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CHAPTER X.

SOCIETY OF THE SAVIOUR.

To Jesus, the crown of my hope,
My soul is in haste to be gone;
O, bear me, ye cherubim, up,

And waft me away to his throne!

My Saviour, whom absent, I love;
Whom, not having seen, I adore
Whose name is exalted above

All glory, dominion, and power;

When that happy era begins,

When arrayed in thy glories I shine,
Nor grieve any more, by my sins,
The bosom on which I recline, -

O, then shall the veil be removed,

And round me thy brightness be poured;

I shall meet him, whom absent, I loved ;

I shall see him, whom unseen, I adored!

COWPER.

A TWO-FOLD curtain hides heaven from our view, the curtain which separates the present from the future, and that which separates the world we now live in from the world of spirits. Yet fain would we pierce that screen. Fain would we know the

location and features of the Better Land. Fain would we find a telescope able to reveal to us the heavenly Jerusalem. Fain would we catch a glimpse of that particular mansion which we shall occupy. How

shall I feel when disembodied? With what emotions shall I bid farewell to this earthly house of my tabernacle, when first its windows are darkened, and its door shut behind me? With what emotions shall I join the convoy of angels, pass the gate of pearl, and along the pavement of gold, up to the great white throne? With what eyes shall I look round upon that city of my God? God? With what ears shall I hear the harpers harping with their harps? Most of all, with what rapturous intensity, with what seraphic calmness, will the first glance and the protracted gaze be directed to Him that sitteth on the throne ?

The most important view of the happiness of heaven has respect to the relations there between Christ and his people. And the question arises, Will there be a personal fellowship between the Great Redeemer and our glorified spirits? The intimations of God's word are, that in the Better Land there will be intimate communion between Christ and its redeemed inhabitants. The Holy Scriptures reveal but little concerning the mode and conditions of future exist

ence; concerning the nature of spiritual bodies, our relations to space, and to other intelligences, the character of our perceptions, and the details of our employments. The Holy Spirit enters into no specifications concerning a thousand points on which we might love to speculate. And wisely kind is that silence. Our highest present good does not depend upon an intimate acquaintance with the physiology, psychology, or political economy of Paradise. The requisite for admission to that higher department is not a diploma from the schools of speculative science. It doth not yet appear what we shall be, or what we shall do; saving that general hints are thrown out, on which we may lawfully enlarge for our own spiritual comfort and the present glory of divine grace.

Inquiring after testimony on this point, we go first of all to our Lord himself. Let us listen to him in the solemn act of supplication: "Father, I will that they also whom thou hast given me, be with me where I am." This verse is the last petition in our Saviour's memorable intercessory prayer; and this closing request is for the future blessedness of believers. How, then, does our Lord speak of the heavenly state? What intimation does he furnish in regard to its nature?

Does he pray that those given

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him by the Father may have exemption from the trials of earth? that they may repose under celestial bowers, beside the river of life, amusing themselves with study or recreation, as their tastes incline? Is there any hint here that sensual or social epicureanism is to be looked for in the Paradise of God? that there is there fitted up, as some imagine, an intellectual palæstra, or an academy of the arts? How does he who was on the eve of departure to prepare a place for his followers express himself? "Father, I will that they also whom thou hast given me, be with me where I am, that they may behold my glory which thou hast given me." To come personally into his presence, and enjoy a vision of his glory, is the heaven which he supplicates for his disciples. A few chapters preceding, we read, "And if I go to prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself, that where I am there ye may be also." And, still earlier, "Where I am there shall my servant be." Christ would cheer the hearts of his troubled disciples by assuring them of a future residence with himself. All that he needed to say to his penitent companion in crucifixion was, "To-day shalt thou be with me in Paradise.' Such is our Lord's description of heaven, being with him

And what did his early disciples understand by this? What meaning can it convey to us, if not the idea of personal fellowship with him?

What else, too, does he design by the imagery of a banquet, when he gives the assurance," that ye may eat and drink at my table in my kingdom"? And while the eucharist is a memorial of the past, is it not also a type of the future? "I say unto you, I will not drink henceforth of this fruit of the vine, until that day when I drink it new with you in my Father's kingdom." Is not the same, moreover, implied in the salutation of the final judgment, "Come, ye blessed of my Fath

er?"

Let us inquire of Paul what his idea of heaven is, and he answers, "To be with Christ, "To be present with the Lord," "To be ever with the Lord." We ask the beloved disciple what he actually saw and heard, and he gives the response of one of the elders: "He that sitteth on the throne shall dwell among them; for the Lamb which is in the midst of the throne shall feed them, and shall lead them unto living fountains of waters." From all which we learn that the presence of Christ in the New Jerusalem is the essence of its glory and bliss, and that the gathering of saints around him is that

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