and Elias unknown each to the other? Did the martyrs below the altar utter the same cry, without knowing the history of their companions, each a stranger amongst strangers? Was Abraham a stranger to Lazarus, or was Lazarus seen and known by the rich man only? Could those who watch for souls render account for them, with joy or grief, and yet not know their doom? Could Christian converts be the "glory and joy" of an apostle at the coming of the Lord, if he knew them not? Could the patriarchs be seen in the kingdom of God by none but those who should be shut out? All proceeds on the supposition of just such knowledge there as here. It is probable, indeed, that the human soul must always clothe itself with form, even in the separate state; and such a form would bear the same impress which had been given to the mortal body. There is no extravagance in the wish of Doctor Randolph to know Cowper above from his picture here, or in the same thought as expressed in the verses of Southey on the portrait of Heber.

Only one objection is urged in reply: it proceeds from the feelings. It asks, how we could be happy, and know the objects of our earthly love to be absent. But with equal stress it may be replied, that it would be just as difficult to be happy while we could not know them to be sharers of our happiness. The dreaded sorrow of missing one cannot be escaped by supposing a state of forgetfulness towards others, through which we should miss all. For, if a still intenser forgetfulness were imagined, in which our own history in this life, with all recollection of all men should be lost, there could no longer be that identity of consciousness without which there could be no reward, or punishment, or

individual immortality. met with a simple, humble faith, in that all-providing wisdom which can enable the human soul to forget all which it might be distressed to remember, can fill it with all holy and joyous meditations, and can, in a thousand ways, preserve the flowers of memory without its thorns.

Such suggestions should be

Of the events of that long sojourn, of the progress of the soul, of its employments, for events, and progress, and employments there must be, only the slightest glimpses are afforded. The veil," says Arnold, “is purposely drawn, that we might not seek to hold too close communion with the dead." Whatever may be the delusion of those who forget or disregard the great and impassable gulf which is fixed by death itself between the just and unjust, we need not hide from ourselves that centuries and even thousands of years cannot well be fruitless in the world of spirits. In a comparative infancy all enter there; in real infancy, many. A mighty development must be accomplished; perhaps a high and blessed education, the complement of all which was left unfinished here. As we are here," says Owen, "in and by the word and other ordinances prepared and made meet for the present state of things in glory, so are they by the temple-worship of heaven fitted for that state of things when Christ shall give up the kingdom unto the Father." But it is hidden from us now, under general images of rest and peace; that state is shown, even in revelation, only by glimpses; glimpses, through which many have delighted to perceive, though uncertainly, a guardian instrumentality of the departed just in still serving the kingdom of God and the souls of their brethren here.

Even in glimpses of such a state, all which is deepest within us rejoices and will rejoice. The imagination and the heart long for more; but sanctified by Christian hope, they catch with exquisite delight the few, bright rays which the word of God reflects, as they fall from the scenes of Paradise.

LXI.

Resurrection of Christ.

"When by a good man's grave I muse alone,
Methinks an angel sits upon the stone;

Like those of old, on that thrice-hallowed night,
Who sat and watched in raiment heavenly, bright;
And with a voice inspiring joy, not fear,

Says, pointing upward, that he is not here.
That he is risen !"

ROGERS.

THUS death has reigned over all men, and must reign; and even the triumphant departure of the redeemed spirit, and its separate abode in the joys of Paradise, are still tokens of the fulfilment of the universal sentence. The Redeemer of the world has promised a consummation yet more complete, and in His own person has given the earnest. It was not possible that He who came to destroy death "should be holden of it;" that the body which was prepared for Him, and in which He bore our sins, should remain in the power of the grave; nor was even the common victory permitted, that His flesh should see corruption. Receiving but, it as were, a slight and momentary wound, such as a serpent may inflict on the heel that crushes its head, He conquered death, and him that had the power of death.

The resurrection of Jesus was probably instantaneous; but it had no human witnesses. When His followers approached the tomb, He was no longer there;

the guards had been smitten with a stupor of terror which was like death itself; and probably they neither saw nor heard while the stone was rolled away by an angel. The moment of reanimation was veiled from mortal view; we only know that the earth quaked; that angels were near; and that, when men beheld the spot again, He was risen.

A few hours after, at the utmost, he was seen by Mary Magdalene, near the sepulchre. He met the other Mary, and Salome, and they held Him by the feet.” On the same day He was seen by Peter, by Cleopas. and another disciple, on the way to Emmaus; and, in the evening, by ten of the apostles, assembled at Jerusalem. With them. He ate, and breathed upon

them.

A week after, He met the whole eleven; and Thomas was permitted to touch the print of the wounds in His hands and His side. Again, He was seen on the shore of the lake of Tiberias, by Peter and Thomas, Nathanael, and James, and John, and two other disciples. At that time, He again took bread with them at their humble repast. Afterwards, on an appointed mountain in Galilee, He appeared to no less than five hundred believers, most of whom survived many years, to relate that wonderful meeting, and to convince mankind by their own readiness to suffer for what their eyes had witnessed. Once he was present, too, with one apostle alone, either James the son of Zebedee, or James the son of Alpheus. Through a period of forty days, He thus showed Himself alive," by many signs, under many circumstances; and carried on with His apostles long and most interesting conversations, expounding to them the prophecies which had foreshown His death and resurrection. At the end of forty days, He was