does see in all their details, and no man will see till the very eve of their accomplishment draws near: therefore, if any one should profess to lay down a map of the future just as confidently as he repeats his creed, and assert that he sees the future as plainly as he sees the present or recollects the past, he is looking at the future with a glass that is his own; he does not look through God's glass, for if he looked through it, he would see these things darkly. The fact that he appears to see them otherwise, is evidence that he sees them not at all as they are to be seen. Let us speak of the atonement in terms that cannot be misunderstood; but let us speak of unfulfilled prophecy with humility and with submission, - ever conscious that we may be wrong, ever admitting that it may possibly be that we misapprehend.

In drawing some practical remarks from these reflections, I may notice that this knowledge in part is an evidence, not of the lowness, but of the greatness of our origin, and the grandeur of our destiny. Animals know all they do know in full; man knows in part. The first impulse would be to infer from this, that animals are more gifted than we; but it is not so. The bee builds its cell in the nineteenth century just as it built it in the first; and the bird constructs its nest to-day just as it will build it while the world lasts. They know all they do know in full; and they know no more in the last years of their existence than they knew in the first. But man knows in part, and the more he knows, the more he attempts to know; and that which seems a symptom of his weakness is the evidence of his grandeur; it becomes to him, therefore, the spring of an endless progression- the evidence of a vast capacity of improvement—the foretoken that the glass through which he sees darkly will be broken, and that he shall see all things face to face. This assurance, that we shall see all

things as they are, is the sure hope which acts like an anchor to the soul, and saves it from sinking amid rack, and doubt, and difficulty, and darkness. If I thought that the present cold and misty dawn were to last for ever, I should feel miserable; if I thought that this dark and smoked medium through which I see the things of God and of glory were never to be removed, I should be wretched; but I know that the glass will be removed. that the veil will be rent that the clouds will be scattered, and, amid the splendors and the noon of everlasting day, what I see now so dimly I shall see face to face.

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I believe, in the next place, that this progressive acquaintance with the truths that we know dimly upon earth, and with new truths, in heaven and in the future, that we never knew on earth at all, will constitute much of the joy and the happiness of the saved in glory. When we point out to a child the beauties of a flower, or the exquisite crystallizations of a mineral, when we indicate to him analogies, affinities, and points of contact he never dreamed of, what ecstasy does that child manifest! how is his mind enchanted, and how does he express his wonder that he never knew or saw these things before! But why did he not know them before? Not because they were not, but because his mind was not large enough in its capacity to comprehend them. We notice, too, in men of ripe age, what ecstasy they feel in adding to their stock of knowledge. The student will traverse arctic snows, and stormy seas, and burning deserts, and leave all man loves at home, and face all man dreads abroad, in order to find a new plant, or to become acquainted with a new mineral or to see an eclipse, or planetary transit, from a new position - or to register a new phenomenon or to do something that will add to the bulk and splendor of that knowledge which is every day increasing in the midst of

us! What joy does it give him to catch a gleam of an undiscovered truth! what ecstasy when he has made the discovery! And what is all this but a foretaste of that joy and rapture which we shall feel in the realms of the blessed, when we shall no more see these things through a glass darkly?

What humility should this fact that now we see darkly, teach us! How little do we really know-how much remains to be known-how truly is that sentiment which bids us walk humbly with our God enforced in all this! God gives us to see even the truths that save us, through a glass darkly.

What charity should this truth teach! How slow should we be to condemn a brother-how little should we feel of irritation or exasperation of mind because he differs from us - how should we try to teach him the more excellent way, knowing that we ourselves were once in error how should we agree to differ in things that are not vital, when both of us see through a glass darkly, and may see through very different media!

What contentment should this teach us, to be satisfied to see through a glass darkly, knowing that the day comes when we shall see face to face! Let us, therefore, anticipate that blessed day. We are saved, says the Apostle, by hope, and that hope is, that the day comes when all will be luminous - when every mystery shall be penetrated by a new splendor-when the things that lie in the shadow shall be placed in the sunshine—when the veil shall be rent, and the films and the scales shall be removed from our eyes, and we shall be "satisfied," for we shall see God face to face, and we shall be like him, for we shall see Him as He is.

Let us rejoice in this, that "blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God;" and if we are in the number of

those whose hearts have been renewed, whose minds have been enlightened, who are made, by that blessed Spirit, pure in heart, let us rejoice that we shall see Him just as He is. In the mean time let us make the best use of what we do know, instead of prying into what we cannot know. Let us apply heartily, and throughout the whole range of our life, what we do know. One truth of God's Word, turned into life, and impressed on our walk, our heart, our consciences, and our relations to society, may be infinitely more precious than twenty truths speculated on, or intellectually studied, or curiously pried into. Let us, therefore, pray that those truths that we do know, we may be enabled practically to follow, and prayerfully to use. The man who puts into action the whole of the truth that he does know, is the very man to whom God will reveal more clearly the things that he does not know. This do we know, "The blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanseth from all sin." "He that knew no sin was made sin for us, that we might be made the righteousness of God by Him." "He bare our sins in His own body on the tree." This we do know, that we are invited to come unto Him, weary and heavy laden as we are, and He will give us rest. And this we do know, that "except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God."

May these truths be not only light, but life, to us! may they be not only sounds that reverberate in the ear, or sights that charm the eye, but living seeds that germinate in the heart!

19*

CHAPTER XIII.

THE INHERITANCE.

So live, that when thy summons comes, to join
The innumerable caravan, that moves

To that mysterious realm where each shall take
His chamber in the silent halls of death,
Thou go not like the quarry slave at night,
Scourged to his dungeon, but sustain'd and soothed
By an unfaltering trust. Approach thy grave
Like one who wraps the drapery of his couch
About him, and lies down to pleasant dreams."

"Giving thanks unto the Father, which hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light." — COL. i. 12

IN the verse I have quoted from Colossians we have, first of all, a description of the rest that remains for the people of God, under the beautiful and instructive epithet, "the inheritance." We have next the characteristic of that inheritance the "inheritance of the saints in light." We have then the names of those who are appointed to be partakers of that inheritance · "saints." We have also their character "meet." "Who hath made us meet [fit, adapted] to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light." We also see the Author of it all, who has created the inheritance, and lighted it up with all its glory; who hath also made them that enter it meet, or adapted, for the inheritance of the saints in light; namely, God the Father, and our Father.

This description of the future rest, namely, "the inheritance," reveals to us the nature of that heaven to which we