tal, and their faculties so improved or changed from what they were in this life, their capacities so enlarged and strengthened, and their whole constitution in body and spirit being perfectly adapted to that glorious state, they will experience no oppressiveness, no paintul or overwhelming exquisiteness, in the full effulgence of that glory, but will experience in it consummate happiness.

Far as our anticipation may rise, and as our present conceptions of the scene can soar, let us look forward for a moment in contemplation of that world of immortality. There behold we the saved of the human race, moving in the courts of life, their countenances shining as the morning. The glory of their Father and their Savior shines upon them, and they bathe in the flood of divine glory emanating from their Lord and their God, as an infinite, all-encompassing ocean. With a zest insatiable they drink in of the exhaustless, ineffable blessedness, and still they drink, and drink the tide of glory. Their breath is the breath of immortal and divine blessedness, the uncreated glory filling the eternity which their God has given them, wherein to draw immeasurable joy from his own undiminishable fullness. To such a state have they been redeemed by the blood of the Lamb. Ask them of the spring of their immortal and boundless joy, of that light in which they dwell-and do we not hear them respond the sentiment of Peter and John-"the excellent glory!" "the precious light!"

And are you, sanctified believer in Jesus

born to such an inheritance? Are we heirs to that gory? Is it our calling to go and dwell in the midst of our Maker's "eternal glory ?”—encircled by it, swallowed up in it, as a boundless sea of felicity? Are we to "walk forever in the light of the Lord?" Oh, the unspeakable blesssedness! soon shall we be in the "Holy City," and shall know by experience how "precious" is its light! Happy, happy the "nations of them that are saved," who shall walk in that glorious light of the immortal city, and immortal earth! It is the "Lord God who will give them light," and they will dwell and reign in it forever and ever. Amen.

In their own peculiar and happy style, the Scriptures speak of the light of knowledge and wisdom, the just and clear apprehension of things, which will be possessed by the inhabitants of the new earth. "Wisdom and knowledge shall be the stability of thy times." "He shall destroy in this mountain the face of the covering cast over all people, and the veil that is spread over all nations." "I will bring the blind by a way they know not; I will lead them in paths they have not known; I will make darkness light before them, and crooked things straight." "The eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf unstopped."

The Redeemer is spoken of as given for removing the darkness from the world. "I will give thee for a covenant to the people, for a light to the Gentiles, to open the blind eyes, to bring out the prisoners from the prison; and them that are

in darkness from the prison house....In that day shall the deaf hear the words of the book, and the eyes of the blind shall see out of obscurity and out of darkness."

All there will have perfect knowledge on all subjects. "The heart of the rash shall understand knowledge, and the tongue of the strangers shall be ready to speak plainly." A perfect illu. mination will characterize that immortal world, physically, spiritually, and intellectually. world of light indeed!

A

CHAPTER XI.

THE SOCIETY OF THE NEW WORLD.

ALL the truly good and excellent, who shall have had their existence on the present earth, will in that regenerated world, be "gathered together in one" righteous generation from all the generations of this probationary state. "Blessed are the meek," says our Lord, "for they shall inherit the earth." That the inhabitants of that immortal world will be "meek," that they will "all be righteous," and all perfectly righteous, were a consideration sufficient to give us a transporting anticipation of the blessedness that will be experienced in the association of that world. But we may well consider that farther than this, there will be intellectual characteristics of that glorious country, which added to its righteousness, will exalt its social character to a degree of

excellence beyond all our present powers of expression. Here, in this life, we find the delights of social intercourse proportioned, not only to the virtue, piety and heavenly-mindedness of those with whom we associate, but to their intellectual capacities and endowments also. What heights of intellectual capabilities will that world contain! What knowledge, what experience, what powers of conception, will the inhabitants of that heavenly land possess, for conversing with each other, for interchange of knowledge and feelings, as they range its beautiful and glorious scenes in pairs, or in companies, or as they sit in assemblies, or congregate in multitudes in discussion of the great things of God's eternal kingdom! What strength, what vivacity, what pleasantness and joy of thought will they possess! and what faculty for the mutual communication between them! And what opportunity for doing so all eternity for the blissful interchange!

And in our estimate of all this association, we are still to consider the moral qualities of those exalted intellects-that they are all governed by the law of perfect love-that all their associations will be in the spirit and in the acts of a pure benevolence-that all sefishness, such as fills this world with hate, wrong, misery and ruin, will be forever absent there.

Here, in this world, are found some benevolent hearts, excellent spirits, who delight in doing good, who appear to find their happiness in looking after and relieving want and sorrow, making it the business of their lives to benefit, to the

utmost of their abilities, their fellow creatures. How do we admire them-yet what rare and strange sights in this world! They are the wonder of men. So rare on earth, they are especially seen through the intervention of the years between their time and that of their admirers, as lights in a world of darkness-fruitful spots amidst a desert world-priceless gems amidst boundless wastes of unseemly rubbish. And yet such an heart and such a spirit will animate every one of all the numberless population of that world to come. They will possess the spirit of their king, who, regardless of peril, suffering and death, came from his heavenly glory down to this wil. derness world to save the lost-made himself so poor that we, lost creatures, might be made so rich! That example will be ever before the redeemed, exciting the same kindness of spirit towards each other, in addition to the disposition and impulses of their now heavenly nature. And what must be the result of the associations of a world of people of such intellectual and moral qualities? What but bliss! immeasurable, inde. finable bliss! Knowledge, unity, love, kindness -all to infinite perfection: how high the heaven of the happiness of such society! a populous world of such society!

Nor are we to forget the angelic associates, who, no doubt, will participate in the associations of that glorious country. "Their angels who behold the face of the Father in heaven," while they attend upon and minister to the heirs of salvation as they journey through this life—is it to