Parish Papers Part 4

_G.o.d the Father_ will be glorified! The prayer of Christ shall then be fulfilled: "Father, glorify thy Son, that thy Son also may glorify thee!" The doxology of the apostle will be realised: "To him be glory by the Church through Christ Jesus throughout all ages!" That glory will be seen in His having committed the government of the world to Jesus Christ. Then will be understood, as it never was before, how "G.o.d _so_ loved the world in giving His only-begotten Son" to be its Creator and Governor, and the Prophet, Priest, and King of His Church.

_G.o.d the Son_ will be glorified! Every event and act in His great mediatorial kingdom will shew the grandeur of His character. The whole world's history will be as a mirror, full of the light of this Sun of Righteousness,--reflecting the greatness of His power, the depths of His wisdom, the beauty of His holiness, and the riches of His grace.

He will "be glorified, too, _in_ His saints." Each believer will not only be a living monument of what Christ has done, but, as a child of G.o.d, will also be in his character an image of what Christ the first-born _is_!

_G.o.d the Spirit_ will be glorified when the results are made manifest of all He has done for and in the Church, and of all which men have received from this Teacher, Sanctifier, and Comforter! If many will have cause to mourn upon that day because they have resisted and grieved Him by their wilful impenitency and wickedness, what a mult.i.tude, greater than any man can number, will adore Him for the spiritual ignorance in the ways of G.o.d which He dispelled,--the all-sufficient strength for duty and trial, for life and death, which He imparted,--the holy love which He shed abroad upon their hearts,--the good fruit which by His aid they produced in their lives,--the calm peace which He gave to their consciences,--the prayers heard and answered by G.o.d which He prompted,--and the joy unspeakable to which He often raised their souls!

Thus will the proceedings of the great day of judgment, without one single exception, reveal to the intelligent universe the glory of G.o.d,--Father, Son, and Spirit,--as displayed in the government of the world through Jesus Christ.

Oh, how can we form an adequate conception of the overpowering effect which the revelations of this eventful period in the history of the universe must necessarily produce upon the saints and just men made perfect, and upon the innumerable company of angels, who, with intense interest and profound intelligence, watch the proceedings before the immaculate throne of the Son of man! As age after age pa.s.ses in solemn review, and as each succeeding era, beneath the light of investigation, emerges out of the darkness in which it had hitherto been wrapped,--as city after city, and kingdom after kingdom, from their early beginnings, onwards through centuries of advancement in power and influence, till their final silence in the dust, are all reproduced in their living reality,--we may conceive how the awful interest in the world's trial must deepen itself in every bosom, and intelligent eyes must gleam with a brighter intelligence, and admiring souls burn with a profounder and holier admiration, as they are enabled to perceive how, over all this earth, to them hitherto so dark and cloudy, Jesus had ever reigned with unclouded splendour, as the sun reigns in the calm heavens, and pours down his beams of light from a region far above the tempestuous sky. And we can, in some degree, conceive how their lips should ever and anon give birth to accents of heartfelt praise, as a deep moral order and beauty are seen growing up, evolving out of the chaos of history, even as a holy temple might rear itself from what seemed to the eye of sense to be the very "lines of confusion, and stones of emptiness." We can imagine, too, when this long day of wondrous disclosures is about to terminate, and its sun to set for ever over the old order of things, how the joy of this great a.s.semblage should reach at last its climax, and have a fulness of glory in it never before experienced; until, as judgment ended, and the whole government of their blessed Lord was disclosed, their sense of the grandeur and infinite majesty of His character and ways should be such as to call forth from ten thousand times ten thousand ecstatic souls, as the grand verdict of the universe, those bursts of praise: "_Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power, and riches, and wisdom, and strength, and honour, and glory, and blessing." "Great and marvellous are thy works, Lord G.o.d Almighty; just and true are thy ways, thou King of saints. Who shall not fear thee, O Lord, and glorify thy name? for thou only art holy: for all nations shall come and wors.h.i.+p before thee; for thy judgments are made manifest_."

Such are a few of the more obvious results of a day of judgment. But who will dare to deny that these may possibly be extended to other worlds and other orders of beings, and be made influential for the good and happiness of the universe throughout limitless ages, and be the means of impressing unfallen yet peaceable creatures, with a more profound sense of the glory of G.o.d and the unchangeableness of His government? We ourselves possess an experience somewhat a.n.a.logous to this, in the fact of G.o.d's righteous dealings with another order of beings--the fallen angels--having been revealed to us for our instruction and warning; and thus, for aught we know, the transactions of the coming day of judgment may, in whole or in part, form such a living record of G.o.d's government by Jesus Christ, as may be revealed to millions, of whose existence and circ.u.mstances we are as yet ignorant, and be to them for ever as a great Bible, for their warning, comfort, and instruction in righteousness.

We have now brought our thoughts upon "judgment" to a conclusion. May they suggest others more worthy of the theme to all who may peruse them! We have tried to view it in the light of Scripture statement; yet feeling deeply conscious of how dimly and inadequately we perceive and judge of the awful future; of G.o.d's relations.h.i.+p to the human family; and of the manner in which the only wise and merciful G.o.d will apply the eternal principles of justice (which is but love dealing with sin) to the infinite varieties of human character, or to the circ.u.mstances of each human being. Questions innumerable suggest themselves, which we cannot answer now, but which will be answered then, regarding the heathen, and regarding millions who have lived and died without knowing or loving Jesus Christ; doubtless we shall all then be amazed at our own ignorance and sin, and overwhelmed by the majestic glory and excellence of G.o.d in Christ. But whatever the results of that day may be, one thing is certain, that they will afford satisfaction and joy unutterable to just and good men, yea, to every human being who has any real sympathy with Him whose "name is Love!"

But let us never forget that every day of our lives is a day of judgment, in which Christ is searching our hearts and judging our lives, condemning the evil and blessing the good, and seeking to separate the one from the other. If we are able to welcome Him as our judge and deliverer in our present day, we shall be able to do so also on "the last day."

I conclude with these words:--

"For we must all appear before the judgment-seat of Christ; that every one may receive the things done in his body, according to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad. Knowing therefore the terror of the Lord, we persuade men."

"And we have seen and do testify that the Father sent the Son to be the Saviour of the world. Whosoever shall confess that Jesus is the Son of G.o.d, G.o.d dwelleth in him, and he in G.o.d. And we have known and believed the love that G.o.d hath to us. G.o.d is love; and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in G.o.d, and G.o.d in him. Herein is our love made perfect, that we may have _boldness in the day of judgment_: because as he is, so are we in this world. There is no fear in love; but perfect love casteth out fear: because fear hath torment. He that feareth is not made perfect in love. We love him because he first loved us."

"But ye, brethren, are not in darkness, that that day should overtake you as a thief. Ye are all the children of light, and the children of the day: we are not of the night, nor of darkness. Therefore let us not sleep, as do others; but let us watch and be sober. For they that sleep sleep in the night; and they that be drunken are drunken in the night. But let us, who are of the day, be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love; and for an helmet, the hope of salvation. _For G.o.d hath not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ_, who died for us, that, whether we wake or sleep, we should live together with him. Wherefore comfort yourselves together, and edify one another, even as also ye do."

"_Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear G.o.d, and keep his commandments: for this is the whole duty of man. For G.o.d shall bring every work into judgment, with every secret thing, whether it be good, or whether it be evil_."

THOUGHTS UPON FUTURE LIFE.

It is obviously impossible to treat a subject so vast and so profoundly interesting as this within the limits of a _Parish Paper_, except in the most cursory and superficial manner. Yet I am induced to make the attempt, in order, if possible, to impress my readers with such ideas of our life in heaven as are more in accordance with the nature of man and the Word of G.o.d, than, I am inclined to think, obtain among many sincere Christians, who accordingly are deprived of encouragements in duty, comforts in sorrow, and bright hopes to cheer them amid the world's darkness, which they might otherwise possess.

Let us inquire, then, in what shall consist the believer's happiness in G.o.d's presence.

Now, it will greatly aid us in answering this question regarding our true life in eternity, if we first consider what const.i.tutes our true life in time, or what would const.i.tute our perfect happiness now, if in the full enjoyment of all our mental and bodily powers, and if, in the best possible circ.u.mstances, we perfectly fulfilled upon earth G.o.d's purpose in our creation.

In endeavouring to solve this question, I remark that our perfection consists in the gratification of every part of our many-sided nature.

Thus, for instance, enjoyment might be derived through our senses, though the intellect was comparatively weak, and our moral being depraved; or from the exercise of our intellectual or spiritual nature, while the body suffered from pain: or delight might be poured through all those channels, but yet if we were doomed to be solitary beings, without any companion or friend with whom to communicate or share our gladness, or were prevented from expressing our thoughts and desires by action, the result in either of these supposed cases would not be perfect happiness. But, on the other hand, if we can imagine a man with his whole nature in a state of perfect health, each portion demanding and obtaining its appropriate nourishment, and with all his powers beautifully balanced and in perfect harmony with the plan of G.o.d, "according to the effectual working of the measure in every part,"--the senses ministering to the most refined tastes,--the intellect full of light in the apprehension of truth, and strong in its discovery,--the moral being possessing perfect holiness and unerring subjection to the will of G.o.d,--the love of society able to rest upon fitting objects, and to find a fall return for its sympathies in suitable companions.h.i.+ps, while ample scope was afforded for activity by congenial labour;--then would such a state be perfection or fulness of joy in G.o.d's presence here below. I do not, of course, allege that every part of our being has the same capacity to afford us joy, or that the flood can pour itself into the soul with the same fulness through each of these channels, as if, for instance, we depended in the same degree for enjoyment upon our sentient as we do upon our intellectual or moral nature. All I mean to a.s.sert is, that whatever proportion may come through each, G.o.d has so made us, that perfect joy is derived only through all. Such is man's actual const.i.tution as he came from the hands of his Maker; and such would have been his happiness had he remained unfallen. Placed, as Adam was, in a material world so rich in sources of physical happiness, with an intellect capable of unlocking the countless treasures of science,--with a nature pure and spotless, delighting in the excellent G.o.d,--with society begun with woman as a helpmeet for him, and with the active labour required "to dress and keep" his earthly paradise,--he possessed, in such perfect adaptations, a heaven upon earth. And had perfect man been translated to another region, we cannot conceive his joy thereby to become essentially different in kind, though different in degree, supposing him to remain the same being, and to possess the same human nature. Now, man's fall has not altered this principle. Sin is a perversion of human nature, not its annihilation; a disorder of its powers, not their destruction. Nor is restoration by Jesus Christ the gift of a different const.i.tution, as if He made us something else than human beings, but the renovation of the old const.i.tution after its original type. It is making the "old man," diseased, bent down, paralysed, deaf, blind, the "new man," with frame erect, limbs strong, eyes and ears open, and all his powers fresh and vigorous for immortality; and, therefore, that which would const.i.tute the happiness of man were he perfect on earth, will be his happiness, though in a higher degree, when he is made perfect in heaven. This supposition, I repeat, only a.s.sumes the fact that we shall be the same persons for ever; that human nature will never cease to be human nature, or be changed into a different species of existence, no more than Jesus Christ, the Head of His Church, will ever cease to be what He is--"_the man_ Christ Jesus," with a human body and a human soul, "the same yesterday, to-day, and for ever."

There is another way in which I might describe the nature of our future life, although I shall base my remarks on the principles now stated. We must admit that the perfection of our being is fellows.h.i.+p with G.o.d the Father in the possession of that spirit of son-s.h.i.+p which was revealed in Jesus Christ the Son of G.o.d and the Son of man. This, and this alone, must insure fellows.h.i.+p with Him in His character and joy. We shall consequently rejoice in all that He rejoices in--_as far as this is possible for creatures_. Thus, if He rejoices in the glory of His own Being, as Father, Son, and Spirit, so shall we; if He rejoices in all His works, so shall we; if He rejoices in what He does, in what He knows, in what He purposes, so shall we; if He rejoices in the communion of holy and happy men and angels, so shall we. In one word, if "our chief end is to glorify G.o.d," when that end is fulfilled, we shall "enjoy Him for ever." And this was our Saviour's prayer when He said, "The glory Thou hast given me I have given them, that we may be one!"

But as those two lines of thought would lead practically to the same conclusion, it seems to me that the nature of our future life will be best understood by most of my readers if I endeavour to shew "what we shall be," according to the arrangement already proposed.

Let us, then, meditate on the glorious supply which G.o.d has provided for filling up every part of this our complex nature in heaven.

I.

OUR PHYSICAL LIFE IN HEAVEN.

Speaking of the materialism of heaven, Dr Chalmers truly says:--"The common imagination that many have of paradise on the other side of death, is that of a lofty, aerial region where the inmates float on ether, or are mysteriously suspended upon nothing; where all the warm and felt accompaniments which give such an expression of strength, and life, and colour to our present habitation, are attenuated into a sort of spiritual element, that is meagre, and imperceptible, and wholly uninviting to the eye of mortals here below; where every vestige of materialism is done away with, and nothing left but certain unearthly scenes that have no power of allurement, and certain unearthly ecstasies with which it is impossible to sympathise," The sensitiveness with which many thus shrink from almost alluding to the physical element of enjoyment in heaven, because it is unworthy to be compared with the spiritual glory that is to be revealed, arises, no doubt, from the half suspicion that there is some necessary connexion between materialism and sin; thus forgetting that the body, and the outward world which ministers to it, are G.o.d's handiworks as well as the soul; and that it is He himself who has adjusted their relative workings. And surely it is quite unnecessary to remind you at any length how exquisitely G.o.d has fas.h.i.+oned our physical frame, as the medium of communication with the outer material world. The nostrils inhale the sweet perfumes which scent the breezy air, and rise as incense from the flowers that cover the earth. By the eye the soul perceives the glories of the summer sky, and searches for its midnight stars; recognises splendour of colour, and beauty of form; gazes on the outspread landscape of fertile field and h.o.a.ry mountain, of stream, forest, ocean, and island; and contemplates that world of profounder interest still, the human countenance, of beloved parent, child, or friend, strong with the power of elevated thought, sublime with the grandeur of moral character, or bright with all the suns.h.i.+ne of winning emotion. The ear, too, is the magic instrument which conveys to the soul all the varied harmonies of sound, from the choirs of spring, and the other innumerable minstrelsies of nature, as well as from the higher art of man, that soothe, elevate, and solemnise. It is true, indeed, that there are grosser appet.i.tes of the body which many pervert so as to enslave the spirit; thus abusing by gluttony, drunkenness, and every form of sensuality, what G.o.d the merciful and wise has intrusted to man to be used for wise and merciful ends. But even here there is already perceptible a marked difference between those appet.i.tes and the more refined tastes alluded to; inasmuch as the former are found in their abuse to be, strictly speaking, unnatural, and destructive of man's happiness; and even in their legitimate use they decay with advancing years, thus proving that the stamp of time is upon them as on things belonging to a temporary economy; whereas such tastes as those that enjoy the beautiful in nature or in art, for example, abide in old age with a youthful freshness, and more than a youthful niceness of discernment; and so afford a presumption that they are destined for immortality. To the aged saint "the trees clap their hands, the little hills rejoice, and the mountains break forth into singing;" and when the earth is empty of every other sentient pleasure, it is in the beauty of its sights and sounds, still full to him of the glory of his G.o.d.

And so must it be for ever! The glorified saint is not "unclothed,"

but "clothed upon." He inhabits "a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens." The future body is called a "spiritual body" to express, I presume, its pure and immortal essence; for though it will be somehow related to the present body,--as the risen is related to the sown grain which has perished through corruption,--it must be changed into a new and higher form. "Flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of G.o.d." "We shall all be changed." "He shall change our vile bodies, and fas.h.i.+on them like to His own glorious body." It is in this new body, once sown in weakness, corruption, and mortality, but raised at length in power, incorruption, and immortality, no more to suffer, and no more to die, that we shall tread upon the new earth, gaze on the new heavens, and walk in the paradise of our G.o.d.

And who can tell what sources of refined enjoyment, through the medium of the spiritual body, are in store for us in G.o.d's great palace of art, with its endless mansions and endless displays of glory! Well may we say of such antic.i.p.ated pleasures what good Izaak Walton says of the singing of birds: "Lord, if Thou hast provided such music for sinners on earth, what hast Thou in store for Thy saints in heaven!"

For if this little spot of earth is full of scenes of loveliness to us inexhaustible; if, contemplating these in a body buoyant with health and strength, we feel it is joy even to live and breathe; and if when, seeing G.o.d in them all, the expression of praise rises to the lips, "Lord, how manifold are thy works! in wisdom hast Thou made them all: the earth is full of Thy riches!"--oh, what visions of glory may be spread before the wondering eye throughout the vast extent of the material universe, comprehending those immense worlds which twinkle only in the field of the largest telescope, and vanish into the far distance in endless succession; and what sounds may greet the ear from the as yet unheard music of those spheres; while, for aught we know, other means of communication may be opened up to us, with objects ministering delight to new tastes; and sources of sentient enjoyment discovered which do not exist here, or elude the perception of our present senses. Add to all this our deliverance from those physical evils and defects which are now the causes of so much pain, and clog so terribly the aspiring soul. For how affected are we by the slightest disorganisation of our bodily frame! A disturbance in some of the finer parts of its machinery, which no science can discover or rectify; a delicate fibre shadowed by a cloud pa.s.sing over the sun; or a nerve chilled by a lowering of the temperature of the atmosphere, will tell on the most genial temper, relax the strongest intellect, and dim the brightest imagination; while other physical causes, quite as mysterious, can make reason reel and lunacy become ascendant. The very infirmities of old age; the constant toil required to satisfy our cravings for food and raiment; the wounds and bruises the body receives, and which agonise it, and the deformity which so often disfigures it, cramping the spirit within a narrow and iron prison-house--these form a terrible deduction from that joy which we are capable of deriving even now through the medium of our physical organisation. Such evils cannot here be rectified. They are the immediate, or more remote consequences of man's iniquity; and under Christ belong to that education by which bodily suffering is made the means of disciplining the soul for immortality. But in the new heavens and the new earth the body will no longer experience fatigue in labour, or be subject to hurtful influences from the elements, nor ever grow old; but be glorious and beautiful as the risen body of Jesus Christ! "And G.o.d shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are pa.s.sed away."

I wonder not, indeed, that Paul should exclaim along with those who had the first-fruits of the Spirit, "Even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, that is, the _redemption of our body_."

With these bright hopes let us who are now alive seek to glorify G.o.d in the body which is to be glorified together with Christ. "The body is for the Lord, and the Lord for the body." "Know ye not that your bodies are the members of Christ?" "Know ye not that your bodies are temples of the Holy Ghost? If any man defile that temple, him will G.o.d destroy." "When Christ who is our life shall appear, then shall ye also appear with him in glory. Mortify therefore your members which are upon the earth." Let us honour the body as a holy thing; and beware how we put the chains of slavery upon it, or from our selfishness expose it to hunger and nakedness. Let us endeavour even to make art, that ministers to our sense of the beautiful, minister also to our sense of the true and good; and ever speak to us of G.o.d as seen in His works; or in "His ways among the children of men." And finally, as we contemplate the body of a departed saint, let us behold it in the light of this revelation. Let the grave in which it lies no longer be a.s.sociated in our thoughts with the worm and corruption only, and with all the sad memorials and revolting symbols of mortality. Let the voice of Him who is the resurrection and the life be heard in the breeze that bends the gra.s.s which waves over it, and His quickening energy be seen in the beauteous sun which s.h.i.+nes upon it; and while we hear the cry, "Dust to dust," let us remember that the "very dust to Him is dear;" and that when He appears in His glory, He will repair and rebuild that ruined temple, and fas.h.i.+on it in glory and in beauty like His own!

II.

OUR INTELLECTUAL LIFE.

Let us consider the joy which G.o.d has provided for our _intellects_ during our immortal life in heaven.

There are many dear saints of G.o.d who have little sympathy with those who a.s.sociate happiness with the pursuit or possession of intellectual truth. These persons, perhaps, have had themselves such weak intellectual capacities, as made the acquisition of knowledge impossible for them beyond its simplest elements; or their minds have been stunted in early years from want of education; or in the providence of G.o.d they have been made "hewers of wood and drawers of water," rather than intellectual princes among the people. Yet let none of us who are so ignorant, and who as yet think and speak like children, be discouraged by a conscious sense of our weak intellectual grasp and scanty information; but rather rejoice with Christ in the dispensation by which G.o.d reveals Himself not to talent but to goodness; not to the giant intellect but to the babe-like spirit: "I thank thee, O Father, that thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them unto babes!"

G.o.d has, nevertheless, made the acquisition of truth by the intellect a source of supreme delight. You well know how every field in nature has been searched, and every quarter of the globe ransacked, and many days and nights of patient intellectual toil consumed by men who have endured incredible labour, supported by no other motive than their love of knowledge. The immediate joy which is experienced by a great discoverer when a new fact or truth flashes on his mind is to others almost inconceivable. We read that when Newton, after years of difficulty, was just about to step on the summit of that mountain from which he knew he was to hear such intellectual music as never before had sounded in the mind of man, and to catch a glimpse of the hitherto unseen glory of that new ocean of truth which he alone had reached,--for

"He was the first that ever burst Into that silent sea!"--

his joy was so great that he was overcome by his emotions, and wept!

This pa.s.sion of acquiring knowledge is not the least remarkable fact recorded of Solomon. We are told that "he spake of trees, and of beasts, and of creeping things." He himself says of G.o.d, "He hath made things beautiful in time: also He hath put it into man's heart to survey the world, and to find out the work that G.o.d maketh from the beginning to the end." "When I applied mine heart to know wisdom, and to see the business that is done upon the earth: (for also there is that neither day nor night seeth sleep with his eyes:) then I beheld all the work of G.o.d, that a man cannot find out the work that is done under the sun; because though a man labour to seek it out, yet he shall not find it; yea, though a wise man think to know it, yet shall he not be able to find it." There was in all this no doubt "vanity and vexation of spirit," for the attempt was vain to find satisfaction for the soul in the knowledge of things themselves apart from the knowledge of a personal G.o.d, or in any truth rather than in Him who is true. And therefore many, perceiving how intellect is often allied to unG.o.dliness, and fails of itself to insure either goodness or happiness, are disposed to refuse to it the high place which G.o.d has a.s.signed to it in the soul, and to suspect the reality of the exalted delight which He has designed His saints and angels to enjoy in its exercise. But while the deifiers of mere intellect are ever reminded that it alone cannot deify, but may be abused so as to demonise man, yet let those who slight it remember also that it is the head without whose inventive genius or directing skill the strong arms of labour would be idle. Let the man of material wealth or material power recollect that it is the wealth of science and the power of mind, possessed perhaps by unknown and lonely students who have all their lifetime been struggling to obtain their daily bread, and to s.n.a.t.c.h "the crumbs that fall from the rich man's table," which have created our manufactures, filled our warehouses, crossed our oceans, healed our diseases, and reared the fabric of law and government.

And G.o.d, who has made the intellect the source of delight to the individual, and of good to society here, will surely perfect it hereafter. Whatever its capacity may be, it shall then be filled to its utmost limit; and be characterised by a clearness, vigour, and precision, unknown here to the greatest thinkers. All barriers to its progress shall be removed, which were occasioned here by the mortal body, the poor culture, the little time, the few opportunities, the weak or sinful prejudices; so that the poorest saint will s.h.i.+ne there as the sun in its strength! And with this increased power of knowing, how inconceivably increased must be our sources of knowledge; how boundless is the field which supplies them; how inexhaustible the treasures it contains; how unlimited the time for gathering them; how helpful the society that will sympathise with and join in our pursuits! No one surely imagines that on entering heaven we can at once obtain perfect knowledge--perfect, I mean, not in the sense of accuracy, but of fully possessing all that can be known. This is possible for Deity only. For it may be a.s.serted with confidence that Gabriel knows more to-day than he knew yesterday. Nor is it difficult for us to conceive how, throughout eternity, and revelling with freedom throughout G.o.d's universe, we may be occupied by the contemplation of new and endless displays of the inexhaustible wisdom and power of G.o.d in His works; and see more and more into the life of all things; and continually read new volumes of that great book of nature and of truth, whose first letters we are now learning with difficulty to spell. And could we ever succeed in gathering together the present treasures of all worlds, why may not new and varied creations for ever renew the universe, and grander displays be made of the glory and majesty of the Creator? Besides all this, must not the _ways_ of G.o.d, as well as His works, and the wonders of His moral government, extending over all His creatures, and over all worlds, and throughout all ages, afford inexhaustible subjects wherewith to exercise the intellect of man? Is not every truth, too, with which we are already acquainted linked to another and a higher truth? And if so, when shall we reach the end of that awful chain which is in the hand of G.o.d? But though for ever we shall thus dive deeper and deeper into the divine mind, never, never can we sound its unfathomable depths. Though we shall ascend for ever from one intellectual height to another in the eternal range of thought, we shall approach, yet never reach, that unseen throne on which is seated the _I Am_, the Comprehender of all truth, the Solver of all mysteries, but who Himself, though known, because revealed to us in His eternal Son and loved as our Father, must ever, as the absolute One, be the mystery incomprehensible!

From the few glimpses which we obtain in Scripture of angelic life, we may infer that the understanding of the works and ways of G.o.d forms no small part of its joy. We read of the sons of G.o.d crowding round the earth, and we hear those morning stars singing for joy, as they behold the commencement of this new theatre of wonders added to those with which they were already acquainted. I doubt not that these high intelligences watched with intensest interest the progress of the world's formation, and beheld order and beauty growing out of chaotic darkness and confusion, and during the incalculable ages of the past, before man himself appeared upon the scene, gazed with wonder on the successive creations of animal and vegetable life, whose remains we now see buried in their rocky sepulchres. We know, too, the deeper interest which the angelic host have taken in this world since it became the abode of man. They are acquainted with all its inhabitants, and have seen the mystery of G.o.d's providence here unfolding itself from age to age. A great mult.i.tude of them hovered over the hills of Bethlehem at that great era when "unto us a Child was born, and unto us a Saviour was given, who was Christ the Lord;" and in sympathy with G.o.d and man they ascribed "glory to G.o.d in the highest," because of the "peace" which was proclaimed to earth, and of the "good-will"

which was expressed towards man. We know also how they have taken an active share under Jesus the King, in advancing the affairs of His kingdom, both by punis.h.i.+ng the wicked, and ministering to the heirs of salvation. And to put it beyond a doubt that scope is given even here for the exercise of the intellect of the angels, we are distinctly informed that all the marvellous history now proceeding in this world had a direct reference in its original design to their progressive education: "For G.o.d created all things by Jesus Christ, to the intent that now _unto princ.i.p.alities and powers_ might be known by the church the manifold wisdom of G.o.d." There are indeed things even here "which angels desire to look into!"

And though the redeemed from earth are not yet revealed to us as being engaged in intellectual pursuits, nevertheless two of them have revisited the earth and appeared in the old land of their sojourning in visible form, and bearing the names of Moses and Elias, so familiar to the Church of G.o.d, and have spoken in language intelligible to the children of men, and upon a subject of all the most absorbing in its interest to the Church above and below--the decease which Christ was to accomplish at Jerusalem!

But I dare not enlarge on this part of my subject, however inviting it may be. Let me only implore of you to consecrate your intellects to G.o.d's service; and glorify Him in "soul and spirit" as well as in "body." Reverence _Truth_ in every department, as it is the expression of the mind and will of G.o.d, and seek it in humility, and with a deep sense of your responsibility as to _how_ you search and _what_ you believe. And surely it is an elevating and comforting thing to know, with reference to those who on earth were adorned by G.o.d with high intellects, cultivated with care, and sanctified for their Master's service; who thirsted for truth, and relished its acquisition with peculiar delight, and the more so when it led them directly to Him who is Truth itself, and enabled them the better to behold His glory, that their powers are now finding ample field for their exercise, and can orb themselves around without a limit. Not therefore with sadness but with joy we can turn from beholding the dead unmeaning eye of the lifeless body, through which the n.o.ble mind once shone with mild intellectual l.u.s.tre, and contemplate the same mind rising over the everlasting hills, amidst the fresh unsullied brightness of a new-born day, and advancing for ever without a cloud amidst the endless glories of the upper sky.

One other suggestion as to duty in connexion with this part of our subject: take a peculiarly tender, sympathising, and thoughtful care of those who are deprived of the n.o.ble gift of intellect, and who in G.o.d's providence may be cast on your mercy. Walk by faith towards them. See them not as they are, but as they shall be. Act as you would wish to have done when you meet them in that world of light where we shall no longer see through a gla.s.s darkly, and where even he who seems exceeding fierce shall sit at the feet of Jesus, meek as a child, and in his right mind. Thank G.o.d, "there shall be no night _there!_"

III.

OUR DEVOTIONAL LIFE.