favour of the affirmative of the question to which it relates. The feeling in favour of that view is, as before observed, very strong, and the probability is that it will continue to produce various speculations on the future, as it has hitherto done. It has given rise to reflections which may be justly termed very beautiful, and which only need the element of certainty to make them as valuable as they are pleasing and delightful. We should rejoice if we could but be assured that they were true.1 1 See, e. 9., "The Lunar World," ch. viii., and "Physical Theory of Another Life," by the author of "Natural History of Enthusiasm.” Ch. xv. THE MUTUAL RECOGNITION OF GLORIFIED SAINTS. § 1. CAUSES OF EXISTING UNCERTAINTY. § II. - TRUTH OF THE DOCTRINE DETERMINED FROM § III. SCRIPTURE. ITS CONSISTENCY WITH THE CONDITIONS OF THE QUESTION. ESSAY IV. THE MUTUAL RECOGNITION OF GLORIFIED We now approach the consideration of a subject on which, unlike the last, there undoubtedly prevails a very general agreement among divines; and this, moreover, seems to have been the case from the earliest periods of the Christian Church, when it was certainly believed that the Saints will mutually recognize each other in glory: and it is well known how many of our most able divines in more modern days have held and taught the same, sometimes assuming the affirmative of the question as undoubted, at others supporting it with arguments more or less cogent and convincing. Yet is it an undoubted fact that they have failed to communicate, by means of this truth, a corresponding The doctrine is highly calcu comfort to the Church. |