I. The great change which will take place in death........... II. If it were true, it would be more clearly revealed...... III. The heavenly life will be much higher than this... IV. It will introduce partiality into heaven...... ANOTHER OBJECTION TO THE DOCTRINE OF HEAVENLY RECOGNITION. The knowledge of our lost friends would give us pain. This objection appeals more to the feeling than to the judgment. It can be satisfactorily answered. Various considerations. I. In death all ties that are not sanctified by the life and power of grace must be dropped and left behind. II. Those that are lost will gradually fade from our remembrance. III. There may be room for some uncertainty as to whether they are lost or not. IV. We have positive evidence that a knowledge of beings lost, who were once objects of affection, is not incom- patible with heavenly felicity. The case of Christ-of angels. V. Our will, will be entirely conformed to God's will. Instances THE DOCTRINE OF HEAVENLY RECOGNITION IN ITS PRACTICAL EFFECTS. "What good?" The tendency of error-of truth. The Saviour's rule. The belief in this doctrine exerts a good influence. I. It elevates, strengthens, and purifies all our earthly affections. II. It will induce us to form only pious friendships. III. It will bring us strongly under the power of heavenly realities and attractions. IV. It presents a strong and touching motive to WILL WE KNOW OUR FRIENDS IN HEAVEN ? CHAPTER I. Che Sainted Dead. My mother! when I learn'd that thou wast dead, The parting word shall pass my lips no more! COWPER. THE Sainted Dead! they are our treasures! Like the inheritance upon which they have entered, they are incorruptible, undefiled, and they fade not away, but are reserved in Heaven. Ho! ye that would be rich-ye that seek for treasures -seek them not on earth. Earth yields only that which B is mortal and perishable. That which dies seeks the earth, not that which lives. "Earth to earth, ashes to ashes, dust to dust." This our fathers have repeated, and this they have experienced. They die quickly, the flowers of earth. It rusts soon, the gold of earth. They fade surely, the gems of earth. They must perish, the foundations of earth --if not before, in the flames of the last fire. Ho! ye that seek for treasures: they are our treasures-living treasures -the Sainted Dead. Let us look upward. That is the destiny of spirits. It is the earth which whirls and moves; the heavens stand permanent and sure. While the earth grows hoary with age, while empires fall and nations die, while the habitations of the dead are becoming more than habitations of the living, while all things around us change and fade, the heavens still look down serene as of old upon this changing and restless earth. The stars which wink to us a loving "upward"-how changeless! They are the same which Abraham and Job saw, and which, ages ago, "Gladden'd, on their mountain tops, the hearts Of the Chaldean shepherds, till they pour'd So calm, changeless, cheering, and loving, are the saints in light. Not like the false, fading glare of earthly treasures, is their pure and imperishable radiance; for they "shine as the brightness of the firmament, and as the stars for ever and ever." They are our treasures-changeless and shining treasures-the Sainted Dead. Let us look up hopefully. "Not lost, but gone before." Lost only like the stars of morning that have faded into the light of a brighter heaven. Lost to earth, but not to us. When the earth is dark, then the heavens are bright. When objects around us become indistinct and invisible in the shades of night, then objects above us are more clearly seen. So is the night of sorrow and mourning; it settles down upon us like a lonely twilight at the grave of our friends; but then already they shine on high. While we weep, they sing! While they are with us upon earth, they lie upon our hearts refreshingly, like the dew upon flowers; when they disappear, it is by a power from above that has drawn them upward, and, though lost on the earth, they still float in the skies. Like the dew that is absorbed from the flowers, they will not return to us; but, like the flowers themselves, we will die, yet only to bloom again in the Eden above. Then those whom the heavens have absorbed, and removed from us, by the sweet attraction of their love, made holier and lovelier in light, will draw toward us again by a holy affinity, and rest on our hearts as before. They are our treasures— loving treasures-the Sainted Dead. Let us look up joyfully. Love is eternal. When the light and smiles of earthly love seem to perish in the grave, then it is night on earth and gloomy. “The setting of a great hope is like the setting of the sun. The brightness of our life is gone. Shadows of evening fall around us, and the world seems but a dim reflection-itself a broader shadow. We look forward into the coming lonely night. The soul withdraws into itself. Then the stars arise, and the night is holy!" All is yet not dark. Heaven kindles anew, across the sea of space, beacons of hope and promise. Though the flowers of love die in our hearts, they lose not their fragrance. The looks, the forms, the voices, the smiles of the dead are still with us. We feel their mysterious nearness. The remembrance of their kindness and love still teaches us to love them. Like the vase in which roses have once been distill'd You may break, you may ruin the vase if you will; But the scent of the roses will hang round it still! Their names are still to us "like ointment poured forth," the odour of which comes to us richest in our loneliest hours. Their image, lovely as the purest thoughts we can form of them, floats before our waking visions, and smiles upon us in the dreams of the night. Being themselves holy, the light of our love falling upon them becomes holy too. The heart gradually becomes like that which it loves. Purer than we are, our affections are purified by the power of their attractions, as the sides of all objects grow bright that are turned towards the sun. These are our treasuresholy treasures-the Sainted Dead. Let us look up longingly. Where our treasures are, there let our hearts be also. The heart of the miser is with his gold. The eye of the merchant follows his freighted vessel till it disappears in the dim, distant blue; then looks often into the vacant air that hangs over the broad seå, for its return, till he sees at last its hopeful pennants streaming; and as it draws nearer, his heart grows fuller of grateful wonderment and hope. Now this they do for perishable gain. Let us do the same, yea more, for that which perishes not. If earthly treasures draw the heart so strongly, ought not heavenly treasures more? Yea, but our hearts are so gross and grovelling, and feel so little the sweet attraction of the infinite and the pure. Let us long after them more ardently, our treasures-attractive treasures-the Sainted Dead. |