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means of quickening devotion. And in the wide range of thought which lies open to the human mind, especially in the millennium, when all hearts shall be pure, is there any limit to subjects adapted to music, to be enforced and aided by it?

But we turn to a more interesting topic. Whether or not music has reached its climax in this world, have we reason to believe it is destined to an onward progress in the world to come? We answer this question in the affirmative; and though the discussion of it may lead to uncertain fields of hypothesis and conjecture, still it is a region in which one delights to wander, and which, with proper guards, need not exert any dangerous influence over us, but, on the contrary, may have a purifying and ennobling effect.

The principles of taste within us are enduring as the soul itself-they are co-essential, consubstantial with it. The emotions of beauty and sublimity will be awakened within us whenever the appropriate objects are presented. Now, hypothesis and conjecture apart, the Bible assures us that in the future world we shall have a body adapted to the new state that awaits us. "There is a natural body and there is a spiritual body." And although the phrase spiritual body is at first sight a little contradictory, the meaning doubtless is, that here there is a body adapted to the present state, and there a body adapted to the future state. It is explained in the context,-"As is the earthy such are they which are earthy; and as is the heavenly, such are they also that are heavenly." And there can surely be no question but the heavenly body will be a material body. For it is the very body we now possess that is to rise from the grave and ascend up to meet the Lord in the air; even as it was Christ's veritable body that left the tomb, and which from the Mount of Olives did verily ascend up "till a cloud received him out of sight." Still it will be a body changed in its properties, endowed with new attributes, enrobed with glory and with powers which in this world it knew nothing of. And as the soul will be connected with a body, it follows, almost of. course, that it will be conversant with material objects. The great and the minute, the distant and the near, the gross and the subtile will come under its observation; and whatever we may think of the three lower senses, it can hardly be ques

tioned that that spiritual body will retain the two noblest ones -the sight and the hearing. There will, we think, be a spiritual ear. Not that the senses of that body will be limited to two-it may have many, such as it is impossible for us now to conceive of. But those of the eye and the ear we shall doubtless possess; and these, heightened in their powers, will be inlets of ideas and conduits of emotions in some measure closely analogous to our perceptions here. Man's chief end both here and there is to glorify God and enjoy him. Now, if the inspection of a passion-flower or a dew-drop awaken in us ideas of God's wisdom and skill before unknown, and their beauties charm us with emotions of delight before unfelt, and if the sight of heaven's concave produce the same ideas and emotions, yet heightened by the addition of sublimity, why may we not glorify God, and enjoy Him there by similar observations of his works, made under the higher advantages of a superior organ. One basis of eternal praise to God, undoubtedly will be, the display of his glorious attributes through the works of his hands.

Euler's theory of light is that all space is filled with a subtile fluid-it may be the electric fluid-and that the vibrations of this fluid, by impulses from luminous bodies, is the source of the perception of light by means of our visual organ. This theory is not without its strong arguments. Such a fluid may be equally A MEDIUM OF SOUND to the auditory organ of a spiritual body. In short, it is not unreasonable to suppose, nor visionary to hypothecate, that the spiritual body will possess powers of music analogous to those of this world, but inconceivably greater in degree. In short we do hypothecate that there will be an ear that can appreciate all sounds from the highest to the lowest, and of all variety of tone, that distance will present no obstacle to the consequence of sound, so that the amphitheatre for the Oratorios of heaven may be, not the contracted space which the angels occupied in our atmosphere when they sung "Glory to God in the highest, on earth peace, good will to men," but a hollow sphere equal in diameter to a planet's orbit;-that the voice and other instruments of producing sound will not be like these of earthly mould always getting out of tune, and in their nature and constitution imperfect, but strong, accurate, and in the highest sense very good.

Moreover, that the soul there, augmented in its stores of knowledge and enlarged in its capacities of emotion, will be in no want of subjects to explore, nor of power to comprehend and feel them; but as genius here is stimulated to highest strains of music, in proportion as the subject is ennobling, so it will be there; that as the subjects of the Creation and the Messiah are here the most exalted subjects, so they will be there; that as here they can be but feebly comprehended through sin and earthly infirmities, there, on the contrary, there will be no impediments in the way of worthy conception and worthy celebration of them, and that as these subjects can never be exhausted, for the reason that God's creations are infinite in number, extent and variety, and his redeeming love in Jesus Christ, unfathomable in its depths, there will be in heaven a field of unknown variety and everlasting interest.

On this subject we may perhaps derive some light from the Apocalypse of St. John. This book in its form is scenic and dramatic,-in short an Oratorio, in which the destinies of the church, militant and triumphant, are represented from the time of John onwards.

"After this I looked, and behold a door was opened in heaven, and a voice said, 'Come up hither and I will show thee things which must be hereafter.'' Chap. 4: 1.

However commentators differ in the interpretation of the details of this mysterious book, they seem to agree mainly in this grand outline;-that it foreshows the downfall, first of Judaism, next of Paganism, and thirdly of Satan in all other forms of delusion, by the final triumph of the church in the world, and its exaltation to the New Jerusalem in the next.

These may be called the three acts of the drama. Some make five acts by introducing two into the third. One commentator calls the first part of the first act the Prolusion, or the preparation and adorning of the scene. All this action is a series of recitations and dialogues between two or more, interspersed here and there with chorusses aud grand cho

russes.

Thus in the Prolusion, chap. iv, we have the quartett of the four beasts before the throne,

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And then the response of the twenty-four elders in a semichorus,

"Thou art worthy, O LORD, to receive glory, and honor, and power; For thou hast created all things,

And for thy pleasure they are and were created."

And again, chap. v, when the Apostle's tears are dried because the Lamb, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, has prevailed to open the book, the elders, in semi-chorus, fall down before the Lamb, and sing a new song, saying,

"Thou art worthy to take the book and to open the seals thereof:
For thou wast slain, and hast redeemed us to God by thy blood,
Out of every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation,
And hath made us unto our God kings and priests :

And we shall reign on the earth."

And immediately was heard the voice of many angels round about the throne. This was a full chorus. And what a chorus it was! The number of them was ten thousand times ten thousand, (the square of 10,000 is 100,000,000,) and thousands of thousands ;-saying with a loud voice,

"Worthy is the Lamb that was slain,

To receive power, and riches, and wisdom,

And strength, and honor, and glory, and blessing."

But even this is not the fullest chorus. There immediately succeeds another, of which there is no attempt at enumeration, and in which the Apostle heard every creature which is in heaven, and on the earth, and under the earth, and such as are in the sea, and all that are in them, saying,

"Blessing, and honor, and glory, and power,

Be unto him that sitteth upon the throne,
And to the Lamb, for ever and ever!"

To this magnificent chorus the four beasts again add their quartett, saying "AMEN:" and the four and twenty elders again join in a semi-chorus, falling down and worshipping Him that liveth for ever and ever.

Again, chap. vii, the chorusses are introduced at the sealing

of the servants of God. A hundred and forty-four thousand are sealed with the mark of God in their foreheads, from out of all the tribes of the children of Israel. These form a distinct chorus by themselves-the representatives of the redeemed from the Jewish church, and which afterwards sing a "new song" on Mount Zion, which none but the redeemed can learn. Immediately after the sealing of these hundred and forty-four thousand, the Apostle beheld and lo, "a great multitude which no man could number, of all nations, and kindreds, and people, and tongues, stood before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, and palms in their hands; and cried with a loud voice, saying,

'Salvation to our God, which sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb.''

Here we have indeed the grand chorus of all the redeemed, and we have too the peculiarity of that new song which none but the redeemed could learn. It is, Salvation by grace. We ascribe our salvation to God and the Lamb-not unto ourselves. It is the same as, 66 Worthy the Lamb that was slain, for thou hast redeemed us to God by thy blood."

Responsive to this chorus of the redeemed sings another grand chorus. It is the chorus of angels-angels themselves are entranced and inspired by the wondrous harmony of the new song" And all the angels stood round about the throne, and about the elders and the four beasts, and fell before the throne on their faces, and worshipped God, saying,

'Amen! Blessing, and glory, and wisdom,

And thanksgiving, and honor, and power, and might,
Be unto our God for ever and ever! Amen.'
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Immediately after this-the close of the Prolusion—is a recitation of one of the elders, in reply to the inquiry concern ing the redeemed, "what are these, and whence come they?"

"These are they which have come out of great tribulation, and have washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. Therefore are they before the throne of God and serve him day and night in his temple; and he that sitteth on the throne shall dwell among them. They shall hunger no more, neither shall they thirst any more; neither shall the sun light on them, nor any heat. For the Lamb which is in the midst of the throne shall feed them, and shall lead them unto living fountains of waters; and God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes."

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