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of the past upon the soul? Is not this like living again? And how could we conceive of the zest and the vividness of the transport but by the contrast which earth with all its vicissitudes, and sin with all its sorrow, will supply?

We therefore think that it is not merely an intimation, that it is absolutely a discovery, that it is a clear doctrine of Scripture, that we shall know each other if, through infinite grace, we are "saved even as they."

We are not at all, however, unconscious that objections may be raised against this doctrine. It may be said to be a very restrictive one. Shall we not range at all? Shall we not know all that family of heaven formed as it is from the infinite family of earth? Let us remember that eternity is before us, and that the probability is, that we, in the compass of that eternity, may know and enjoy them all. But from what centre shall we at the earliest period proceed? How shall we commence that joy that shall be perpetuated and heightened through the ages of eternity? Is it restrictive and is it narrow to suppose that those with whom we have taken sweet counsel will be those whom 'we first shall address, or will be the first to accost us? And though it shall be only the commencement of that high and sublime familiarity, yet that familiarity will require commencement. And then, perhaps, as we go on, circle after circle, knowledge added to knowledge, endearment heaped upon endearment, as by a sort of intuition the disciples knew a Moses and an Elijah, so may we know even as also we are known.

It may, perhaps, be further contended, that we shall be too much engaged in our own happiness to heed the enlarge; ent of that happiness in the knowledge of others. But let us pause for a moment, and demand what knowledge is there that we require for this happiness. Is it the knowledge of esteem, and of love, and of friendship? And there is no happiness in religion which is contracted and selfish. So that we may look around on all that vast domain, and all that blood-bought multitude, and we may even inquire their former condition, as well as gaze upon their present immortality; and it will not be distracting to our own happiness, to say, "Who are these, and whence come they?" And, therefore, our happiness not being narrow and circumscribed, we are happy in loving others, in loving them even as they love us. And thus shall it be perfected in us: we shall dwell in God, and God in us.

But shall we not (and we honour the sensitiveness of the objection) shall we not be so enrapt in the vision of the Lamb-so enamoured of the glory of the beauty of Him who is in the midst of the throne, that there can be no vacancy in our eye for the creature, and not one nook in the heart in which a creature shall be enshrined? There is something honourable but mistaken in the objection; because, do we not here honour the Saviour? Said Paul, "They glorify God in me:" and there were those on earth of whom he spake, as being the glory of Christ; Christ was therefore magnified in them. And when there are harpers harping with their harps, and multitudes uniting in vocal chorus, will not the union of those sounds, and the swell of those acclamations, induce each other to love the Saviour as they are acquainted with each, entering into each other's sympathies and each other's joy?

But, it will be said, if we can remember the good, must we not remember the evil? If we recognise our beloved friends, must we not deplore the absence of those, who, whatever was their guilt, were dear to our bosoms, and were

twined around our hearts? My brethren, the love which we owe to our unconverted acquaintance and friends, it is not our purpose to condemn. Love them, and show that you have much sorrow in your hearts for your brethren and kinsmen according to the flesh: but remember, that whatever you deplore, on the supposition that they are now lost, or in any way put yourselves in an antagonist attitude to the divine will and the divine arrangement, there is a feeling which we denominate an amiable feeling, but which is really unamiable, if it is in contravention of what the divine law has demanded and denounced. But you are perfect in heaven; that which is in part is done away, that which is perfect is You cannot conceive of that which is perfect in heaven, without the most entire, absolute acquiescence, in what God has arranged, or what God has suffered. Then, though this feeling will not arise and not distress, we can most easily presage, that there it is unknown, exactly because the will of God is done in heaven: and whenever we ask, that that will may be done now, it is that it may be done on earth as it is in heaven." We know not that awful exultation which glorified spirits raise over the downfall of their spiritual adversaries; but the smoke of their torment may arise, and yet they shall cry "Hallelujah! the judgment of the enemies of God is come."

come.

But is not this an unworthy consideration, that we might live indifferently; and, amidst those sweet glimpses of other bright visions of heaven, which come on our spirits, might we not, at least, forget and even reject those whom we loved? My brethren, we want nothing that reverses the nature that God gave us we can find in religion nothing irrational, nothing unnatural: every thing in religion is nothing but the refinement of what we are, the taking from us that which is gross and alloying. Now that which makes us capable of loving, must always be honourable to us: and what is there more pleasingly associated with the thought of home, than that there shall be some welcome tone falling on our ears, that there shall be some familiar feature reaching your eye -that there shall be something assuring and confidential in the manner of a few spirits grouped around us who know us, who are unveiled to us, and by whom we are as instantly recognised as we recognise them and these leading us forward to the very footstool of the throne, taking the place of the very "ministering spirits sent forth to minister to them who shall be heirs of salvation." So that, angels having borne our spirits to the heavenly threshold, there shall be some of our best friends, our kindred there, ready to meet us, and there to dwell with them for ever. It is not, oh Saviour, to forget thee that we think of them whom thou hast loved, and whom we still love to remember. There is an improvement to be made of this subject (which, I trust, will not be regarded as curious speculation, but as scriptural truth), and it is this. Of course there are those who, by their incorrigible and impenitent conduct, prove that they have no desire to meet their sires in the realms of peace: they love not the goodness here, and they desire not an incorruption with the good for ever. All that we can understand: and yet it may be that the disobedient child has sometimes hugged the thought to himself, that his happiness was necessary to the happiness of his parents-of a father who has expostulated, a mother who has wept; and this has been the very thought and purpose of their heart: " "They cannot be happy without me: may I not therefore be saved, even if it be by fire?" No: and let me particularly enter a caveat against a

sentiment like this, and protest against that which is so unnatural, and which is so unfounded. Little care you, evidently, for parents' sympathy and commiseration, who only think that that commiseration and that sympathy can stand you in some stead. There is an insensibility, there is an ungraciousness, there is that which is perfectly fiendish in the suggestion itself. But your parents will not then have all that now belongs to them, for they will be as the angels of God; they will not know what it is to weep; they will be perfect in their joy as well as complete in their purity. And (if it be then necessary and so ordered) think not that your parents, for a moment, would forbid the execution of the sentence, or the stroke of the Judge. You will not be able to cover their breast with a single shade of disquietude-not be able, for a single moment, to grieve or wound their heart. You have done your last, you have done your worst, but parental kindness and sensibility will never stand between you and the wrath of the Almighty.

This is a subject that should excite us to usefulness. He who teaches in the Sabbath Schools, and he who goes about in the lanes, and in the purlieus in the city, what has encouraged him when most disheartened, and fortified him when most relaxed? That there is some one now his persecutor who shall be his eternal joy; that there is one who is throwing all his ridicule upon him who shall rejoice with him in the mansions of their common Father's house. Oh let the teacher of the child thus bear it in mind. There is a child most hopeless and apparently most irreclaimable; a few more years the child is lost to the teacher, the teacher to the child; and now the teacher, unnoticed and unheard of, enters on his reward. What spirit comes and greets him now? That vacant face (but oh, you have made it radiant), that idle hand (but oh! you have taught it to strike the golden harp), that bitter voice (but oh! you have made it musical with the anthems of heaven)--live, and that very one over whom you despaired, comes to bless you, to invite you, to repay you!

And is not this the very thought involving the fact of recognition: "If any of you do err from the truth, and one of you convert him, let him know that he who converteth a sinner from the error of his way shall save a soul alive, and shall hide the multitude of sins?" Know it as an impalpable abstraction? Know it as a possible fact? Know it as a fact that never can be denied? You take away the very zeal of piety by such criticisms as these. "Let him know that he who converteth a sinner from the error of his ways shall save a soul alive, and shall hide the multitude of sins"-knowing that he who soweth and he who reapeth shall rejoice together.

But this is a subject which may teach us to condole with each other, and a circumstance is involved in this subject which makes us think more soberly of the future than of the present or of the past. There are some who are quite young in this assembly, and they think they are surrounded with a world of friends. There are others who have arrived at middle age, and at absolute age. Let me ask, then, if you are prepared for heaven? Is not this that which quickens the very thought of that heaven, that you go to find more friends than you leave behind? This is the highest excellence, this is concentrated goodness, and though we reflect not on the present, and, least of all, despair of the future, believing that the very saints of the Most High shall populate our earth-yet why are our feelings so lacerated, and our affections so thwarted? What is

heaven but the regaining of so much as we have lost, and much more than we can ever hope to find?

Therefore, my brethren, though we give all glory to God and to the Lamb, though we think of that uncreated radiance which spreads itself over the everlasting hills, though we think of the angels with their harps, yet let us not forget, in the enumeration of all that belongs to heaven, in the enumeration of all those glories, and of all those felicities, that there dwell those who once dwelt below, that there walk those with whom we once walked, that there sing those with whom we once sung. But as we sung with them the sigh interfered, and the tear frequently fell upon the cheek; but then we shall sing together, and the song shall never fade, shall never drop, and shall never die away. "Wherefore comfort ye one another with these words." Amen.

CHRIST THE FOUNDATION.

REV. J. SHERMAN.

SURREY CHAPEL, APRIL 26, 1824.

"Therefore thus saith the Lord God, Behold I lay in Zion for a foundation a stone, a tried stone, a precious corner-stone, a sure foundation: he that believeth shall not make haste."-ISAIAH, xxviii. 16.

THE two great pillars on which Satan erects his kingdom are, carnal security, and the building on a false foundation. By one he lulls the guilty consciences of men to sleep, and persuades them that all is safe and well, while sudden destruction is hastening upon them, and hurrying them to perdition: by the other he blinds the eyes of men so that they shall not see the foundation which God has laid in Zion, and deceives and disappoints them by inclining them to rely on those which he himself has pointed out. Under these two great divisions, whatever the hopes, or expectations, or principles of men may be— under these two great divisions the whole of the unconverted part of the world are placed. Every unconverted man, woman, and child, in my congregation this evening, belongs to the one class or to the other: each is either totally indifferent about his soul's salvation, and carnally secure of heaven, though he is an enemy to God and a despiser of his Christ; or else he is building his hope on some insecure foundation, which the besom of God's wrath shall in the end sweep away.

And this is not to astonish us: it is nothing new; it was so from the beginning. Whilst Abel chose God's method of expiation, and sought his favour by sacrifice, Cain chose to bring rather of the fruits of the earth, supposing that this mode of expiation, though not devised by heaven, though contrary to God's appointment would meet with equal acceptance with that of Abel. For a hundred and twenty years Noah preached righteousness to the Antediluvians, and he declared to them that the ark was the only place of safety-that neglecting the ark they perished-that if they failed to enter that, the deluge of wrath would sweep them away: but they scoffed at his exhortations, they chose to live in sin, to defy the Most High, and perish (as they did) in their fatal security. Although the prophet Isaiah preached the Gospel more fully, and with more brilliant imagery, and with more enlivening eloquence than any of his predecessors, yet even in his days, animated as the Gospel was through his lips, delivered as it was with his glowing descriptions of its beatitudes and its glories, even in his days such deluded souls were found. He preached to them "line upon line, precept upon precept, here a little" as they could bear it, "and there a little," as they

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