calls him "son;" thus recognizing him as a Hebrew; reminds him of the earth, and of his mode of life there: "Son, remember that thou in thy lifetime receivedst thy good things." He reminds him of the difference of both their situations now from what they were on the earth: "Now he is comforted, and thou art tormented.” How could they thus compare their previous and present situations and conditions, without a continuation of that consciousness which necessarily implies recognition? He remembers also, and speaks of his "father's house" upon earth. He thinks of his "five brethren," and acknowledges himself as still sustaining that relation to them; for he does not say I had, but "I have five brethren." He still feels for them, and desires that Lazarus may be sent to them, "that he may testify unto them, lest they also come into that place of torment.”

This, it is true, is a parable; but is a parable intended to mean nothing; or, is it not rather intended to make revealed truth plainer than could be done by plain precept? That, therefore, which is its plainest meaning, is its true meaning. That it contains ornamental imagery, which must not be run too closely in the interpretation, none will deny; but if all we have gathered from it in favour of our doctrine is taken as imagery, what, we ask, is left as substance?

It is true, also, that this is a scene partly in the place of the lost; and these feelings of interest in friends are attributed to one in torment. Yet Abraham and Lazarus, who are saints, do so enter into the whole scene, that we see the recognition to have been alike easy and natural to each. Moreover, if they know each other in hell, there is yet stronger reason to believe that they will in heaven. For not only are the saints vastly more advanced in

knowledge, but the ties of friendship which bind them together are much more intimate and durable. Their faculties are clearer, their hearts holier, their affections calmer and deeper, without any of the distortions and confusions of sin; we find, therefore, a thousand-fold more reason for expecting a renewal and continuation of former affections among the saints in light.

From what has now been said concerning heavenly recognition in the teachings of the Saviour, we trust the faith of all who have followed us has been rendered more warm and implicit. We have sought our doctrine in the general tenor of that hope-inspiring life which flows from Christ and lives in His kingdom alike in earth and in heaven, warming the hearts of all who come under its power into a felt consciousness of a charity which never faileth, and leading them to hope as they could not dare to hope before. We have followed the flow of that life and immortality which was brought to light, not only by Him, but in Him, rather than any single passage, or class of passages. In other words, we have aimed by these exhibitions rather to make the reader feel that there will be a heavenly recognition, than to make him know it. It is with Christ, as all his revelations are, not so much doctrine as life. We have therefore laboured that our hearts might teach our minds, rather than that our minds should teach our hearts. Or, scripturally, we have walked by faith more than by sight-and “faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen."

We feel sure that he who stands in full sympathy with the inner life of faith-he who lives, moves, hopes, and loves, in the broad flow of Christ's universal life and kingdom-can be just as sure of eternal union with all

saints in Him, as he is now sure of its existence, and of his own union with Christ. He who lives only in the deep catholic life of faith, need not be afraid that his deepest longings, and most ardent hopes, will die. Things must first become fragments before they can perish. He that is one with the infinite and eternal will realize whatever he finds it in his heart to hope for; and, to such an one, says the word of truth, "According to thy faith, be it unto you."

From these considerations we feel free to encourage every one who mourns over broken ties, with the consoling words of the Saviour, which are themselves general, and may here safely be taken in their most general application: "Blessed are they that mourn: for they shall be comforted." That affection for the pious dead which is cherished by all, and most of all in the hearts of those whose souls are purest, and whose piety is deepest, seems, for its full comfort, ardently to ask for the restoration of the object of its devotion, even amid the blest of heaven. In the tame but touching language of the pious bishop Mant

There is a void in lorn affection's heart,

Which yearns to be supplied. On God's high will
Though it repose submissively, yet still

Of those, who bore in its regards a part,
The cherish'd forms it holds, as in a chart
Depicted, hoping He may yet fulfil
Their restitution. Pardon it, if ill

Lurk in that hope, Great Father! True thou art;
Thou say'st, the just shall bliss in fulness prove,
And, what thou say'st, thy bounty will provide:
And yet meseems the blissful souls above,

The sense of earth's sweet charities denied,
Might feel a craving in those realms of love,

By angel hosts and patriarchs unsupplied.

CHAPTER VII.

Beavenly Recognition among the Apostles.

Prophets, priests,

Apostles, great reformers, all that served
Messiah faithfully, like stars appear

Of fairest beam: round them gather, clad
In white, the vouchers of their ministry-
The flock their care had nourish'd,

Fed, and saved.

POLLOK.

THERE was nothing abstract, or purely spiritualistic, in the ideas of the Apostles in regard to another life. They regarded man in religion, as he is actually in nature, as composed of body as well as soul, and only complete in the living union of both. They believed in the resurrection of the body, and made this faith prominent in all their teachings: indeed, the sum and substance of what they announced was, "Jesus and the resurrection"-Jesus the ground of the resurrection, and His people the subjects of it; in this great truth all truths centred, and from it all truth radiated. The Saviour's resurrection was, to them, the sweet and sure pledge of an endless life. To convince ourselves of this, we need only refer our minds to all those passages in which the resurrection of Christ and of the saints is spoken of.

They had seen the Saviour, after His resurrection, clothed in a body as tangible to their senses as their owna body which could be seen and felt.-Luke xxiv. They saw Him also go up into heaven with that body.—Acts i. They expected, therefore, after their own resurrection, to live with Him again in their own bodies; and, however much these bodies might be changed in their glorification, as to their incorruptibility, honour, power, and spirituality, they did not imagine that in their general appearance they would be essentially different from what they are now. They expected, therefore, that in the future world they would retain all those marks and characteristics of individuality by which they were here distinguished and known. Just as the seed that is sown, though it seem to perish, ripens at last into new seed, exactly like that which perished, so that every seed gets its own body again; so, “the body that shall be," will be like the body that now is, and will continue in a deep sense the same body.

To their conceptions, then, the future world was as tangible as this-the future life a living continuation of this-and its social condition analogous to what it is here, only more elevated, pure, and complete. The kingdom which they were labouring to extend, was one which, in their view, joined them and all saints livingly together in Christ as members in a body. This union they believed would continue through death. Hence, when they spake of their hopes, it was in plural language. We are saved by hope we have a building of God, eternal in the heavens --we shall bear the image of the heavenly-we shall be caught up together with them in the clouds-and so we shall ever be with the Lord. All this shows that they thought of the heavenly kingdom as being an inheritance