CHAPTER XVI. THE PERMANENCE OF LOVE. 'Charity never faileth." oft. Of the Jews five times received I forty stripes save one. Thrice was I beaten with rods; once was I stoned; thrice I suffered shipwreck; a night and a day I have been in the deep: in journeyings often, in perils of waters, in perils of robbers, in perils by mine own countrymen, in perils by the hea- PERMANENCE is the climax of excellence. How then, in perils in the city, in perils in the wilderness, often has the sigh been heaved, and the tear been in perils in the sea, in perils among false brethren: shed, over the perishable nature of earthly pos in weariness and painfulness, in watchings often, in sessions. Their transient duration presented a painhunger and thirst, in fastings often, in cold and na-ful contrast to their great worth, and extorted the kedness. Besides those things that are without, sorrowful exclamation, Alas! that such excellence that which cometh upon me daily, the care of all should be mortal! The charm of beauty soon the churches." Nor did these sufferings come upon fades, the force of genius is at length exhausted, him without his being previously apprized of them, the monuments of art decay; an incurable aint for the Holy Ghost had witnessed to him that bonds of corruption has infected every thing earthly, and and afflictions awaited him. Yet neither the pros- even religion itself does not confer immortality pect of his varied tribulations, nor the full weight upon every thing that belongs to its sacred economy. of them, made him for a moment think of relin- One thing there is, which shall remain for ever, quishing his benevolent exertions for the welfare of for "charity never faileth;" and its permanence is mankind. His was the love that "endureth all the crown and glory of all its other noble qualities. things." It is a truly immortal disposition-bearing no exclusive relation to earth or to time, but destined to pass away from the world with the souls in which it exists, to dwell in heaven, and flourish through eternity. And a greater, far greater than even the great apostle of the Gentiles, might be also introduced, as affording, by his conduct, a most striking illustration of this property of Christian charity. Who but himself can conceive of what the Son of God When it is said that it never faileth, we are not endured while he sojourned in this world? Who merely to understand, that being once planted in can imagine the magnitude of his sufferings, and the soul, it remains there as the centre and support the extent of that opposition, ingratitude, and hard of all the other practical virtues: that it will so re usage, amidst which those sufferings were sustained, main, is unquestionable, for its continuance is esand by which they were so greatly increased?sential to the existence of personal and social reliNever was so much mercy treated with so much gion. A man may change his opinions on some cruelty; the constant labor he sustained, and the subjects-he may give up some sentiments once bemany privations to which he submitted, were little, lieved by him to be truth; but he cannot give up compared with the malignant contradiction, resist-love, without ceasing to be a Christian. ance, and persecution, he received from those who were the objects of his mercy. The work of man's redemption was not accomplished, as was the work of creation, by a mere fiat delivered from the throne, on which Omnipotence reigned in the calm repose of infinite majesty: no—the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, as a man of sorrow and acquainted with grief. The wrath of God, the fury of devils, the rage of man, the malignity of enemies, the wayward follies and fickleness of friends, the baseness of treachery, the scorn of official rank, and the many stings of ingratitude, calumny, and inconstancy-all poured their venom into that heart which glowed with affection to the children of men. Nothing turned him from his purpose-nothing abated his ardor in the work of our salvation. His, too, and above all others, was indeed a love which "endureth all things." Such is the model we are to copy. In doing good we must prepare ourselves for opposition, and all its attendant train of evils. Whether our object be the conversion of souls, or the well-being of man's corporeal nature whether we are seeking to build up the temporal, or to establish the eternal, interests of mankind-we must remember that we have undertaken a task which will call for patient, self-denying, and persevering effort. In the midst of difficulties, we must not utter the vain cowardly wish, that we had not set our hand to the plough; but press onward in humble dependence upon the grace of the Holy Spirit, and animated by the hope or either being rewarded by success, or by the consciousness that we did every thing to obtain it: and we shall do this, if we possess much of the power of love; for its ardor is such, that many waters cannot quench it. Its energies increase with the difficulty that requires them, and, like a well constructed arch, it becomes more firm and consolidated by the weight it has to sustain. In short, it is "steadfast, immoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as it knows that its abor shall not be in vain in the Lord." Nor does the apostle mean that it remains as the spirit of Christianity till the end of time, amidst every change of external administration; that it shall so abide is unquestionable. The genius of piety is unchangeable. This was the temper obligatory upon the primitive Christian; it is obligatory upon us; and it will be no less so upon every future generation. A holier and happier age is in reserve for the church of Christ; "compared with which, invisible though it be at present, and hid behind the clouds which envelope this dark and troubled scene, the brightest day that has yet shone upon the world is midnight, and the highest splendors that have invested it the shadow of death:" but this glory shall consist in a more perfect and conspicuous manifestation of the grace of love. It is in this, combined with a clearer perception of the truth, that the Christians of the millennium will surpass those of every preceding age. But the apostle's reference is evidently to another world: his eye was upon heaven, and he was looking at things unseen and eternal, when he said that "charity never faileth." He was then soaring on the wing of faith, and exploring the scenes of eternity, among which he saw this celestial plant, surviving the dissolution of the universe, outliving the earthly state of the church, transplanted to the paradise of God, and flourishing in the spirits of just men made perfect near the fountain of light and love. To give still greater emphasis to what he says of its continuance, he contrasts it with some things, which, however highly valued by the Corinthian believers, were of a transient duration, and, therefore, of greatly inferior value to this. "Whether there be prophecies, they shall fail." By prophecies here, we are to understand inspired interpretation of the Scriptures; all new revelations from God, by oral or written communication, for the instruction and edification of the saints. These, so far from belonging to the heavenly state of the church, did not survive its primitive ages. The from heaven were denied. gift of inspiration was soon withdrawn, the oracle nish. The knowledge we gain from these sources of prophecy was hushed, and all further responses is not that which will attend us to the skies, and be sufficient for us when we have arrived at the region of cloudless splendor, the element of wisdom, the native land, and dwelling-place of truth. "Whether there be tongues they shall cease." This, of course, refers to the miraculous power of speaking any language without previous study. This gift also ceased with the other extraordinary endowments of the primitive ages, and bears no relation to the heavenly world. Whether the communication of ideas in the celestial state will be carried on by speech, is, at present, unknown to us; if it be so, what the language will be is beyond conjecture. "Whether there be knowledge, it shall vanish away." This expression most probably refers to what is called, in the preceding chapter, "the word of knowledge;" and of which the apostle speaks in the beginning of this chapter-"Though I understand all mysteries, and all knowledge, and have not love, I am nothing." It means an inspired knowledge of the types, predictions, and mysteries, of the Old Testament, and of their accomplishment by the facts of the Christian economy. This, also, was among the signs and wonders which were to vanish away; which, having been granted as attestations to the divine authority of the word of God, and for the edification of the church, were discontinued when the canon of Scripture was completed and settled. Some extend the apostle's reasoning so far, as to include every kind of our present knowledge; which, as to its imperfect attainments, and inadequate mediums, and present modes of communications, shall be removed, and give place to a more easy and perfect method of acquiring truth, and a more entire comprehension of its nature and relations. The introduction of this idea, by the apostle, has given occasion for one of the most striking digressions from his tract of thought which he ever made. His argument only required him to state that love is better than the gift of knowledge, because the latter shall cease; but he proceeds to show why it shall cease, and ascribes its continuance to its imperfection: he then takes an opportunity to draw one of the most sublime contrasts to be found in the word of God, between our knowledge in the present world, and our more perfect comprehension of truth in the world that is to come. And why shall knowledge vanish away? because "We know in part, and we prophesy in part." A part only of truth is made known, and, therefore, a part only is received by us. This may imply that there are many things we do not know at all. Who can doubt this? Upon the supposition that we are perfectly acquainted with all that is proper to be known, all that could be acquired by the aid of reason and the discoveries of revelation, still we should hear a voice, saying to us, "Lo, these are a part of his ways, but the thunder of his power who can understand?" There are, doubtless, truths of vast importance and of deep interest, which have never yet approached, and, in the present world, never will approach, the horizon of the human understanding. There are paths in the region of truth which the vulture's eye has not seen, and which are hid from the view of all living. the remark was intended to apply. Of natural truth, the ocean, with its depths, its islands, and the continents and kingdoms to which it leads, is all before us. We have only looked upon the surface, and seen some of the objects passing upon it: we have only seen a few land-marks, on one part of one of its shores; but the infinitude of its ample space, and the innumerable objects which that space contains, are yet to be explored. And with respect to the spiritual world, although we possess, in the volume of inspiration, a revelation of the most sublime, important, and interesting objects of knowledge: yet probably, there are truths of which, after all that divines and philosophers have written, we can form no more conception, than we can of the objects of a sixth sense, or than a blind man can of colors. "We know only in part." As to the knowledge of the arts of the practical When, on his death-bed, the great NEWTON was sciences and of literature, this shall be lost and for- congratulated upon the discoveries he had made, he gotten, as utterly useless, and as bearing no relation replied, with the modesty usually attendant on vast whatever to the celestial state. Ye master spirits, attainments, "I have been only walking on the ye commanding geniuses, ye lordly minds, who shores of truth, and have, perhaps, picked up a gem exhaust the force of your intellect, and lavish its or two, of greater value than others; but the vast treasures upon themes of mere earthly interest- ocean itself lies all before me." This is strictly corsee here the termination of all your labors. Scho-rect in reference to the material universe, to which lars, poets, painters, sculptors, warriors, ye who assemble in the temple of fame, amidst the mightiest productions of human skill, to pay homage to each other, to receive the admiration of the world, and to immortalize your names-giving to your mighty works the full measure of their value, in reference to earth and to time-admitting that, in this view, they are bright scenes in the history of man; yet still, in reference to heaven and its eternity, they are nothing less than nothing-and vanity. Not an angel would turn to gaze upon the noblest production of human imagination, nor will a plea be put in by a single inhabitant of heaven, to exempt from the destruction of the last fire the sublimest specimens of human skill. Myriads of volumes have been already lost and forgotten; myriads more are on their way to oblivion; myriads still shall rise, only to vanish;-and of all the accumu- It is implied also that what we do know, we know lations that shall have been made by the time of the but imperfectly. In some cases, our knowledge is millennium, and which shall have been going on uncertainty, and amounts only to opinion; faith is through the longest and the purest age of reason-weak, and mixed with many doubts. We cannot not one shall be saved from the general conflagra- exultingly exclaim, “I know;” we can scarcely say, tion, as worthy to be borne to the heavenly world. "I believe." The object sometimes presents itself "Knowledge shall vanish away." to our mind, like the sun seen dimly through a mist But not only shall the knowledge contained in-now appearing, and then lost again, in the density the scientific, and literary, and imaginative, pro- of the fog. Now a truth comes upon us, in a thin ductions of men vanish, together with the volumes and shadowy form; we think we see it, but it is by which it was circulated; but all theological again obscured. We only see glimmerings. We perworks-our creeds, our catechisms, our articles of ceive appearances, rather than demonstrations; faith, our bodies of divinity, our works of biblical dark outlines, not perfect pictures. criticism, our valued, and justly valued, commen- And where no doubt undermines the certainty of taries-our sermons, and our treatises-all shall va- | our knowledge, what dark limits bound its extent; We walk, as through a valley shut in on each side by lofty mountains, whose tops are lost amidst the clouds, whose shadows add to the obscurity of our situation, and whose mighty masses stand between us and the prospect which lies beyond. How imperfect and limited is our knowledge of the great God-of the spirituality of his nature-of his necessary self-existence from eternity-of his triune essence! How feeble are our conceptions of the complex person of Christ, the God-man Mediator; of the scheme of providence, embracing the history of our world, and of all other worlds; and of the connection between providence and redemption! How have divines and philosophers been perplexed on the subject of the entrance of moral evil; on the agreement between divine prescience, and the freedom of the human will; between moral inability, and human accountability! How much obscurity hangs, in our view, over many of the operations of nature! how soon do we arrive at ultimate laws, which, for aught we can tell, may be only the effects of causes that are hidden from our observation! In what ignorance do we live, of many of the most common occurrences around us. Who has perfect ideas of the essences of things, separate and apart from their qualities of matter, for instance, or spirit? Who can perfectly conceive how the idea of motion results from that of body, or how the idea of sensation results from that of spirit? On what theme shall we meditate, and not be mortified to find how little progress we can make before we are arrested by insurmountable difficulties? On what eminence shall we take our stand, and to what part of the horizon direct our eye, and not see clouds and shadows resting like a veil upon the prospect? How truly is it said, "We know but in part." Angels must wonder at the limitation of our ideas; and disembodied spirits must be astonished at the mighty bound they make, by that one step which conducts them across the threshold of eternity. The apostle illustrates the present imperfection of our knowledge, compared with its future advancement, by two similitudes. The first is, the difference between the ideas of a child and those of a man. "When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child; but when I became a man, I put away childish things." The meaning of Paul in this verse is-that our knowledge in the heavenly state will be as different from, and as superior to, any thing we gain on earth, as the ideas of an adult, in the maturity of his intellectual powers, are to lose which he entertained when he was a child. Our knowledge at present, is that of children; we are not only in the minority, but in the infancy, of our minds. Our notions are the opinions of children; our discourses are the lispings of children; our controversies the reasonings of children. The prodigious attainments of those great luminaries, Bacon, Milton, Boyle, Locke, Newton; and in the science of theology, of those great divines, Owen, Howe, Charnock, Baxter, Bates, Butler, Hooker;-all these are but the productions of children, written for the instruction of others less taught than themselves. Yea, the apostle includes himself and his writings in the description-" We know in part, and we prophesy in part. When I was a child, I spake as a child; but when 1 became a man, I put away childish things." He alludes to his own childish conceits, and puerile simplicity, which had given way to the matured knowledge of his riper years; and, by implication, declares his expectation, that the knowledge which he should gain in the celestial state would be as much above his present views, as they were beyond those which he entertained when he was a child.Yes, that greatest of mere men-that illustrious individual who had been in the third heaven-who had explored, as we imagine, some of the secrets of the unseen world-who had fathomed so much of the depth, measured so much of the height, of truth; even he tells us, that he was but in his minority.What an idea does it give us of the infinitude of knowledge yet to be obtained, when we are informed that the Bible itself, even the New Testament, that book of books, the work of which it is said, it has God for its author, truth without any mixture of error, for its contents, and salvation for its end, is but a book for children, a work for saints in their infancy, a mere elementary treatise on the subject of eternal truth, written by the finger of God, for his family, during their education and noviciate on earth. The second similitude, by which the present imperfection of our knowledge is set forth, is that very partial acquaintance which we gain with material objects, by looking at them through a glass. Now we see through a glass, darkly." Considerable diversity of opinion prevails as to the precise object of the apostle's allusion in the expression which he here employs. It is admitted that the word in the original literally signifies a mirror; and hence most expositors consider that the comparison is to this article, and that his meaning is, that our knowledge of divine truth in this world, is only of that partial kind which we gain by seeing objects reflected from a mirror. But does this accord with his design, which is to represent the obscurity of our present ideas, compared with what we shall know hereafter, when that which is perfect is come? The knowledge we gain of an object that is reflected from a highly polished surface is too accurate to furnish such a comparison. Hence some are of opinion-and this is the view I take-that the allusion is to those semi-transparent substances, such as horn and diaphanous stones, which were used in windows before glass was known, and through which objects would be but very dimly seen. Nothing could better accord with the apostle's purpose than this. How dim and shadowy do those forms appear, which we discover through such a medium: we discern only the mere outline; every thing is seen imperfectly, and many things connected with the object are not seen at all. We see it through a glass, darkly." The term rendered "darkly" signifies an enigma, a riddle, a form of speech in which one thing is put for another; which, though in some respects like it, is but an obscure representation, and calculated to puzzle those who are required to find out the thing which is thus darkly shadowed forth. Here it may be proper to inquire why divine truth is at present involved in so mucn comparative darkness. It is designed to accord with the analogy of faith. We are to walk by faith, which is not only opposed to the testimony of the sense, but is distinguished also from the clearness and certainty of perfect knowledge. It comports also with the purpose of a divine revelation. There is no doubt but that some of the clouds which envelope the subjects of revealed truth could have been dissipated, and many things put in a still clearer light. A studied caution, a designed reserve, is maintained in some places; for as the Bible is given to be a test of moral disposition, the evidence should be sufficient to demand belief, without being enough to compel it. The Bible affords us light enough to assist us in discharging the duties of this world, and to guide us to glory, honor, immortality, and eternal life; but it concedes nothing to curiosity, nothing to a spirit of restless inquiry. It stands like a waymark on the high road to eternity, and is intended simply to announce what is truth, and the way to its dwelling-place, but not to make known to the traveller all the details of the city to which he is | surable elevation does it raise man above the brute Journeying. And, in another view, this obscurity is absolutely necessary. If the disclosure were more obscure, it would be beyond our apprehension; we could know nothing; and, in that case, religion could have no existence, or exist only as the blind offspring of ignorance. If it were more cloudy and shadowy, it would have no power to arrest attention or interest the heart: it might, indeed, point to a brighter state, where it would throw off the dense covering in which it had en wrapped itself on earth; but too little of the beauty of truth would be seen to captivate our affections, and to allure us to follow her to that world where she displays her unveiled glories; but as revelation is now given to us, enough of the beauty of truth is seen, to inspire us with a true affection; enough is concealed, to make us long to see her face to face. And were all the knowledge that it is possible for us to receive, actually communicated to us, who, amidst such acquisitions, could attend to the low pursuits of ordinary affairs? The immediate effect of such a disclosure would be to produce, so far as real Christians are concerned, a total stagnation of the affairs of this life. All the studies and pursuits, the arts and the labors, which now employ the activity of man-which support order, or promote happiness-would lie neglected and abandoned. It is necessary that something of the magnitude of truth should be concealed-something of its effulgence softened-something of its beauty veiled; or the holy mind of the Christian, absorbed in such a vision, would find all that is important in life utterly insignificant, and all that is attractive tasteless and insipid. Disturbed in his lofty meditations, and interrupted in his ecstasies, by the din of business, and the obtrusion of low, grovelling cares, and judging that scenes of secular activity unfitted him for communion with this heavenly visitant,ne would retire from the social haunts of men, to converse with truth in the solitude of the hermitage or the silence of the desert. So necessary is it to hang a veil on the too dazzling brightness of divine subjects. This partial obscurity is also necessary, on account of the feebleness and limited extent of our faculties. Our minds could no more bear to look upon the unmitigated glory of divine truth, than the eye of an infant could sustain the unsoftened effulgence of the mid-day sun. Our minds cannot grasp, in its full extent, one single subject out of all the mighty theory. Some vague idea may be formed of the almost illimitable range of this plan, when we recollect that its development is to employ our understanding in the highest state of intellectual perfection, and to employ it, not for a measured term, but through the countless ages of an endless existence. The study, the discovery, the enjoyment, of truth, will form one of the chief felicities of the heavenly state: but what must that knowledge be, which is to afford something new and interesting through eternity? how can this be obtained by man in the infancy of his existence upon earth? There are subjects yet to be known, which would have no less surpassed the understanding of Newton, than his profound discoveries in science would the mind of a child. creation! What wonders it has achieved-what stupendous monuments of wisdom and power it has raised! Who can mention the names of the giants of the world of mind, and especially who can survey the productions of their genius, without having high notions of the capacities of the human understanding? But what are all the works of the greatest theologians, the profoundest philosophers, when compared with the knowledge of another world, but as the ideas of one who " thought as a child, and spake as a child!" Shall any man, shall the greatest of men, be proud of their modicum of knowledge, vain of their childish notions, puffed up with their poor scantling of information? Were the meanest and least of all the spirits of just men made perfect, to come down and catechise a synod of the greatest divines on earth, how soon would he confound them amidst their most sagacious discoveries and most celebrated works. What infantine conceptions, what puerile conceits, could be found out in their most finished productions! So little reason has man for the pride of understanding--so much cause to clothe himself with the garment of humility. HEAVEN A STATE OF PERFECT KNOWLEDGE. "But when that which is perfect is come, then that which is in part shall be done away. Now we see through a glass darkly; but then face to face: now I know but in part; but then shall I know, even as I am known." ALL these expressions refer to the celestial world, and unite to teach us that heaven is a state of perfect knowledge. Here we know only part of truth; then we shall know the whole: here we know nothing but in a partial manner: there we shall know every thing completely here we see truth, only as we perceive the dark shadow of a man, through a dense medium; there we shall behold it as clearly as we do the same man when we see him face to face; there we shall know truth, even as we are known by superior beings, i. e. with as much certainty, though not with the same comprehension. This last expression has been sometimes explained, as conveying the intimation that we shall recognize each other in the celestial state. "We shall know others, even as we are known by them." Many reasons concur to produce the expectation of this mutual recognition. It is almost impossible to suppose that we shall maintain our identity, not only of person but of character; and also the reminiscence of our earthly existence and history; without believing the interesting truth, that we shall again be mutually known to each other in the heavenly world. This is one of the sentiments which the sacred writers rather take for granted than stop to prove. But certainly this is not the meaning of the passage now under consideration. The apostle here speaks of our knowledge of things, not of persons. The felicity of the celestial state will, doubtless, include every thing that can yield delight to a corporeal, social, intellectual, and moral creature. It is eternal life-everlasting existence, attended by every thing that can render existence, a blessing.— It is life, in the fullest sense of the term-life in the highest degree of perfection. The glorified body will probably retain the organs of sound and sight, No wonder, then, that we walk at present amidst shades and glimmerings. But how humbling is this view of the subject to the pride of intellect! There is a spirit in man, and the inspiration of the Almighty giveth him understanding." The thinking-the purest of the senses, and thus become the mind is the glory of our nature; it is the candle of the Lord shining "in the earthly house of our tabernacle," and giving light to all the faculties of our soul, to guide their operations, and to direct them in their appropriate business. To what an immea inlet of the most pleasurable sensations; while it will be for ever free from the cravings of appetite, the languor of sickness, the distress of pain, the weariness of labor. The social impulse will be gratified by the sublime converse of "the innumerable com pany of angels, and the spirits of just men made perfect." The moral feelings will all combine in the most unsullied purity; while the intellect will be irradiated by the light of eternal truth. The heart will thus repose in the enjoyment of the chief good, and the mind in the contemplation of the first truth; beyond which nothing remains to be enjoyed-nothing to be known. But we are now considering heaven under the representation of a state of knowledge, and as an intellectual condition. In this light the Scriptures frequently speak of the glory to be revealed. They call it an inheritance "in light;" they describe it as a world where there is no night. There "we shall see him as he is," "behold his glory," " see him face to face:" expressions which relate more to the eyes of the mind than to those of the body. Perhaps we do not sufficiently contemplate heaven in this view of it. The greater part of mankind are taken up with mere sensations, and are but little acquainted with the pure enjoyment connected with the perception of evidence and the apprehension of truth. The rapturous exclamation, "I have found it!" is rarely uttered by the multitude, over any thing but the acquisition of wealth or the gratification of appetite. But those who have been engaged in any measure in intellectual pursuits, will be able to appreciate the pleasures of knowledge. Evidence is to the mind like light to the eye, and the perception of truth, as water to the thirsty. Even the comparatively barren sciences of numbers and figures, which exclude the operation of the fancy, and present nothing to exercise the passions or gratify the imagination, the truths of which derive all their interest from the evidence by which they are supported, or the manner in which they are applied to other purposes;-yes; even these are a source of high and pure enjoyment to the human mind, which is ever seeking to arrive at infallible certainty, and can repose nowhere else. What exquisite delight has been experienced by some men, when, after a long process of reasoning, or a fatiguing course of experiments, they have at length arrived at a demonstration. If, then, in the present world, where the subjects of our research are often so insignificant, where our knowledge is obtained with such labor, is limited by so much ignorance, and blended with so much error; if amidst such circumstances the pleasure of knowledge be so great,-what will it be in the heavenly state? Let us consider what will be the OBJECTS of our knowledge. If we may be allowed the expression, we shall know all things that are knowable, so far as an acquaintance with them will contribute to our felicity. We shall know every thing that is essential to the right performance of duty, or to the most perfect gratification of our intellect-all that lies within our proper sphere or compass as creatures. We shall perfectly comprehend all the laws which govern the material world. The discovery of these are now considered to be among the most dignified and gratifying employments of the human understanding. It was his discoveries in natural philosopby which gave to our great Newton his celebrity. What a high station in the records of fame is assigned to Linneus, La Place, Davy, and Watt, and to others, who have explored the secrets and explained the laws of nature They are ranked among the illustrious members and most valuable benefactors of their species. They are looked up to with a kind of semi-idolatry, and their praises are continually chanted for their vast achievements, not only in adding to the stock of knowledge, but in accumulating fresh honors upon human nature. What sublime and astonishing facts are included in the sciences of astronomy, optics, chemistry! how much of power, wisdom, and goodness, of the divine Architect are displayed in the works of creation 'yet these things are now hidden from a great portion of the redeemed, who, by the disadvantages of their education, are shut out from these sources of knowledge. But they will be admitted to them in heaven. Creation will not be destroyed at the judgment day, but only purified. The vast and splendid machine will not then be thrown aside, broken up, and consigned to oblivion. Nothing which the hand of the Creator hath framed shall be forgotten. The brilliant scenes which are now passing before our eyes, but on which many, even regenerated minds look without understanding them, are not a mere pageant. Beautiful was the remark of the eminently picus Bishop Hall, who, on being told in his old age, that his views of astronomy were not quite correct, replied, "Well! it may be so; but I am soon going to heaven, and as I shall take the stars in my way, I must leave the subject till then, when every mistake will be rectified." So completely will all the disadvantages of our earthly condition be removed in heaven, whether those disadvantages arise from the Christian being born in an age when knowledge is in its infancy, or amidst those privations of property which deny him access to the sources of information. In the hour of death, the pious but illiterate tenant of the cottage, on whose mind the orb of science never rose, though the sun of righteousness poured upon it the light of a spiritual illumination, ascends above the disadvantages of education, makes a glorious transition from the shades of ignorance, in which he dwelt upon earth, into the cloudless transparency of the firmament on high. His natural faculties, compressed and enfeebled now by the circumstances of his birth, shall then expand to a comprehension, and attain to a vigor, probably not surpassed by the loftiest of the human race: and he, too, shall know in heaven, the works of the God of nature, as he knew below, and shall still better know above, the works of the God of grace. Providence will form another mighty range of inquiry, and another source of delightful knowledge in heaven. By providence, we mean God's moral government of the universe-the course of the divine administration towards rational and moral creatures: that mighty scheme, which commenced its application before time was born, or the foundations of the earth were laid; which embraces the annals of other worlds besides ours; which includes the history of angels, men, and devils. Providence comprises the whole range of events, which have taken place from the formation of the first creature, to the last moment of time, with all the tendencies, reasons, connections, and results, of things; the separate existence of each individual, with the continuation and influence of the whole, in one harmonious scheme. Providence is now full of mysteries. We are puzzled at almost every step. Innumerable are the events over which, after having in vain endeavored to sound their depth with the line of our reason, we must exclaim, "O the depth!" But we shall know all; why sin was permitted, and how it entered, with all the attendant train of incomprehensible results which followed its introduction into the moral universe. It will then be made apparent to us, why so long a period elapsed between the first promise of a Saviour, and his incarnation, sufferings, and death: why, for so many ages, the world was left in ignorance, sin, and misery: why such errors were permitted to enter the church; and so soon, and so extensively, to corrupt the simplicity and deform the beauty of the Christian profession: why the man of sin was suffered to establish his seat in the temple of Christ; to exalt himself above all that is called God; to utter his |