place among men empty. Of those who entered with us on this career of meditation, "some are not ;" their course is finished, they have fulfilled their day, they are gone to join the men who lived beyond the flood. The cold hand of death has frozen up some of the streams of friendship; the congelation is gaining upon our own vital powers, and marking us for the tomb, where the endearments of social affection, and the meltings of sympathy, and the glow of love, are felt no more. But "we sorrow not" over departed worth "as those who have no hope." God, and angels, and "the spirits of just men made perfect," have gained what the world has lost: they move in a higher sphere; they perceive with purer intelligence, act with superiour energy, enjoy with more exalted capacity; they die no more, they are as the angels of God in heaven and Providence charges itself with the care of the forsaken, the helpless and the forlorn whom they have left behind. And we look forward together to that day, when we shall join Moses and Elias, Peter and James, and John, and all who have died before us, or shall die after us in the Lord, not in the glory of Tabor, which was to pass away, but of Mount Zion which is above, and which endureth to endless ages-when we shall come together "unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable 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, and to the blood of sprinkling, that speaketh better things than that of Abel," and dwell in a tabernacle not erected by the hands of man, the habitation of an hour, but in "a building of God, an house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens." 66 Be ye therefore" followers of them who through faith and patience inherit the promises." Purchase for yourselves a deathless name among the "ransomed of the Lord." Consider yourselves as encompassed, observed, tenderly regarded by those to whom you were dear while they tabernacled among men, and who now love you with the ardour of immortals. Add to the consolation which they enjoy, that of marking your progress in wisdom, your growth in grace. Cultivate acquaintance with the language you are to speak, the spirit you are to breathe, the manners with which you are to conform, the persons with whom you are to converse, eternally. Seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith; who, for the joy that was set before him, endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God."+" Behold what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God." "Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall ap pear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is. And every man that hath this hope in him, purifieth himself, even as he is pure."‡ *Heb. xii. 22-24. + Heb. xii. 1, 2. 1 John iii. 2, 3. END OF VOLUME |