The knowledge thus acquired will be peculiarly full and comprehensive. In the present state, it is but a copy we behold, not the original. Much as we may learn, still we say, "Verily, thou art a God that hidest thyself!" Even the means by which he reveals himself are means of eclipse. But as when the sun, arising upon a cloudless sky, illuminates the whole hemisphere, so will the believer find the world of blessedness; only the light thereof will be as the light of the sun seven-fold. Christ will then seem all in all.

There was one Eudoxus, who longed to approach the sun near enough to have a full view of that glorious body, even though it should consume him. What is the strength of our aspirations to behold the Sun of righteousness? Do we long for that fuller view which shall so irradiate and transform the soul? While, then, we remain on earth, let us be often at the mount of glory; and, see to it, that in the structure of character, "thou make all things according to the pattern showed thee in that mount."

No

THE close relationship of things apparently different is one of the most striking facts in nature. two substances are to the eye more unlike, or in their elements more similar, than charcoal and the diamond. Wandering along the beach, how little do we think that the sand beneath our feet enters so largely into the composition of the splendid vase, or the humbler but still elegant utensils upon our table, that, clarified and combined with other substances, it forms the crystal ceiling of palaces, dazzling and

enchanting assembled throngs; or that to the eye of the astronomer it reveals countless wonders in the heavens! The caterpillar erects for itself a mausoleum of clay; but that tomb of a disgusting worm is the cradle of a most beautiful insect. So is it, only in an immeasurably higher degree, with the people of God. Imperfect, rude, unsightly as they may now seem — much as they may undergo in the crucible of affliction-"I reckon," says Paul, resorting to his sanctified arithmetic, "that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.”

That glory is a manifestation to and also by the saints in heaven. They are at once recipients and exponents. In becoming illuminated, they reflect the light of life.

The glory revealed in them is the eminence of their holiness and happiness. To be at once elevated to a high degree of moral worth and spiritual joy, and to be forever advancing in the same, constitute the bliss to which they are translated from present sin and suffering. If the word of God were silent on the subject; if there could be found nothing positive concerning the bliss of heaven, analogy might lead us to infer that it would be exceeding great. Assuming the present dispensation of God's

favors as the standard of his benevolence, what may we reasonably expect when this mixed condition of things shall cease when the tares shall have been gathered out from the wheat, and when God's own chosen people shall all have been gathered home to heaven? Dispensing his providential bounties now according to a general system, which has comparatively little reference to moral character, he deals out favors with open hand to Infidels and Pagans; to the rejected house of Israel, and the fierce descendants of Ishmael; to the millions of idolaters in Eastern Asia, and to the multitudes of nominal Christians the world over. While, on the one hand, ten righteous men would have saved Sodom, and a handful of praying ones have saved many a city and country from destruction; on the other, one Achan has often troubled the whole camp, and brought down plagues upon an entire community.

Now, when the Son of man shall send forth his angels, and they shall gather out of his kingdom all things that offend, and them which do iniquity; when nothing shall longer prevent the displays of divine munificence, no personal demerit of saints, or anything in their social relations, - what glory will be revealed in them!

But there is something more certain than conjec

ture. Inspiration speaks of "A far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory:" a weight of glory; an exceeding weight of glory; yes, a far more than hyperbolical weight of glory. Let hyperbole be piled upon hyperbole, the language of earth can never convey that inexpressible weight of future glory. It is called "so great salvation," and reference is made not only to the exalted character of the Saviour, and the magnitude of those displays which attended his mission, but also to results, future as well as present, in the experience of all saints. Partly, at least, on this account, is it called "a great salvation." But how great, is not and cannot be told. The sacred writer leaves it, saying, "so great salvation." Glorious things are indeed spoken concerning Zion, the city of our God. Again: "The creature itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God." It is not only liberty, but glorious liberty.

plete emancipation from the

There will be com

bondage of sin and

Satan, the flesh and the world. And this deliver ance of the children of God is so illustrious that the whole irrational world is represented as looking anxiously for it, as to the grand consummation of all its wishes.