6. It has ever been a comfort and a watchword to the dying Christian. In no other place does this expectation of a reunion, on terms of knowledge, intimacy, and love, so brighten and glow as in the closing scene of the Christian's earthly pilgrimage. Bishop Burgess says: "The inexpressibly-affectionate looks of the dying fix sometimes a recollection more precious than any treasures. But this dying love for friends reveals itself peculiarly in the desire, the hope, and the assurance of a reunion. It reaches to the dead as well as the surviving, and exults with a peculiar rapture in the approaching meeting with such as stand already on the everlasting shore. A few hours before the death of Luther, he rejoiced in this prospect. "We shall, I think," said he, "be renewed in the other life through Christ, and shall much more perfectly recognize our parents, wives, and children." Melancthon, a few days before his death, told Camerarius that he trusted their friendship should be cultivated and perpetuated in another world. Cruciger, another of the school of the reformers, spoke, in his last hours, of meeting and recognition. Casper Olevianus, a divine of Heidelberg, when his son had been summoned to see him before he should die, sent to him also the message that "he need not hurry, they should see one another in eternal life." So Joseph Scaliger spoke of "soon meeting and embracing no longer the subjects of age and infirmity." "What pleasure there is," said the pious Mrs. East, "in the thought that we shall together adore the Savior; and that, if permitted, I shall gladly welcome you on your admittance into heaven." Recollections of dear departed friends come often with such a vividness that, looking on, we are almost persuaded to deem them near. The aged Hannah More, in her last distress, stretched out her arms as if catching at some object, uttered the name of her deceased sister, cried "Joy!" and sank into death.

The prospect of meeting with the great and the good of all ages, and of being reunited with the loved companions of our pilgrimage who have gone before, often fills the mind of the departing saint with the most ecstatic joy. Risden Davacott said: "I am going from weeping friends to congratulate angels and rejoicing saints in heaven."

Then, too, a gleam of light seems reflected in what is by no means an uncommon experience in the dying hour-the presence of angel-messengers and even of departed kindred to cheer the pilgrim in his passage across the dark valley.

This faith in the recognitions of another life, so cheering to the dying Christian, remains to comfort the living. In full conviction of its truth, the minister employs it in all his funeral discourses. It is carved upon the monuments of the dead in all Christian lands. Thus life and death combine in testimony to the firm and abiding foundation of this sublime faith of the Christian life.

XIII.

RECOGNITION OF FRIENDS IN HEAVEN-CONTINUED.

"Father, I will that they also, whom thou hast given me, be with me where I am; that they may behold my glory, which thou hast given me." JOHN xvii, 24. "And behold, there appeared unto them Moses and Elias, talking with him." MATT. xvii, 4.

"In hell he lifted up his eyes, being in torments; and seeth Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in his bosom." LUKE Xvi, 23.

There are two

WE resume the discussion of this theme. points of too much importance to be omitted. We refer to the objections urged against the doctrine of the recognition. of friends in heaven, and to the moral influence the expectation of a reunion with the friends of earth, in heaven, should have upon us.

IV. OBJECTIONS TO SPIRITUAL RECOGNITION CONSIDERED.

The mere fact that objections are sometimes urged against a doctrine is of no force, since that is an event that has happened to every doctrine of Christianity, no matter how clearly established or how generally believed. The facts and arguments presented in proof of personal recognition in another life are so explicit and so conclusive that we at first thought to omit, as being wholly unnecessary, any review of the objections to it. But we finally concluded to so far change our purpose as to pass in review those which seem most forcible, or which have been most frequently a source of disquietude to the heart of the believer.

1. The bodily changes undergone at death and in the resurrection are so great that personal recognition will be highly improbable, not to say impossible. We would not underrate the greatness of this change; it would, perhaps, be impossible for us to overrate it. But do we not know that the greatest bodily changes here work no loss of recognizable identity? The plumpness and ruddiness of health may be succeeded by the ghastliness of extreme emaciation, by sickness, or may be disfigured by accident, till no single feature of the individual's former self is recognizable; yet a smile upon the lip, an expression of the eye, the tone of the voice, or a gush of affection, will reveal the former friend-alas, how changed; yet the same! This suggests that identity is as much of the soul as of the body-nay, more. Then, again, we must remember that the change in the resurrection is not an investing of the soul with a new body, but it is the complete development, the perfection of the old. The changes wrought in the body from infancy to fifty years are very great; yet the man is the same, recognized and recognizing all along. This does not seem wonderful, the change is so gradual, extending through so many years. But suppose it were possible for this transformation to take place in a single night, so that the individual that laid down at evening an infant should rise in the morning a man of fifty years, having undergone the transformation of half a century in a single night. It would be a wonderful transformation! And yet he would be the same individual: identity would be untouched. It is not another individual different from the infant we had seen, but it is the same person developed. So shall it be in the resurrection-a wondrous change, sudden, resistless, transforming every part, and infusing new power into every faculty; but still it is the same identical person as before.

But we are not left to the force of reason alone in re moving this objection. Revelation sheds no doubtful light upon the resurrection body, glorious as it is, possessing and displaying marks that shall identify it with its earthly being. What an illustration of this was given in the transfiguration! The Redeemer was recognized by his disciples even through the dazzling brightness that radiated from his beatific body. Moses and Elias, too, who had come back from the spirit-land to commune with the blessed Messiah, were not without marks of recognition. Then, also, after the Savior's resurrection, the disciples readily recognized the person of their blessed Lord. His resurrection body was the type and pattern of our own-only inconceivably more glorious. If his was recognizable, so must also le ours. The change, great and glorious as it may be, is not such as will change our essential character, or obliterate the elements of identification.

Indeed, we can not help thinking that our knowledge of each other in the future state will be vastly more perfect than in this. "For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face." The communion of individuals here, and their knowledge of one another, is necessarily imperfect. We stand "face to face," it is true; but we can behold each other only through the dim and soiled "glass" of humanity, and hence but imperfectly-" darkly." But when this vail is taken away, "then shall we know even as also we are known."

2. It is objected, again, that the contemplation and glory of Christ will so entirely occupy us in the future state, that we will never think or desire to make search for friends or kindred. That Christ will be the chief object of attraction in heaven, and the perpetual theme of adoring wonder and praise, we have not the shadow of a doubt. But that the soul is to be so absorbed, as to know nothing