nay, further, it wars against the saving provisions of the Gospel as being sufficient to the accomplishment of their great end. It would deny the completeness of the healing virtue of a Savior's blood, and derogate from the work of the Holy Spirit as our sanctifier. What these could not do for the soul in its present state is to be accomplished by the bleachings of purgatory, or by the "sanative influences" of the intermediate abode. O when will Christians learn to look to Christ, and to Christ alone, as the great and all-sufficient source of salvation! He is our life. In him we have wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption. What more can we need in order to salvation-to fitness for heaven even-than that which Christ supplies? "Where he displays his healing power,

Death and the curse are known no more;

In him the tribes of Adam boast
More blessings than their fathers lost."

It is generally admitted that the full consummation of bliss is not realized till the resurrection. It is when the soul is clothed upon with its glorious resurrection body, it enters upon the full development of its powers and the full consummation of its bliss! But why is it necessary to suppose that prior to that event it must be put into a separate, independent place, some gradations in advance of earth toward heaven, but yet beneath heaven itself? Why may it not be transplanted at once, not as a fully-developed, but as an embryo being, to expand and mature till its final investiture with an incorruptible body shall gloriously install it among the thrones of heaven?

Such, indeed, seems to be the clear light of Revelation upon the subject. The righteous dead are represented as being with Christ. Such seems to have been the views of the first martyr when he cried, "Lord Jesus, receive my spirit." Such also seemed to be the view of St. Paul when

he expressed "a desire to depart and be [not in the place of separate spirits, somewhere this side of heaven, but] WITH CHRIST, which is far better." (Phil. i, 23.) And, again, when not only speaking for himself, but for the great body of believers, he says, "Therefore, we are always confident, knowing that, whilst we are at home in the body, we are absent from the Lord; we are confident, I say, and willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord." (2 Cor. v, 6.) The apostle here expresses the strongest conviction that believers, from the moment of death, instead of being in a separate place, are "with the Lord." But where is the Lord-where is Christ? Most certainly he has not only ascended on high, but he has entered into heaven itself. "For Christ is not entered into the holy place made with hands, which are but the figures of the true; but INTO HEAVEN ITSELF, now to appear in the presence of God for us." (Heb. ix, 24.) (Heb. ix, 24.) And, again, "Of the things which we have spoken, this is the sum: we have such an high-priest, who is set on the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens." (Heb. viii, 1.) From these facts it is clearly evident that death ushers the believer into the immediate and glorious presence of Christ.

"One gentle sigh their fetter breaks;

We scarce can say, 'They're gone!'
Before the willing spirit takes

Her mansion near the throne."

How consoling such a truth! To know that we shall be with Christ sweetens the bitterness of the dying agony. Death removes us from our kindred here; but it brings us inte the presence of that Friend who is dearer than any brother. What enlargement and beatification of the soul's power shall be realized even at the hour of death! and how glorious shall be that transition-even though made through pain and agony-which brings us into the pres

ence of Christ! Feeble nature may drop her tears of sorrow over the departed good;

"But reason and religion, better taught,

Congratulate the dead, and crown his tomb
With wreath triumphant."

V. THE ESSENTIAL MORAL CHARACTER OF THE SOUL IN THE INTERMEDIATE STATE WILL BE THE SAME AS IN THE BODY.

The Scriptures not only mark the distinction in character between the good and the bad in this life, but also, in tracing their condition and character in the future life, recognize them, each as possessing the same moral characteristics he had in this life. "The wicked is driven away in his wickedness;" that is, he does not leave his wickedness behind him, but he departs in it, and retains it; and for this cause the "wrath of God abideth upon him." The same great truth is set forth in Revelation xxii, 11: "He that is unjust, let him be unjust still; and he which is filthy, let him be filthy still; and he which is righteous, let him be righteous still; and he that is holy, let him be holy still."

Such characters, then, as men form here, such as they possess at the time of death, they will retain after they have crossed the dividing line between time and eternity. "Death, like birth, is the act of passing from one state of existence to another, giving us nothing but a change of situation. Here are two moments of time. Now there is the spirit of a man still tremblingly dwelling within an expiring body. Next moment the spirit lives without the body. The little words in and out contain the only difference. All that the soul is at death it will be after death; nothing less, nothing more. It varies nothing. It leaves nothing of itself. It only goes."

It may be that when we enter the spirit-land we shall be surprised to find so little change has taken place in our moral, and, perhaps, also in our intellectual character-that we are still so much like what we were when we lived on earth. There will, no doubt, be progressive and great changes, especially in the character of the righteous. Notwithstanding their best endeavors, the close of life found them still subjects to many imperfections, still in darkness and error in many respects. But now, how altered their circumstances! how improved their condition! Their probation has ended; the exciting causes of sin are taken away; they breathe an uninfected atmosphere; unholy associations no longer disturb them, for they have Jesus, and angels, and the spirits of the just made perfect for their companions. The angels of God are now their teachers and their guides. Truth, pure from the fountain-head of light, beams with unclouded luster upon them, and chases away the mists of error and the darkness of ignorance. Here, then, amid all these inspiring and genial influences, the soul will expand and mature its moral and intellectual powers-rising higher and still higher in the scale of excellence, and progressing onward in unceasing approximation toward the immaculate fountain of purity and of bliss.

This progression, transcendently glorious as it is, does not imply the assumption of new characters, but rather the development of those already formed upon earth. Take the vine, placed in some unfavorable spot, where it is excluded from moisture, and light, and air; it has but a sickly life, its leaves fall off, its budding blossoms become parched and dry, and its very stock droops and begins to wither. But change its position; give it light, and air, and moisture; and it revives; it shoots forth new leaves; its buds burst forth into new life, and give promise of a luxurians

harvest. It is the same vine, but how gloriously developed! So with the immortal spirit, shining amid the glories of heaven, going forth on angelic wing to survey the vastness and the glory of the Creator's works, and vying with the loftiest archangel in its notes of thanksgiving and praise that immortal and glorious spirit does now only exhibit the fuller development of a character formed here upon earth, and formed, too, perhaps, amid sighs of sorrow, tears of penitence, and unceasing conflicts with evil.

This truth teaches us the practically-important lesson that in this life, this side of the grave, the essential elements of our future and eternal characters are to be gathered. What our external relations may be will matter but little; but what our feelings, our aims, and habits were will avail every thing. The worldly-minded, the passionate, the selfish, the sensual professor will carry with him all the tarnish and rust his soul has acquired here; and, though he may be saved as by fire, yet he will find himself so much like himself that he will be surprised and ashamed, as the glories of the pure and holy beam upon him and dazzle his vision. How many a sinner-nay, how many a Christian professor-would be ashamed to go forth into eternity, to stand before the scrutinizing eye of God, and in the presence of holy angels and the spirits of holy men, with his present thoughts, passions, and habits! And yet 1 how certain it is that we are not only here what life has made us, but such we shall be in eternity! The waters of death are not waters of ablution to cleanse away sin; nor is there that difference between the living and the dying world that is generally supposed. We shall, no doubt, die very much as we live. And as we die, so are we when we enter upon that intermediate state that leads to consummation of either bliss or woe.