separation between the happy and the wretched, the acquitted and the condemned, in the future state; a separation which neither party can pass over at will. And yet, by the permission of the Almighty, and on messages of his own grace and compassion, that gulf may be passed; and what gulf can there be too wide for the wings of love, too deep or broad for the passage of charity?

The considerations which have been mentioned, are abundantly sufficient, to our mind, to obviate the difficulty which they have been brought forward to answer. But if they were less convincing, if the difficulty remained in its full force, yet the doctrine of future recognition would not be disproved. No objection drawn from a probable state of painful feeling for the wicked, could overthrow the fact that heaven is a social condition of being, on which fact the doctrine of the mutual recognition of friends in heaven still would rest unmoved. This fact should be sufficient to content and

console us.

Heaven is a social state, a city, a kingdom, a church, in which there is a great assembly, an innumerable company, and in which the innocent and good, the servants of the King Eternal, the spiritual and true worshippers of the Father, will meet together, and know each other, and never be separated any more. There the parent will see the child, improved by heavenly culture, and listen to the voice, now made more musical, which in days gone by was the sweetest music he ever heard. There the child will find the parent, and hear from him those words of love and wisdom which were early lost to him on earth. There brother and sister will meet again, and exchange again that confidence and sympathy which passed between them and united them here. There the widowed wife will meet the husband, and the husband the wife; and though they will be as the angels, where there is no marrying nor giving in marriage, the ties and affections of earth will not be forgotten, and in spirit they twain will be one.

Years soon finish their revolutions.

A few

more incidents, and the scene of mortal life is closed. Time hastens to restore that which we thought it was too hasty in demanding. Death promptly repairs as well as destroys, rejoins as well as divides, is cruel and kind in quick succession. "All the days of my appointed time will I wait," said the patient man, "till my change come." The last change cannot be long in coming to any. "All the days of my appointed time will I wait," is the language of every pious spirit, "till my change come." All the days are but few. I will wait, and hope, and cheerfully trust, till they are gone. The distance can be but small which keeps me from those whom I have loved, and yet love, and, in the presence of God and my Redeemer, and in the light of heaven, shall continue to love for

ever.

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THE LAND OF THE BLEST.

'Dear father, I ask for my mother in vain, Has she sought some far country, her health to regain? Has she left our cold climate of frost and of snow,

For some warm, sunny land, where the soft breezes

blow?'

'Yes, yes, gentle boy, thy loved mother has gone
To a climate where sorrow and pain are unknown;
Her spirit is strengthened, her frame is at rest,
There is health, there is peace, in the Land of the
Blest!'

Is that Land, my dear father, more lovely than ours, Are the rivers more clear, and more blooming the flowers?

Does Summer shine over it all the year long?

Is it cheered by the glad sound of music and song?'

Yes, the flowers are despoiled not by winter or night,

The well-springs of life are exhaustless and bright,

And by sweet voices sweet hymns are addrest
To the Lord, who reigns over the Land of the Blest!'

'Yet that land to my mother will lonely appear;
She shrunk from the glance of a stranger, while here;
From her foreign companions I know she will flee,
And sigh, dearest father, for you and for me.'
'My darling, thy mother delighteth to gaze
On the long-severed friends of her earliest days;
Her parents have there found a mansion of rest,
And they welcome their child to the Land of the Blest.'

'How I long to partake of such meetings of bliss! That land must be surely more happy than this; On you, my kind father, the journey depends, Let us go to my mother, her kindred and friends.' 'Not on me, love; I trust I may reach that bright clime,

But in patience I stay, till the Lord's chosen time, And must strive, while awaiting his gracious behest, To guide thy young steps to the Land of the Blest.

'Thou must toil through a world full of danger, my

boy;

Thy peace it may blight and thy virtue destroy ;