union with them of the spirits of just men made

perfect.

Why is it, then, that epitaphs should now so seldom recognize this glorious truth? A false, unchristian taste on this point appears to have spread widely in our own land, and some other parts of Christendom. It is painful to observe to what extent recent cemeteries are devoid of all scriptural sentiment in their monumental records. Formerly it was not so. In the Catacombs of Rome, where the primitive Christians were interred, is many a testimony like this: "In Christ: Alexander is not dead, but lives beyond the stars, and his body rests in this tomb." Go to the burial-places of our godly fathers, and you read : — "In sure and certain hope of the resurrection to eternal life." our modern style is coming fast into conformity to

But

what is called the severely chaste and attic, but really atheistic usage of pagan Greece.

We honor and commend for imitation the pious forethought of that excellent bishop of London, who provided by his will that Resurgam, "I shall rise again," should be inscribed on his grave-stone.

The subject of recognizing departed Christian friends comes up once more. We have as yet known those friends only in the body. It is im

possible for us, if we would, to dissociate our affections and our recollections of them from those forms so endeared to us. That disruption of soul and body which we witnessed at their death was to us painful, perhaps overwhelming. We long to see them once more in their house which is from heaven. And therein we shall be gratified. Nor are the yearnings of the natural heart unauthorized.

'O, when a mother meets on high
The child she lost in infancy,

Has she not then, for pains and fears,
The day of woe, the watchful night,

For all her sorrows and her tears,

An over-payment of delight?"

"Not as a child shall we again behold her,
For when, with rapture wild,

In our embraces we again enfold her,

She will not be a child,

But a fair maiden in her Father's mansion,

Clothed with celestial grace;

And beautiful, with all the soul's expression,
Shall we behold her face."

CHAPTER XVI.

PERPETUITY OF BLISS IN HEAVEN

"Soon, and forever!"

Such promise our trust,

Though ashes to ashes,

And dust unto dust:

Soon, and forever,

Our union shall be

Made perfect, our glorious

Redeemer, in thee.

When the sins and the sorrows

Of time shall be o'er,
Its pangs and its partings
Remembered no more;

When life cannot fail,

And when death cannot sever,
Christians with Christ shall be
Soon, and forever.

MONSEL.

THERE are few themes which cloy sooner, or have been more thoroughly exhausted, than the shortness of terrestrial life, and the universality of death. For centuries men have talked, and sung, and sighed about it. From immemorial ages a sad, yet untiring eye has been upon the look-out for every

thing frail and transient, from which to borrow an additional illustration. But in the fields of metaphor there are no more gleanings. Even poetry dies for lack of aliment. The earth has come to be one great mausoleum; and every hillock, every dale we meet with, has its memento mori. We cannot, then, forget the subject. Each setting sun, each expiring year, forces it upon our notice. And thus will it ever be. So long as the moon sails through the heavens, so long as a dial marks the rapid shadow, or an arrow remains in death's quiver, so long will the mind be impressed by these considerations. That element of our natures, which renders us susceptible to such impressions from the fleeting uncertainties of present existence, is the same which connects us with the future, and sends our thoughts onward unto eternity.

There is an oracle in man which has spoken of fortunate islands, with their perpetual spring; which has told the wild Indian, too, that he shall renew the chase in a better land, far to the west. But dreams and traditions do not satisfy us. We need,

and we have, a more sure word of prophecy.

Is,

then, the happiness of heaven without end? May the people of God cherish this anticipation with firm assurance?

4

"shall never see

Gol, in his word, has set forth this truth under various expressions. One is that of an endless life "Of them that sleep in the dust of the earth some shall awake to everlasting life." "The righteous shall go into life eternal," death." Not without reason is death used to represent the sum of penal evils, and life made the symbol of all things desirable. Men struggle for life as for nothing else; and in this strong love of life is an earnest of immortality, — an intimation that the soul was not made for less than unending consciousness, a sleepless activity of mind and heart. We feel, too, that, in order to complete happiness, all this must be under the control of perfect love. This alone can realize the highest idea of life. Such an image, thus meeting the deep demands of our nature, inspiration presents. "He that overcometh shall not be hurt of the second death;" for "this is the promise that he hath promised us, even eternal life;"—all which comes through union by faith to him who is the author and giver of life. "This is the will of him that sent me, that every one that seeth the Son, and believeth on him, may have everlasting life; and I will raise him up at the last day." Hence, when a believer reaches the close of his present