as the brightness of the firmament, and they that turn many to righteousness as the stars for ever and ever." Those who have relieved the wants of body and mind; who have instructed the ignorant; and, in the meekness, gentleness, and compassion of Christ, have endeavored to turn men from worldliness and the neglect of God, to holiness and to diligence in his service;-these will be the friends of God in heaven. Heaven will be made up of those who have chosen the service of Christ, in preference to all the pleasures, gaieties, and business of the world; of those who, in spite of all opposition, and renouncing selflove and the love of ease, have devoted their lives to the great business of persuading men to be reconciled to God. It is impossible to doubt that the peculiar honors of heaven will be lavished on those to whom Christ can most emphatically say: "Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world; for I was an hungered and ye gave me meat; I was thirsty and ye gave me drink; I was a stranger and ye took me in; naked and ye clothed me; I was sick and ye visited me; I was in prison and ye came unto me.” And as for those Christians who, on the ground of business cares, literary pretensions, or the

restraints of refined society, excuse themselves from these Christian labors, they must hold themselves prepared to accept an immense change in their relative position on the social scale, and to defer to those whom on earth they had regarded as their inferiors, but whom they will in heaven discover to be immeasurably their superiors.

A late distinguished statesman, when in the society of his most intimate friends, more than once betrayed the fact that his mind was often agitating the question: Shall I, in the future state, possess this superiority of powers now accorded to me? or what will be my relative condition? Well might he ask it; and well might he ponder the declaration of Christ: "Many that are first shall be last, and the last first." In vain has God made us rational, in vain established a code of laws and placed us on probation, under a system of rewards and punishments, if our reason fail to conduct us to the strictest interpretation of the assurance, that every man will receive according to the deeds done in the body. Christ says: "Except ye eat my flesh and drink my blood, ye have no life in you." But to eat his flesh and to drink his blood is, to drink into his very nature and spirit; and that is possible only to those who adopt his life.

If you are contemplating a change of residence, if but for a few years, you are careful to inquire about the society in any of the places recommended to your election. If not already informed, you would choose to ask after the occupations and pursuits of the residents. You would like to know the direction of their minds, and their rate of speed. Except for missionary purposes, you would not intentionally or heedlessly plant your family among those whose aspirations never rose above a competent supply of food and clothing; nor would you become one of a people wholly addicted to the pursuit of gain, or to the indulgence of the baser appetites. You would ask for schools, libraries, lyceums, and, it may be, works of art. You would wish to be assured of a reasonable measure of public spirit, of genial and social qualities, of refinement of manners, and of literary taste. Your own taste, and the taste of your family, has been formed, educated, and established by constant reference to the best models of taste in every department, so that it is now a matter of necessity to your happiness, to establish yourself where wisdom and taste reign. All your associations and occupations have been fashioning you to this issue.

In like manner, the society of those most like

Christ is daily fashioning those who cultivate it, to crave, both on principle and from taste, and with intense and irresistible desire, the fellowship of the holy in the world of light; the fellowship of those who have been truly benevolent.

This admitted, what can be more obvious than that, in the daily living out among our fellows the impulses of the highest Christian benevolence, we are enjoying a daily foretaste of the very felicity of heaven; a foretaste of the society of heaven. There is a phrase much in vogue of late; I hear it often: "The soul is its own place." It is quite as true to say: The soul creates its own atmosphere; and, in the enjoyment of that, realizes the atmosphere of heaven, when they are identical. Christ said to his disciples: "My peace I leave with you; my peace give I unto you. If any man have not the spirit of Christ, he is none of his;" but if he have the spirit of Christ, why, then, he is his, and he has his realizations, and, in many particulars, an identity of experience; and so he knows what will be the society of heaven;-it will be the counterpart of his own experiences. His wants which have been unChristlike he has vanquished; his wants which are Christlike, mirror to him continually the society and the felicity of heaven.

CHAPTER XI.

THE JOY O F HEAVEN.

"When first my lines of heavenly joys made mention,
Such was their lustre, they did so excel,

That I sought out quaint words and trim invention.
My thoughts began to burnish, sprout, and swell,
Curling with metaphors a plain intention,

Decking the sense, as if it were to sell.

Thousands of notions in my brain did run,
Offering their service if I were not sped.
I often blotted what I had begun ;

This was not quick enough, and that was dead.
Nothing could seem too rich to clothe the sun;

Much less those joys which trample on his head.

As flames do work and wind when they ascend,
So did I weave myself into the sense.
But, while I bustled, I might hear a friend

Whisper: How wide is all this long pretence!
There is in love a sweetness ready penned;

Copy out only that, and save expense.'

HERBERT.

"Heaven's choicest blessings rest upon you! But, stop a moment! What am I invoking? Perhaps a furnace; a lingering season of discipline. What then? God will be with you; heaven will receive you; and Orient, among others, will be there to welcome you.”—O. T. H.

THE joy of heaven is to rest in God. "Our dependence upon God," says Thomas à Kempis,