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O glory! O glory! what music! what light!

What wonders break in on my heart, on my sight.
I come, blessed spirits! I hear you from high;

O frail, faithless nature, can this be to die?
So near! what, so near to my Saviour and King?

O help me, ye angels, His glories to sing!

CHAPTER XI.

Objections to the Doctrine of Beavenly Recognition.

I have heard you say,

That we shall see and know our friends in heaven.

If that be true, I shall see my boy again!

For since the birth of Cain, the first male child,

To him that did but yesterday suspire,

There was not such a gracious creature born.
But now will canker sorrow eat my bud,
And chase the native beauty from his cheek,
And he will look as hollow as a ghost;
As dim and meagre as an ague's fit;
And so he'll die; and, rising so again,

When I shall meet him in the court of heaven,
I shall not know him: therefore, never, never,
Must I behold my pretty Arthur more!

SHAKSPEARE.

THERE are persons who, though they have any amount of positive proof in favour of a subject, nevertheless doubt, as long as certain difficulties existing in their minds are not removed. They have proof enough to enable them to believe, were it not for some objections which they are unable to meet with a satisfactory answer. There is a class of persons also, who are, partly constitutionally, and partly from pride, doubters. They take pleasure in being singular, and seem to consider it a mark of superior intelligence to

doubt what others believe. They seem to feel no other mission in regard to truth than to cast up objections to it, and throw difficulties in its way. Such persons never fairly and seriously weigh positive evidence in favour of a given subject, but only seek out objections against it; and if they are able to hunt up a certain quantity of objections and difficulties, they feel safe in rejecting it. They can always tell what they do not believe, and why they do not believe it; but they cannot so well say what they do believe, and why they believe it. It does not occur to them, that there may be more objections to their objections, than they are able to array against the doctrine to which they object. Such persons are not really in search of truth, have no real hunger for it, and will consequently not find it. They are like one who, professing himself in search of ripe and wholesome fruit, should be seen walking round an apple-tree, eager to see how many dry limbs, how many rotten apples, and how much tainted fruit, unfit to eat, could be found on it; and if he found a formidable quantity of these, should turn away in disgust, sure that there was no good fruit on the tree.

Many objections may be found always, even against a true doctrine. Nothing is easier than to show that there are difficulties which lie in the way of truth. Let it, however, be remembered, that if any doctrine can be proved to be true by positive evidence, a thousand objections that may be raised against it cannot prove it untrue. It remains true, even if we should not be able to answer the objections; our failing to answer them proves nothing but our own limited knowledge. We must learn, first of all, in our search after truth, that our own ignorance is not its measure. In regard to the doctrine before us, however,

we discover no objections which may not be fully answered ; and we address ourselves therefore to this task. This will be expected of us by our readers, and we accordingly invite them to follow us patiently.

FIRST OBJECTION.

THE GREAT CHANGE WHICH WILL TAKE PLACE IN DEATH.

"We shall all be changed." The change which, according to the scriptures, is to take place, especially in our bodies, at the transition of death, will in many respects be great. It is very natural that this consideration should generate fears that this change will be such as to hinder recognition, and perhaps render it wholly impossible. This is, perhaps, the first and most natural difficulty that arises in our minds when we ask the question,—shall we know our friends again in heaven? This difficulty should be removed.

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A little careful inquiry into this matter will show, that the greatest part of this difficulty is only apparent. great change may take place, both in the body and spirit, without destroying those marks of identity and those -peculiarities of character by which recognition takes place. The change which comes with death will consist, not in adding any thing entirely or essentially new, but only in an unfolding and perfecting of what is already at hand in There is a great difference between a small sapling and a full grown tree; and yet, great as the apparent change is, the marks of its identity continue through all the stages of its evolution. In the different stages of human life, through infancy, childhood, youth, manhood, and age, the same being continues, carrying with him his pecu

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liarities, and preserves from one stage to the other those marks by which he is recognised as the same person. There are features which run with marked prominence through all these transitions. Should, however, these marks in themselves prove insufficient to effect a recognition, they may still serve as hints which, by the assistance of mutual recollections, associations, inquiries, and replies, shall lead to a complete revival of former acquain

tance.

That the change which awaits us is one, not of transformation, but of evolution, is evident from scripture representations of it. The apostle Paul represents the new celestial man as rising out of the old earthly man, as the new grain rises out of the old. The change is not so much in the outward form as in the inward potence which fills out and pervades the form with a new life. The original form will remain while the element of corruption will be changed into that of incorruption. The dishonour, which in various ways, and in various degrees, attaches to our present life, will give way to glory. Weakness will be swallowed up in power. The natural will pass into the spiritual, the mortal into immortality. Now, all these changes are but rising from a lower to a higher life, which, though they involve great changes, are not in form but in power. They may all take place without radically changing those familiar peculiarities which make recognition possible. As in life a person is changed from a sinner to a saint, while he still retains, to a great extent, the same external features; so, the elements of power, glory and immortality, may be unfolded in us, in our glorification, without producing any more change in the appearance of that side of our being with which we were wont to converse

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