from the
Equator and the Poles, the Barbarian, the Scythian,
the bond, the free. The sea shall give up the dead
which are in it. Well may it be called, as it is, in
Scripture, " The Great Day." It has been appointed,
for the manifestation and the glory of God's mercy
and justice, in His rewarding men, according to the
deeds done in the body.
One great purpose of the last judgment is, that
the righteous may be acquitted, and acknowledged, in
the presence of the universe, before they enter upon
their full, eternal reward; and are made perfectly
happy and holy, both in body and" soul, in the pre
sence of God. The first sight upon which they will
open their immortal eyes, as I have said, will be the
glorious form of the blessed Saviour, coming in the
clouds with His holy angels. With the saints, who
may be alive on the earth, and who shall be spec
tators of the scenes and wonders of the resurrection
— with these saints, changed to immortals, they shall
be caught up in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the
air. They shall see the world on fire, and hear the
great noise in which the elements shall melt, and the
heavens be dissolved. And while the conflagration
is going on, and they see afar off the smoke of the
earth's burning, the judgment shall proceed. The
Judge shall separate the assembled nations before

Relation of the Judgment to Heaven. 20'
diM, "as a shepherd divideth his sheep from the.
goats ; and He shall set the sheep on His right hand,
and the goats on. the left." We should not fritter
away the meaning, or the impressive import of
Scripture, by deciding in advance, that its descrip
tions of the resurrection, the judgment-day, and the
scenes of an eternal state, are in every case neces
sarily figurative. Nothing is more clearly revealed
than that Christ is to come, in person, a second time,
to this world. What could be more suitable to the
dignity and grandeur of that advent than that He
should come literally " throned upon a cloud." He
ascended in a cloud ; and it was foretold that He
should come in like manner. And why may we not
suppose that the words of the Son of Man will be
literally fulfilled, by the righteous being set on the
right hand, and the wicked on the left ? While we
are not to suppose that all the formalities of a human
court, are to be observed, at the grand assize of the
world ; neither are we to suppose that formalities, on
that august occasion, are to be entirely dispensed
with. Among the books to be opened will be the
book of life — the book which records God's gracious
purposes towards all who believe, and where their
names are written — and it is out of this that the
saints will be judged ; or it is ,out of this that He
will reveal the names of the followers of the Lamb.
It is not out of the book of the law, as the rule of

208 My FATHER'S House.
justification or condemnation, that they will be
judged. The Judge is their Friend. He once
obeyed the law, and suffered its penalty ; and they
have been delivered from its condemning power, by
faith in Him ; they have put on the white and spot
less robe of His righteousness, and in that, they
appear before His bar, and find their place at His
right hand. It is, therefore, not out of the book of
the law that they will be tried ; but the question will
be, whether they possess that faith, which justifies
sinners, without which, it is impossible to please God,
or obtain salvation. How it softens the terrors of the
judgment to believers, when we reflect that He who
sits on the throne, is the same who once hung on the
cross, who answered the dying malefactor's prayer,
and prayed for his murderers! He is the Son of
Man. He is to judge human beings, who, while
upon probation, were exposed to temptation, were
subject to a perfect law, and liable to punishment,
for any want of conformity unto, or transgression of,
that perfect law. He will be fitted to render impar
tial justice to all. No plea or excuse founded on the
power of temptation, or human imperfection, the
strength of sinful passions, and corrupt propensities,
or inability to obey the divine law, will be admitted;
all will stand speechless before that Judge, who, while
He dwelt in human flesh, in His own person, and
example, demonstrated that God has not given

Relation of the Judgment to Heave.v. 209
men a law which they cannot obey, nor placed them
in circumstances, which release them from the obli
gations to obedience. The only plea, which will
avail us before that dread tribunal, is, that we have
laid hold upon the righteousness of our Redeemer
and Judge, and have made it our " white linen," our
robe and covering, to appear in His presence. It is
remarkable that, in the Scriptures, when Christ is
spoken of as the Judge of the world, there are so
many references to His human nature. A Man hath
been ordained, before whom men must appear. The
glorified body with which the Judge will appear,
will be the same with which He ascended, and was
exalted, at the right hand of the Father.
But the Lord Jesus would not be fitted for the
high office of the Judge of quick and dead, unless
He appeared also as Divine Being. Hence, He will
come clothed with all the attributes of God. The
God-man will fill the throne. With what lustre will
infinite compassion shine forth in His character !
What an exhibition of His love, and the power of
His grace will be made, when the multitude, who
shall stand upon His right hand, are welcomed with
shouts and praises, into the courts of glory ! Even
those who are sent away into outer darkness, will
suffer from no arbitrary or cruel decree. The Son of
God will possess the most perfect knowledge of all
accountable creatures. The wisest and most impar-

210 Mt FATHER'S House.
tial judge, among men, whatever inquiries he may
have instituted, with whatever zeal and care he may
search out and sift evidence, may commit mistakes ;
may condemn the innocent, may clear the guilty.
But there can be no possibility of mistake at the bar
of Christ. Men may now profess faith in Him, may
studiously keep up the form of godliness, may even
acquire a signal reputation for sanctity, whose cha^
racters will appear in a vastly different light, in the
day of judgment; who will be found without the,
righteousness of the saints, and instead of standing,
exulting, on the right hand, will be seen trembling
on the left. No false estimates will be made then ;
all will be weighed in unerring balances. Such is
the character of the Judge. The universe — not only
holy beings, but unholy — will have entire confidence
in the rectitude of His decisions, and respond to the
angel, crying from beneath the altar, " True and
righteous are thy judgments, Lord God Almighty."
Were it proposed to their suffrage, they would
not transfer their destinies — nay, would shrink with
dismay at such a proposal, were it made — to the
hands of the wisest and purest judge, or to a bench
of the wisest and purest judges that ever graced
human tribunals.
Christ will sit upon the throne of Judgment, not to
make inquiry for His own satisfaction, whether the
saints on His right hand have fulfilled or transgressed

Relation of the Judgment to Heaven. 211
the law ; or, even, whether they possess that precious
faith which justifies sinners, for He knows their
hearts already ; and He wrought that faith and all
that good which will be found in them. But He
will make inquisition, He will judge the saints, that
He may vindicate His law, make a full development
of the principles of moral government, and convince
all that it is not, by an arbitrary decision, that heaven
is allotted to them, and not to others. Evidence will
be exhibited, on their trial, of " the validity of their
title; and this evidence will be furnished by their
works." "Then shall the King say unto them on
His right hand, Come, ye blessed of my- Father,
inherit the kingdom prepared for you, from the
foundation of the world ; for I was a hungered and
ye gave Me meat; I was thirsty, and ye gave Me
drink ; I was a stranger and ye took Me in ; naked,
and ye clothed Me ; I was sick and ye visited Me ;
I was in prison, and ye came unto Me. Then shall
the righteous answer Him, saying, Lord, when saw
we Thee a hungered, and fed Thee ? or thirsty, and
gave Thee drink ? when saw we Thee a stranger and
took Thee in ? or naked, and clothed Thee ? or when
saw we Thee sick, or in prison, and came unto Thee?
And the King shall answer and say unto them,
Verily I say unto you, inasmuch as ye have done it
unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have
done it unto Me." " For we must all appear before

212 Mt FATHET^ House.
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."
The Word of God speaks out very plainly on this
subject ; it does not leave it in the dark. It shows
us how important works are — how little ground the
Antinomian has on which to build his hope of heaven.
God, in His righteous judgment, " will render to
every man according to his deeds ; to them who, by
patient continuance in well doing, seek for glory, and
honour, and immortality, Eternal Life." What
soever a man soweth, that shall he also reap."
" Behold, I come quickly ;" saith the faithful and
true Witness, the Alpha and the Omega ; " and my
reward is with Me, to give every man, according as
his work shall be." Let no one, then, vainly suppose
that the grace of Christ will, or can, so abound as to
dispense with a life made conformable to God's pre
ceptive will ; that it can hide an immoral, careless,
prayerless, unfruitful life. In the day of judgment
inquisition will certainly be made for works, not as
the foundation of our title to heaven, but as evidence
that we possess that precious faith, which makes
the righteousness of Christ ours ; which is the only
foundation given under heaven and among men. It
is by works that our faith is made perfect, and will be
made to issue in the perfect felicity of an unclouded
vision. Good works are so necessarily the fruit of

Relation of the Judgment to Heaven. 213
saving faith, that without them there is no evidence,
no sign of this faith. Works are made thus promi
nent, in the last great trial, not because men are
saved by works, or merit, bo"t because they are the
proofs that believers are believers, or are the persons
whose faith wrought by love, and was not a dead,
inoperative principle ; and who are, therefore, entitled,
by the sentence of the Judge, to eternal life. And,
O consider, what prominence will, on that day, be
given to works of charity. Words of devotion may
be uttered, without a devotional heart. Some works
may be easily simulated. But works of charity are
palpable ; they are something more than words —
something more than kind actions ; they imply a
readiness to part with some of our possessions ; they
may involve self-denial ; they imply love to our
brethren. But mistake not here again. Call not
every dole such a deed of charity, as Judgment will
"publish, publish to more worlds than this." It
may have come from a grudging hand, to save
appearances, or because custom made the demand.
Our deeds of charity must be in obedience to Christ,
and in honour of Christ, then will they pass for signs
of our faith ; and it will be said in that day, " Inas
much as ye have done it unto one of the least of
these, my brethren, ye have done it unto Me." We
must learn to discover and to serve our Elder
Brother, in our brethren, if we would hear from

214: Mt FATHER'S House.
His lips the word, " Come ye blessed of My
Father." But, honoured as the saints will be, by the appro
bation of their Judge,' standing at His right hand;
invited to inherit the kingdom ; clothed upon with
immortality, with a body like unto Christ's glorious
body — they will not forget, and the assembled
universe will know, that they were once sinners, who
deserved to stand rather on His left hand, and to
hear the fearful sentence, " Depart, ye cursed, into
everlasting fire, prepared for the Devil and his
angels," but who were pardoned through the divine
mercy of their Judge. What an astonishing display
of grace will this be, before the assembly of angels
and men ; grace
" Not to be thought on, but with tides of joy ;
Not to be mentioned, but with shouts of praise."
Often have these exalted ones doubted, amidst
the darkness and imperfections of this present
state, whether they had any title to the favour of
God ; it has been doubted, too, by others ; by some
it has been disputed, and their religion been pro
nounced hypocrisy; and calumnious charges have
been alleged against them ; and, by others still, they
have been ridiculed and despised, for their sobriety
and strictness. But the last, the great day, will lift a
weight from many a burdened, fearful spirit, will

Relation of the Judgment to Heaven. 215
vindicate the character of the aspersed, and put an
end, for ever, to these suspicions and accusations.
Behold them crowned with diadems of glory, bearing
each his part, in adoring the triumphs of their
glorious Lord and Pedeemer. Behold them exalted
to the high honour of joining with Christ in judging
reprobate angels and men ;* they have a place as
assessors on the judgment-seat with him ; and when
the judgment is over, they make their triumphant
entry into heaven, they " go away into everlasting
life." It needs to be added that the Word of God does
not make us acquainted with the precise time of
Christ's second advent. It expressly declares that of
that day and hour knoweth no man. Whether the
world is to last a longer, or shorter period, than it
already has, we are unable to decide. We only
know that it will continue long enough, for all the
Scriptural prophecies to be fulfilled. It is, probably,
true, that the judgment is not afar off; it is a delu
sion of ours, which puts it at a great distance. In an
important sense, the day of death will be, to every
man, a day of judgment. And the flight of years,
so rapid to spirits that have left the scenes of time
that a thousand years may seem to them but as a
single day, will soon bring the resurrection and the
general judgment to pass. God would " have that
* 1 Cor. vi. 2, 3.

216 My FATHER'S House.
day unknown to men that they may shake off all
carnal security, and be always watchful, because
they know not at what hour the Lord will come, and
may be ever prepared to say, " Come, Lord Jesus,
come quickly."*
It has been shown how important is the relation
which the final judgment bears, in the Christian
system, to the finished and everlasting state of bles
sedness of the righteous, in heaven. When the awful
transactions of that day are ended, the redeemed shall
accompany their Lord and Saviour, into heaven,
" Where they shall be fully and for ever freed from
all sin and misery ; filled with inconceivable joys,
made perfectly holy and happy both in body and
soul, in the company of innumerable saints and
angels, but especially in the immediate vision and
fruition of God the Father, of our Lord Jesus Christ,
and of the Holy Spirit, to all eternity. And this is
the perfect and full communion, which the members
of the invisible church shall enjoy with Christ in
glory, at the resurrection and day of judgment "f
What great things are these, which are foretold ?
And soon, very soon, these things which are now
dimly discerned, by the eye of faith, will be realized ;
and every humble saint shall appear with Christ in
glory, and enter into the full fruition of God, the
Father. * West. Couf. of Faith, xxxiil. 3. | Larg. Cat. Ques. 90.

An gkl-C ompantons. 217

XIII.
ANGEL-COMPANIONS.
THE society of heaven is one of the elements of its
blessedness. It is not unnatural, nor improper
for us to inquire, Who will be theee ? Whom shall
we meet. there?
There is an order of beings intermediate between
us and our Creator. They are angels ; and, as they
are numerous, they constitute no inconsiderable part
of the society of the Blessed. Scripture seems clearly
to imply that all angels were once holy, and had
their probation ; but part of them fell. This proba
tion, the hopeless apostasy of those who had sinned,
and the confirmation of the obedient in holiness,
appear to have preceded the creation of man ; for it
was through the temptation of the prince of these
fallen spirits that our first parents were led into sin,*
They did not always exist ; but, having been created,
they will live for ever. They will share immortality
with the race of man.
•John, viii. 44 ; Jude, 6 ; Rev. xii. 9 ; Gen. iii.
10

218 Mt FATHER'S House.
Our Lord, in speaking of the everlasting felicity
of the righteous, likens them to the holy angels :
" Neither can they die any more : for they are
equal unto the angels ; and are the children of God
being the children of the resurrection."* Just as the
existence of the souls of men, and the immortality of
the heavenly body depend on the will of the Creator,
so does the existence of angels. They too are depend
ent on Him who made them, for the perpetuity of their
being. In Him they must for ever live and move.
We may not be able to settle the question whether
they are pure or embodied spirits ; but this we -
know, that if it shall be requisite to fellowship with
them, on the part of men, who " obtain that world,
and the resurrection of the dead," that they should
possess corporeal vehicles, the Divine Being, if He
has not already done it, will fumish them with these
forms. We know that they are beings of great intelli
gence. They were created with faculties in perfect
maturity, and superior to those of man, when in his
best or unfallenstate. f Their original capacities have
been expanding and strengthening in vigour and
activity ever since. They have resided in a world
where there is no night; where the perceptions of
the mind are clear ; where truth reigns without any
admixture of error ; where moral evil exerts no
* Luke, xx. 36. f Ps. viii. 5

Angel-Companions. 219
obscuring influence ; where the plans of Providence
are unfolded, and the Divine perfections are dis
closed ; where, in worship, in studies, or in ministries
of love, their activity has known no cessation. For
thousands of years they have surveyed the works of
creation, in their vastness and variety. Still, they
are beings of finite intelligence. Their knowledge is
limited and progressive ; it is not that which extends
to the secrets of men's hearts, and is a prerogative
alone of Deity ; it must be infinitely short of the
knowledge of the Divine Mind.
They are perfectly holy beings. They were
created holy ; and, from the first moment of their
existence, they have been employed in admiring the
holiness of God, and rendering obedience to His will.
They cover their faces with their wings, and cry,
Holy, Holy, HOLT ! They fly swift as the morning
light, to execute His commands ; and every emotion
of their minds is in perfect harmony with His will.
They are in the presence of Jehovah, and " see His
face." They belong to the number of those who are
" pure in heart," and who " see God." They are
confirmed in this state of holiness, for ever. They
can never sin, even as they can never die. They
shall never be excluded from the blissful presence.
While they have always been holy, it does not
appear that they have always been in this confirmed,
everlasting state of holiness. As some of their

220 Mt FATHER'S House.
associates sinned and fell, we are left to infer that
they, too, were once upon trial, and might have
sinned ; but they resisted the temptation of the
Prince of Darkness, and as a reward of their stead
fastness, are now placed beyond the reach of tempta
tion, or the possibility of sinning. Sin can never
invade or approach the purity of their souls. He
who made them, and to whom they have maintained
a faithful allegiance, has purposed to keep them,
for ever. They are His " elect angels," and have
been admitted to the beatific vision; to which we
may not presume that they were admitted previous
to the close of their probation.
The same heaven to which redeemed men are
admitted is their everlasting home. They are our
Father's children ; and they are in our "Father's
house." While they are not redeemed sinners,
redemption, nevertheless, is to them a source of
unfailing bliss. They look into it, with intense and
earnest gaze; they learn the manifold wisdom of
God,* by the church ; the wonderful scheme of
salvation to men, through Christ, is presented to
them, crowned with an ineffable glory. It is their
interest in the work of redemption, which will
constitute the unfailing bond of anion and sympathy
between them, and the spirits of just men, made
perfect. Holy angels and redeemed saints, while it
* Eph. iii. 10.

Angel-Companions. 221
is impossible that they should stand in precisely the
same relation to Christ, will, nevertheless, form one
united, homogeneous society. They have, and can
have, no discordant or rival interests. They adore
the same glorious Jehovah ; and while the angels
cannot, in precisely the same sense as the others, sing
the song — " Now unto Him that washed us in His
own blood," they have the same joys; and, doubtless,
engage in many of the same employments. Indeed,
Scripture seems to, intimate that the angels are
indebted for the stability of their state of holiness to
the Son of God, the same Being to whom they are
indebted for their creation, and to whom ransomed
sinners are indebted for their redemption. " By
Him were all things created, that are in heaven, and
that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they
be thrones, or dominions, or powers : all things were
created by Him and for Him :" and then it is added
in the immediate context, " And having made peace
through the blood of . His cross (it pleased the
Father), by Hlm to reconcile all things unto Himself;
by Htm, I say, whether they be things in earth, or
things in heaven."* The word translated to reconcile
sometimes means to conciliate, or effect a mutual
peace, and thus to draw into society ; and in this
passage, in reference to the " things in heaven," or
aDgels, may have this meaning ; and therefore it
* Col. i. 16, 20.

222 Mt FATHER'S House.
may teach more than that amity was restored
between men and angels, by the blood of the cross,
by the reconcilement of man to his Maker, so that
they might worship God, as one society, under one
Head : that is to say, it may teach, that, in conse
quence of the death of Christ, angels are secured in
everlasting felicity and holiness, beyond the perad-
venture of apostasy. "It seems designed for the
Redeemer's more consummate glory," remarks that
eminently suggestive writer, Jofen Howe, " that the
perpetual stability of the heavenly state should be
owing to Him, and to the most inestimable value of
His oblation on the cross ; that it should be put upon
His account, and ascribed to the high merit of His
pacificatory sacrifice, that the angels continue in
obedience and favour, for ever. He made sure of the
everlasting amity <5f those who were always dutiful
in heaven, and recovered the good will and loyal
affection of such on earth as were at enmity, and all
by the same means — the virtue and fragrancy of a
sacrifice, sufficient to fill heaven and earth with its
grateful odour, and whose efficacy can never decrease,
to all eternity. Nor does it follow that it was the
design of the atonement to have reference to the
redemption of angels, who had never sinned, and
whose nature the Pedeemer took not on TTtm ; but,
from the redundancy of His merit, this inestimable
advantage, viz. the stability of their holy state, may

Angel-Companions. 223
well be supposed to accrue to them; and for the
greater honour of the Pedeemer, they are made
debtors to Him for it."* If this interpretation be
well founded, we see how closely the angels and
saints in heaven are identified in their love for, and
even their obligation to, Christ. "In the dispensa
tion of the fulness of times " " all things in Christ,
both which are in heaven, and which are in earth,"
are to be gathered together in one ; even in HiM.f
He is the Head over them all ; they are all members
— and therefore brethren — of His church triumphant.
" The children of the resurrection " are " equal unto
the angels." We find hints, as some have thought,
of a certain order and subordination, which imply
the existence of an organized community. Paul,
when speaking of things invisible, enumerates
" thrones, dominions, principalities, and powers," and
we elsewhere read of cherubim, and seraphim, angels
and archangels, which expressions have been ex
panded into the notion of a heavenly hierarchy.
But what ean we know of the gradations of rank or
office in the kingdom of glory beyond what the
Scriptures reveal ? It were better to say with one of
the Christian fathers, "What difference there is
between these ' four words (" thrones, dominions,
principalities, and powers "), let them tell us who are
able, so they prove what they tell us ; but for my
* Living Temple, cbnp. x. t Eph. i. 10.

224 Mt FATHER'S House.
part, I confess I know not."* We may safely leave
these particulars respecting ranks, and orders, till we
enter into the regions of immortality. At the sam«
time, we know that there can be no distinctions there,
which can gratify ambition ; or, on the other hand,
engender jealousy and envy. Everyone will know
and love his own station ; will be satisfied with it,
and desire no change. It has been thought that the
Word of God teaches that some among glorified
human spirits will be exalted to higher glory than
others ; and some have even maintained the supe
riority of the saints to the angels in heaven. But
whether either of these opinions be true or not, we
cannot think them important, or they would have
been more clearly revealed, or have received greater
prominence in the Scriptures of truth. It is more
important for us to know that the society of heaven
will be perfect. There will be no clashing interests,
no emulations or strifes there. Saints and angels will
know and love each other, and will be perfectly
happy in each other's society. In one sense, they
will be perfectly equal ; they will all be perfectly
holy, as well as immortal. There will be nothing
to prevent the sweetest intimacy, and the most
perfect communion of soul, on the part of those
who compose " the whole family in heaven." There
will not only be the closest, and most endearing inti-
* Augustine.

Angel-Companions. 225
macy between saints, but between saints and angels.
Eternity will be spent in the closest fellowship, in the
interchange of holy thought and services. We shall
not only recognize old friends and form new acquaint
ances among saints of other ages and countries, but
we shall become familiar acquaintances and com
panions with angels — those ancient, wise, and holy
servants of God. Happy, infinitely happy, and
joyful themselves, their companionship will be a
source of unspeakable bliss to all who are admitted
to a share in it. Their knowledge, their recollections
of the past, their experience of the divine mercy,
their confidence in God, their wise and holy conver
sation, will make them both profitable and delightful
companions. They know' that they shall always
enjoy the love of Him whom they have always faith
fully served. The birth-place and home of every
joy, our "Father's House," is their everlasting
abode; and, therefore, they must be blessed, and
their society blissful.
But it is their interest in the plan of redemption,
as already noticed, which constitutes the chief bond
of union and fellowship, between angels and men. It
will not be a newly-developed interest ; it is as old as
man's revolt, or as the first publication of God's pur
pose of mercy towards His newly formed creature.
Created themselves to declare the glory of God, they
take delight in the works and other creatures of God
10*

226 Mt FATHER'S House.
as the means and instruments by which the Divine
glory is to be the more illustriously displayed. As
they surveyed God's finished work of creation, why
did these sons of the morning shout for joy ? What
was celebrated in that joyful hymn, which broke so
sweetly over a new-created world ? They had been
witnesses of an awful rebellion in their own ranks ;*
they had seen a great number of their compeers
banished from their habitation into darkness, reserved
unto the Judgment of the great day. They looked
upon the new creation with adoration and joy, as
the theatre from which the Supreme Being might
replenish His kingdom, with holy and happy sub
jects. This, we may rationally suppose, was the
secret of the joy they expressed, when they came to
view this new product of the Divine power and skill.
It was here that a race of beings, made but a little
lower tham themselves, might be trained up for the
joys of immortality, and to replenish their own deci
mated ranks. The prospect dilated and kindled
fresh joy in their souls; and, with more than ten
thousand voices, they pealed forth a new anthem of
praise to Ha that sitteth on the throne.
When sin entered into the world, it can not be
supposed that these active, watchful spirits could
long remain ignorant of the catastrophe. They
would be still strong in their confidence towards
* Rev. xii. 7-9.

Angel-Companions. 227
the blessed and only Potentate, that He could bring
light even out of this darkness, order out of this
moral chaos; and where sin abounded, make His
grace and glory much more to abound. It was
when Jehovah revealed His plan of saving rebel
man, by the promise, that the Seed of the woman
should bruise the serpent's head, that their wonder
and amazement were excited, more than by all the
works of God. A new song was then heard in
heaven ; Gabriel's lyre seemed to find a sweeter
melody. Pedemption, from that moment, became
the study of the, angels, and the subject of their
holiest meditations and divinest strains. " Which
things," *. e. the sufferings of Christ and the glory
that should follow, " the angels desire to look into." *
In this expression the Apostle represents them as
in the attitude of the cherubim over the mercy -seat,
bending over to pry into the things hidden by their
vastness and incomprehensible excellence, from the
view. To fathom the deep "mystery of godliness,
God manifest in the flesh " tasks their immortal
faculties. They, however, understand much of its
glory ; in no other instance have they seen such a
display of the character of the Divine Being ; they
admire His perfections displayed in the cross of
Christ. Although sinless themselves, they rejoice in
the grace manifested to sinful men ; whilst they veil
* 1 Pet. i. 11, 12.

228 My FATHER'S House.
their faces, in secret amazement, that the brightness
of the Father's glory should condescend to be led as
a lamb to the slaughter. Calvary is the spot around
which cluster the deepest sympathies of angelic minds.
If they were the protectors of patriarchs, the pro
phets, the martyrs of the ancient church, it was
because they were the "heirs of salvation." They
encamped round about them, and delivered them,
because they feared the Lord. They delight to be
employed in carrying out the gracious designs of
their glorious King. They are swift messengers ;
they are willing ministers. In the salvation of apos
tate man, as a work which lies near His heart, and
which illustrates His perfections of holiness, love,
power and truth, it affords them the highest bliss to
be permitted to have an instrumentality. We have
the same reason to believe that the agency of angels,
in the affairs of men, is continued, as that it ever
existed. The day of miracles is, indeed, passed ; the
age of inspiration is also passed ; but let us not sup
pose that all supernaturalism is at an end, or that the
day of angelic instrumentality, in the providential
kingdom, is over. Prophecy, which remains unful
filled, recognizes its employment; and it will be
employed so long as there are heirs of salvation to be
ministered to— to be conducted and" welcomed to the
courts of glory.* It is a thought of thrilling interest
* Ps. xxxiv. 7. Heb. i. 14.

Angel-Companions. 229
that we often, in a literal sense, entertain in our very •
houses, "angels unawares."* In our places of busi
ness and of rest, — in our seasons of sorrow and of joy,
they are present with us. O, could we penetrate the
veil that hides invisible realities, we should discover,
that even in our most secret retirement, we are sur
rounded with witnesses. Nor do they visit this
world as curious idlers, to watch the various success
of men in the battle of life ; but possessed of holy
natures, and the keenest sensibility, their most lively
emotions are excited on occasions, when men betray
the utmost indifference. With what sadness must
they gaze upon many a scene of unholy pleasure !
With what joy would they rescue the deluded vic
tim of the wine-cup, or of meretricious art ! They
make no> false estimates, and are never imposed
upon, by mere gaud, or by disguises. They form
a right judgment of the importance of events
which are taking place in this world. The various
contests which we watch, with absorbing interest,
may be regarded by them as comparatively unim
portant. They judge of events as they stand related
to the advancement of the Pedeemer's kingdom, and
the salvation of human souls.
When He who was in the form of God, and
thought it not robbery to be equal with God,
left His throne and assumed our nature, we may
•Heb.xiii. 1.

230 Mt FATHER'S House.
rationally suppose that the angels were filled with the
highest astonishment. We may almost imagine these
bright spirits, now for the first time fully apprehend
ing the import of the promise respecting the Seed of
the woman, suddenly arrested in the execution of
their several ministries, to watch this strange spec
tacle. "What new wonder this?" they inquire, as
amazement spreads along their shining ranks ; and
legions* stand ready to become an invisible body
guard to the Son of the Highest, in His humiliation.
One of their number was selected and sent, by God,
to make the annunciation to the Virgin, that she
should bring forth a Son, who should be the
Redeemer of the world. When the birth of the
Redeemer was published to the shepherds on the
plains of Bethlehem, keeping their flocks «by night,
as they beheld with wonder the glory of the Lord,
shining round about them ; suddenly they heard " a
multitude of the heavenly host praising God, and
saying, " Glory to God in the highest, and on
EARTH PEACE, GOOD WELL TOWARD MEN." This SOUg
finished, they went away again into heaven ; but the
holy Child was not without His invisible retinue to
shield Him from the malice which hunted Him while
yet in His cradle. Legions of angels would have
been sent at His call when encompassed, in after
life, by the assembly of the unjust. In the wilder-
* Matt. xxvi. 53.

Angel- C om p anions. 231
ness, after fasting forty days, and being tempted of
the devil, angels came and ministered unto Him. In
the garden of Gethsemane, where He endured His
mysterious agony, "there appeared an angel from
heaven unto Him, strengthening Him." How " the
chariots of God, even thousands of angels " thronged
around the judgment-hall of Pilate, as He whom
they delighted to worship stood there, exposed to the
jibes of impious men ! .How they must have crowded
the air, viewing, with intense interest, the scenes of
Calvary. Pilate sent Poman soldiers to guard His
tomb, that His disciples might not steal Him away ;
but there was another, an invisible cohort, there.
What was Pilate's seal or the great stone which
barricaded the door of the tomb ? * What was
Pilate's guard, in the presence of those before
whom they became as dead men? And when He
ascended into heaven, two shining ones appeared to
His disciples, as they stood gazing after Him, and
predicted His return, in like manner, at the last
day. The " sons of God " shouted for joy as the
Lord went up, and welcomed Him back with the
sound of the trumpet : " Sing praises to God, sing
praises ; sing praises unto our King, sing praises."
Such was the welcome with which the " morning
stars " greeted the Sun of righteousness as He arose
and ascended the highest heavens, with healing in

232 Mt FATHER'S House.
His beams. They rejoiced to cast their crowns
before the lustre of His throne — to hide their
radiance, to wane and be eclipsed in His full-orbed
splendour. And we may rest assured that the Lord's host,*
who met the patriarch on his way from Mesopo
tamia^ — who encamped round about those who feared
God, in times of old — who greeted earth with their
music, when God brought His First-begotten into
the world, and made heaven resound with their
shouts, when He returned victorious into the skies,
have lost none of their interest in the work of human
salvation. Hence, although they belong to a differ
ent order of beings, they will be congenial com
panions to" redeemed men. We have reason to
believe that they esteem it as among their highest
honours to be ministering spirits to " them who shall
be heirs of salvation. f Although members of the
church triumphant above, they have services to per
form in the church on earth. As to the precise
nature of these services, or the manner in which
they are performed, it may not be possible for us, at
present, to know. "There is joy," we are told, "in
the presence of the angels of God, over one sinner
that repenteth."^; They rejoice that a new victory
is gained over the powers of darkness ; that another
* Gen. xxxii. 1-2. f Heb. i. 14. } Luke xv. 10.

Angel-Companions. 233
trophy of Divine grace is gained ; that the a iount
of happiness is augmented, and the amount of misery
in the universe curtailed. An event, which men
may pass unnoticed, spreads joy among the angels
of God. They may give no heed to the affairs
which engross the attention of princes and states
men, as if they were the veriest trifles, but they
strike their harps anew, when the tidings arrive
that a sinner has repented, even though he be a
despised slave or a neglected beggar. And if such
an event produces these ecstasies among them, think
ye that they do not covet a ministry in this glorious
work ? They " excel in strength."* They are repre
sented as holding the winds of heaven ; and one of
them is to bind " the prince of the power of the air,"
and confine him in the bottomless pit. These
mighty spirits are the friends of man, and watch his
movements with intense solicitude. They hover
around his path. When he takes the Bible into his
hands, or listens to the preached Gospel, they gaze
with the deepest interest. Perhaps they watch to
discover some sign of contrition. How amazed they
must be, at the hardness and infatuation of men!
And when the Gospel is successful, — when any one
believes, they encamp round about him, commis
sioned to guard the pilgrim, and guide him home.
In sickness, and at the hour of death, they are
* Ps. oiii 20.

234 Mt FATHER'S House.
near to every child of God. The chamber where
the good man is dying has been denominated a
privileged spot, " quite on the verge of heaven." It
is the place where heaven has often been brought
almost into visible contact with earth, by some
beams of its glory streaming in upon the darkness
which is around us. That angels were present to
rejoice over the triumphant scene, to give strength
in the mortal combat, to receive the liberated spirit,
and conduct it to mansions near the throne, we have
felt that there was no room to doubt. We have
sometimes felt that the dying, seeing perhaps what
was invisible, and hearing what was inaudible to us,
needed less our prayers and consolations, than we
needed theirs. As the friends of one * of our female
missionaries stood watching the flame of life flicker
ing in its socket, it is recorded, that once, to their
surprise, " the involuntary groans she uttered in her
convulsions melted away into soft musical notes ;
and, for a moment, their ears were charmed with the
full, clear tones of the sweetest melody. They were
the accidental notes of the haip when one is remov
ing the strings. Or rather, it seemed as if her soul
was already joining in the songs of heaven, while
it was yet so connected with the body as to command
its unconscious sympathy."! We read, in the
Evangelists, of one who was carried by angels into
* Mrs. Sarah Lanman Smith. t Rev. N. Adams, D.D., Boston.

Angel-Companions. 235
heaven ; and why may we not suppose that they
perform for other believers the same office which
they performed for Lazarus ? Their ministry ceases
not, till they have conducted the redeemed safely
within the portals of everlasting bliss; and their
interest in the work of man's redemption will con
tinue throughout everlasting ages. They will never
grow weary of celebrating redemption — of joining
with those over whom they watched, while on their
pilgrimage here below, in celebrating their deliver
ance, and recounting the wonderful story of the
cross. This will make them congenial companions.
Although they cannot learn the strain, "He hath
redeemed us to God by His blood," yet the cross
will be to them full of sweet and enrapturing won
ders ; the grace and glory revealed thereby, will fill
them with " amazing joys," and cause them to make
the universe resound with their loud hallelujahs.

236 Mt FATHER'S House.

XIV.
RECOGNITION.

"I have heard you say,
That we shall see and know our friends in heaven.
If that be true, I shall see my boy again."

¥E have no reason to suppose that the change
which the bodies of those who have fallen
asleep in Christ are to undergo, in the resurrection,
whatever may be the beauty and glory which are
then to adorn them, will so affect their general char-
acteristical appearance, as to prevent their recogni
tion by all who knew them before. Our present
bodies are constantly undergoing change, by a pro
cess common to the animal creation; nevertheless,
we are conscious of possessing the same bodies, from
youth to age, and others recognize them as the very
same. And why may not identity and resemblance
be maintained in the process, and highest state,
of refinement ? As many persons seem not to have
a firm conviction of the truth of the doctrine of
recognition in heaven, and as the subject has a prac
tical interest, and by no means belongs to the domain
of mere speculation, I shall attempt to exhibit some

Recognition. 237
of the leading arguments which show the agreement
of this doctrine with both reason and Scripture.
The Son of God will, no doubt, form the chief joy
and attraction of heaven to redeemed sinners. " As
the twinkling stars," says the late venerable Dr.
Alexander, " are lost in the blaze of the rising sun,
so there is One Person, in the highest heavens, visi
ble to all who enter that place, whose glory irra
diates all the celestial mansions ; whose love and
smiles diffuse ineffable joy through all the heavenly
hosts ; and in whom every believer has an absorbing
interest, with which no other can be compared. On
His head, He wears many crowns, and in His hand,
He holds a sceptre, by which He governs the uni
verse ; but yet he exhibits, visibly, the marks of a
violent death, which, for us, He once endured. His
name is, The Word of God, King of Kings, and
Lord of Lords, The Alpha and Omega, The
Almighty. And, behold, all the angels of God
worship Him. And the host of the redeemed,
which no man can number, sing a song of praise to
the Lamb, which no man can learn, except those that
are redeemed from among men ; for the burden of
their song is, ' To Him that loved us, and washed us
from our sins in His own blood.' Every redeemed
soul, upon being admitted into heaven, will, for a
while, be so completely absorbed in the contempla
tion of that Divine Person that he will be incapable

238 Mt FATHER'S House.
of paying much attention to any other. Like that
Armenian princess of whom Xenophon gives an
account, who, after all the rest of the company had
been expressing their admiration of Cyrus, one prais
ing one thing and one another, upon being asked
what about this royal personage she admired most,
answered, that she did not even look at him, because
her whole attention had been absorbed in admiring
one (her young husband) who had offered to die for
her. But the saved sinner may say, that his atten
tion was completely absorbed in gazing upon Hlm,
who not only said He would die for him, but who
actually did die, in his place, and, by this sacrifice,
redeemed him from the curse of the law, and from
all iniquity."* It would not be the heaven which
the Bible promises, though all our friends were there,
without the presence of the blessed Pedeemer. It is
to see Jesus, and be like Him, upon which our hearts
should be principally set. But there need be no
doubt, on this account, about our knowing in heaven
those whom we knew and loved on earth. Indeed,
such knowledge will serve to discover to us, more
fully, the glory and the honour due to the blessed
Pedeemer. It does not diminish, it enhances our
love and admiration for Christ, to take notice of the
triumph of His grace in those who were our friends
and associates on earth ; and to acknowledge Hlm as
* Religious Experience, p. 303.

Recognition. 239
the Author of the blessed work ; and, therefore, we
conclude that it is not a mere transfer of the feelings
and associations of earth to heaven, and that it does
not tend to detract from the glory of the Redeemer,
as the great object of absorbing interest in heaven,
to suppose that one of the chief sources of holy joy,
in that world, will be to mark the triumphs of
redeeming grace, in the just made perfect. And it
seems to be essential to this, that the redeemed should
know one another. If the imperfect exhibitions of
holiness in men below serve to awaken spiritual joy
and gratitude to the Redeemer, will it have nothing
to do with our blessedness, and in calling forth our
hallelujahs in honour of that Pedeemer, when we see
Him as He is, surrounded by an innumerable throng
of just men, made perfect, through His righteousness
and grace ? The purity of every saved sinner will
reflect the infinite purity of the Lamb in whose blood
they have washed their robes, and made them white.
To admire the silver beauty of the moon and planets
of our nocturnal heavens, is but another way of
admiring the light of that superior, central orb which
they do but reflect. To know, therefore, and love oui
former friends, when they are made to reflect more per
fectly their Redeemer's glory in heaven, is but another
mode of adoring Him who is " the light thereof."
It is altogether in accordance with Scripture and
reason, to suppose that it will be among the pleas-

210 My FATHER'S House.
ures of heaven for the saints to recount the dealings
of God with their souls, and the trials and dangers
through which God has so mercifully conducted
them. It will not only be a delightful employment
in itself, but well calculated to increase their grati
tude to their great Deliverer for those who have been
fellow-travellers in this world, to review together
the scenes through which they have passed, and
talk of that rich grace which was sufficient for them,
in all their afflictions and temptations. But this also
implies mutual recognition, and shows heaven to be
not a place of isolated existence, where each indi
vidual is absorbed in a contemplation which destroys
all consciousness of the presence of fellow-worship
pers, but a glorious assembly — aye, a company — who
animate and encourage one another in the exalted
service and worship of God.
Such recognition, moreover, will serve to enlarge
their views of the divine mercy, justice, and wisdom.
Every redeemed soul will be an everlasting monu
ment of the love and faithfulness of God ; but how
inexpressive and comparatively unmeaning would
every such monument be, if in heaven we are to
have no knowledge of individuals, and are, there
fore, unable to connect the history of their salva
tion with their reward! How would the declara
tive glory of God still appear in Abraham, Moses,
David, and Paul, and those whom we have known

Recognition. 241
personally, and loved, in this world, and whose
career as believers we have watched, sometimes
with trembling anxiety, if we are unable to recog
nize them? If the declarative glory of God has
been made to appear with greater distinctness, iu
the present state, in converted men, than it does
in suns and stars, much more will they, as saints,
be made to reflect it, in heaven ? Hence it appears,
that the doctrine that the saints in heaven are to
know one another, by no means conflicts with the
truth that Jesus Christ is to be the great Object
of contemplation, love, and homage. As they see
and know the converted thief, and the converted
persecutor, Saul of "Tarsus, and such men as were
their intimate friends and relations in this world,
they will see His glory reflected in them, and will
raise higher the song of redeeming love.
But it must also be considered that heaven is to
be not only a world of love, but a world of know
ledge, of the interchange of thought, where informa
tion will be both imparted and acquired. In the
present state, one person is necessary to another in
the acquisition of knowledge ; we are mutually
teachers and disciples; and, in an important sense,
even become familiarly acquainted, through their
writings, with teachers whom we have never seen.
And there is no reason to suppose that there will
be so great a change in the laws of our mental con-
1 1

242 My FATHER'S House.
stitution, in the world to come, that we are not still
to remain mutual teachers and learners ; or that we
could thus impart and acquire knowledge, without
knowing one another.
Again: Christian fellowship is now found to be
one of the chief sources of pious joy. The hearts
of Christians, as they talk of the things of the
kingdom, and of God's gracious dealings with
their souls, often "burn within" them; and sea
sons of worship become peculiar seasons of frater
nal love and joy. We sing :
Our souls by love together knit,
Cemented, mixed in one,
One hope, one heart, one mind, one voice,
'Tis heaven on earth begun.
Our hearts have often burned within,
And glowed with saered fire,
While Jesus spake, and fed, and blessed,
And filled the enlarged desire."*
Or, as in another sweet hymn :
" Blest be the tie that binds
Our hearts in Christian love ;
The fellowship of kindred minds,
Is like to that above.
Before our Father's throne,
We pour our ardent prayers ;
Our fears, our hopes, our aims are one,
Our comforts and our cares.
•Miller.

Recognition. 243
" We share our mutual woes,
Our mutual burdens bear,-
And often for each other flows
The sympathizing tear.
When we asunder part,
It gives us inward pain ;
But we shall still be joined in heart,
And hope to meet again."
* * * * #
" From sorrow, toil, and pain,
And sin we shall be free ;
And perfect love and friendship reign,
Through all eternity."*
Is this mere poetry? Do we, when we use this
language in spiritual song, profess what is unknown
to Christian experience or expectation ? When our .
souls are knit together by love, and we are animated
by "one hope, one heart, one mind," is it not as
near to the beginning of heaven as anything we
ever Jiope to experience here below? Was the
sweet singer mistaken, when he said
" The fellowship of kindred minds
Is like to that above?"
It is true we shall have no " mutual burdens " to
bear in heaven, and shall never shed for each other
"the sympathizing tear," even as we shall never
"asunder part;" but shall we have no "mutual
* Fawcett.

244 Mt FATHER'S House.
joys to share?" Shall we not still be "joined in
heart," when we meet again,
" And perfect love and friendship reign,
Through all eternity ?"
That " communion of saints," in which we profess
to believe, reaches beyond the church militant, and
is doubtless far more perfect, in the church triumph
ant. That church is not composed of distant, unsym-
pathizing souls ; but heart mingles with heart at the
same time that voice unites with voice, in adoring
God and the Lamb. This communion, which is one
of the chief sources of pious joy on earth, and must
be one of the chief sources of blessedness to the
redeemed in heaven, is founded on mutual knowledge
and love.
Nor is it to be overlooked that the Scriptures
describe the worship of the New Jerusalem as social
worship. When the four living creatures whom
John beheld in the vision which he had of %od's
throne in heaven, gave glory, honour, and thanks to
Hlm that sat on the throne, saying, "Holy, holy,
holy, Lord God Almighty, which was, and is, and is
to come," the four-and-twenty elders are described as
responding to the cry, saying, "Thou art worthy, O
Lord, to receive glory, and\ honour, and power, for
Thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure they
are and were created."* " And I beheld, and I heard
* Rev. iv. 8-11.

Recognition. 245
the voice of many angels round about the throne, and
the living creatures, and the elders ; and the number
of them was ten thousand times ten thousand, and
thousands of thousands ; saying, with a loud voice,
' Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive
power, and riches, and wisdom, and strength, and
honour, and glory, and blessing." And anon, from
every quarter of the universe, John heard it echoed
and re-echoed, "Worthy — Worthy is the Lamb."
"Amen, Amen."* These holy and blessed myriads,
throughout all the " mansions " of the " Father's
House," are here described as uniting, and making
those mansions vocal with the same song. In that
song there is perfect harmony — not one discordant
note. Nothing is wanting to render the worship of
heaven, viewed as social worship, perfect; and hence it
follows that all who engage in that worship will know
and love one another — and love the more for vieing
in the praise of the same Redeemer. A Christian,
in a foreign land, may indeed reap both profit and
pleasure, when mingling in the devotions of those
whom he never before saw in the flesh, and listening
to the praises of his Saviour in a strange tongue;
but, how greatly would his pleasure be increased, if
he could suddenly be transferred to his native city or
village, to the company of those long known and
esteemed, for their Christian excellences ! It is on
• Rev. v. 11-14.

246 Mt FATHER'S House.
the Sabbath morning, when the Christian traveller
sighs most for home, for the familiar faces and voices
of his own chosen sanctuary. "There need be no
dispute," says the same venerable writer already
quoted, " about our knowing in heaven those whom
we knew and loved here ; for, if there should be no
faculty by which they could at once be recognized,
yet by extended and familiar intercourse, with the
celestial inhabitants, it cannot be otherwise but that
interesting discoveries will be made continually ; and
the unexpected recognition of old friends may be one
of the sources of pleasure, which will render heaven
so pleasant. But as the fleshly bond of relationship
is dissolved at death, it seems reasonable to think,
that the only bond of union and kindred in heaven
will be the spiritual bond, which unites all believers
in one body, and to Christ, their living Head ; there
fore we may presume that there will be felt an ardent
desire to form an acquaintance with the most remark
able personages, who have lived from Adam down
wards. Who, if admitted into paradise, could repress
his curiosity to see, and if possible, to converse with
the progenitor of our race. Doubtless, he could tell
us some things which we do not fully understand.
And who would not wish to see the first person who
ever entered those blessed abodes, from our earth ?
Aye, and Enoch, too, who -never tasted death, and
who still possesses his original body, changed and

Recognition. 247
glormed, it is true, but still substantially the same ?
We might expect to find him in the company of
Elijah, who is similarly circumstanced. * * *
And where is Abraham, that venerable saint, who
in faith and obedience, exceeded all other men, and
obtained from God the honourable appellation of
" the father of the faithful," and the " friend " of
God ? And who would be in heaven, ever so short a
time, without desiring to see Paul, the Apostle of the
Gentiles ; and not him only, but Peter and John, and
all the college of the Apostles ?"*
But have we not something stronger, than a very
high degree of probability, arising from the foregoing
considerations, in favour of this doctrine ? Have we
not direct and positive proof of its truth, in the word
of God ? I will not repeat what has been said before
respecting heaven as a defined place of residence
and action, and respecting the resurrection of the
same bodies, which are buried in the grave. But
the Scriptures plainly teach that the redeemed are
to possess bodies so far resembling the bodies they
had on earth, and which were " sown " in the grave,
as the nature of the case, or their new state admits.
Andrew Fuller suggests that " our bodies, after they
are raised from the dead, may be ' flesh and blood,'
and yet not what they now are." They will entirely
differ from what they now are, in being incorruptible,
* Religious Experience, p. 302.

248 My FATHERS House.
immortal, and spiritual. Hence, were we to admit
that there is, for the most part, a general silence, in
holy writ, on the subject of the recognition of our
friends,- in the future world, the supposition is not
only congenial with pur best feelings, but " appears
to be so natural a consequence of the general
doctrine of the resurrection, as clearly set before us
by the Word of God, that we might be expected, in
common course of things, to take it for granted,
unless it was contradicted or opposed by that Word ;
or, unless it were encumbered by great and insur
mountable objections."*
But there are not wanting express declarations, in
the Bible, which clearly intimate the truth of this
doctrine. King David, when a beloved child was
sick unto death, fasted, and. prayed, and wept; but
when he perceived, from the conduct of the servants
of his household, that the child was dead, he arose
and washed himself, and changed his apparel, went
to the house of the Lord, and worshipped, and then
returned to his own house, and partook of food. To
his servants, to whom his conduct appeared strange
and inexplicable, he said, " Wherefore should I fast ?
Can I bring him back again ? I shall go to him, but
he shall not return to me."f He was evidently com
forted with the hope — the hope that sustains many a
Christian parent, called to weep over the grave of
* Mant's Happiness of the Blessed, p. 25. f 2 Sam. xii. 23.

Recognition. 249
infant children — that he should^ ere long, go where
his child had gone, and there see, know, and embrace
him again. Our Lord warned his hearers that it
would aggravate their doom, when they should " see
Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and all the prophets, in
the kingdom of God,"* and they themselves- thrust
out. The language is unnecessary, and conveys a
wrong impression, if to " see " the patriarchs and
prophets does not also imply that they were to know
them. " And I say unto you, that many shall come
from the East and West, and shall sit down with
Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, in the kingdom of
heaven."f Sitting down with these ancient servants
of God must mean introduction to their society, and
enjoyment with them; but how would this be possi
ble, how could they be said to enter and enjoy the
society of those whom it was impossible for them to
know? "The happiness of the saints is represented
under the emblem of a festive scene, and the point
of allusion, which deserves our notice, and on which
rests the evidence contained in the passage, relates to
the gratification which guests of kindred sentiments
find in the circumstance of being able to identify
each other. Multitudes of strangers are to come
from the four quarters of the earth, and are to sit
down with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, in the king
dom of heaven. Here is a special honour and felicity
* Luke xiii. 23. f Matt. viii. 11.

250 My FATHER'S House.
promised to them ; $nd how can the declaration be
realized in any manner, consistently, which does not
imply the knowledge of these distinguished indi
viduals ? "* In the parable of the rich man and
Lazarus, the Saviour represents the rich man as see
ing Abraham, as knowing him, and addressing his
discourse to him. If this lost soul knew Abraham
afar off, and Lazarus also, shall we suppose that these
two saints, one of them reclining on the bosom of the
other, did not know each other? or that all saved
sinners shall not know their associates in the realms .
of bliss ?
"Whom we preach, warning every man, and
teaching every man in all wisdom, that we may pre
sent every man perfect in Christ Jesus."f These
words express the extreme earnestness and anxiety
with which the apostle Paul sought the salvation of
his fellow-men. But the last clause of the passage
contains within it, by implication, the doctrine that
saints, in a future life, will meet and be known again
to one another. The clause is this, " That we may
present every man perfect in Christ Jesus." " By
which, I understand," says Dr. Paley, in a sermon,
from these words, " St. Paul to express the hope and
prayer that at the general judgment of the world, he
might present to Christ the fruits of his ministry, the
* Muston's Recognition in the World to Come, p. 102.
t Col. i. 28.

Recognition. 251
converts whom he had made to his faith and religion,
and might present them perfect in every good work.
And if this be rightly interpreted, then it affords a
manifest and necessary inference, that the saints, in a
future life, will meet and be known again to one ano
ther ; for how, without knowing again his converts, in
their new and glorified state, could St. Paul desire
or expect to present them at the last day."* " 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? For ye are our glory and
joy."f The Thessalonian church was distinguished
for its piety. The Apostle bestowed commendations
on their faith, love, and devoted zeal. What, then,
does he declare to be his hope, his joy, and the
crown of his rejoicing? Is it not the honour of
presenting before the throne of God those whom
he regarded as his spiritual children? How could
he present them, and say, " Lord, here am I, and the
children Thou hast given me," unless he was able to
recognize them as those who had been converted
through his instrumentality? The language proves
that " Paul anticipated on the last day a personal
knowledge of those oh his part, and a personal re
union with them, with whom he had been connected
in this life, by the ties of pastoral offices and
* Sermons on Several Subjects, xxxiv.
t 1 Thess. ii. 19, 20.

252 Mt FATHER'S House.
kind affection."* What was Paul's privilege as a
minister of Christ, will, doubtless, be the privilege of
every faithful minister and faithful servant of Christ.
Their hope, and joy, and crown of rejoicing will be
the souls saved, through their instrumentality, " in
the presence of our Lord Jesus Christ, at His com
ing." " The manner in which Paul speaks of the
Thessalonians," says Dr. MacKnight on this passage,
" shows that he expected to know his converts at the
day of judgment. If so, we may hope to know our
relatives and friends there. And, as there is no rea
son to think that, in the future life, we shall lose
those natural and social affections which constitute
so great a part of our present enjoyment, may
we not expect that those affections, purified from
everything animal and terrestrial, will be a source of
our happiness in that life likewise? It must be
remembered, however, that, in the other world, we
shall love one another, not so much on account of
the relation and friendship which formerly subsisted
between us, as on account of the knowledge and vir
tue which we possess. For, among rational beings,
whose affections will all be subject to the high state
of moral and intellectual perfection, to which they
shall be raised, the most endearing relations and
warmest friendships will be those which are founded
on excellence of character."
* Mant s Happiness of the Blessed, p. 82.

Recognition. 253
But the objection will arise, that if the followers
of Christ are to meet with full recognition in the
heavenly world, they will know that some who
were their kindred, or beloved friends on earth,
are not there. How the effect of such knowledge
is to be counteracted so that it shall, in no wise,
be incompatible with the perfect happiness of the
redeemed, is more than can be fully answered at
present. We must leave this tb be regulated by
a God who Himself has shbwn a tenderness to
those feelings of affection which He has implanted
in us, and who can work by means of which we
know nothing. All that can be said is, that affec
tion in heaven will, doubtless, be excited by supe
rior motives, viz. by the relation of our friends to
Christ — their perfect holiness — their being joined in
the same blessed society — engaged in the same holy
employments. When the Christian shall be made
" as the angels of God," he will have such a regard
to the holiness and justice of God as will lead
him cheerfully to acquiesce in His righteous judg
ments. The great practical use of the doctrine we have
been considering is, to give us just and Scriptural,
and, at the same time, attractive views of heaven.
It shows how false is the imagination which many
have of heaven, as a place " where all the warm and

254 My FATHER'S House.
sensible accompaniments which give such an expres
sion of strength, and life, and colouring to our pres
ent habitation, are attenuated into a sort of spiritual
element, that is meagre and imperceptible, and
utterly __ uninviting to the eye of mortals here
below."* And with what force does it appeal to
all the most tender sympathies of the heart, not
only to make preparation ourselves, but to pro
mote preparation in others, especially "our kin
dred according to the flesh," for that world. And
O how soothing is this doctrine to the Christian,
mourning for those who "sleep in Jesus!" It says
to the Rachels who weep for their babes, "Sorrow
not as those without hope ; you shall see, and know,
and embrace them again; and they shall still be
yours in heaven." " ¥ou will never," as has been
pleasingly and plausibly suggested, " be without an
infant child. The children of others — your other
children — may grow up to manhood and woman
hood, and suffer all the adverse changes of mor
tality; but the one that gladdened your parental
eye for a few short months, and at the end of its
little period expired, is alone rendered an immortal
child. Death arrested it with its kindly harshness,
and blessed it into an eternal image of youth and
beauty." Yes! yes, thou Christian parent! hus-
* Dr. Chalmers.

Recognition. 255
band! wife! child! by faith in Jesus thou shalt
hereafter see, and know, and love those dear ones
who have gone to that peaceful shore, where
" Adieus and farewells are a sound unknown."

256 My FATHER'S House

XV.
LITTLE CHILDREN IN HEAVEN.
rFANTS die to live. As stars, which glitter for
a brief moment, through the darkness of the
niglft, but when we look again are invisible ; not
because they have fallen from heaven, but because
they have melted away into the light of a cloudless
morning ; so dying infants are taken to be planted in
the diadem of the Sun of righteousness. In conver
sation with an eminent living divine,* the pleasing
thought was suggested by him, that those who are
taken to heaven in infancy, may always remain
children; not such weak, suffering and dependent
creatures, as they were on earth, but bright cherubs,
perfect children ; — perfect in beauty and in purity.
The Scriptures speak expressly of " the small and
great," f both appearing together in eternity, before
God. It was to "the small" as well as to "the
great," that a voice came out of the throne, saying,
?Rev. Dr. Spring. f Rev. xix. 5 : xx. 12.

Little Children in Heaven. 257
" Praise otjr God ;" and they responded when the
voice of a great multitude was heard, " as the voice
of many waters, and as the voice of mighty thunder-
ings, saying, " Alleluia : for the Lord God omnipo
tent reigneth." The hope is not altogether without
warrant, therefore, that Christians who have lost
infant children, shall never be without them — that
their death was, indeed, a " kindly harshness, which
blessed them into an eternal image of youth and
beauty." What earthly home is not made happier
by the presence of little children, with all their
infirmities, the cares they impose, and the anxieties
they awaken ? Without them, a home may be filled
with much that is graceful and refined ; like a garden,
it may have many fine walks and arbours, but it is
a garden without flowers. What, then, will our
" Fathe^pk .House " in heaven be, filled with Chose
who are infants, without weakness and without wants,
and clothed upon with all the beauty and loveli
ness of angels; and who, like murmuring ripples,
which serve to swell the voice of many waters, when
they break upon the shore, shall bear their humble
part in heaven's immortal song. As, of that great
multitude, which no man can number, who already
have gone from earth to heaven, they form the vast
majority, it is obvious that we fail to do justice to
the subject, if we ignore so important an element in
the redeemed society.

258 My FATHER'S House
The rule which an Apostle lays down* as that by
which God will be governed in judging the heathen
world, at the last day, leaves us no room to doubt as
to the salvation of all — the children of heathen as well
as of Christians — who die in infancy. The standard
of judgment is the light or knowledge which men
have severally enjoyed. The heathen will not be
judged by the revealed law, or the Holy Scriptures,
because they have never had this revelation. They
will be judged according to the light which they
possess, which is commonly called the light of nature.
Having sinned against this light, they must give
account thereof, in the day when God shall judge the
secrets of men by Jesus Christ. If the heathen will
not be judged according to the revealed will of God,
because they have been ignorant of it ; it is certain
that infants who die before they have any knowledge
of it will not be judged by it. And they are just as
ignorant of the light of nature, as they are of revela
tion, and cannot be judged by it; and, therefore, we
conclude that there is no law that will condemn
them on the day of Judgment. Their intellectual
faculties have not yet been developed; hence it is
iihpossible for them to know God, or the invisible
things of Hlm, from the things which are clearly
seen, namely, His works. It is impossible to teach
them to understand God's Holy Word. In other
•Rom. ii. 12, 16.

Little Children in Heaven. 259
words', God has made no revelation of any kind to
infants, whose intellectual faculties remain in embiyo.
Even were we to concede that the Scriptures are
silent, as some have maintained, on the question of
the salvation of infants, we might here, perhaps, dis
cover the reason ; the Bible was not written for
them — is not addressed to them. If they are not
referred to " in its overtures of mercy," it is equally
true that they come not under " its proclamation of
duty," nor its threatenings of future punishment.
And the salvation of the infants of pagans, of infidels,
and of the most wicked men, is, in the light of this
rule of judgment, just as certain as the salvation of
the children of the most (devout and faithful Chris
tians. " There is no respect of persons with God." *
He is perfectly impartial, and treats all on precisely
the same principles. All are alike ignorant of the
written law, and as yet have not had a law written
on their hearts ; consequently there is no standard of
judgment by which any of them can be condemned.
When the books are opened, the only one with which
" the small," who stand before God, will have any
concern, is the Book of Life. There will be nothing
in the book of Nature, or the Book of God's written
Law, or the books of Memory and Conscience, in
which they will have any concern.
The future punishments, which are denounced
?Rom. ii. 11.

260 My FATHER'S House.
against the wicked, in the word of God, are "repre
sented as always for the actual transgressions of
persons, who are capable of choosing or refusing
good and evil ; and therefore cannot be intended for
those who die before they are able to distinguish
between good and evil. " Every idle word that men
shall speak, they shall give an account thereof, in the
day of judgment." " We must all appear before the
judgment-seat of Christ, that every one may receive
the things done in the body, according to that which
he hath done, whether it be good or evil." So far
as suffering in the future world consists in remorse,
infants who have never rejected mercy, grieved the
Spirit, or rebelled againsfo^jrod, are of course incapa
ble of experiencing it. " I cannot find," to use the
language of Dr. Watts, " in the whole book of God,
one syllable of the punishment of infants, either in
their souls or bodies after this life ; all that the Scrip
tures reveal of punishment, in a world to come,
whether it be in a separate state, or at the resurrec
tion, falls upon those only who have been guilty of
actual, personal transgressions, and are proper objects
of a judgment." *
Again : " if without personal participation in the
sin of Adam, all men are subject to death, may we
not hope that without personal acceptance of the
righteousness of Christ, all who die in infancy are
* Ruin and Recovery, xxi.

Little Children in Heaven. 2t_>l
saved?" * The doctrine of the imputation of Adam's
sin to the whole of his posterity, does not mean that
the moral turpitude of Adam's sin was transferred to
his posterity — that his act, in some mysterious man
ner, was their act, or that his sin was personally that
of all men ; nor does it mean that there is a deprava
tion of soul, or the infusion of any positive evil ; it
simply means that there is such a connexion between
Adam, as a natural and federal head, and his des
cendants, that his disobedienee is the cause of their
loss of original righteousness, whence arises an actual
and universal tendency to sin, and is the ground of
their subjection to penal evils. It is no part of the
Scripture doctrine of imputation, that eternal death is
ever the doom of any, merely on account of Adam's
offence, without respect to their own depravity of
heart, or actual transgressions of the law of God. f
Men perish on account of their personal offences, and
because they refuse to avail themselves of proffered
deliverance from that state of corruption and con
demnation, into which they are brought by the first
Adam. Such, clearly, is the teaching of the great
Apostle, in that memorable passage, contained in the
fifth chapter of Romans, from the twelfth verse to
the end. He is establishing the doctrine, in this pas
sage, that sinners are justified by the righteousness
• Dr. Hodge on Rom. v. 12-21. Rem. 5. f See Hodge, Idem. Doot. 2.

262 My FATHER'S House.
of one, that is, Jesus Christ, just as they are con
demned by the sin of one, that is, of Adam. He
shows that such was the effect of Adam's sin, in
bringing death upon his posterity, that it reigned
even over young infants, that had not been guilty of
actual transgression. Death reigns over them, not
only because they are subject to mortality, but
because every child is born in spiritual death, has a
corrupt nature, brings jnto the world with him a
native sinfulness of character, which, without regene
ration, will belong to him for ever.
The Apostle further teaches — and it is at this point
that the Gospel sheds so glorious a light, " discloses
the fall slumbering under the sun-beams of the
recovery, and the wrecks of sin presenting foretokens
of the triumphs of grace, and, on the withered stem
of humanity, revealing buds of approaching beauty,
and blossom and fruit "* — the Gospel, I say, teaches
that the blessings, purchased by the death of Christ,
far exceed the evils incurred by Adam's sin. If
Christ had done no more than to remove the sentence
which was passed upon mankind because of Adam's
sin, the Gospel would open no door for the salvation
of those who are guilty of actual -transgressions ; but
the door would be open wide, for the salvation of our
dying infants; for not having sinned actually, the
* Dr. Cumming's Infant Salvation : London, 1848, p. 34.

Little Children in Heaven. 26tJ
sentence passed upon the race on account of Adam's
sin, is the only sentence that rests upon them. But
the propitiation of Christ is sufficient to save actual
transgressors — publicans, persecutors, and malefac
tors ; who then can doubt its efficacy to save those,
our dying babes, who have not sinned "after the simi
litude of Adam's transgression,", i. e. are incapable of
sinning, by actual, personal transgression, as Adam
did? We may rest assured, now, that Christ has
died, and satisfied the law not only for that breach of
it by which death entered into the world, but has so
satisfied it that actual transgressors, even the vilest,
may be saved, that all who die before they can
possibly become actual transgressors, are admitted to
heaven. All the obstacles in the way of their
salvation have been effectually removed. As without
their personal participation in the sin of Adam, they
became subject to death, so, by the imputation of
Christ's righteousness, without their personal accept
ance of it, they are made partakers of everlasting
life. O, it is a heart-consoling truth that Christ died for
little children. If his blood was sufficient to cleanse
a dying malefactor, it is sufficient to wash away the
stains of original sin, in those who are innocent of
personal offences. This world is full of the graves of
little children. There is a grim reaper among the
flowers, whose name is Death.

264 My FATHER'S House.
" ' Shall I have naught that is fair,' saith he ;
' Have naught but the bearded grain V
He reaps the bearded grain at a breath,
And the flowers that grow between."4
O, it is a delightful thought, that the blood of Jesus
Christ sets them free from the only sentence of
condemnation that could be inflicted on them. O, it
is an enrapturing thought, that He who passed
through the several periods of human life, with our
nature upon Hlm, that He might sanctify, and save
it, was once an infant, and that, when on the cross,
He saw of the travail of His soul, and was satisfied,
He beheld among the armies of his worshippers
myriads of infant souls — an innumerable company of
those concerning whom, with matchless grace, drop
ping from His lips, He had said, " Of such is the
kingdom of heaven."
The salvation of infants is not in conflict with a
single one of the doctrines of the Reformation, or
doctrines of' grace. It is not inconsistent with the
doctrine of regeneration, and the necessity of that
change, in all who would enter into the heavenly
kingdom. This change in infants, before they are
fit subjects of instruction, must of course be effected
without means, by the immediate agency of the
Holy Spirit. The same Being who sanctified
Jeremiah and John the Baptist, from the womb, is
? Longfellow.

Little Children in Heaven. 265
able, in like manner, to sanctify others who are
spared to a mature age in this world, and all those
young children, who are taken out of it, before they
have committed actual transgression. "They are
regenerated and saved by Christ through the Spirit,
who worketh when, and where, and how He
pleaseth."* If we reject the doctrine of infant
regeneration, on the ground of its mysteriousness.
we may, on the same grounds, reject the regeneration
of adults ; for who can tell how the Spirit operates,
in renewing the hearts of those who can understand
the terms of the Gospel? The principle of real,
saving grace may exist in the hearts of children who
are, as yet, incapable of actively exercising that
grace. " An adult cannot be regenerated, without
his new nature expressing itself in faith. But the
Spirit comes to infants as the dew on Hermon, and
as He works in the secret parts of the earth, they
may be regenerated, and be united to Christ's body
by the illapse of the quickening power from the
divine Head, though that life may slumber in them,
as the living principle slumbers in the unsown
wheat."f There is nothing, then, incredible in the
idea that God may commune with the spirit of a little
child ; — rather is there something grateful in the
* Westminster Confession, x. § 3.
t Dr. Hodge in Bib. Repertory for April, 1855.
19

266 My FATHER'S House.
thought that that Spirit who is so often grieved away
from the worldly, perverse hearts of men and women,
who comes to make them His temple, but finds them
polluted with idols, may yet take up His residence
in hearts, which never yet have been defiled with
evil thoughts, corrupt motives, impure desires, and
unholy passions.
Nor is the doctrine of infant salvation irreconcil
able with the sovereignty of divine grace. None
will pretend that their salvation is left to accident,
or that they are saved without a Divine purpose.
But it cannot be pretended that they are chosen
on account of foreseen faith and repentance, of
which they are not capable. If God has chosen
them, He must have chosen them "accordmg to
the counsel of His own will." He foreknew and
predestinated them to be heirs of His glory. The
doctrine of sovereign, unconditional salvation is,
after all, one of the brightest revelations of hea
ven, because it secures the salvation of those mil
lions of little beings who just alight on these mortal
shores, then wing their way to mingle in the scenes
of a brighter and happier world.
Such will be the triumphs of redeeming love. The
whole tenor of the Gospel makes it evident that all
who die previous to the age of responsibility, are
taken by the good Shepherd into His eternal fold.
That Gospel, which, while it affords the impenitent

Little Children in Heaven. 267
no hopes of safety, teaches that it is God's delight
to receive the returning prodigal, and declares that
whosoever will, may come and take of the waters of
life freely — that Gospel, I say, which bears so gra
cious an aspect towards rebellious offenders, opens
wide the door of mercy to those who cannot be
charged with impenitence and unbelief.
But the Scriptures are not wanting in passages
which necessarily imply, or directly teach the con
soling truth which is involved in its general system
of doctrines. " Out of the mouth of babes and suck
lings hast Thou ordained strength," or "perfected
praise."* This is the passage which our Saviour
quoted to confound the chief priests and scribes,
who were greatly displeased, because little children
cried in the temple, " Hosanna to the son of David !"
If nothing more, it seems to teach that there is a
peculiar excellence in the praises of children who,
by the Assembly of Divines, are said to come nearest
to our lost estate of innocency. Out of their mouth
praise may be more perfect, and, therefore, more
acceptable to God, than from the lips of those who
have defiled themselves by a long course of trans
gression. "It seems to me," says an intelligent
American missionary, " we need infant choirs in
heaven to make up full concert to the angelic
symphony. Who will sing like unto them of the
* Psalm viii. 2 ; Matt. xxi. 16.

268 Mt FATHER'S House.
manger, and the swaddling-clothes, and of the Lord
of all, drawing nourishment from the bosom of mor
tal mothers ! True, these are themes of infinite inte^
rest, and the delight and wonder of angels. But oh !
they are too tender for the archangel's powerful
trump — too tender for the thundering notes of
cherubim and seraphim. We must have infant
choirs in heaven."* " The harp of heaven
Had lacked its least, but not its meanest string,
Had children not been taught to play upon it,
And sing from feelings all their own, what men
Nor angels can conceive of creatures born
Under the curse, yet from the curse redeemed,
And placed at once beyond the power to fall, —
Safety which men nor angels ever knew,
Till ranks of these, and all of those had fallen."!
There are several passages in the New Testament
which record the tender regard our Saviour had for
little children, and seem expressly to teach that they
are the heirs of salvation. On a certain occasion,
His disciples asked Him this question, " Who is the
greatest in the kingdom of heaven ?" He answered
it by taking a little child, and placing him in the
midst of them, and telling them that unless they
were- converted, and became as little children, they
could not enter the kingdom of heaven ; and that
* Rev. Mr. Schauffler. f J. Montgomery.

Little Children in Heaven. 269
in order to be greatest in that kingdom, they must
humble themselves as that little child: and added,
"Whoso shall receive one such little child in my
name receiveth Me."* He goes on to add, "Take
heed that ye despise not one of these little ones ; for
I say unto you, that in heaven their angels do always
behold the face of my Father, which is in heaven.
For the Son of man is come to save that which is
lost." " Even so, it is not the will of your Father
which is in heaven, that one of these little ones
Should perish." How must the disciples have under
stood their Master, with the little child in the midst,
and having just heard Hlm Say that they must be
converted, and become as little children, or they
could not enter heaven ? They inust have supposed,
that by the " little ones," not one of whom it is God's
will should perish, He referred to little children.
Those who are converted, and become like little
children, are, doubtless, figuratively included; it is
not the will of our heavenly Father that they should
perish; — how, then, can it be that those who are
selected as the standards of comparison, patterns
for imitation, should ever perish ?
" Op such is the Kingdom of Heaven."! "I think
it at least highly probable," says the Rev. John
Newton, " that when our Lord says, ' Suffer little
children to come unto Me, and forbid them not, for
* Matt, xviii. 6. f Matt. xix. 14.

270 Mt FATHER'S House.
of such is the kingdom of heaven,' He does not only
intimate the necessity of our becoming like Httle chil
dren in simplicity, as a qualification, without which
(as He expressly declares, in other places) we cannot
enter into His kingdom, but informs us of a fact, that
the number of infants, who are effectually redeemed
unto God by His blood, so greatly exceeds the aggre
gate of adult believers, that, comparatively speaking,
TTth kingdom may be said to consist of little chil
dren." As if the full import of what He had said
to His disciples was, " Think not that httle children
are beneath my notice ; think not that I am a stran
ger to little children; suffer them to come to me,
and forbid them not. I have often been in their
society ; I love their society ; the world from which
I came, and to which I go, is full of little children."
Dr. Scott says that " the expression may intimate
that the kingdom of heavenly glory is greatly consti
tuted of such as die in their infancy." " The expres
sion," says Dr. Russell, who has treated this subject
with great ability, " means that, ' of such it is, in a
great measure, made up,' because they will form a
very great proportion of the redeemed family of hea
ven." The Saviour appears to have had the univer
sal salvation of all them who die in infancy in His
view. His reasoning is not " of persons resembling
such in character is the kingdom made up," for this
would not warrant the conclusion drawn! that chil-

Little Children in Heaven. 271
*
dren ought not to be hindered from being brought to
Him, in order to be blessed. When Christ says,
" Suffer little children to come unto me," " nothing
can be plainer," says John Calvin, " than that he
intends those who are in a state of real infancy.
And to prevent this from being thought unreasona
ble, he adds, ' Of such is the kingdom of heaven.'
And if infants be necessarily comprehended, it is
beyond all doubt that the word ' such ' designates
both infants themselves and those who resemble
them." " All those whom Christ blesses are exempted
from the curse of Adam and the wrath of God ; and
as it is known that infants were blessed by Hlm, it
follows that they are exempted from death.* " When
our blessed Lord," says Dr. Hodge, "uttered those
dreadful words, 'He that believeth not shall be
damned,' He did not mean to shut the doors of hea
ven in the face of the countless clouds of departed
infants, the purchase of His blood, which flock as
doves to the celestial gates, and of whom, as He
Himself says, his kingdom largely consists."!
" Heaven has many joys, joys which no man has
seen or could express ; and all its joys must be from
beholding the glory of the Lamb, as it sheds blessing,
and beauty, and truth over all ; but it were worth
centuries of Christian service and trial here to reach,
at last, the threshold of our 'Father's house,' and
• Institutes, iv. c. 16 § 7 and 31 t Bib. Repertory, April, 1855.

272 Mt FATHER'S House.
•
look in upon the happy family of His little children,
growing in wisdom, and strength, and praise, under
His delighted eye and perfect teaching."*
As .it has pleased God to call so many from this
world in their infancy, what multitudes have already
gone up to the mansions of the blessed ! If of the
thousands of millions of our race who have gone
down to the grave, one-half died in infancy, and a
considerable number of the remainder were prepared
for death, by repentance of their sins, and faith in
the Lord Jesus, then does it appear that God is
rapidly replenishing His kingdom, with holy and
happy subjects — that heaven has already become the
most populous portion of His empire. Christ already
sees of the " travail of His soul, and divides the spoil
with the strong." For, mark, the doctrine is not
that salvation is confined to the deceased infants of
believing parentSj but that the children of irreligious
parents, of infidels, and of heathen who die before
they are of sufficient age to incur personal guilt, are
all saved. The thousands of infants that perished
when the world was destroyed by a flood — those that
were consumed, when Sodom and Gomorrah were
burned with fire and brimstone — those slain, in the
sack of towns and cities, in the bloody wars of
ancient nations — those whose blood was spilt by
JSTebuzaradan, and by Herod in Bethlehem, and the
* Dr. Bethune's " Early Lost, Early Saved," p. 85.

Little Children in Heaven. 273
adjacent villages, when a voice was heard, lamenta
tion, and weeping, and great mourning — those that
perished in the siege of Jerusalem — and those whose
bodies have been offered up to heathen deities — went
to heaven. God overrules the wars, the judgments,
men's crimes, and even the horrid custom of sacri
ficing infants, to the filling up of his kingdom.
Thousands upon thousands offered as victims upon
pagan altars, have been borne, by angels, to heaven,
who, if they had been permitted to live, would have
become idolaters, and, perhaps, in their turn, have
sacrificed their offspring. Those ministering spirits
are sent not only to Christian but to heathen shores,
to bear the immortal spirit of the dying infant to the
presence of that Saviour who said, " Suffer little
children to come to me." And thus does He divide
the spoil with the strong. " From the worst barbari
ties of the heathen, God's love and wisdom thus
extract blessings." With all the numberless infants
who have been thrust into the flaming arms of
Moloch — who have been hurried from the womb to
the grave by their Polynesian mothers — offered up
in the groves of the Druids, or " left to perish in the
Ganges, or to die in the streets of Pekin, it is well."
They are a part of that multitude whom no man can
number, of all nations, and kindreds, and people,
and tongues, who stand before the throne and before
the Lamb, with white robes, and palms in their hands
12*

274 Mt FATHER'S House.
It is true the death of infants and children often
involves many circumstances of a very afflictive cha
racter. The smitten child, like the son of the poor
widow of Zarephath, may be an only one ; or, if not
an only one, may be esteemed the flower of fairest
promise, and have entwined its tendrils around the
warmest affections of the heart. The object on which
was centred many fondly-cherished hopes has been
suddenly cut down, and a chasm produced in the
domestic circle, and in the sympathies of the bosom,
which no sublunary object can ever fill. A shadow
is left by the hearth-stone which can never more
depart. The parent takes his dear one from his
bosom, and lays it down in the shroud, while his
heart is pierced with the most poignant sorrow.
Alas ! how insecure are our choicest pleasures and
our most valued blessings! Like the dew upon a
flower, like the beauty of a full-blown rose, how soon
they vanish, and we see them no more. Who but a
bereaved parent can know the grief of those who are
called to lay their children in the grave.

" I've sat and watched by dying beauty's head,
And burning tears of hopeless anguish shed ;
I've gazed upon the sweet, but pallid face,
And vainly tried some comfort there to trace ;
I've listened to the short and struggling breath ;
I've seen the cherub eye grow dim in death."

Little Children in Heaven. 275
But whilst the death of children involves many cir
cumstances of a painful and distressing character, it
is by Christianity rendered glorious, and even attrac
tive. There is something lovely in the departure of
an infant to be with Christ and his angels. We are
fain to imagine that —
" Some angel brighter than the rest "?
is sent to conduct the spirit to its mansion near
the throne. We look upon the lifeless clay, beau
tiful in death. We can say, Better die young
than incur a dishonoured name, at a riper age, and
spend an old age of shame. Better that the opening
flower, all moist with the dew of the morning, should
be plucked by a gentle hand, to gladden, with its
perfume and beauty, the choicest apartment of the
house, than that the tempest, at night, should rudely
shatter its stalk, and scatter its petals over the miry
ground. We gaze upon features pale and cold, but
which have never been disturbed by envy, malice, or
revenge ; never have been darkened by pining grief.
And as we gaze there is no retrospect of reverses, of
vicissitudes, of sorrows, and of sins. True, we
behold the remains of one who was the offspring of
degenerate parents; who was heir to a depraved
nature, and could be saved only by the atoning
merits of a crucified Saviour, and the renewing grace
* Pres. J. Q. Adams.

276 My FATHER'S House.
of the Holy Spirit ; and who, if life had lasted, would
have been exposed to temptation and sin. But how
consolatory the reflection that the new-born soul,
which so lately animated the now lifeless frame,
adorns, like a starry gem, the crown of LmmanUel,
and vies with the angelic host in exalted songs to the
Lamb that was slain.
It is to Christianity that we are indebted for the
most effectual consolations in the hour of bereave
ment. " Tell us," says Dr. Chalmers, " if Christian
ity does not throw a pleasing radiance around an
infant's tomb ? and should any parent that hears us
feel softened by the touching remembrance of a
light that twinkled a few short months under his
roof, and at the end of its little period expired,
we cannot think that we venture too far when
we say, that he has only to persevere in the faith and
in the following of the Gospel, and that very light
will again shine upon him in heaven. The blossom
which withered here upon its stalk has been trans
planted there to a place of endurance ; and in the
name of Hlm who, if on earth, would have wept
along with them, do we bid all believers present
to sorrow not as others which have no hope, but
to take comfort in the thought of that country
where there is no Sorrow and no separation."* Is it
no privilege to know that our dear ones are among
* Lect. on Epistle to the Romans, xiv.

Little Children in Heaven. 277
the angels in heaven — 'that their sweet voices min
gle in the song of Moses and the Lamb ? I think I
can enter somewhat into the feelings of an afflicted
missionary, when he wrote, " I think of the moment
when I shall fold my little ones to a father's bosom
again, and that for ever ; and tears of joy and gra
titude flow down my cheeks involuntarily. Even
now, while I am writing, the voices of two of my
children — is it possible? — yes, of my children, are
singing praises unto Him who became a poor babe
and a man of sorrow for them, and for all men. O,
let them sing then !"
Perhaps the eye of some irreligious parent, who
has been bereaved of children, may fall on these
pages. And are you, then, the parent of children
" passed into the skies ? " They cast their glitter
ing diadems at the feet of that Saviour whose prof
fered mercy you are still neglecting. They praise
and adore Hlm to whom you neglect to pray. They
are gone from you. O, are they lost for ever ? The
Christian parent, when similarly bereaved, can say :
Gone, but not lost,
" A treasure but removed,
A bright bird parted for a clearer day j„
Mine still in heaven." *
Mine hereafter to meet — mine to love — mine
with whom to rejoice in eternal hymns to a glorified
* Mrs. Hemans.

278 My FATHER'S House.
Saviour. Can you adopt this language ? O, will
the period ever come when you shall again embrace
those sweet cherubs — sweeter far than when they
bore "the image of the earthy." Methinks they
beckon to you from their thrones. Methinks they
stand ready to welcome you to those blissful man
sions.

Who will be There. 279

XVI.
WHO WILL BE THERE.
THE New Testament leads' us not to Mount Sinai,
which burned with fire, and was made terrible
by blackness, and darkness, and tempest, a sight.
which made "Moses, the man of God," fear and
quake, but unto mount Sion, " unto the city of the
living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innu
merable company of angels, to the general assembly
and church of the first born, which are written in
heaven, and to God, the Judge of all, and to the
Spirits of just men made perfect, and to Jesus the
Mediator of the new covenant." * Sinai is a figure
of the old dispensation ; Sion of the new. The pro
mises and ordinances of the new point to the glories
and blessings of the church above — to heaven itself —
to which the church on earth is continually transmit
ting fresh inhabitants. The Apostle represents the
relation between the family of God on earth, and that
portion of it which is above as so close that Christians
* Heb. xii. 18, 24.

280 My FATHER'S Hoise.
maybe spoken of as having already joined the family
of God in heaven, become citizens of the heavenly
Jerusalem, as in the blessed presence of God, the
Judge of all, and of Christ the Mediator. Hence,
the propriety of their seeking to be made familiarly
acquainted with a place, in which they are entitled
to the privileges of citizenship, and with which they
are so intimately connected.
The happiness of such a creature as man depends
greatly on society. The society of heaven has been,
in part, already described. All its members are per-
. fectly blessed, and are agents in blessing one another.
All are perfectly holy ; and this very purity of the
individuals must be one of the grounds of perfect
congeniality, and therefore of happiness to the whole
assembly. John thus describes this society: "I
beheld, and, lo, a great mulititude, 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. 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, saying, Amen:
Blessing, and glory, and wisdom, and thanksgiving,
and honour, and power, and might, be unto our God

Who will be There. 281
for ever and ever. Amen."* This great assembly
was composed of those gathered, not from the Jewish
nation alone, but from all nations and parts of the
earth. They came out of great tribulation, from
temptations) sorrow, sickness* from "torturing racks,"
from scorching flames ; but they made their robes
white in the blood of the Lamb. And now, how
changed their condition ! What happiness and
honour have been conferred on them. They are
" before the throne of God, and serve Hlm day
and night in His temple." Their mourning and
prayers are turned into praises — lofty, high-sounding
praises. Salvation to God is their theme, while all
the angels join, in saying, Amen. There, is the
glorious Lord of all, the Creator of all, the Judge
of all. There, is Jesus the Mediator of the ISew
Covenant — the same Jesus that once appeared in
human flesh, whose agony Gethsemane, whose death
Calvary, witnessed. There, is an innumerable com
pany of angels, who kept their " first estate," when
others fell, bright morning stars, sons of God, who
delight to make man's redemption the theme of their
studies, and their songs. There, are crowds of little
children, who were never guilty of actual trans
gression —
" Called early from life's struggles to their rest."
There, are the spirits of just men made perfect —
* Rev. vii. 9, 12.

282 My FATHER'S House.
men who were "justified" by faith in Christ, and
were afterwards "glorified." To this last-named
element in the heavenly society, "the spirits of just
men made perfect," let us, now, more particularly
attend; as with it, we can but feel a peculiar kindred,
and sympathy.
There, are many who have lived on the e^goifflj as
we now live, and have struggled aa-^e are now
struggling, in respect to whom the muestion, " Will
they be there?" may be answered, with entire
certainty. All the most excellent, who have lived
on the earth, have gone to be ignited to the general
assembly and church of the^first born. Uot one
name of those, who have been truly good on earth
will be found wanting, when the books, are opened.
In respect to many .of the servants of the Lord, who
are mentioned in"the Bible, we are not left to doubt,
that, at death^ they passed into the realms of eternal
glory. Abel will be there. ' By faith, he offered a sacri
fice which was well-pleasing to God ; by which he
obtained witness that he was righteous, and has been
speaking, although dead, for nearly sixty centuries,
to the generations of men. He showed forth the
death of that Saviour, who was to come, and thus
confessed his utter sinfulness, and entire dependence
on His atoning blood. It was not his own righteous
ness, but the righteousness of Christ which gave him

Who will be There. 283
the title of " righteous Abel." His piety, and that
mark of favour which it procured from the Supreme
Being, excited against him the rage of his irreligious
brother ; and he fell by his vindictive hands, and
became the leader of tijie noble army of martyrs.
He was the first to enter heaven from our world, and
take up the song of redeeming love. When he
entered there, he had no creatures, save angels, for
his companions ; but, if there is joy among these
holy beings, when one sinner repenteth, what joy
they must have felt when they beheld the first
redeemed sinner, the first victim of death, entering
into their assembly ! And with what unspeakable
joy, must he, with them, have welcomed the next
soul that arrived from this world ! and, at length his
parents, the progenitors of our race ! And how has
he been permitted to see heaven peopled, with thou
sands, and tens of thousands, redeemed out of this
world of sin and misery ! The whole army of the
living God follow him through the same "subter
ranean avenue to bliss."
Thither went up, in the antediluvian age, one
whose story, as. it is recorded on earth, is briefly
told. He " walked with God and was not, for God
took him." What a splendid biography is this!
It gives us the picture of a man who daily com
muned with God ; who lived above the world ; who
breathed the very atmosphere of heaven, while he

284 My FATHER'S House.
tabernacled here below. There was another, Enoch,
who had a city called by his name, and other men
have sought, by what are styled splendid achieve
ments, to erect lasting monuments to their fame;
but, while their memorials have almost entirely
perished, the character and example of that Enoch,
who " walked With God," are held in sacred remem
brance. Fol- three Centuries he Walked with God in
this sinful world, and then " God took him." He
was translated ; he was changed and glorified in the
twinkling of an eye. He Was taken from the gloom
of a dungeon to the light of a palace. He put off
the mortal, and put on the garments of immortality ;
he walks With God in heaven.
There was another saint who lived in evil times ;
it was an infidel age. The wickedness of the human
race was so great, that God is said to have repented
that he had made man Upon the earth. But Noah
was an exception ; he found grace in the eyes of the
Lord. He was a just man, and perfect in his gene
rations; and he, too, walked with God.* He was
raised up for a great work. He witnessed that
mighty catastrophe, when the flood came upon the
earth, and aU in whose nostrils was the breath of life
of all that was in the dry land died. The trees, the
grass, the flowers perished. He listened to the shrill
cry of despair of millions, in their last agOny, but was
* Gen. vi. 9.

Who will be There. 285
safely wafted over an ocean of dark and agitated
waters, where floated the carcases of unnumbered
beasts, the trunks of uprooted trees, fragments of
temples, and of houses, and the corpses of millions
of men. He listened to the roar of the tempest, and
the sullen dash of shoreless waters, but could hear
not even the wild scream of a raven or vulture,
making haste to the ample feast. But God remem
bered him. The same hand that shut him in, in due
season, opened the door of the ark for his discharge.
The ocean was made to know its bounds ; rivers
sought their ancient, or found new channels ; trees
and grass grew again ; animals multiplied. He
lived to see the earth extensively populated with
his own immediate descendants, and thus became
the second progenitor of the human race ; and then
went to be an heir of eternal glory, as he had been
an " heir of the righteousness which is by faith."*
Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, have sitten down in
the kingdom of heaven. It was with these patri
archs that God entered into covenant to be a God
to them, and their seed after them. It was by faith
that Abraham looked for a city that had foundations,
whose builder and maker is God. His successors
possessed the s^me faith. And He who came down
from heaven, and knows all who are there, has
expressly told us that these patriarchs are of the
* Heb. xi. 7.

286 Mt FATHER'S House.
number. He told " the children of the kingdom "
that many should come from the east and the west,
and sit down with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, in
the kingdom of heaven. They are now seated at the
marriage supper of the* Lamb. They have inherited
the promises which they saw afar off, and embraced.
They were wanderers while in this world — now in
Mesopotamia, now in Palestine, now in Egypt, now
in Arabia — having no certain dwelling-place. But
they have long since arrived at home — have found
the city which hath foundations.
Seated with them in that kingdom is another, who
was called by Providence to fill one of the most
exalted earthly stations — who was the prime min
ister or viceroy of one of the most powerful of
earthly kingdoms; who was clothed in princely
robes, with a chain of gold about his neck, and
received every mark of the highest honour. During
the long years of his exile from the society of his
godly fafher, he remained faithful to the religion
and service of his God, as well amidst the gaieties
of a palace, and the blandishments of a court, as
in the solitude of a prison. He possessed faith to
the last, and when called to meet death, was sus
tained by a hope full of immortality He remem
bered the promise of God to his fathers, and instead
of coveting a splendid mausoleum in Egypt, to which
his high office and important public services would

Who will be There. 287
have entitled him, and which, like those of a Thot-
mes, or of an Amenophis, would have handed his
name down to coming generations, he solemnly
charged his brethren to embalm his body, and
take it with them, when the time arrived for them
to be conducted to the promised land. He who
had this confidence in the promise of God, that
his church would be delivered from earthly bond
age, and so much care for the body that was about
to sleep in death, could cheerfully trust in His word,
that all His true people will be delivered from their
bondage to sin, and Satan, and the grave, and on the
resurrection-morning go up with all the ransomed
tribes of the spiritual Israel, to take possession of
the heavenly inheritance.
Moses belongs to the society of the blessed in
heaven. He holds a prominent place in that cata
logue of worthies, in which the Apostle describes the
triumphs of faith. He surrendered all those glitter
ing prospects which were held out to him, as the
adopted son of a monarch's daughter, or (which
some suppose), as the nominated heir to the throne
of the monarch herself, and chose to identify him
self with his down-trodden race, rather than enjoy
the pleasures of sin, for a season. He could not
be tempted to renounce his people, and the reli
gion of his fathers. He esteemed the reproach of
Christ greater riches than the treasures of Egypt.

288 Mt FATHER'S House.
He had respect to the recompense of the reward.
God was with him, through all the chequered scenes
of his earthly career. His eye was upon him during
the long period of thirty-eight years, when he was
lost to the sight of the world, and even sacred history
loses sight of him, doubtless spent in roving up and
down the Arabah, and over the vast desert of Paran.
At length, his important mission was concluded ; and
he was summoned by God to ascend Mount Neba
and die. With a firm confidence in the covenant
of his God, he obeyed. His last words, uttered in
the hearing of men, were: "There is none like unto
the God of Jeshuran. Happy art thou, O Israel!
who is like thee, O people! saved by the Lord!"
He ascended the loftiest summit of Pisgah, from
whence he could see the rich fields of northern
Canaan, and trace the shadowy outline of that goodly
mountain, Lebanon, At his -feet, just across the river,
he beheld Jericho amid its palm-trees, and on the
utmost limit of the western horizon, might descry
the haze which hung over the Mediterranean; to
the south, his vision swept a vast and varied terri
tory, as far as to the Arabian desert As he gazed,
his eye closed in death to open on a brighter, fairer
Canaan; and the longing that he had to "go over
and see the good land that was beyond Jordan"
was more than gratified. No mortal attended his
funeral, nor human hands prepared his sepulchre.

Who will be There. 289
That his soul went to heaven we know, for when
our Saviour was transfigured, he was present, bright
with celestial glory, to grace the scene. We are
taught, moreover, that the song of the assembled
multitude in heaven will be "the song of Moses,
the servant of God, and the song of the Lamb."
David, the poet-king of Israel, is of the same hea
venly company. He, who was a sweet singer on
earth, is a sweeter singer in heaven. His life, to a
great extent, was passed in the turmoil of camps ; he
fell into some great sins ; he showed that he was a
brother of our weak humanity, — that he had an
evil nature, which sometimes extracted groans and
tears, and caused him to cry out, " Have mercy upon
me !" But he was also a great penitent ; he was a
true servant of God, and gave proof, when called to
die, that he was prepared by the lively exercise of
faith and hope, for a better world. It was not his
kingly office, nor the splendour of his achievements,
that then sustained his mind ; but his confidence in
the everlasting covenant. And he now sweeps a
nobler harp, and raises a sweeter song, and wears a
brighter crown, than he ever did on earth.
There, too, is Elijah, the most remarkable, perhaps,
of the ancient prophets, next to Moses. _ He was
employed as the immediate messenger of heaven,
and supported by a continued series of miracles.
Although a man of like passions as we are, he prayed
13

290 Mt FATHER'S House.
that it might not rain, and it rained not upon the
earth for the space of three years and six months ; he
prayed again, and the heavens gave rain. And, like
Enoch, he was signally honoured by being translated,
without seeing death. Peradventure, the same change
took place in his body, as will .be wrought in the
twinkling of an eye in the bodies of the living, by
the " brightness" of the second " coming." A chariot
of fire, and horses of fire, appeared, and Elijah went up
by " a whirlwind into heaven." This eminent servant
of God was the companion of Moses, at the Transfi
guration of Christ.
And there will be Sarah and Miriam, and all the
holy women of old ; and there will be Isaiah, and Jere
miah, and Daniel, and other worthies whose charac
ters and actions are portrayed in the Old Testament.
And there will be the thief who died on the cross,
by the side of our Saviour, to whom the dying
Saviour said, " This day shalt thou be with me
in paradise." There will be Stephen, the martyr,
who, as he sunk, pale and bleeding, under the stones
of his murderers, saw heaven opened, and died with
the prayer on his quivering lips, " Lord Jesus, receive
my spirit." And in the same shining company
will be he who held the clothes of those who stoned
Stephen, and encouraged the assassins, in their bloody
work ; but who, from being a persecutor, became an
Apostle ; and at length bade adieu to the world in

Who will be There. 291
sublime and triumphant strains : " I am now ready
to be offered ; I have fought a good fight ; I have
finished my course ; I have kept the faith." Long
since Stephen and Saul of Tarsus have mot, and toge
ther have praised redeeming love. There will be
Peter, who once denied his Lord ; but who went out
and wept bitterly, and, in subsequent years, gave
proof of unshaken firmness and courage. And there
will be John, who leaned upon his Saviour's bosom,
at the Supper, and in Patmos saw heaven opened,
and listened to the hosannas which filled the eternal.
regions —" Loud as from numbers, without number — sweet,
As from blest voices uttering joy.''
There will be that blessed among women, Mary,
the mother of our Lord — she who stood weeping by
his cross has long stood rejoicing before his throne — •
" There Magdalene hath left her moan,
And cheerfully doth sing,
With blessed saints, whose harmony
In every street doth ring ;"*
and Mary of Bethany, and all those pious women
who followed Christ with their tender ministries, in
the days of his flesh, " last at His cross and earliest at
His gra*ve."
But where shall I arrest myself in this enumera-
* Old Hymn, by F. B. P., Ms. 15,225, British Museum.

292 Mr FATHER'S House.
tion ? There will be a great cloud of primitive mar
tyrs, and confessors, who, in their upward flight,
although not translated with all the grandeur of cir
cumstances that attended the translation of Elijah,
yet— • " On fiery wheels they rode,
And strangely washed their raiment white
In Jesus' dying blood."
There, we may expect to meet Luther, and Zuingle,
and Calvin, and Knox, those great lights of the
Reformation. There, Isaac Newton walking on a
pavement, whose lustre outshines sun and stars, and
more deeply versed in "the sweet wonders of the
cross," than in all the arcana of nature. There,
Isaac Watts, whose simple hymns have helped so
many a pilgrim on his way, have cheered so many a
dying Christian — praising with an immortal lyre.
There, David Brainerd, Henry Martyn, Harriet
Newell, and that Christian heroine of our age, Mrs.
Ann H. Judson, who will meet with many souls
come out of great Pagan darkness. Thefe, will be
Richard Baxter, and John Bunyan, whose descrip
tions of the Pilgrimage and the Rest, have blessed
and are blessing so many enduring the travails of
the one, and sighing for the other. Thflte, that
prince of Christian orators, Whitefield, whose spirit-
stirring voice, was heard in all the great towns of

Who will be There. 293
England, Scotland, Ireland, in the West Indies, and
in America. There, those eminent servants of Christ
whose dust awaits the archangel's trump, near the
spot where it is the author's privilege to write :
Burr, who ihined in the pulpit, with superior lustre ;
Edwards, that profound philosopher, that prince of
theologians, that humble Christian ; Davies, " In
Rostris, per Elogwium, Mandum, mellitum, vehe-
mens simul, et perstrmgens, nulU seeundus ; " *
Finley,f who, when asked, on his dying bed, what
he saw in eternity to excite such vehement' desires
in his soul, replied—" I see a God of love and good
ness ; I see the fullness of my Mediator ; I see the
love of Jesus. Oh ! to be dissolved ; to be with
Hlm ; I long to be clothed with the complete right
eousness of Christ ;" — Witherspoon, whose erudition
and deep insight into human nature, and whose
patriotism at a " time which tried men's souls," alike
excite our admiration ; Stanhope Smith, unsurpassed
in elegance of person and manners, and for the
dignity and winning grace blended in his expressive
countenance ; Green, whose influence was always
* Inscription on his Tomb. Translated, " In the pulpit by means
of an eloquence, sweet, winning, and at the same time vehement and
controlling, second to none."
f He was buried in Philadelphia, where he died, but a Cenotaph
lo his memory stands among the tombs of the Presidents in the
burial ground of Princeton

294 My FATHER'S House.
found on the side of vital piety ; and who, if not
the originator of the present scheme of theological
instruction in the church of which he was a member,
was its leading promoter, a service which he might
well consider as the most important lie was per
mitted to render to the cause of Christ. There,
doubtless, are united again the venerated Miller and
Alexander, the thread of whose lives had been
entwined together for nearly forty years, who seve
rally considered their union in a common service as
one of their greatest blessings, and who, with marked
differences in temperament, habits, and manners,
"never had an alienation, or the difference of an
hour."* They have met, and have also met many
of their pupils whom they trained for the Christian
ministry, some of whom have fallen on the high
places of the field — Simpson and Lowrie, who are
among the dead of the sea — the afflicted but mild
and patient Nevins, of Baltimore, who said to a
friend who approached him on his dying bed, "I
have looked at all the ground of my hope, and I find
I am on a rock. Yes, I am going home." In the
same blessed company will be found, perhaps, many
of our kindred, according to the flesh — parents or
children, a husband or wife, brothers or sisters, all
the gentlest, noblest, purest spirits whom we have
been privileged to know on earth. Heaven has long
* Dr. Alexander's Life, p. 382,

Who will be There. 295
been gaining ; and the attraction of its society con
stantly increasing. It is society in which the puri
fied spirit will feel perfectly at home, and will be
perfectly blessed. Death, the great harvester, will
continue to put in his sickle among the ripened
grain. At length the saints of all ages, and all com
munions, shall meet in one assembly, no longer
divided by distance of time or of space : " and there
shall be one fold and one Shepherd."
All those of our race who have as yet entered
heaven, whether young or old, whether Jews or
Gentiles, obtained admission through the atoning
merits of the Lamb of God, and the gracious opera
tion of the Holy Spirit. All have entered that fold
by the same Door. Christ is that Door ; and those
who seek to enter in, by climbing up some other
way, will be rejected as thieves and robbers. How
ever gratifying it may be to know who will be there,
it is far more important for us to understand what
character or qualifications men must possess in
order to enter there. " Except a man be born again,
he cannot see the kingdom of God." " Repent and
be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus
Christ." "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and
thou shalt be saved."* " FoUow peace with all men,
and holiness, without which no man shall see the
Lord."f It is an important and practical question,
* Acts xvi. 31— ii. 38 : John iii. 3. t Heb. xii. 14.

296 My FATHER'S House.
which every reader should ask himself, " Shall I be
there ?" "When Thou, my righteous Judge shalt come,
To take thy ransomed people home,
ShaU 1 among them stand ?
Shall such a worthless worm as I,
Who sometimes am afraid to die,
Be found at thy right hand V

Who will not be There. 297

XVII.
WHO WILL NOT BE THERE.
It becomes not a mortal man to answer the ques
tions, Who will be in heaven? and Who will not
be there? The Oracles of God have spoken; and
hence our business is not to invent or surmise any
thing upon this important subject, but simply to
ascertain what their response is. These lively Ora
cles are not like those of the impostors and false pro
phets of heathenism. They ^o not speak in enigmas,
nor to deceive : " And there shall in no wise enter
into it anything that defileth, neither whatsoever
worketh abomination, or maketh a lie ; but they
which are written in the Lamb's book of life."* " For
without are dogs, and sorcerers, and whoremongers,
and idolaters, and whosoever loveth and maketh a
h'e."f " Be not deceived ; neither fornicators, nor
idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers
of themselves with mankind, nor thieves, nor covet-
* Rev. xxi. 27. t Rev. xxii. 15.
13*

298 .My FATHER'S House.
ous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners,
shall inherit the kingdom of God."* The Bible has
also given us the fearful information respecting some
of the individuals the outline of whose history it
sketches, that they never entered heaven.
Caw, the first murderer, is not there. He was
guilty of one of the most flagrant crimes in the
annals of human wickedness. By one Apostle, it is
said, he " was of the wicked one ;"f and by another
a woe is pronounced % against all those who go in the
way he chose for himself. He grew up without the
fear of the Lord. The offering that he brought, when
he professed to worship, was not one becoming a
sinner. It was a bloodless offering, of the fruits of
the ground. It was not a sacrifice. He had no faith
in the blood of atonement ; he refused to look to Cal
vary, through the blood of one of the firstlings of the
flock — to the seed of file woman that should bruise
the serpent's head, to the Lamb of God that taketh
away the sin of the world. And when the Divine
Being gave his brother, who, through faith, offered a
more excellent sacrifice, some tokens of His approba
tion, his resentment was kindled. Envy and malice
rankled in his heart, and, when a favorable moment
presented, he imbrued his hands in the blood of
that unoffending, righteous brother. Divine ven
geance followed him. He was driven from the
* 1 Cor. vi. 9.10. f 1 John, iii. 12. % Jude 11.

Who will not be There. 299
society of virtuous men, and became " a fugitive and
vagabond in the earth." It is expressly said that he
" went out from the presence of the Lord." Hence
forth, he lived without God. It cannot be believed
that he who lived in this world a reprobate from God,
went into His presence when he left it for another.
In like manner, it may be confidently asserted that
those crowds of antediluvian sinners who had done
despite to the strivings of the Divine Spirit, and
whose wickedness increased until it is said that every
imagination of the thoughts of their heart was only
evil continually, and it even repented the Creator
that He had made man upon the earth, failed of
admission to the mansions of our Father's house. In
sixteen hundred years, the earth had become exten
sively peopled ; all were destroyed, with the excep
tion of eight souls. Noah was a " preacher of right
eousness ;" he warned them to repent, for more
than a hundred years, after the deluge was first
threatened. He warned them, by his works ; the use
for which the immense vessel he was constructing
was designed was not concealed. As the structure
rose and approached its completion, it was a monu
ment of his faith in the words of Jehovah ; but they
despised and sinned on. It is absurd to suppose that
the waters of the flood were sent that these unbeliev
ing, mocking sinners, these " giants " in wickedness
might be wafted to bliss, and the only man who had

300 Mt FATHER'S House.
been found righteous before God might be tossed
with tempest many days, and only escape to endure
further trials in this world, for centuries, before he
should be admitted to the same bliss. " They were
eating and drinking, marrying and giving in mar
riage, until the day that Noah entered into the ark,
and knew not until the flood came and took them all
away," or " destroyed them all."*
" Likewise, also," continues our Saviour warning
the men of his generation, " as it was in the days of
Lot;. they did eat, they drank, they bought, they
sold, they planted, they builded; but the same day
that Lot went out of Sodom, it rained fire and brim
stone from heaven, and destroyed them all." The
earth had again become populous, and men dwelt in
cities. The cry of the cities of the plain had become
great, and their sin very grievous. At length the
judgment came. Not even the prayer of Abraham,
whom God styled his friend, nor the residence and
possessions of one good man in them, could avail to
avert it. And Sodom sank beneath the burning wave,
And Sodom's streets were voiceless as the grave.
And here, again, how absurd to suppose, that
this overthrow was sent to hurry ungodly men into
heaven, whilst "just Lot" was left to endure all the
bitter trials that awaited him in this life! to be
* Matt. xxiv. 38, 39, Luke xvii. 27.

Who will not be There. 301
bereaved of his children and wife, to be stripped' of '
the possessions he had husbanded so fondly — but,
worst of all, to incur the sorrow and shame that came
upon him, when he made the mountain his retreat !
No ; an Apostle teaches that God, by " turning the
cities of Sodom and Gomorrah into ashes, condemned
them with an overthrow, making them an example
unto those that after should five ungodly ; and deli
vered just Lot vexed with the filthy conversation of
the wicked."*
PhaeaoHj who persecuted the children of Israel in
Egypt, is not in heaven. We have in him a striking
example of the corruption and desperate depravity
of the human heart. He was one of the most daring
transgressors and cruel persecutors that ever lived.
When Moses and Aaron came to him, with the com
mand of the Most High, that he should let the people
go, he impiously replied, " Who is the Lord, that I
should obey His voice to let Israel go ?" He hurled
defiance at Jehovah, and rushed upon the thick
bosses of His buckler. He was guilty of striving
against his Maker. It would seem to be impos
sible, that so large a body of worshippers of the
true God, should have resided in his dominions
so long, and this monarch be entirely ignorant of
Him. So that his question must be viewed not as
expressive of real ignorance, but as one of proud
* 2 Pet. ii. 6, 7.

302 Mt FATHER'S House.
defiance. The history of Pharaoh reveals to us
what will be the certain fate of all such bold and
insolent offenders. His impiety, his faithlessness,
his ingratitude, his wanton cruelty, point him out
as one of the worst of men. The plagues and judg
ments which were sent upon his kingdom, failed to
move him to obey the message of heaven. He
hardened his heart, and continued to despise the
most solemn warnings. Some of the fearful calami
ties that befeU him seemed to have a momentary
effect, but the compunction he felt, if indeed it
deserved that name, was soon dissipated, and he
went on, still more hardened in his controversy
with God, and more inhuman in the cruelties he
inflicted on the people of Israel. The land was
visited with a series of judgments, probably with
out a parallel in the history of any other nation.
The animals, to a great extent, were destroyed by
a pestilence. Men were visited with a painful dis
ease. A fearful tempest swept over the land, and
destroyed the grains that were in the ear. Clouds
of locusts darkened the air, and consumed the crops
that were just springing. A darkness, so intense
that men could not see one another at noonday,
filled the land, for three days. At length, the
destroying angel went forth at midnight and slew
the first-born in every Egyptian family. What a
cry of anguish went up,

Who will not be There. 303
" O, Egypt ! from thy stubborn land,
When all thy first-born, beasts and men,
Fell dead by His avenging hand,"
from the meanest house, and from the palace of the
tyrant himself ! It was now that the hitherto
unyielding and reluctant ruler united with his sub
jects in entreating the Hebrews to depart from the
country ; but his fears only were operated upon ; his
character remained the same. He did not know
how to give up so immense a body of servants,
who had contributed so largely to the prosperity
of his empire. He collected his army, and pur-.
sued them to re-capture or wreak his vengeance
upon them. But pride goeth before destruction.
Having overtaken the Hebrew camp at a spot
where they were shut in by the mountains and
the western gulf of the Red Sea, wearied with
his hurried march, he encamped for the night.
Now behold a miraculous deliverance, and the
overthrow of the haughty persecutor! The angel
of the Lord that had hitherto preceded the camp
of Israel in a pillar of cloud and of fire, removed
to the rear, and that mysterious symbol settled
down between the two camps. As the darkness
of the night increased, it reflected a bright light
among the Israelites; but to the Egyptians it only
served to make the darkness, in the direction of
the Hebrew camp, more intense. Moses was now

304 Mt FATHER'S House.
commanded to lift up his rod, and stretch his hand
over the sea. Forthwith' a strong east wind blew,
which heaped the waters up, opening a path directly
through the sea, the waters standing as if " con
gealed"* into solid walls, on the right hand and
the left, as the hosts of Israel marched, in the
silence of the night, towards the opposite shore.
It was near the dawn when the Egyptians dis
covered that the Israelitish Camp had been broken
up. They pressed after them, following in the
miraculous pathway ; but their chariot- wheels were
mysteriously removed; a sudden fear seized them,
and they turned to flee. It was jnst at the dawn
of day. The last of the Hebrews, the last of then-
herds and flocks stood on the opposite shore. Moses
again, at the Divine command, stretched forth his
hand, and instantly those aqueous walls fell,1 the sea
returned in its strength, burying the embattled legions
in one common sepulchre. Not one escaped ; the
wheels of chariots, helmets of warriors, spears and
bows, and the pale corpses of the men who had
borne them, scattered on the shores of the gulf,
were all that was left of that proud army. "The
horse and his rider " sank like " lead in the mighty
waters." Thus was God "honoured," according to
His word, " upon Pharaoh, and upon all his host."
Thus perished Pharaoh. Thus ended his contest
* Ex. xv. 8.

Who will not be There. 305
with his Maker. He was suddenly destroyed, and
that without remedy. But to suppose that this
heartless persecutor was taken to heaven when he
died, is to suppose that punishment fell upon the
chosen people who were left to the perils and priva
tions of the desert, rather than upon him.
Balaam, the magian, is not in heaven. When this
wicked man said, "If Balek were to give me his
house full of silver and gold, I cannot go contrary
to the commandment of the Lord;" and when he
exclaimed, " Let me die the death of the righteous,'
and let my last end be like his," he gave evidence
that he was not without some good degree of light
on moral and religious subjects. He seems to have
known the right way, and voluntarily to have for
saken it. This is clearly implied in the language
of an inspired writer, in the New Testament : " They
have forsaken the right way, and are gone astray,
following the way of Balaam, the son of Bosor, who
loved the wages of unrighteousness."* His cevetous-
ness was his ruin ; this led him to disregard the
clearest dictates of his reason, his strong convictions
and the express commands of God. He debased his
great abilities, and perverted them to carry out the
vilest artifices in iniquity. But where, and how did
he die? It was not the death of the righteous, for
which at one time he professed so earnestly to long.
* 2 Peter, ii. 15.

306 Mt FATHER'S House.
Having, by his wicked counsels and devices, drawn
the people of God into the most flagrant offences, he
then incited their enemies to make war upon them.
He was found in their camp, and slain in the general
massacre. Having lived under the dominion of the
basest passions, he perished in his sins ; and where
the holy dwell he can never be found.
Nor will Saul, the first of the Hebrew kings, be
found there. Many of his actions, particularly in
the early part of his reign, were laudable, and we
. are constrained, when contemplating this part of his
history, to forma favour able judgment of him. After
he received the anointing oil from Samuel, as he
turned to depart, the sacred penman informs us,
" God gave him another heart."* But this expres
sion evidently does not mean that he gave him a new
heart, but simply that he qualified him, having raised
him from an obscure station, and humble employ
ments, for the high office of king and commander of
the armies of Israel. Men may be fitted by the
gifts which the Supreme Being can bestow, for
important posts in civil society, and still be destitute
of saving grace. The history and end of Saul prove,
that he never possessed this grace. He never had
the new heart which was given to Samuel, and to
David. He began his public career well, and for a
season, he ran well ; but there was a sad change, ere
* 1 Samuel x. 9.

Who will not be There. 307
long. He departed from the Lord ; he violated His
express commands ; and by vain subterfuges, at
tempted to justify his wrong conduct. His want of
integrity'of heart was disclosed in the most palpable
manner, when he received, and professed to execute,
the directions of Jehovah to destroy the Amalekites.
He pleaded his pious motives in sparing a portion of
the spoils; but the anger of the Lord was kindled
against him, because with the Lord obedience is
better than sacrifice. The bleating of the sheep and
the lowing of the oxen accused him to the prophet.
His sin was as the sin of witchcraft, and his stubborn
ness as iniquity and idolatry ;* and the Lord rejected
him. He went on from bad to worse, until "the
Lord repented that he had made Saul king over
Israel." He was troubled with an evil spirit ; that
is, Satan appears to have exercised peculiar power
over him, in tempting him to evil. He repeatedly
sought to imbrue his hands in the blood of his own
Bon-in-law, but was as often frustrated. He consulted
a sorceress that he might obtain that direction and
assistance from the evil one which Heaven had
denied him. At length he died miserably on the
field of battle, not as the brave warrior, by the hand
of a foeman, but as the fool dieth ; — the Philistines
having obtained a signal victory over him, in the
* 1 Sam. xv. 14r-23.

308 My FATHER'S House.
madness of despair, with his own hand, he put an
end to his wretched existence.
Ahab is not among the blessed in heaven. Al
though he was a king, he was a most abandoned trans
gressor. He was an idolater, having abjured the
worship of the true God, and he led the people over
whom he ruled into the same sin. He sought to ex
terminate from the land every vestige of real -piety.
He persecuted that eminent saint, the prophet Elijah,
and other faithful servants of God, and demolished
the altars of the Lord. But bounds were set to this
oppresSdr. He perished in . battle. An arrow
pierced him between the joints of his armour;
and as he felt the cold hand of death, he "gave
no sign " of repentance. Dogs, which compassion
ately licked the sores of Lazarus^ came and greedily
licked up the blood of the dying man^ according to
the word of the Lord.
Belshazzae is not in bur Father?s House above.
He might, through the pious influence of Daniel,
have been made acquainted with the true religion,
and become a monument of the Victorious power -of
Divine grace, as we may charitably hope was the
case with his grandfather, Nebuchadnezzar.* But
that wise counsellor and good man was overlooked.
He was guilty of a daring contempt of the God of
Israel. Pa derision of His people and their worship,
* Daniel iv. 34-37.

Who will not be There. 309 4
he introduced the holy vessels into a profane and
drunken feast. But in the midst of his revelry and
mirth, this wicked prince reeled with fear, as he saw
a hand put forth, writing his doom and that of hi3
kingdom, on his palace walls. That- very night, the
Medes and Persians entered the gates of the city,
and he went from his drunken revel into the pre
sence of that God whom he had contemned.
The same may be said ,of the Heeods, mentioned
in the New Testament. They were Jews, at least
in the religion they professed. They had the Jew
ish Sciptures. Herod the Great, knew that Messiah
was to come, and like • the aged Simeon, ought to
have welcomed His advent. But when the Eastern
wise men inquired at Jerusalem, "Where is He that
is born King of the Jews ?" it stirred up the mind
of this guilty, unscrupulous monarch to a bloody
purpose. He was worthy of ibeing called " great "
only because he was great in ambition and crime.
He had paved his way to the throne by treachery
and blood. He rioted in blood. His second wife,
the last of the race of the Asmonean kings, and three
of his own sons, he caused to be executed. When
he had waited long in vain, for the return of the
wise men, all the jealousy and cruelty of his nature
were aroused. He was now an old man, not far
from three-score years and ten. He had ruled for
thirty years by blood ; and the appetite, instead of

¦310 Mt FATHER'S House.
being satiated, had only been whetted by that which
it fed upon. He had men — probably soldiers of his
guard — trained to execute his commands. He would
have np competitor, no aspirant for the sceptre, no
one sought after by venerable strangers from a dis
tant country as " the King of the Jews." He knew
that his power was ill-gotten, and had been ill-used.
He was goaded by the furies of an accusing con
science. His strong, ruthless executioners are, there
fore, sent forth. O, what a night was that for Beth
lehem ! Murder haunts its homes ; and sleeping
mothers are aroused by the loud wail of anguish,
spreading from house to house. The sword seeks
the life of every male child of two years and
under. There are no hiding-places. The darkness
is no protection. The scheme was too well laid;
its agents too numerous, and too much skilled in
their work, to be eluded. The voice of lamentation
which was heard in Ramah, in Jeremiah's time,
when the Babylonish general, after destroying
Jerusalem, brought' all his prisoners, and con
demned them to the sword or slavery, was heard
again : " In Ramah was there a voice heard, lamen
tation, and weeping, and great mourning, Rachel
weeping for her children, and would not be com
forted because they are not." Ramah was one of
the small villages near to Bethlehem to which the
slaughter extended. The tomb of Rachel was there,

Who will not be There. 311
and perhaps had been stained with the blood of some
child, borne thither by its terrified mother for con
cealment. It ' is a beautiful figure which the Evan
gelist borrows from the Prophet to represent this
mother in Israel, standing in disconsolate sorrow, as
if risen from the dead, over the scene of slaughter.
History hardly presents a more revolting chapter.
But this slaughter of the innocents filled up the
the tyrant's cup of indignation. He shortly after
perished of a horrible and loathsome malady, —
"smitten," as Josephus says, "of God in this
signal and grievous manner for his many enormous
iniquities."* As his death approached, maddened
at the thought that the Jews would not lament
his death, he caused all the chief men of the nation
to be put under arrest, and issued a decree, that at
the moment of his death they all should be put to
the sword, that their kindred might have cause to
lament his death.
Herod Antipas, who inherited part of his domi
nions, appears also to have inherited, in part, at least,
his cruel nature. The preacher of righteousness,
John the Baptist, to whom, at one time, he had lis
tened gladly, he sacrificed at the demand of an
immoral, vindictive woman. N The remembrance of
his crime appears to have haunted him wherever
he went. He knew that he had shed innocent
* Antiq. xvii. c 8.

312 Mt FATHER'S House.
blood, the blood of a righteous man. The splendours
of royalty and the blandishments of guilty love were
not sufficient to allay his painful thoughts. When
he heard of the wonderful works of Christ, his guilty
conscience suggested that it was John the Bap
tist risen from the dead. When, at last, the Saviour
of the world stood before his bar for trial, he arrayed
him in the robes of mock-majesty, till " the closing
scene of the drama was finally ushered in, and the
heights of Calvary were steeped in the blood of a
crucified Messiah." This wicked persecutor ended
his days in exile, without a tear to bedew his
memory in this world, and without a hope to cheer
him in the. expectation of another.
Heeod Agbippa, whose dominions,, by the favour of
the emperor Claudius, came, at length, to be as
extensive as those of his grandfather, Herod the
Great, appears to have shared in the ferocity of dis
position so characteristic of this family. He perse
cuted the church. The elder James, one of the two
" sons of . thunder," he caused to be put to death
with the sword, and was about to treat Peter in
the same manner, but he came to a sudden and
miserable end. During a festival in honour of the
Roman Emperor, at Caasarea, he betrayed a wil
lingness to receive divine honours: but God smote
him. He died, like Herod the Great, of a horri
ble disease, and went with the blood on his hands

Who will not be There. 313
of the first martyr from the college of the Apostles,
before the judgment seat of Christ. It is too much
to ask us to believe that these unprincipled bloody
men were removed to constitute a part of the loving
family, which our Father is assembling in His house
in heaven.
Jodas Iscaeiot is not there. He infamously
betrayed his Master for a paltry sum of money.
Although, it is said, that he repented, it is evident
that his repentance was nothing more than remorse,
that sorrow which is unto death, for he did not bring
forth the fruit of that godly repentance which is unto
life. He went and hanged himself. The word of God
informs us that he " went to his own place."* And
can heaven be the place of a deceiver, a thief, a
betrayer, and a suicide ? If heaven was to be the
everlasting home of the traitor, would the Saviour
ever have said, " It had been good for that man if
he had never been born ?" Can a man live and die
as Judas lived and died, and inherit a happy immor
tality? • May he while on earth turn away from
employments and joys, in their nature such as the
angels and glorified spirits know, and, at death, find
them appointed as his portion, for an eternal dura
tion ? If so, then there can be no such thing as vir
tue — no such thing as vice — no such thing as crime ;
Judas committed no crime ; the crucifiers of Christ
* Acts i. 25.
1 A

314 Mt FATHER'S House.
committed no crime ; in a word, what we have been
in the habit of regarding as crime is mere calamity,
and the doctrine of divine retributions the offspring
of a groundless theory. This is the inevitable result
of the doctrine that Judas went from a gallows to a
seat of glory in heaven.
One of the thieves that was crucified with our
Lord went not to heaven, but went, doubtless,' to the
same place with Judas. He joined with the people
who stood railing at Christ on the cross, and refused
to join with his companion in the prayer, " Lord,
remember me, when Thou comest into thy kingdom."
He who was condemned " justly " to the cross, and
who had the same opportunity of discovering the
claims of Christ, and of praying to him as his
penitent companion, but who, in the very agonies
of death, refused to believe on the bleeding Lamb
of God, before his eyes, could not have gone to para
dise. Nor did Pilate go there. Viewing the inspired nar
rative in connection with what profane history records
of him, we shall discover, that he was characterized
not merely by a general want of principle, but that
his conduct was stained by many crimes. He seems
to have had a natural love of cruelty, and an
intense hatred of the people over whom he was a
governor. But mark the bad character of the man,
developed at the trial of Jesus. He had no sense of

Who. will not be There. 315
justice to control him in his official acts; although
convinced of the spotless innocence of the Prisoner
at his bar, he yielded point after point to the clamor
ous demand of his accusers, until he gave sentence
against Him to be crucified. The end of this unjust
judge was in keeping with his wicked career. He
was soon after removed from his office, and such was
his character that even the nobles of Rome shunned
his society. He was at length driven into exile,
where, under a keen sense of his disgrace, and the
reproaches of a guilty conscience, he ended his days,
like Judas, upon the gallows. An old poet, in allu
sion to his taking water and washing his hands, as an
emblem of his innocence, at the very moment when
he was giving up to death one in whom he could find
no fault, describes him in the world of retribution as
under the waves, nothing visible but his hands, eter
nally washing themselves, but never purified. To
the question who he was, he is represented as answer
ing: " I Pilate am, the falsest judge, alas !
And most unjust, that by unrighteous
And wicked doom, to Jews dispiteous,
Delivered up the Lord of life to die,
And did acquit a murderer felonious,
The whiles my hands I washed in purity,
The whiles my soul was soiled with foul iniquity."

316 My FATHER'S House.
The time would fail me to speak of those whose
characters are portrayed on the pages of uninspired
history, who were guilty of such crimes, and contin
ued under the influence of passions so malignant up
to the very moment of death, that we could hardly
be said to pronounce on their eternal destiny, by
asserting that they never entered heaven. What
shall we say of those who lighted the fires of mar
tyrs — of him* who put out the eyes of his captives,
and tore their skin and flesh with iron rakes and
harrows, and threw them headlong from his battle
ments? of himf who pounded thousands of people
to pieces in large mortars, or built them up among
bricks into a wall ? What shall we say of an Anti-
ochus Epiphanes, of a Nero, or a Caligula ? What
shall we say of midnight assassins, and murderers,
and pirates ? A world composed of such characters,
under the influence of the same malignant passions
and principles they displayed on earth, would con
tain elements of misery of which it is impossible at
present to conceive.
Ah ! there is a companionship of the lost and
wretched as well as of the blessed. There must
be a place for the chaff as well as for the wheat.
There must be a complete separation of one from
the other. The chaff cannot be gathered into the
* Asdrubal. f Tamerlane.

Who will not be There. 317
heavenly garner. There must be an " outer " place
where all that is worthless will be cast away; for
nothing that is worthless, nothing that defileth, can
enter heaven. O, how can those who now shrink
from the society of the vicious, the coarse, the rude,
the violent, the abandoned, endure the thought of
eternal companionship with the vilest of the human
race, in a place where depravity will know no
restraints or bounds, but will be nourished and
aroused, as burning fire with streams of oil!
Think, ye who prefer the company of the intelli
gent, the refined, the virtuous, and who are often
shocked at the bare recital of the vices and crimes
of profligates, what it would be to be imprisoned
for ever with such men as Cain, and Balaam, and
Pharaoh, the Herods, and Judas, and Pilate. O !
think what it would be to belong to the society of
murderers, and thieves, and drunkards, and sorcerers.
As Love and Purity form the very atmosphere of
heaven, so Hatred and unrestrained Wickedness will
reign in hell. There, will be congregated not merely
the outlaws and desperadoes of a single country, or
of one generation, but the most heartless wretches of
all times, and all lands. " O, most fearful thought !
who knoweth but it may be true ? that spirits of
wickedness and enmity may execute each other's
punishment, as those of righteousness and love min
ister each other's happiness ! that, -damned among

318 Mt FATHER'S Howse.
the damned, — the spirit of a Nero may still delight
in torturing ; and that those who, in this world, were
mutual workers of iniquity, mey find themselves, in
the next, sworn retributors of wrath ?"*

" Tupper.

NOTUINQ THAT DePILETH. 319

XVIII.
KOTHfflG THAT DEFILETH.
THE purity of heaven depends as much upon the
exclusion of impure elements from its society
as upon the admission of those that are washed, that
are sanctified, are justified in the name of the Lord
Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God. The compa
nionship of the blessed requires both purity and con
geniality. It is a well understood principle, as
affecting earthly society, that there must be simi
larity of character and feelings among those who
compose it in order to sympathy and fellowship;
and there must be truth and moral excellence in
order to anything like real happiness. We have
only to apply »so plain a principle to the heavenly
society, to understand that large classes of men
who have neglected to cultivate the Christian
virtues and graces, but who have cherished the
evil propensities and corrupt passions of their
nature, can find nothing congenial in our Father's
House, in its society, employments, and joys, and
therefore can never be admitted there. But we

320 Mt FATHER'S House.
need not doubt upon this subject, for the Bible
is explicit, in teaching respecting certain classes
of men, which it distinctly names, that they can
not enter the kingdom of God. Among these are
Idolatees. The Bible gives us no ground to hope
that the adorers of idol gods can go to heaven. On
the contrary, it expressly and repeatedly declares
that idolaters shall not inherit the kingdom of
God.* In the first and second chapters, of the
Epistle to the Romans, the apostle Paul has taught
us on what grounds the heathen are condemned,
and by what rule they will be judged at the last
day. He shows that all, Gentiles as well, as Jews,
are under condemnation; that the Divine displea
sure is directed towards them, and that no sinner
can be justified by the righteousness of works, and
that all, at the last day, must- give account unto
God. " The wrath of God is revealed from heaven
against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men
who hold the truth in unrighteousness, ^because that
which may be known of God is manifest in them,
for God hath showed it unto them. For the invisi
ble things of Him from the creation of the world are
clearly seen, being understood by the things that are
made, even His eternal uower and Godhead, so that
they are without excuse." "Professing themselves
to be wise," he says, "they became fools, and
• Gal. v. 20 ; Eph. v. 5 ; 1 Cor. vi. 9 ; Rev xxii. 15.

N0THINO THAT DEFILETH. 321
changed the glory of the incorruptible God into
an image, made like to corruptible man, and to
birds, and fourfooted beasts, and creeping things."
This was their great sin, the fruitful seed of the
horrid iniquity which he proceeds to lay to their
charge. On account of it God gave them up to
work this iniquity. They knew God, but they
glorified Him not as God. He had revealed Him
self to them in the constitution of their nature,
and in the works of His hands; hence their igno
rance was not an excusable ignorance, and their
idolatry was the fruit of depravity. Both were
without excuse. At the same time, this Apostle
shows that at the judgment day, there will be a
broad distinction preserved between those who
have sinned with the written law in their posses
sion, and those who never received the law of
Mount Sinai. It will be more tolerable for Sodom
and Gomorrah, for Nineveh and Babylon, than for
those who perish under the light of the Gospel.
They will not be judged by the written word of
God, which they never received. They will not
be condemned for rejecting Christ, of whom they
never heard. Still, the Apostle has clearly taught
and proved, that in the works of creation, and in
[lie heart of man, God has given sufficient light
to render idolatry and its attendant abominations
inexcusable. " As many as have sinned without
14*

322 Mt FATHER'S Hotrss.
law shall also perish without law; and as many
as have sinned in the law, shall be judged by the
law; * * (when the Gentiles which have not
the law, do by nature the things contained in the
law, these having not the law are a law unto
themselves, which show the work of the law writ
ten in their hearts, their conscience also bearing
witness, and their thoughts, the meanwhile, accus
ing, or else excusing one another;) in the day
when God shall judge the secrets of men by Jesus
Christ according to the Gospel."* Here it is made
evident that the Gentiles have a law by which
they are condemned; and they prove that they
have this law whenever they perform any moral
acts, which the revealed law requires; that a rule
of duty has been engraven on their hearts. The
existence of this law is also proved by the opera
tions of their conscience; their moral sense unites
with their moral acts, and the correct moral pre
cepts of some of their sages to prove that they
are a law unto themselves. This is the law, or
rule of duty, according to which they shall be
judged hi the day of Jesus Christ.
As to the question whether some of the heathen
who have attained adult age will not be found in
heaven, all that we can say is, that if it could be
proved that any of them obeyed perfectly the law
*Roru. ii. 12-16.

Nothing that Defileth. 323
written in their hearts, and followed the light which
God's works reflect, or the vestiges of that revealed
law which may be detected among the nations and
tribes of the earth, it is charitable to hope, that
through the mediation of Christ, and the renewing
grace of the Holy Spirit, as in the case of dying
infants, they too reached heaven. But conformity
to the rule of duty in question necessarily implies
the renunciation of idolatry. How could such men
as Socrates and Plato have been idolators without
violating this rule ; and, if they violated it, they
could not be saved by it ? There was no evidence,
in the Apostle's day, that any of the heathen had
ever obeyed the law written on their hearts, or
strictly followed the light of nature, as it is called ;
rather was there evidence that all the world were
guilty before God, and not a single man could be
justified, by the deeds of any law.* Cornelius, the
Roman centurion, to whom the apostle Peter was
sent, was a " devout man, and one that feared God,
with all his house, which gave much alms to the
people, and prayed to God always."f »He was no
idolator; he had sufficient light to teach him its
folly, to show him that God is a spirit, and is to be
worshipped and revered as such. He feared God, and
was eminently devout and benevolent. The prepa-
tion of his heart, and the measure of faith which he
• Rom. iii. 19-20. t Acts x. 2.

324 Mt FATHER'S House.
possessed were the fruits of God's Spirit, and given
to him through the atoning work of Christ. It
constrained Peter to confess " that God is no respec
ter of persons ; but in every nation he that feareth
Hlm, and worketh righteousness, is accepted with
Him." If it was true, in the days of the Apostles,
that all men were under sin, both Jews and Gentiles,
so that no flesh could be justified by the deeds of
the law, we may rest assured that the same is still
true ; heathenism is no better than it was eighteen
centuries ago ; and we may rest assured that all who
are saved out of Pagan darkness, must be saved as
Cornelius was, through the atoning work of Christ,
and the gracious operation of His Spirit. Christ
will be the theme of all praises, the centre of all
attraction, and His righteousness the only ground of
justification, of the glorified company assembled
around His throne.
Covetous Men will fail of heaven. Covetousness,
in the Word of God, is defined as a species of
idolatry. It is an immoderate, sinful desire for the
things of this world. Men, who are under its influ
ence, cannot obey the very first commandment of the
moral law ; for they place that delight and confi
dence in riches, which are due to God alone. They
are worshippers of gold, instead of God — of the
creature, instead of the Creator. It is this gold-
worship, though it be not graven by them " into an

NOTHINO THAT DEFILETH. 325
image made like to corruptible man, and to birds,
and four-footed beasts, and creeping things " which
makes them idolaters. Their possessions or those
which they are striving to gain, have stolen their
affections from the great Giver of them, have
betrayed them into manifold sins, have poisoned
their very souls. Their inordinate passion for riches
is wholly inconsistent with love and submission to
God. It was this passion which stood in the way of
the salvation of the moral and amiable young ruler,
who came to Christ. As he went away sorrowing
when told to go and sell all that he had, and give to
the poor, our Lord exclaimed, " How hard is it for
them that trust in riches to enter into the kingdom
of God !"* Covetousness, is indeed, one of the worst
forms of idolatry, and one of the most difficult to be
eradicated. Money is one of the mightiest of all
idol-gods, swaying a more powerful sceptre than
Vishnu, Juggernaut, or the Grand Lama. It would
make morality herself employ "no standard but
that of utility, and enforce her requirements by no
plea but expediency, a consideration of profit and
loss." Mammon is holding his court in our cities,
and the chief places of concourse ; and everywhere
appears, with a numerous retinue. Men are
tempted to support themselves, by temporary expe
dients, concealing their real poverty, by extrava-
* Mark x. 24.

oab Mt FATHER'S House.
gance and display, and the consequent robbery of
their fellow-men. Magnificent houses, grand equi
pages illy comporting with republican, not to say,
Christian simplicity, appear with too many to con
stitute the chief aim of life. We are not to consider
"a spirit of worldlaness as a little infirmity; as a
natural, and therefore pardonable weakness ; as a
trifling error which wiU be overlooked, for the sake
of our good qualities. It is. in fact, the essence of
our other faults ; the temper that stands between us
and Our salvation ; the spirit which is in direct oppo
sition to the Spirit of God."* " If any man love the
world the love of the Father is not in him."
" Extobtioneks " are in the Apostle's catalogue of
those who cannot inherit God's kingdom. They are
a class whose covetousness carries them so far that
they resort to unlawful, or even violent, means
to increase their gains. Their covetonsness is of
the most flagrant character. They keep back the
wages of the poor, " the hire of the labourers who
have reaped down their fields is kept back by fraud."
They own no obligations, which cannot be enforced
by the pains and penalties of the law ; they demand
to the last farthing all that the law allows, even
when their claims have no foundation in equity.
They take advantage of the fears, or the necessities
of their fellow-men, to exact usury, or of their igno-
* H. More.

Nothing that Defileth. 327
ranee and defencelessness, and would seize the crust
and the bed of the orphan, to increase their gains.
In the same catalogue, we find " Revilees."
This term is applied to all who defame the charac
ter of their fellow-men, by applying to them coarse
and false epithets, or by giving currency to slander
ous charges. Men of this temper are not fit for
the society of heaven. They would not be happy
there ; they would not add to the happiness of
the place. "Lord, who shall abide in thy taber
nacle ? who shall dwell in thy holy hill ? He that
walketh uprightly, and worketh righteousness, and
speaketh truth in his heart. He that back-biteth not
with his tongue, nor doeth evil to his neighbour,
nor taketh up a reproach against his neighbour."*
The impure cannot enter heaven. " Be not
deceived ; neither fornicators, nor adulterers, nor
effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind
shall inherit the kingdom of God." Whoremongers
are classed with dogs and sorcerers, as shut without
the gates of the city :
" Pure is the bliss above the sky,
And all the region peace ;
No wanton lips or envious eye
Shall see or taste the bliss.''
There are no liars there. It is again and again
* Ps. XV.

328 Mt FATHER'S House.
declared that there are no liars or deceivers in
heaven. Deceit is peculiarly displeasing to God.
It is the essence of hypocrisy towards Him, and
of dishonesty towards man. In the inspired descrip
tion of the wicked heart, its deceitfulness is made
to hold a conspicuous place. "And there shall
in no wise enter into it anything that defileth,
neither whatsoever worketh abomination, or maketh
a lie." " Whosoever loveth and maketh a lie "
is enumerated with those who are without the gates
of the New Jerusalem. Men may affect to think
that lying is a small sin, and when they indulge
in it may say they are in sport, but it is so offen
sive to God that He will banish for ever from His
presence all those in whom this sin is unrepented
of, and unforgiven.
Sweabeks, who profanely use the name of the
Deity, and curse men who are made after the simili
tude of God, will not be held guiltless. Profahe-
ness makes the mouths of men like evil fountains,
which cannot, at the same time, send forth sweet
and healthful waters. If, for every idle word that
men speak, they must give account, in the day of
judgment, what shall we say of an irreverent use of
any of the titles of " the blest Supreme," or of words
of bitterness and cursing? How can men who have
learned only to blaspheme God in this world, be pre
pared to praise Him in the next? Would not the

Nothing that Defileth. 329
praises of heaven sound strangely in their ears ? and
more strangely from their tongues ?
There will be no " Soeoeeees " there. These are
persons with whom deception or imposition is an art
and study. They profess to be able to reveal secrets
and to make men acquainted with events that are to
come. They profess to have communion with the
spiritual world, and to have the power of putting
others, as the sorceress of Endor professed to put
Saul, into communication with the spirits of that
world. Sorcery and necromancy were among the
sins which provoked the Lord to drive out the hea
then nations from the Holy Land. He warned His
people not to do after the abominations of those
nations : " There shall not be found among you any
one that maketh his son or his daughter to pass
through the fire, or that useth divination, or an
observer of times, or an enchanter, or a witch, or a
charmer, or a consulter with familiar spirits, or a
wizard, or a necromancer. For all that do these
things are an abomination unto the Lord ; and
because of these abominations, the Lord thy God doth
drive them out from before thee."* Such arts and
practices are no less abominations to the Lord now,
than when his ancient people were so solemnly
warned against them. The warning is, therefore,
still jjt force, and the attempts to revive necromancy
* Deut. xviii. 10-12.

330 Mt FATHER'S House.
call for its repetition in the ears of men. With the
unfruitful works of darkness we are to have no fel
lowship, but rather reprove them. When a man
already has so much confidence in the marvellous
statements of those who profess to reveal secrets, or
to bring tidings from another world — but who
entirely fail to give such evidence as the Prophets
and Apostles gave of their divine mission — as to con
sent to investigate these marvels, he is already on
dangerous ground. He is a fit Subject for decep
tion ; his mind is just in that state to imbibe the
fatal virus of delusion, as has been proved in too
many sad cases of men not deficient in intellect
Or education. We are fearfully made; the mind,
by some disturbing cause, may be thrown into an
abnormal state ; by the diseased action of the ima
gination a man may be brought to regard the subjec
tive states of his mind as objective realities. It may
well be doubted whether investigation or familiarity
with these things, for the sake of exposure, is allowa
ble ; it may result like familiarity with vice, for
the sake of rescuing its victims or exposing its defor
mity, in a fatal contamination of him who makes the
hazardous trial. The better way is to avoid them
altogether, to pass by on the other side; to admit
no experiments in our houses which, by association
even, can invade the sanctity of the invisible World ;
to protect and warn our children against them. God,

Nothing that Defileth. 331
who made the mind, knows its perils, and, there
fore, He would not allow a sorcerer, a necroman
cer, or a consulter with familiar spirits, to remain in
the land which he gave His people. They were the
unfruitful workers and agents of heathenism. Their
influence would be evil, and only evil. They were,
and are, to whatever extent they gain credence, the
natural foes of revealed religion. If Revelation, in
its early dimness, frowned upon them, Revelation,
in its fulness, denounces them. If they were too
corrupting to be permitted to remain in the Canaan
below, we may rest assured that they wfll not be
admitted to the Canaan above.
Nor Drunkards shall inherit the kingdom of God.
Drunkenness is not a trivial offence; God is sorely
displeased with those ^vho are guilty of it. It is a
complication of wrongs, to him who is guilty of it —
to his family and friends — to society at large; it is
a sin against God. Men may make light of it ; they
may affect to think it a small matter to indulge in
an occasional debauch, or may profess to take the
intoxicating cup only as a pledge of friendship ; but
will God make him, who has disregarded both phy
sical and moral laws merely to gratify a low appetite,
a companion of angels and the spirits of the just?
Can so sensual a being be fit for the pure and spirit
ual pleasures of heaven? Could they be pleasures
to him ? No, no ; drunkenness is a great sin : it is

332 Mt FATHER'S House.
a fearful crime, at which God is angry, and which
He will punish unless it is forsaken and pardoned.
It is classed with extortion, covetousness, reviling,
stealing, idolatry, and adultery. Is there any reason
why the gates of heaven are not open to the idolater,
the thief, the adulterer? For the same reason no
drunkard enters there. "And there shaU in no
wise enter into it anything that defileth." Drunk
enness inflames all the corrupt passions ; it aggra
vates all the moral diseases of the soul ; it opens new
avenues for temptations to assail it, and endues them
with ten-fold energy. It hardens the heart, stupefies
the conscience, and prevents men from being bene
fited by the means of grace. It unfits men for the
sanctuary, and makes the Bible, the Sabbath, and all
religious services irksome. It shortens human proba
tion. Aye, the drunkard " Offers up
His soul, and an eternity of bliss,
To gain him — what ? an hour of dreaming joy,
A feverish hour that hastens to be done,
And leaves him in the bitterness of woe."*
But why have I enumerated so many individuals,
and so many classes of men, who will be excluded
from the heavenly kingdom ? Because I have wished
to show the purity of the heavenly society, and that
the Bible makes the future condition of men to
* Pollok.

Nothing that Defileth. 333
depend upon the dispositions they now cultivate,
upon present character, or the character with which
they leave the world. Those who, up to the last
moment of conscious existence in this life, have no
penitence and hatred for sin, and no love for moral
purity, but, on the contrary, cherish grovelling affec
tions, impure desires, unholy and malignant passions,
are not prepared for the pure regions of eternal bliss.
They would not feel at home there ; they would have
no congeniality with the society ; they would defile
the place. As the tree falleth so it must lie. As
death leaves men, so the judgment will find them.
It will be said, " He that is unjust, let him be unjust
still ; and he which is filthy, let him be filthy still ;
and he that is righteous, let him be righteous still ;
and he that is holy, let him be holy still."* Our
existence, once begun, knows no interruption. Noth
ing can ever break its continuity. The body may
sleep, the mind may have its aberrations, but mind
never slumbers. Not even death produces any
chasm in the flow of our being. Our future life will
be the perpetuation of our present conscious exist
ence, in a state of retribution and unchanging destiny.
The spirit will be conscious of an uninterrupted exist
ence, running back to the first moments of rational
life, looking on death as but one of its great transitions.
In its review from the eternal world, it will look back
* Rev. xxii. 11.

334 Mt FATHER'S House.
on one unbroken stream of being to the point at
which it took its rise. The same mind that reasons
now, will be conscious that it reasons then. The
same memory will unfold its images, and re-produce
perceptions that are past. Were it possible to divorce
our existence hereafter from the present, or to dis
solve the connexion between them, by a temporary
suspension of mental activity, our future life would,
in some sense, be a new and distinct being,, from
what it now is. But no, there can be no such
divorce of the life that now is, from that which is to
come. Those who die in their sins wiU enter the
eternal state, with the same depraved characters,
which they have spent their fives in forming, and
strengthening. Death will exert no transforming, or
regenerating influence on the moral nature of man ;
only conscience, which may have long slumbered,
will be aroused from its lethargy, and an undying
memory, with faithful accuracy, will begin to per
form its office. And, perhaps, the mind wiU be
endued %ith a prospective (not now possessed) as
well as retrospective energy, as it takes up the sad
soliloquy. " How have I hated instruction, and my
heart despised reproof, and have not obeyed the
voice of my teachers, nor inclined mine ear to them
that instructed me ! I was almost in all evil in the
midst of the congregation and assembly."
This awful transition in our existence, far from

Nothing that Defileth. 33o
impairing, will improve our judgment or faculty of
reason. It will dissolve all the mysteries which now,
either as matters of faith or of speculation, hang
around the state of immortality, and chase away al]
those lingering doubts which unbelieving minds are
so prone to cherish, and which often exert no little
influence, even over minds in. which truth maintains
its hold. Death will instantly demonstrate some doc
trines which men have spent their lives in doubting,
or attempting to undermine. It will demonstrate
that God is just as well as merciful, that justice is an
essential element in His mercy — that He will judge
every man according to his, works' — that heaven will
be open only to the pure — that he that is found
unjust, will be unjust still, and he that is filthy, will
be filthy still. Reason will be so defecated, so disen
cumbered of all that now embarrasses its proper
exercise, of all that now perverts its operations and
conclusions, that it will then see the great truths of
God's word, those truths, which even now, in spite
of carnal sloth and worldly enchantments, some
times powerfully thrill the soul,, written, as it
were, in every letter,, with light brought to the
intensest focus, from the dazzling radiance of God's
throne. Remember, ye probationers, that those
truths which your reason now approves, it will no
less approve, when you have ceased to be proba
tioners, and stand in the, searching light of eternity.

336 Mt FATHER'S- House.
If your hearts condemn you now, wiU they not con
demn you then ?
Nor can that faculty of the mind, which is denom
inated memory, ever be destroyed. It is as death
less as that mind of which it is one of the original
principles. And if the knowledge of things past
is inexplicable on any other ground, than that it
is the will of our Maker,* that we should, have this
knowledge, it is easy to perceive that* in the coming
world, He can endue the memory with such power,
that it shall distinctly recall every item and minute
circumstance of life. The complete record of life,
not the scroll which contains the history of a single
year only, will be spread out for review, and its most
minute occurrences and affairs be distinctly revived.
The mind can never resign itself to an oblivion of
the past. It might as well attempt to annihilate
itself. Conscience, moreover, will not part with any
of its power, by the change which takes place, when
we die. It will rather be aroused as out of a
former sleep. With a voice which must be heard,
it will pronounce that soul-harrowing word, " Re
member !" that fearful word which will never, never
* "The knowledge," says the great Scotch metaphysician, Dr.
Reid, " which I have of things past by my memory, seems to me as
unaccountable, as an immediate knowledge would be of things to
come ; and I can give no reason why I should have the one and not
the other, but that such is the will of my Maker."

No thing that Defileth. 337
cease to renew its echoes. "Son, remember that
crime which you committed, and thought no eye
saw, no pen recorded — that sin which stained
your soul so darkly, that many waters could not
cleanse. Remember your Sabbaths, and the ser
mons to which you listened. Remember the
warning uttered, with labouring breath, by clay-
cold lips. Remember all those means of grace,
those frequent calls of the still, small voice, neglected
and despised.* Remember, REMEMBER!" Ah!
who can tell the full meaning of remorse, remorse
of conscience ? If when brought only to the verge
of despair men lament, as they have sometimes
been heard to do in this world, what will be their
lamentations, when sinking in its fathomless abyss.
The depraved and irreclaimably wicked, let it be
observed, are excluded from heaven, not to spend
eternity in isolated and solitary existence; but to
dwell together, where those who have been mutual
workers of iniquity may become sworn retributors
of wrath, and executioners of each other's punish
ment. No being, there, will love, or be beloved by
another. There, will be no joyful greetings between
those who were friends on earth. Hatred will fill
the place ; malice will burn and rage ; malignant
passions fostered through life, and in full play at the
very moment of death, will know no counteracting
or restraining influence. In these passions, the soul
15

338 Mt FATHER'S House.
will carry into eternity the very elements of its
unspeakable torment. Men now have some feeble
experience of the misery which may be produced
by unbridled passions. What must it be in a
state where nothing will restrain, but everything
conspire to excite, the tormenting passions of the
heart. Suppose that in addition to those of malice
and revenge, by which men become mutual tor
mentors, there be superadded, Fjke, Shame, and
Despair, operating without intermission, and in the
same manner, but with a seyen-fold degree, as in
this life, so that each man, if alone, would be his
own place of torment ; suppose that such men as
Cain, and Pharaoh, and.Ahab, as Pilate, and Judas,
as murderers and robbers, and all, who like them
have lived and died enemies of God, are brought
together under the full power of such passions as I
have described; and suppose that another class of
beings, the determined enemies of men and of God,
fallen angels, are joined to the same society — beings
who, instead of yielding willing obedience to the
King of kings, bend all the energies of their minds
to diffuse hatred and rebellion among His creatures,
who delight to destroy and to torment, — and we shall
discover, even were it to be admitted that future
punishment consists entirely in mental suffering, and
that all that is said in the Scriptures about material
fire is figurative, that there are still " terrors of the

Nothing that Defileth. 339
Lord" from which we should flee as for our lives.
Judge, it will be feebly indeed, but judge of what
may be, from what is, or what hath been. Look
into your own nature, your own intellectual and
moral constitution ; see in every emotion and
faculty a warning; and in every guilty passion,
discern the avenger.

340 Mt FATHER'S House.

XIX.
THE GUIDE.
— " the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make thee wiBe unto salvation."
THERE is a path to heaven, through this sinful
world ; but, with his own unassisted faculties,
man cannot find it. The darkness is too intense, the
mazes too intricate, the paths which diverge too
many, the proclivity to wandering in man too strong,
and the only true path too narrow, to be found by
accident, or by ingenuity even, or to be known and
kept if once found. This has been proved, by the
experience of men, for thousands of years. But has
He, who made the world, and put man into it, left
him to wander on in despair ? No ; He has provided
a lamp for his feet and a light to his path.
That man has a Maker, to whom he is. accounta
ble, — that the world is under the frown of its Crea
tor and Governor, — that man is a sinner, — that he
has many sorrows, — that his stay on the earth is very
short, — are truths which we need no revelation from

The Guide. • 341
heaven to assert. We see our fellows dying all
around us ; while one generation is coming, another
is passing away ; we have knowledge of those who
have gone before us, only from their works, their his
tories, and their monuments. But, brief as is man's
stay upon the earth, we see that it is full of care, and
that he often moistens his path with his tears. That
he is a sinner we know, because he is a sufferer;
which he could not be under the government of a
righteous God, if he were not a sinner. Nay, every
man has a witness whose testimony he cannot
impeach, for the witness is within himself, — it is his
own conscience, testifying that he is a sinner, often
clothing the night and the tempest with terror, and
arming the elements, as the ministers of justice
against his iniquity. And the very frame-work of
nature bears the visible mark of the curse of its
Maker. And we need no written revelation to teach us
that God is great. He who formed the human body,
and created the human mind, and spake into exist
ence, and upholds and governs this mighty universe,
in all its complicated parts, must be a Being of infi
nite majesty. Nor do we need it to assure us that
He is good. We see too many benevolent arrange
ments in His works to doubt it ; and we see none the
design of which is to promote the misery of His crea
tures.. But this general truth, that God is good, as

342 Mt FATHER'S House.
well as great, is not sufficient for the clearing up of
those great moral problems which most deeply inter
est us, and often lie as heavy weights upon beings
who perceive the evidence of God's displeasure
against them, and know that they are accountable.
That old question, "How shall man be just with
God?" remains unanswered. It still burdens the
spirit ©f man. The "Depth" still answers, to the
despairing cry of mortals, " It is not in me," and the
" Sea " saith, " It is not with me." " It cannot be
gotten for gold, neither shall silver be weighed for
the price thereof. It cannot be valued with the gold
of Ophir, with the precious onyx or the sapphire.
The gold and the crystal cannot equal it ; and the
exchange of it shall not be for jewels of fine gold."
If we summon Nature, and make inquisition of her,
whether there is any remedy for our woe, whether
God is a forgiving God, whether He can, consistently
with His perfections, pardon those who have rebelled
against Him — she stands mute as a lifeless statue, and
however winning and beautiful the expression of her
features, they are rigid and immoveable, whether we
entreat in tones of hope or despair; and from her
marble lips there comes no utterance. That man has
lost the favour of his Maker, that some terrible woe
has befallen our race, is made evident enough by
this same witness. She answers in awful tones, in
the voice of the earthquake, in the howling of the

The Guide. 343
midnight storm, and the groans of the diseased and
dying, tones to which the conscience of every man
fearfully responds, that the holy and righteous
Monarch of the universe has a controversy with His
moral and intelligent creatures on the earth. Or, if
not satisfied with our own ineffectual attempts to
extract some revelation of mercy from the witness we
have called, let us summon the most devoted, priests
of nature, the sages of the ancient world, or the disci
ples of modern philosophy, falsely so called, and
interrogate them, whether they have learned from
their adored mistress, that God will forgive sin and
save the transgressor. Let them tell us whether, to
their earnest questionings of the oracles of nature,
any response has been returned, that there is hope of
deliverance from the sins and miseries of the race.
We ask not for dreamy speculations, or shadowy
visions of a golden age. But, is God merciful? Can
He be gracious towards those who have defiled them
selves with transgressions ? We ask not — we know,
for the light of nature teaches, sternly teaches, that
there is, and must be, retribution for sinful men ; but
oh ! does it teach that there is any way of escape ?
any pardon for the guilty? We turn over their
splendid pages, and discover many just sentiments,
like the gems which are mixed with the stones of
the mountains, or may be drawn up from the bottom
of the sea ; nor can it be denied that they were men

344 Mt FATHER'S House.
of profound thought; but we would part with all
their writings for that one sentence uttered by the
lips of heavenly Truth, — " God so loved the world,
that whosoever believeth in Hlm should not perish,
but have everlasting life." Or, if we summon to our
aid the most eminent among modern rejecters of the
Sacred Scriptures, men who claim to be enlightened
by science, and wish to be known by way of distinc
tion f om Christian believers, as philosophers, the
result of the inquisition will be just as unsatisfactory.
" We cannot," I quote the words of one of the purest,
and most distinguished of these men,* "we cannot
ascribe goodness and justice to God, according to our
ideas of them, nor argue with any certainty about
them." This is "philosophy" opposed to the Bible;
this is the fearful doctrine of one who was willing to
exchange the light of Revelation for that which he
styled the light of nature — that we cannot ascribe
goodness and justice to our Maker. " O, my soul,
come not thou into their secret ; unto their assembly,
mine honour, be not thou united."
Our heavenly Father has clearly revealed a glori
ous plan of salvation. There stands Sinai, with its
awful darkness, burning with fire, a perpetual monu
ment of the holiness and justice of God ; but there
stands Calvary, the altar of an infinite sacrifice,
whereby propitiation has been made for sin, and the
* Lord Bolingbroke.

The Guide. 345
righteous law of God fully obeyed and satisfied.
Jesus Christ, a Being of infinite dignity, because
equal with the Father, has tasted death for every one
that believeth. His perfect obedience of the law,
and endurance of its penalty, on the Cross, is the
meritorious ground of our acceptance with God. He
that believeth shall be saved. The word of God
shines on the way to Christ, and is a lamp to the
believer's feet, and a light to his path, in his journey
towards heaven. The transgressor who sees his life
to have been altogether sinful, and that there is a
fatal deficiency in his best services, and attempts to
obey the divine law, is invited to cover himself with
the robe of Christ's righteousness. This righteous
ness is not only a Covering, it infuses strength into
the soul ; it not only hides past guilt, it is the secret
life of all true virtue or holiness. The Gospel having
guided the sinner to the Cross of Christ, where he
exchanges that burden which was fast sinking him
lower than the grave, for the yoke of Christ which is*
easy, and that burden which is light, leaves him not
there ; but still guides him on, by moral precepts and
heavenly counsels, in the way of holiness and peace.
It gilds the darkness of providence, and shews us that
its unequal distributions, in this world, will all be com
pensated, in the life to come. Through tempestuous
seas, it is the unfailing compass. In the chambers of
the sick and dying, it whispers, " Be not afraid ; lo, I
15*

346 Mt FATHER'S House.
am with thee ; though thou walkest through the val
ley of the shadow of death, fear no evil ; my rod and
my staff they shall comfort thee." It even takes
charge of the mouldering body in the grave, and pre
dicts the sublime destiny of all that sleep there in
Jesus. It says to the sorrowers in their darkest night
of grief, " Weep not ; the night is far spent, the day
is at hand." No refinement of mental culture, no
Platonic meditations on the beautiful, can be substi
tuted for these glad tidings of the Gospel. Without
its hopes and consolations, such refinement will prove
only a refinement of misery. Intellectual light can
never blind men to the spiritual woes of their condi
tion as sinners against God. The word of God guides
to the only Saviour; is the best directory through
life; warns against every dangerous road; its pro
mises will support when we come to the dark valley ;
it will guide to " our Father's house." It is no cun
ningly devised fable, but the Word of the living God.
*Take heed and neglect it not. Take heed and reject
not any of its truths. Take heed and cordially
embrace every jot and tittle of revealed truth. Lay
aside the pride of intellect, philosophy, and vain
deceit; lay aside mere rational theology; and sit
down to its inspired pages with the docile spirit of a
child. "If Christianity were true, it ought to be
written on the skies," a skeptic once said, " that every
one might know it." But it could be easily shown,

The Guide. 347
that if the truth of Christianity were made thus
obvious to the senses, and no room were left for faith,
it would exert far less influence than it now does, and
its great end would be defeated. Its great facts and
principles received by faith, the more frequently
they, are realized, produce a proportionably greater
effect on the soul. But how is it with objects of
sense ? It is a fact, proved by every man's experi
ence, that the more frequently they are seen, their
effect is proportionably diminished. Constant sight
impairs the effect of objects seen ; constant faith
increases the effect or influence of objects unseen.*
Hence it follows, if, with every morning's light, it
were legibly written on the expanse over our heads,
that the Bible is true, the effect of the pregnant text,
on the very men who were born and walked beneath
it, would become less with every revolving day. But
the more we dwell on those revealed truths which
must be received by faith, the more we feel their
power. Their influence grows upon the soul ; and
the soul grows in knowledge and spirituality under it.
Skeptics of our time, are, for the most part, found
in ranks nominally Christian. They march under a
banner, bearing that holy symbol, the Cross, and on
which is broadly inscribed, Immortality. They do
not hesitate to speak of Christianity as "a divine
emanation ;" they are smitten with its loveliness ; the
* Vid. Philosophy of the Plan of Salvation, Ch. xiv.

348 Mt FATHER'S House.
beauty and sublimity of many of its doctrines and
moral precepts, are to them, as " a very lovely song,"
delightful poetry. Others employ religion as an
accommodating engine, to unsettle the existing insti
tutions of society, and introduce a new order of
things — a new era. Others are enraptured with the
dreams and visions of a morbid intellect, which have
been put forth as claiming a divine authority; and
the weapons of an old vanquished infidelity are dug
up and refurbished, to assail the doctrine of the
resurrection of the human body, and other doctrines
equally fundamental "to the Christian system. Ano
ther class deny all the supernaturalism of Scripture,
and while they profess their reverence for the writers,
do not allow them, in any sense, to have spoken by
inspiration from God. They substitute the phantoms
of their own imaginations for such doctrines as the
Trinity and the Atonement. They find in the former
doctrine nothing but a threefold revelation of God,
and give us, for the living, ever-blessed Trinity,
" nothing but a lifeless God, a world, and humanity ;"
and under the name of the latter doctrine, we are
bidden to behold " a splendid work of art." It is the
pride of learning and of human reason, a desire to
reconcile revealed doctrines with the supposed prin
ciples of mental truth, or mere poetic or philosophical
fancies, which tend so much to unsettle the faith of
thousands. No discoveries will ever be made in the

The Guide. 349
field which belongs to Revelation, when men leave
the plain letter of the Scriptures, to follow their own
reasonings or imaginings. Let us keep within the
limits of the known. Let us not launch out on our
feeble pinions over the vast profound ; for should we
ever return, it will be with nothing to reward our
adventurous flight. Let our rule be not, What
thinkest thou ? but, How readest thou ? We may not
be able, in all cases, to answer the question, ' How
can these things be?' but, having submitted to the
Scriptures as the oracles of God, we shall cheerfully
surrender all antecedent or assumed principles which
cannot be reconciled with their obvious doctrines.

350 Mr FATHER'S House.

XX.
THE PREPARATION.
MANY years ago, one of the monarchs of Russia *
caused a palace to be built of ice, on the banks
of the Neva, in mid-winter. The roof, the walls, the
floors, the furniture, were all made of solid ice, and
finished with architectural symmetry and beauty.
Everything that might be expected in a royal palace
was found there. The water, before it was frozen,
had been coloured according to the respective uses
to which, when in the form of ice, it was to be
applied ; so that the several parts all seemed of the
proper materials. But when the spring returned,
this magnificent toy melted away. The sun spared
not its beauty ; it wasted before the same heat which
dissolved the shapeless masses which lay scattered
around it. No contrivance could exhibit a fitter
illustration of the vanity of the hopes and dreams of
happiness, which too many are prone to cherish.
* Empress Anna, iu 1740.

The Pebpaiu t ion. 351
They are gay, they are flattering ; but they are cold,
they are comfortless and unenduring. Yet the ice
palace of the Russian empress dissolved gradually,
though when it began to decay, all the art of man
was unable to prop it ; but often death comes hastily,
and, like the springing of a mine, destroys to the
very foundations, without previous notice.* We are
not only to build, but are to see to it with what, and
upon what we build. For the day is coming which
shall try every man's work of what sort it is. They
build too low, who lay their foundations here; the
freshet will sweep around and above them — the
swelling tide will undermine them, and scatter their
works to the winds. They build too low, who build
not upon that Rock which is higher than they — the
top of which is in heaven — the "Rock of Ages."
Alas ! how many are trifling their precious time
away, grasping at evanescent forms of terrestial good,
gathering flowers, sporting on the precipice's brink !
God, our injured Father, says to His children on
earth, that they must follow after holiness, or they
shall never see His face. The small losses and
sufferings which befall us here, will one day be
accounted as nothing in comparison with being
banished from the presence of the Lord, and the
glory of His power ; all the wickedness of men on
earth will be no more than as the germ, the tiny seed,
* Rev. J. Newton's Cardiphonia, p. 96. Edin. 1817.

352 Mt FATHER'S House.
to the ripened fruit; and the darkness into which
they will sink, like that of the deepest midnight, in
comparison with a cloudy day.
It is one of the fundamental truths of Christianity,
that holiness is indispensable to admission into
heaven. We require no critical examination, no
laboured exegesis of texts to arrive at this as the
doctrine of the Scriptures; The Most High has pro
claimed it, by the mouth of all His holy Prophets
and Apostles.- That some preparation is necessary,
there are few who would venture to deny. Hence,
it becomes important to consider the nature of that
holiness which is so indispensable to salvation.
It will help us to understand this subject, if we
consider what holiness is in the Divine Being,— what
it is in angels, — and what it was in unfallen man.
What, then, is that holiness, which, in the Scrip
tures, is attributed to God ? It is Something in which
He infinitely excels all creatures ; which constitutes
the excellence of His nature, diffuses lustre over His
other perfections, and renders Him ineffably glorious.
By it His law is guarded, and His promises rendered
inviolable. The Seraphim, who surround His throne
in glory, single it out as the subject of their loftiest
praises, and, with covered faces, cry one to another,
" Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts !" He is pro
nounced thrice holy, because he is possessed of every
moral perfection, in the highest possible degree, and

The Pbep aeation. 353
is entitled to the most profound reverence and ad
miration from angels and men. The holiness of God,
then, suggests not only His majesty, but is expressive
of the purity of His nature, and represents Him as an
object of love. When we say that He is holy, we
mean that there are in His nature certain moral
qualities analogous to those on account of which
unfallen angels, and redeemed men, are pronounced
holy. There would be no force in the exhortation,
" Be ye holy, for I am holy," if the holiness ascribed
to God were not of the same nature with that
required of us. He is perfectly pure; His will is
always conformed to the rectitude of His nature, so
that sin is the invariable object of His hatred, and
righteousness the object of His approbation. Holi
ness is the general name which expresses the moral
excellence of the Divine nature, between which and
sin, there is an eternal repugnance.
The holiness of angels is analogous to that which
the Bible ascribes to God, so far as finite creatures
can resemble the infinite Creator. It expresses the
purity of their nature, their freedom from sin, their
approval and admiration »of righteousness, and their
hatred of sin. God is the great Sun of holiness, from
which they shoot forth like rays of light from the
natural sun. They are pure, like their Source.
They are called "holy angels" by our Lord; they
perfectly obey the Divine will. Not in one instance,

354 Mt FATHER'S House.
since their creation, have they done anything which
was displeasing to their King ; nor has a single sinful
thought or emotion arisen in their minds. They
have withstood every solicitation of counsel and
example; they have been witnesses of many a cor
rupting display of human and angelical depravity,
but have escaped every, the slightest, taint. From
the first moment of their creation, it has been their
constant employ to serve, and praise, and obey all
the commands of Him who made them.
What was the holiness of man before his apostasy ?
We are taught that God created man after His own
image, in knowledge, righteousness, and holiness.
The statement of the Scriptures that man was made
in the image, and after the likeness of the Creator,
must be understood as referring principally to the
properties of his soul, which were similar to the per
fections of his Maker. This image of God consisted
not merely in intellectual endowments, but also in
holy dispositions. As a mirror reflects the bright
ness of the sun, so did his soul, according to the
measure of its capacity, exhibit a counterpart of the
moral attributes of God. Jt was as impossible that
he should come from the hands of his Maker, with a
heart tainted with impurity, or with the least ten
dency to sin, as that darkness should proceed from
the sun, or evil from good. Man, before the Fall,
was fully disposed to the performance of his duty; he

The Preparation. 355
was averse to evil, and inclined only to good ; but,
at the same time, he was not confirmed in holiness as
the angels and glorified saints in heaven are, beyond
the peradventure of a fall. He was placed in a state
of probation, and was consequently mutable, and
might change by an act of volition ; and in this con
sisted his freedom of will. But his will was in
unison with the will of God ; his happiness arose from
doing the will of his Maker. In the soul of the first
man, the most perfect order reigned. His will
obeyed the dictates of his enlightened understanding;
his perceptions of duty were accompanied with
perfect submission to the authority by which it was
enjoined; all his powers so harmonized in the service
of his heavenly Father, that he accounted it, like the
second Adam, the Lord from heaven, his meat and
his drink, to do His will, and finish His work.
Are we, then, to understand that we must be per
fectly pure, in the sense of having never committed
sin, like unfallen man in paradise, or holy angels, in
order to admission to heaven ? This, verily, was the
law of paradise ; but that having been broken, and the
whole race become sinful, it is in the light of another
economy — the economy of grace — that we must now
se.ek to understand the nature of that righteousness
or holiness, which fits the children of men for their
Father's house in heaven. Peccable man did not
long continue in his perfect state. By breaking the

356 Mt FATHER'S House.
law of God, he lost his original righteousness, and his
whole nature became corrupt. He incurred the
fearful penalty, "Thou shalt surely die." He be
came mortal; the seeds of disease and death were
planted in his constitution ; his body was doomed to
decline in vigour and activity, to feel the infirmities
of old age, and at last, to sink into the grave. His
mind was exposed to disturbing influences, and to
fears before unknown ; he lost every hope of happi
ness ; he was cast out of paradise. He underwent
spiritual death; sin shed its baneful influence over
his soul, and turned its beauty into deformity.
Nothing remained of his primitive purity ; nothing
remained but his natural faculties, weakened and
corrupted — a darkened understanding, a wayward
will, sensual appetites, and irregular passions. When
the tie was broken that connected him with his
Maker, from whom those influences proceeded,
which inspired and sustained his moral excellence,
his holy dispositions withered and died, like the
verdure of a tree plucked up by the roots. Human
nature was essentially the same, but it was divested
of its brightest ornaments. All its glory was gone,
and it was now poor, and wretched; and miserable,
an object from which He who had lately pronounced
it good, turned away with abhorrence.
But God, in infinite mercy, provided a remedy.
He did not leave the race to perish. The Lord Jesus

The Preparation. 357
Christ, the eternal Son of God, took upon Hlm our
nature, that He might reveal to us the will of God
for our salvation, by His Word and Spirit; offer
Himself a sacrifice to satisfy Divine justice, and
reconcile us to God; subdue us to Himself; and
restrain and conquer all His and our enemies. The
righteousness by which we are now to be saved is
not our own ; it is not a righteousness inherent to our
nature, or which we can ourselves originate, but it is
the righteousness of faith. All our own righteousness
is as filthy rags. Having once broken the law of God,
or been out of conformity unto it, in the least degree,
we can do nothing to repair the breach ; we can do
nothing to honour the violated law. The righteous
ness of another, whom the Law-giver accepts, as our
Surety, and Substitute, must be our Shield, against
the penalty of an outraged law. Our own works
have no place in our justification before God. We
owe this wholly to the righteousness of Christ. " He
was made sin for us, that we might be made
the righteousness of God in Him." He is the end of
the law for righteousness to every one that believeth."
' By the righteousness of One, the free gift comes upon
all men unto justification of life.' He was made
under the law which we had violated, and by which
we were condemned, that as our Surety, He might
fulfill its demands. From us, it required perfect
obedience to its precepts; and such obedience

358 M sr FATHER'S House.
He yielded, from the beginning to the end of His
life. But, although Jesus Christ fulfilled thp righteous
ness of the law, and it is revealed and brought near
to us in the Gospel, it is by faith alone that it is
received, or by which we obtain such an interest in
it, as to be accepted in the sight of God. What then
is Faith ? what is it to believe in Jesus Christ, God's
only Son? No question can proceed from mortal
lips of greater importance than this. Faith is not,
let it be carefully observed, our justifying righteous
ness. The perfect obedience, and sufferings of Christ,
afford the only ground of righteousness for poor sin
ners; and faith is the means by which it may be
made theirs. What, then, is that by means of which
the righteousness of Christ is made ours, or set to
our account ? An Apostle describes it as " the sub
stance of things hoped for, the evidence of things
not seen." It is that which, in the minds of those
who possess it, gives reality to things future and hoped
for, and demonstrative evidence of the existence of
things invisible. It is not the cold and listless assent
to a truth in which we feel no interest, and which
exerts no influence upon us ; but it is our assent to
that testimony of God, contained in the Scriptures,
which we not only know is true, but to be intimately
connected with our highest interests. It is founded
on clear perceptions of the truth, the excellence

The Preparation. 359
and the infinite importance of the Gospel. All
doubts are dispelled, all objections are removed,
and the highest assurance created. It is not enough,
then, to say of faith that it is the mere assent of the
understanding to what God has revealed in his word,
respecting his Son as the Saviour of the world.
Such assent is included in faith unto salvation ; but
saving faith involves as much the subjection of the
will— the cordial surrender of the affections to Christ,
and is the gracious work of the Spirit of Christ :
" With the heart, man believeth unto righteousness."
It is not enough for men to suppose that they may be
saved, by faith in God as their Creator and Benefac
tor ; irrespective of the merits of Christ. " The mer
its of Christ ! Trust in the Saviour !" exclaims one
who is styled a Christian teacher ; " Why not trust
in God ? Has not He invited us, and commanded us
to trust in Hlm ? Is not His mercy strong enough to
bear up our hope ? It is a common remark that they
who cannot plead the atonement of Christ have noth
ing on which to build their hope of heaven. I build
my hope of heaven on the free mercy of God ; and
if that foundation fail, I perish, but the universe per
ishes with me. It amazes me that Christians will
treat the mercy of our heavenly Father with the
indignity which they heap upon it, as if it could not
be trusted without a guarantee, as if it could not

360 Mt FATHER'S House.
accomplish its designs without help."* Such language
it needs hardly to be said, is inexpressibly painful
to one to whom the only revelation of that abound
ing mercy of God, which he adores, has been made
through Jesus Christ; and who is ever ready to
acknowledge that he never had one emotion of true
love to God, or knew what it was to put confidence in
Him, till he had put his trust in the Lord Jesus Christ,
appointed, by the Father, to be the propitiation for
our sins. " Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and
thou shalt be saved." Christ crucified is the only
object of justifying faith. There is no other name
given under heaven and among men whereby we
can be saved. There is no mercy of God out of
Christ. He is inaccessible to the guilty — a consum
ing fire, until He is beheld in Christ, reconciling the
world to Himself, not imputing their trespasses unto
them. The word of God calls faith a receiving of
Christ — a looking unto Hlm — a coming to Htm — a
building upon Him — a fleeing for refuge to lay hold on
the hope set before us — an eating His flesh and drink
ing His blood. The believing sinner is brought to see
that the atonement of Christ is the only ground, and
that this is all sufficient, — that guilty as he is, he can
take refuge here, and that God, for His Son's sake,
will freely pardon all his transgressions ; he therefore
*Rev. E. S. Gannett, D.D., Boston, Tract on Atonement, p. 29.

The Preparation. 361
trusts in Jesus Christ for the salvation of his soul. This
is the faith that savingly unites to Christ; for the
want of this every hope of heaven must expire.
" He that believeth not the Son shall not see life ; but
the wrath of God abideth on him." We must be found
in Christ, or we shall not see life ; we cannot enter
heaven. And we must have more than a nominal
connexion with Him, and His church by baptism, or by
the profession of His name; "for in Christ Jesus, -
neither circumcision availeth anything, nor uncir-
cumcision, but a new creature." It matters not
whether a man be a Jew or a Gentile ; it will be of
no avail at last, whether we belonged to the circum
cision, or the uncircumcision, or by what name we
have been called, or to what party we have belonged,
if we are not found new creatures in Christ. Our
minds must be enlightened, by revealed truth being
clearly presented and powerfully enforced, by the
Spirit of God ; our wills renewed, so that the delib
erate and settled choice of the soul, instead 6f being
as hitherto, in favour of earthly and selfish good,
shall be obtained in favour of Christ, and the bles
sings offered in the Gospel, — and our affections,
instead of cleaving to perishable vanities, all con
trolled, elevated, refined, and made to centre on
divine and spiritual good. The renewed and par
doned sinner possesses humble gratitude, ardent love,
a hope full of immortality, a peace which passeth all
16

362 Mt FATHER'S House.
understanding, a joy which the world knoweth not,
and cannot give. He lives, he walks, by faith. In
prosperity, he knows how, with grateful affections, to
trace aU his blessings to the Divine hand. In adver
sity, he knows how sweet it is, in the confidence of
faith, still to trust in God ;— his greatest happiness he
often experiences in the absence of all external signs
of it; he can sing in the house of his pilgrimage,
and triumph even in the hour of death.
Let it not be concluded that this doctrine of salva
tion by faith alone, without the works of the law, is
unfavourable to holiness, by weakening or destroying
the motives of it. Justifying faith is always pre^
ceded or accompanied by repentance — a repentance
which consists in turning from sin unto God, through
Jesus Christ. There can be no saving faith without
such repentance. We acknowledge that if there
were an irreconcilable opposition between free just
tification and the necessity of holiness, the most
powerful inducement to good works would be taken
away. But it is a great mistake to suppose that
because good works are not necessary to the justifi
cation of a sinner, they are not necessary on any
other ground, or for any other purpose, and are
useless. It is a great mistake to suppose that justifi
cation and sanctification may be separated, or that a
man may be received into the favour of God, and
still continue in sin, God has made purity of heart —

The Preparation. 363
while it is not, and could not, in the nature of things,
be the condition of our justification — an indispensable
qualification for eternal happiness. Nothing is more
derogatory to the Divine character than to suppose
that the design of the mission of Christ was to repeal
the moral law, or to relax the severity of its demands.
He endured the curse, and abolished it in respect to
all who believe on Hlm, but He made no change in
the precepts. Infinite as is His merit, and powerful
as is His intercession, they avail not to any who con
tinue in sin. He will acknowledge none to be His
disciples, at the last day, but those who have done
honour to Him as their Lord, according to His own
words : " Ye are my disciples if ye do whatsoever I
command you." He will vindicate His justice, and
manifest His righteousness, in the awards then to be
made, to men's own consciences and to the entire
universe. Hence, the day of judgment is called the
revelation of the righteous judgment of God. It will
not be a process to discover evidence on which to
condemn or acquit, but a declarative judgment; that
is, the judgment already passed in the Divine mind,
on the state of men's hearts, will be published, and
such evidences will be employed as will clearly
manifest, not only to the universe, but to the con
sciences of men, that the judgment of God is right
eous. Men will not be called on to state the manner
of their conversion, or to give accounf of their

364 Mt FATHER'S House.
experience ; but the works of every man will be
brought forward, as evidence against him, or for him.
"God will bring every work into judgment, with
every secret thing, whether it be good or evil."
Works will show what men have done in darkness
as well as light. The balances in which they will be
weighed, will be visible ; they themselves will per
ceive, and the whole universe be convinced, that the
judgment respecting them is righteous. We do well,
inasmuch as we are not ignorant of the rule which
the Supreme Judge will make use of, to sit in judg
ment on ourselves, day by day. Let us ask ourselves
how the actions of each passing day will be likely to
affect the decision to be made at the last audit.
Thus has it been made to appear that that faith
which is unto life everlasting, is not a mere intellec
tual assent to the doctrines of the Gospel, a dead,
inoperative principle, but associates the heart with
the understanding, and diffusing a living influence
over the powers of the soul, enlists them all in the
service of God. In this world, there is a mixture of
moral good and evil ; but heaven, the region of light,
is separated, by an impassable gulf, from the kingdom
of darkness. The felicity of its inhabitants will
result from their perfection, the order of their facul
ties, and their exercise upon the noblest objects; in
the love of God, and the love of one another.
" Blessed are they that do His commandments, that

The Preparation. 865
*
they may have a right to the tree of life, and may
enter in through the gates into the city." "Without
holiness no man shall see the Lord." There is no
indiscriminate admission into our Father's House ;
His family He will protect; its members are all
fitted to their places, and their employments. And
when the throne of God shall be surrounded by
millions of angels, who have kept their first estate,
and of human beings who have been redeemed from
corruption by the blood of His Son, and the opera
tion of His Spirit, He will once more rejoice in His
works, and pronounce them, amid the joyful shout
ings of the sons of God, very good.
I have been thus particular in stating the nature
and ground of that" holiness which men must " fol
low " in this life, in order to be made perfectly and
for ever holy in heaven, because I would not, in so
momentous a matter, employ the phraseology of
religion, without clearly stating the meaning which
must be attached to the terms employed. There are
many ready to say, " Why surely, men must be good,
must be holy," who keep entirely out of view the
nature of Scriptural holiness. We must forsake our
iniquities; we must be justified by faith; we must
be renewed and sanctified by the Holy Spirit; we
must grow in grace ; sincerity in making the Divine
command our rule of conduct, must be our Gospel
perfection, or we can never see the Lord.

366 Mt FATHER'S House.
In drawing to a conclusion, let me earnestly and
solemnly appeal to every unconverted man, woman,
or child, whose eyes may rest on these pages, to
reflect on what is implied in not seeing the face of
the Lord in glory, and to seek the Lord now while
He may be found, and call upon Hlm while He is
near. Our lost time is a momentous consideration to
urge us to increased diligence in improving the little
that remains. Who can estimate the value of a
Single day ?
" ' I've lost a day' — the prince who nobly cried,
Had been an emperor without his crown."
Who can estimate so important a portion of human
life as a year ? How many of your precious days,
dear reader, have been wasted ? How many of your
years have been lost-— irretrievably lost, so far as it
respects the great duty of human life ? Life, at the
longest, is but short, and that which was short at the
first has only been reduced by your passing — shall I
say ? — wasted years. Wasted, they have been worse
than wasted — if they have not been devoted to the
great object for which they were given, to glorify
God on the earth, and to prepare to enjoy Hem
for ever in heaven. Have ten or fifteen years passed?
then so much the less time remains to you. Have
thirty? have forty? Oh, how rapidly is the span
reduced ! Have we ten — have we twenty — have we

The Preparation. 367
forty left ( Who can count upon forty ? Forty
years hence, and most of those who are now moving
amid the busy scenes of life, will be awaiting the
morning of the resurrection. We stand, as it were,
on a little bank of crumbling sand, washed by the
waves, on every side. Every wave leaves our foot
hold less secure. Every flying hour, every closing
day, every revolving year, leaves the number less.
Time, loiter as we may, lingers not. And though we
#nay neglect our work, death does not neglect his.
There is probably not an hour of the day, and not a
minute of the hour, when some souls are not passing
from these mortal scenes to a dread eternity.
Repent, — believe on the Lord Jesus Christ —
commence a life of obedience to the Divine com
mands, and you may be able to say of that dark
grave, that " unwindowed cell," which is sunk across
your path, as a good man once said of his, with an
almost supernatural animation and emphasis, "it is
the brightest sp^St in all my course on earth;"*
because faith will enable you to view it as the portal
to everlasting bliss.
It has been the object of these pages to describe, as
tar as the word of God has given us any light, that
great glory, which awaits all those whom God hath
called to the fellowship of his dear Son. We have no
abiding city here ; we are pilgrims and strangers, and
* Life of F. Markoe, Esq. New York, by Dr. Skinner.

368 Mt FATHER'S House.
the time is not long, ere all this glory shall stand re
vealed to all who have made preparation to enter upon
it. We are borne on, amid the rapids of time. A few
more billows on these dangerous seas, perhaps a few
days of fair weather is the most we can look for, be
fore we are either ship-wrecked, or reach the destined
haven. Oh ! can you adopt the language of one who
felt the vanity of the world, and its insufficiency as a
portion, and say, " This world is not my home. I
have made it my resting-place too long. I hear a
voice to-day in accents sweet as angels use, whisper
ing to my lonely heart, ' Arise and depart hence, for
this is not your rest.' I am away from my Father's
house. I have felt vexations ana trials. I have expe
rienced disappointments and losses. I have known
the alienation of earthly friends. I am not a stran
ger to dejected hopes. I know something of conflicts
within. But now and then I have a glimpse of the
distant promised inheritance, which more than com
pensates me for all. I would fain feel like one who
is passing from place to place, and going from object
to object, with his eye fixed on some long- wished for
abode beyond ; while every successive scene brings
me nearer to the end of my course; and all these
earthly vicissitudes endear the hopes of that final
rest."* Let us, with the Pilgrim, ascend the "hill,
Clear," where the splendours of the holy city shall
* Dr. Spring's Fragments, p. 45.

The Preparation. 369
break upon the view ; and the prospect, even though
it be no more than of " something like the gate, and
some of the glory of the place," will strengthen
and cheer us for the journey that remains before us.
Then we shall be enabled to say, Let cares and fears
be multiplied ; let temptations assail us ; let us be des
titute, afflicted, tormented, yet oh! the time is not
long ; and even when death is ready to swallow us
up, we shall cry out, O Death, where is thy sting ?
O glory ! Welcome glory !

THE END.

INDEX.

A.
Abel, 282.
Abraham, 153, 285.
Absent from the body, ITS.
Adams, J. Q. Hon., 275.
Adams, N. Rev. D.D., 234.
Advent, described, 203.
Adult and infant regeneration, com
pared, 265
Affection natural in heaven, 232.
Africa, 123.
Ahab, 808.
Alexander, Dr., quoted, 134, 287, 246,294.
Alternative, fearful, 189;.
America, 123.
American Indians, 29.
Amenophis, 287.
Analogy, 190.
Angel-companions, 217.
Angels, once all holy, 217, 219.
" agreeable companions, 225.
" at the tomb, 281.
41 elect, 220.
" holiness of, 853.
" Immortal, 218.
" intelligent, 218.
" in the garden, 281.
" in the chamber of death, 235.
" interest in redemption, 225, 227.
" rejoicing over creation, 226.
" obligations to Christ, 222.
Angelic agency, 232, 228.
Angelic joy over sinners, 283.
Anna, empress, 850.
Antediluvian sinners, 299.
Antiochus Epiphanes, 816.
Antipodes, 116.
Apocalypse, 87.
Apostasy, effects of, 855.
Appeal, solemn, 366.
Arts fine, in churches, 150.
Armenian Princess, 238.
Ark, in the, 2S5.
Ascension of Christ, 69.
Asia, 122.
Asdrubal, 816.
Atonement, great day of, 148. .
Attributes incommunicable, 171.

B.
Barriers unknown in heaven, 91.
Battle-field, 111.
Balaam, 805.
Balak, 805.
Belshazzar, 308.
Bethel, 153.
Beauty in death, 275.
Bethune, Dr. quoted, 271.
Bible, a guide to Christ and heaven, 845
u incomparable, 26.
" ignored, 27.
" welcomed, 48.
" proves recognition, 247.
" not addressed to infants, 259.
Bingham quoted, 185.
Biography, a splendid, 283.
Birth of Christ, angelic joy over, 280
Bloomfield, quoted, 200.
Blagden, Dr., quoted, 193.
Blessings exceed the curse, 262.
Body, restored, 188.
" same, rises, 194, 195.
Bolingbroke, Lord, 344.
Bond of relationship in heaven. 246.
Bowles, Caroline, 52.
Brainard, 292.
Brahminism, 82.
Bramble burning, 154.
Brewster, Sir D., quoted, 78.
Bryant, quoted, 156.
Burr, A. Rev. 293.
Bush, Prof. 192, 196.

Caligula, 316.
Calvin, quoted, 271, 292.
Calumny refuted, 214.
Cain, 110, 298.
Campbell, Dr., quoted, 175.
Carlisle, 34.
Cardiphonia, 851.
Chalmers, Dr., 71, 276.
Children in heaven, 256.
Children little, and Christ, 2
Covenant of grace, S55.
Childhood in heaven, 256.

37:

Index.

Chamber of death, 234.
Christ, Ascension of, 69.
" high priest, 149.
" and the angels, 229.
«* died for little children, 263.
" chief attraction of heaven, 237.
" in his brethren, 213.
" and his saints, 170.
Christ's humanity in heaven, 169.
Christianity perverted, 127.
" without a priesthood, 143.
Christian, homesick, 161.
Christians, unworthy views of, 54.
Charity, importance of, 213.
Choirs, infant, in heaven, 267.
Cholera, 111.
Cities of the plain, 300.
Cicero, 33, 47.
" Clear Hill," 369.
Cohort, the invisible, 231.
Communion above, 243.
" with God, 160.
Commerce, 91.
Confidence in the Judge, 210.
Consolation, 1S6, 254.
" for the death of children, 276.
Conscience, a guilty, 312.
Consumption, 109.
Contrast, 40.
Cornelius, 323.
Cowper, 108, 128.
Cowper's dejection, 188.
Court and holy place, 145.
Cousin, 34.
Covetousness, 324.
Creation, and the angels, 226.
Cripple a, of fifty years, 104.
Cyrus, 233. D.
Darkness no, in heaven, 124.
Davies Pres., 197, 293.
Day no, in hell, 135.
David in dai'kness, 132.
" in light, 157.
David's death, 2S9.
" hope, 248.
Deaf men in the pulpit, 100, 101.
" mute, 108.
Death no, in heaven, 108.
" in the world, 110.
" of Abel, 110.
« of T. 8. P., Jr., 108.
Dead rising, 203.
Death, kindly harshness of, 257.
11 reigning over infants, 262.
" moment of, 177.
" works no regeneration, 833.
Delusions popular, forestalled, 24.
" philosophy of, 330.
Delusion, return of, 127.
Degrees, the four Hindoo, 81.
Deformities, 100.
, Demonstrations of death, 385.
Dick, Dr. J,, quoted, 163, 200.
Dissolution, torror of, S.(j,

Disciples like children, 269.
Diversities, 125.
Divinity of the Judge, 209.
Dod, Prof., quoted, 192.
Doom of the earth, 70.
Door, Christ the, 295.
Druids, 28, 273.
Drunkards, 381.
Durant, quoted, 187. E.
Earth present, not to be the seat of
heaven, 71.
" new, part of heaven, 79.
" not its exclusive seat, 75.
Edwards, Pres., 293.
" " quoted, 61.
Elijah, 2S9. *
Elite, heaven of, 51.
Elder pious, 159.
Emerson, 84.
Enemy, last, 118.
Enoch, 283.
Epicureans, 80.
Equality of saints and angels, 224.
Error no, in heaven, 126.
" effect of, on the the mind, 44.
Estimates, no false, at the judgment, 210
Europe, 123.
Extent of heaven, 72.
Extortion, 826.
Existence, uninterrupted, 333.
Ezekiel's temple, 146. ,.
F.
Faher's, Rev. G. S., views, 72.
Faith, 358.
" evidence of, 218.
" and sense, 347.
Fawcett, 243.
Fear no, in heaven, 89, 838.
Fellowship Christian, in heaven, 242. .
Finley, Pres., 293,
Fire, destruction by, 76.
Flavel quoted, 144.
Flood, 284.
Formalities at the judgment, 207.
Foreign land, 243.
Foundation sure, 351.
Fuller Andrew, quoted, 247.
G.
Gannet, Rev. E. S., D.D., quoted, 859.
Geology reveals past changes in the
earth, 77.
Glory of the Lord, 55.
" spiritual, of God, 163,
lt sensible, 167.
" of Christ seen in His people, 239.
God unchangeable, 93.
" a consuming fire, out of Christ, 360.
" presence of, in worship, 151.
11 vision of, 153.
" everywhere, 156.

Index.

373

God seen in Christ, 168.
" holiness of, 352.
Goodness of God, 341.
Grace, doctrine of, not licentious, 862.
Gray, quoted, 117.
Grave, made welcome, 341.
Greatness of God, 367.
Green, Dr. A., 293.
Gregory, Dr., quoted, 176.
Greenwood, Rev. Mr., quoted, 94.
Greek schools, earliest, 33.
H.
Hades, 179.
Happiness of meeting friends in heaven,
162.
Harp-notes at death, 234.
Heaven, wrong views of, 53.
" imaginary, 66.
" already prepared, 73.
" crowning dispensation, 27.
11 presence of Christ in, 238.
" world of knowledge, 241.
" largely composed of infants, 270.
Heathen, why condemned, 822.
" rule of judging, 258. »
Hegel, 84.
Herods, the, 809.
Herod the great, 272, 809, 810.
" Antipas, 811.
" Agrippa, 812.
Hierarchy, heavenly, 228.
High priest in the holy of holies, 142.
Himmeleh, 128.
Hindooism, 30.
Hobart, Bishop, quoted, 166.
Hodge, Dr., quoted, 260, 265, 271.
Holiness confirmed, 61.
" progressive, 64.
Holy place and Holy of Holies, one, 146.
Hope, great, 171.
Hottentot, 124.
Howe, John, quoted, 164, 222.
Humanity glorified, 147.
" of the Judge, 207.
Hume David, 30.
Hypocrisy exposed, 214.
I.
Ice palace, 350.
Identity of the body, 236.
Idolaters, 320.
Idolatry of money, 825.
Ignorance of God, 121.
u nature, 126.
Imperfection of human judgments, 210.
Imputation of sin to infants, 261.
Impurity, 327.
Infant salvation and Divine sove
reignty, 266.
Infant salvation proved from Scrip
ture, 266.
Infants all saved, 270.
Infanticide overruled, 278.
Innocence and peace, 66.

Innocents, slaughter of, 310.
Intellectual cultivation, insufficient, 846.
" improvement, 129.
Inquisition at the judgment, 211.
Intimacy of saints and angels, 224.
Isaac, 2S5.
Isaiah, 290. J.
Jacob, 153, 285.
Jeremiah, 290.
Jewish worshipper at the Tabernacle, 142.
Job, 133, 157.
John, Apostle, 291, 157.
" " description of heaven, 280.
Joseph, 286.
Judgment and heaven, 202.
" near, 215. "
Judge, the, 208.
" perfect, 210.
Judge, the unjust, 315.
Judas Iscariot, 313.
Judson, Dr., 85.
" Mrs., 292.

Knowledge, effect of, 22.
fc and holiness, 128.

Knox, John

why called sight, 167.

L.

Lama, Grand, 328.
Latter-day, 137.
Lazarus and Abraham, 250.
Leighton, 157, 159.
Liars, 328.
Life, endless, 22.
u human, 12B.
Literal descriptron, 207.
Living and dying, 175.
Locke, quoted, 199.
Love, perfect, 62.
" element of blessedness, 63.
Lowrie, 85, 294.
Love for kindred, in the future world, '
Longfellow, quoted, 264.
Loss of children, afflictive, 274.
Lot, 800.
Luther, 292. M.
Macdonald, Rev. John, 158.
Man, a mystery, 130.
Mant, Bishop, quoted, 252.
Markoe, F., Esq., 367.
Martyn, Henry, 134, 158, 292.
Mary, mother of our Lord, 281.
u Magdalene, 291.
" of Bethany, 291.
May, 201.
Mc Knight, quoted, 252.
Melvill, quoted, 119, 19S.

374

Index.

Meditorial kingdom, 170.
Memory in eternity, 336.
Men, deaf, 100.
Mental faculties under perfect control,
131.
Merits of Christ indispensable, 359.
Metempsychosis, 31.
Miller's hymn, quoted, 242.
Miller, Dr., 294.
MillsJSamuel J., 86.
Miltdh, 103.
Miriam, 290.
Ministers, and their hearers, 251.
Ministry, Christian, 144.
Miracles of the resurrection, 109.
Mixture of good and evil, in heaven,
none, 364.
Modern errors, 848.
Mohammed, 39.
Mohamraedism, 39.
Mohammedan paradise, 40.
Moloch, 278.
Money and the gift of God, 147.
Montgomery, J., quoted, 263.
Moses at Horeb, 154.
Moses, 237.
Moses's death, 288.
Multitude of infants saved, 272.
Murderer, first, 293.
Muston's recognition quoted, 249. *
Mystery, 94.
Mysterious dispensations of Provi
dence, 59. N.
Nature mute, 342.
" priests of, 843.
Nebo, 288.
Nebuchadnezzar, 272, 808.
Necromancy, 329.
Nero, 816, 818.
Nevins, Dr., 294. *
Newell, Harriet, 292.
Newton, Sir I., 292.
" Rev. J , quoted, 269.
New heavens and earth, 75.
Night, no, 115.
" phenomena of, 116.
" necessary now, 117.
" uses of, 118.
" metaphorical sense of, 120.
" meaning of absence of, 121.
" no spiritual, 132.
Noah, 284.
Notion unintelligible, 176.
O.
Object of the work, 23.
Objective divine glory in heaven, 152.
Objection to the doctrine of future recog
nition, 252.
Obedience and sacrifice, 307
Old age, 99.
Oracles of God, 297.
Orphans, 83.
Ordinances, none in heaven, 187.
"Outer" place, 317.

Parker, Theodore, 34.
Pantheism, 34.
Payson's, Dr., depression, 184.
Payson, Dr., 158.
Paul, 157.
Patrick, Bishop, quoted, 165.
Paradise, 181.
Parable of rich man and Lazarus, If
Paley, Dr., quoted, 250.
Parents, irreligious, addressed, 273
Passions, avengers, 834.
" unbridled, 388.
Path to heaven, 840.
Peaceful society, 58.
Penn, Win., 29.
Peter, apostle, 157.
1 Pet. iii. 6-13, 75.
Pekin, 273.
Perils of the mind, 331.
Pharaoh, 301.
Pillar of cloud and fire, 155.
Pilate, 314.
Pisgah, view from, 288.
Place, middle, 178.
Place of Heaven, 68.
Plato,? 23, 37.
Plague, tenth, 301.
Plagues, Egyptian, 301.
Pope,' quoted, 29.
Poverty, 98.
Polynesian mothers, 273.
Pollock, quoted, 322.
Praises of Children, 267.
Preacher, young, 100.
Present with the Lord, 174.
Presence of angels, 229.
Priests in the Holy Place, 142.
" pretenders, 149.
Priesthood of Christ, 144
Priesthoods, human, abolished, 143.
Procession, funeral, 110.
Purpose of the judgment, 206.
Punishmeuts, none for infants, 260*

Questions, interesting, 178.
Question, old, unanswered, 342.
" important, 268.
Quick the, changed, 206.
R.
Rachael weeping, 811.
Reason for writing, 23.
Religion without ordinances, 189.
Redemption and the angels, 227.
Reid, Dr., on memory, 836.
Red Sea, 803.
Regeneration, infant, 264.
Recognition, 236.
Recognition gives adoring views of God,
240.
Recognition a practical doctrine, 258.
Regeneration, 861.
Resurrection proves the locality of Hea
ven, 70.

IifBE?.

315

Reticence of Scripture, 23.
Reverence for sanctuaries, 188.
Resurrection, objections to, 192,
" Christ's, 196.
" body, 195, 199.
Eletributors of wra.y>, 817,.
Reason, defecated, 885.
Revilers, 327.
Revelation, why needed, 841.
Righteousness of Christ und infante, 253.
Rock of ages, 351.
Russell, Dr., quoted, 270.
Rutherford, 15T.
Rule of judging infants, 258.
S.
Salvation by faith, 85T.
" of infants, 264.
Saint, first, in heaven, 263.
Sarah, 290.
Saul of Tarsus, 290,
Saul, king, 306.
Saints, recounting the goodness of God,
240.
Sacrifice of Gain, 298.
Scenes at the judgment, 205,
Scott, Dr., quoted, 268.
Schauffler, 268.
Scandinavian bards, 28.
Schools, ancient metaphysical, 80.
Schools, earliest Greek, 38.
Sea, a burying place, 84.
11 an image of instability, 92.
Seeing God, 169.
Seed buried and buried bodies, 190.
Seeing Christ at the judgment, 204.
Separate state, 175.
Shakespeare, quoted, 85, 286.
Shadow by the hearth, 274.
Shame, 338.
Sheol, 160.
Shepherd and the lambs, 266.
Sherlock, Bishop, quoted, 185.
Shores of Suez, 804.
Sickness, none in heaven, 108.
Significance of the Tabernacle and Tem
ple, 142.
Simplicity of true worship, 150.
Sitting with patriarchs, 249.
Sinai and Sion, 279.
Simpson, African missionary, 294.
Sight, first, following resurrection, 202.
Small the, before God, 259.
Skinner, Dr., 867.
Smith, Mrs. S. L., 234.
" Stanhope, Pres., 298.
Society of heaven, 58, 280.
" conditions of happy, 319.
" of the lost, 317.
Socrates, 823, 851.
Socrates's last words, 86.
" doctrines, 87.
Sodom, 300.
Son of Man, coming, 202.
Sorcerers, 829.
Spring, 190.

Spring, Dr., 25T, 868.
" Spiritualism " modern, 97.
Stars, disappearance of, 77.
Stephen, 290.
Stephen's martyrdom, 69, 176.
Strauss, 34.
Supernaturalism, 228.
Swearers, 328.
Swedenborgianism, 41.
Swedenborg quoted, 45.
Swedenborg^ jieaven, 4SL

Tabernacle built, 140.
" ' described, 141.
Tamerlane, 316.
Tanjore, 123.
Taylor, Jane, quoted, 24.
Temple, no in heaven, 136.
" " " imports, 188.
Theophany, perpetual, 141.
Thief, impenitent, 175.
" penitent, 175.
Thomas, 157.
Thorn in tbe.flesh, 108.
Thotmes, 287.
Tillotson quoted, 165, 167.
Time of judgment unknown, 215.
" short, S67.
Toil, no in heaven, 89.
Transfiguration-glories, 169.
Translation of Enoch, 68, 284.
" Elijah, 68, 290.
T. S. P. Jr., 102.
Tupper, M. F., quoted, 817.
Types feeble, no more, 95.
tr.
Unworthy views of heaven, 32.
Unfallen man, 854. V.
Vishnu, 825.
Vicissitudes of experience, 182.
Vision, beatific, 147.
" of Paul, 70, 188.
Visions of John, 21. W.
Want, 97.
War, 110.
Waterloo, 192.
Watts, Isaac, 292.
" " quoted, 175, 260.
Walls, aqueous, 804.
W. B. of P., 105.
Welch, John, 158.
Wellington, 110.
Westminster Confession, quoted, 210.
" Larger, catechism, 216.
Whitefield, 292.
White, Kirk, quoted, 112.
Will of God, subjection to, 56.
Wicked not saved, 297.

370

Index.

Witherspoon, Dr., 298.
Works at the judgment, 211.
" importance of, 212.
" not the foundation of title to hea
ven, 212.
" of God understood, 60.
Worship perfect, 58.
" places of, sacred, 188.
" value of, 138.
•' houses of, 150.
" heavenly, social, 244.

Xenophon, 288. Y.
Toung, Dr., quoted, 1OT.
Z.
Zarephath, 274.
Zwingle, 292.

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