he love God, whom he hath not seen?"

"By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God." -1 John iv. and v.

Does this earnest sententious language mean any thing? Alas! how little is it regarded! This is the pure philosophy and theology of love, cleansed from all the vapourings of human passion. It is not built upon social convenience, upon worldly prudence, upon fashionable cast, upon external beauty, upon a fleshly, blind, sentimental sympathy, nor upon a platonic abstraction, which, like the music of the spheres, is much talked of, but which no one has ever seen.

The law of heaven is love: and though its name

Has been usurp'd by passion, and profaned

To its unholy uses through all time;

Still the eternal principle is pure.

It has its ground in God, and its life in His love to us, and our love to Him. love to friends is real, source in love to Him. Love is the image of God in us, for "God is love;" so that if we dwell in love, we dwell in God, and His image dwells in us. Then we love as He loved, with an eternal affection; for His image in us can never perish. Whenever, therefore, true love binds hearts together, the same cord binds them also to God, which makes their union permanent; so that in this case they are really "partakers of the divine nature." This tie, being a divine tie, must last while God lastsfor ever! This is an union of saints with each other in the life of Christ; and because He lives they shall live, being one with Him in the power of an endless life, and of an endless love. This love never ends.

From this it is evident, that no except it has its foundation and

Hence it is also said, "charity beareth all thingsendureth all things." Lovely and appropriate in reference to this point is the song of the spouse, in the Song of Solomon viii. 6, 7. "Set me as a seal upon thine heart, as a seal upon thine arm: for love is strong as death. Many waters cannot quench love, neither can the floods drown it."

That the apostle, in saying that love never faileth, has reference to its continuation in another life, is evident from the context, where he plainly refers to the state of eternal perfection. In this world-so he argues "we know in part, and we prophecy in part; but when that which is perfect is come, then that which is in part shall be done away." Here we are but as children, and all our faculties are imperfect; but when we become more perfect in the eternal state, we shall advance beyond our state, of earthly imperfection. When we are once in heaven, and see face to face, and look no more at eternal things in the dim reflections of a dark mirror, there still "abideth" the greatest of all our graces, which is "charity." If we believe, with some, that faith and hope, having fulfilled their mission, shall then cease, charity must still continue, or it would not be greater than these other graces. Or if we believe, with others, that faith and hope will there also abide, then charity will also continue as the greatest of them. Thus remains

Love, the golden chain that binds
The happy souls above.

Such is the nature of love; it is divine-the divine in us-the divine life uniting all to Christ and each to

all. It dies not. Most beautifully and truly does the poet Southey sing of the eternal nature of holy love. Most strongly does he reprove those who deny its continuance after death. We quote it the more gladly, because of the touching manner in which he makes it bear on the heavenly recognition.

They sin who tell us love can die;
With life all other passions fly,

All others are but vanity.

In heaven ambition cannot dwell;
Nor avarice in the vaults of hell;
Earthly these passions of the earth,
They perish where they have their birth;
But LOVE is indestructible.

Its holy flame for ever burneth,

From heaven it came, to heaven returneth;
Too oft on earth a troubled guest,
At times deceived, at times opprest,
It here is tried and purified,
Then hath in heaven its perfect rest.
It soweth here in toil and care,

But the harvest-time of love is there.
Oh! when a mother meets on high
The babe she lost in infancy,

Hath she not then, for pains and fears,

The day of wo, the watchful night,
For all her sorrows, all her tears,
An over-payment of delight?

Blessed in this land of partings and tears, is this glorious hope. Those friendly looks of love which faded from our day of joy in death, as stars fade in the light of morning, are still shining on in heaven, though we see them not, radiant in the beams of eternal love. Inspired with the

consoling hope that they shall shine on us again, when, beyond the night of the grave, the morning of an eternal day shall dawn upon us, we love, and praise them still— smiling through our tears! Their sanctified images hover before the eyes of our faith, as most delightful allurements. We think of them as holier, happier than we, and long to be like them. In the simplicity of childlike affection we

think of them, and sing—

Bright in that happy land

Beams every eye;

Kept by a Father's hand,

Love cannot die.

CHAPTER VIII.

Beavenly Recognition among the Christian Fathers.

All the ancient and pious fathers agreed in this. St. Cyprian owns, that our parents, brethren, children, and near relations, expect us in heaven, and are solicitous for our good. St. Jerome comforts a good lady on this account, that we shall see our friends, and know them. St. Augustine endeavours to mitigate the sorrow of an Italian widow with this consideration, that she shall be restored to her husband, and behold and know him.-DR. EDWARDS.

WE reverence the early Christian Fathers as pious men, not as inspired men. We love to know their sentiments on any religious subject, because they lived in the childlike age of Christianity, and drank at the fountain-head of revealed truth as well as of sacred tradition. We introduce their testimony here by way of keeping up unbroken the historical feature of our doctrine, that we may follow it in the life and love of the Church in all ages; and thus assure ourselves that we are neither waking up an old heresy nor begetting a new one.

In speaking of the doctrine of heavenly recognition as held among the Jews, we rested an argument in its favour on the fact of their having a great desire to lie by the side of their kindred in death. The same is true of the early Christians. To bury their dead decently was considered an urgent religious duty; this their affectionate feelings towards