PREFATORY NOTE. E are free to acknowledge that in the views we entertain of Heavenly Recognition, the feelings of the heart may sen sibly affect the opinions of the intellect. The stream of the affections may mingle in with the current of reason and evidence, and give, perhaps, a strong colouring to the belief that we shall know our earthly friends when we meet them in the heavenly world. For when called to part with them here, when forced, by a stern and inevitable necessity, to bid farewell to those with whom we have held sweet converse on earth, and around whom our warmest affections are entwined, the heart cannot admit, for a moment, the sentiment that we shall never see or know them again. We instinctively follow them in thought to the bright regions above, and anticipate the pleasure of ere long meeting them in the society of the blessed, and participating with them in the employments and joys of their Father's house. They are not lost to us, but are only gone before; and, with increased affection, will wait our arrival at their blissful home. As the stars are not lost when the morning sun throws his light over the firmament, but are simply invisible to our vision; so the spirits of the departed saints shine in the moral heavens, though we cannot see them with the natural eye. To the bereaved, this volume comes to heal their wounds and soothe their anguish. It bids them hasten their preparation for a higher life, and for sweeter and holier Christian intercourse than this earth can afford. The Editor is greatly indebted to the Authors who have, with the utmost readiness and cordiality, permitted the use of their contributions. J. W. |