when they attain their destined elevation, when they ascend Mount Zion, and come unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and join the company of innumerable angels? (Heb. xii. 22.)—those pure and perfect beings whose blest and vast designs all gravitate towards one common centre, and every joy serves but to draw them nearer to joy's unfailing source; to a society among whom, should competition dwell, it is only that of trying who shall most augment the universal bliss; where social minds for ever will expand, far from the chilling blasts of cold unkindness, haughty disrespect; where all are friends immortal and unchangeable. If here they listen with complacence to the instructive converse of superior intellect, what draughts of learning will they there quaff in, from the communications which the enlarged minds, capacious faculties, and wide-extended knowledge of their new companions will impart! Long have these morning stars beheld the wonders of creative glory; they heard the word that bade our beauteous system grace these nether heavens, united all together in one song of triumph, shouting aloud for joy. (Job xxxviii. 7.) Their thirst for information then will be full slaked, when they will hearken to these high historians' lofty stories, and scan the records of eternal annals. If ever the flame of pure devotion warmed their hearts on earth, how will the sacred fire blaze forth when made the members of that general assembly, the first-born Church, whose names are graven on immortal tablets! The service of this glorious church triumphant cannot consist, like that of our church militant, in desultory offices. Sins have been all bewailed and confessed before they left our globe, and everlasting absolutions given, ere they arrived in heaven; petition becomes useless, where all things are possessed, and exhortations from its eternal priests would be superfluous duty; for it was love to God that brought and fixed their boundless flock within these courts above, and from its blest effusions spontaneously pours out his endless praise,-praise is the glorious theme, of which celestial worship is alone composed. When, in obedience to the royal mandate, they praise God in his earthly sanctuaries, and their venerable aisles reverberate the notes of trumpets, psalteries, harps, timbrels, stringed instruments, organs, loud high-sounding cymbals, (Psalm cl.) echoing the sweet strains of many hundred melodists, it may perhaps then assist them to conceive, some very faint idea of the sublime magnificats of heaven. No cold or wandering worshippers will there allay the universal joy; no erring mind distort the praise of God, by sounding it in melancholy dirges: with voices strengthened for immortality, they there will join the rapturous burst, with which all angels cry aloud, the heavens, and all the powers therein: cherubim, seraphim, and the whole company of heaven, uniting with one heart, one voice, to laud and magnify his great and glorious name. But diffidence forbids our dwelling on this noble subject, lest we debase the glory we aspire to raise this knowledge is too high for human understanding, we cannot now attain to it, or here conceive the ecstatic transports and melodious warblings of the celestial choir, when its unnumbered angels chaunt the heavenly Te Deum, or the harmonious peal of their full chorus, resounding loudest hallelujahs throughout the vast expanse of the angelic regions, and filling highest heavens with Jehovah's praise. But "O eternity's too short,"* Space too confined, to utter all his praise. The sum of future joys is not as yet cast up; they will come unto God, the judge of all; and if to constantly behold the visible presence of the greatest, wisest, best of beings, beaming with benignant love and approbation, is the most exquisite felicity which intelligence can experience; if to contemplate infinite perfection be a source of the highest delight, in the fulfilment of this last blessed promise will doubtless consist their supreme transcendent bliss. When this unerring Judge sets on their raptured brows the unfading crown of glory, honour, immortality, (Rom. ii. 7,) He grants an endless patent for exalted rank-an undisputed claim to everlasting praisea praise obtained by preferring here the praise of God before the praise of men. (John xii. 43.) Unto this glorious Being will they come; the God of love, the God of consolation, their neverfailing refuge through this drear vale of tears, who now himself will wipe them off from all afflicted eyes. (Rev. vii. 17.) Here they see darkly, and know but in part. By reason's * Addison. feeble comments on creation's volume, they perceive that God is good; but it is the inspired volume in which they find truth's everlasting impress placed on fallible conclusions "Consult the sacred pages, His matchless glories trace; The God of truth and grace." MRS. WORTH'S POEMS. Yet highly illuminated as is their darkness by this day spring from above, still by its reflected light they here spy God's perfections darkly through a glass; but in that triumphant hour when the great Introducer leads them into the splendour of beatific vision, all shadows will disperse; they then will know, like as they now are known, (1 Cor. xiii. 12,) and view the transcendent greatness of Deity's resplendent majesty in the refulgent brightness of full glory face to face. (1 Cor. xiii. 12.) Another source of sweet delight and tender comfort yet remains untold: they will be reunited to their former friends, unto the spirits of the just made perfect. No mourner here need now to grieve as those devoid of hope; the happy hearts who have been knit on earth by the endearing tie of pure religious love, will meet again in bliss, to part no more for ever. To consummate their joys, they will come unto Jesus, the mediator of the new covenant―unto the blessed negotiator of that be-. nignant treaty, which makes our peace with God. Sheltered and hid on this drear earth beneath his fostering wing, those that are his in truth, press daily closer to that genial warmth, which nurtures every virtue into vital life; complete in vigour now, He brings them open forth to the bright sunshine of eternal day. Unto these realms of endless peace, A crystal stream this region laves, Are mercies ever new; Fresh flowing from the throne of God, They nurture plants that bloom and pod, But though these vary in their kind, A panacea still we find To save from ev'ry crime; For balsams does each leaf contain, In full immortal prime.* No imperfection here'll be shown, Which all in earth and heav'n do bless, This bright refulgence can eclipse If penitently moan'd; 'Tis wilful sin the sting of death Alone does point, and Christian breath Resigns without a groan. * Rev. xxii. 1, 2. |