XIII.

RECOGNITION OF FRIENDS IN HEAVEN-CONTINUED.

"Father, I will that they also, whom thou hast given me, be with me where I am; that they may behold my glory, which thou hast given me." JOHN xvii, 24. "And behold, there appeared unto them Moses and Elias, talking with him." MATT. xvii, 4.

"In hell he lifted up his eyes, being in torments; and seeth Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in his bosom." LUKE XVI, 23.

There are two

WE resume the discussion of this theme. points of too much importance to be omitted. We refer to the objections urged against the doctrine of the recognition of friends in heaven, and to the moral influence the expectation of a reunion with the friends of earth, in heaven, should have upon us.

IV. OBJECTIONS TO SPIRITUAL RECOGNITION CONSIDEred.

The mere fact that objections are sometimes urged against a doctrine is of no force, since that is an event that has happened to every doctrine of Christianity, no matter how clearly established or how generally believed. The facts and arguments presented in proof of personal recognition in another life are so explicit and so conclusive that we at first thought to omit, as being wholly unnecessary, any review of the objections to it. But we finally concluded to so far change our purpose as to pass in review those which seem most forcible, or which have been most frequently a source of disquietude to the heart of the believer.

1. The bodily changes undergone at death and in the resurrection are so great that personal recognition will be highly improbable, not to say impossible. We would not underrate the greatness of this change; it would, perhaps, be impossible for us to overrate it. But do we not know that the greatest bodily changes here work no loss of recognizable identity? The plumpness and ruddiness of health. may be succeeded by the ghastliness of extreme emaciation, by sickness, or may be disfigured by accident, till no single feature of the individual's former self is recognizable; yet a smile upon the lip, an expression of the eye, the tone of the voice, or a gush of affection, will reveal the former friend alas, how changed; yet the same! This suggests that identity is as much of the soul as of the body-nay, more. Then, again, we must remember that the change in the resurrection is not an investing of the soul with a new body, but it is the complete development, the perfection of the old. The changes wrought in the body from infancy to fifty years are very great; yet the man is the same, recognized and recognizing all along. This does not seem wonderful, the change is so gradual, extending through so many years. But suppose it were possible for this transformation to take place in a single night, so that the individual that laid down at evening an infant should rise in the morning a man of fifty years, having undergone the transformation of half a century in a single night. It would be a wonderful transformation! And yet he would be the same individual identity would be untouched. It is not another individual different from the infant we had seen, but it is the same person developed. So shall it be in the resurrection-a wondrous change, sudden, resistless, transforming every part, and infusing new power into every faculty; but still it is the same identical person as before.

But we are not left to the force of reason alone in removing this objection. Revelation sheds no doubtful light upon the resurrection body, glorious as it is, possessing and displaying marks that shall identify it with its earthly being. What an illustration of this was given in the transfiguration! The Redeemer was recognized by his disciples even through the dazzling brightness that radiated from his beatific body. Moses and Elias, too, who had come back from the spirit-land to commune with the blessed Messiah, were not without marks of recognition. Then, also, after the Savior's resurrection, the disciples readily recognized the person of their blessed Lord. His resurrection body was the type and pattern of our own—only inconceivably more glorious. If his was recognizable, so must also le ours. The change, great and glorious as it may be, is not such as will change our essential character, or obliterate the elements of identification.

Indeed, we can not help thinking that our knowledge of each other in the future state will be vastly more perfect than in this. "For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face." The communion of individuals here, and their knowledge of one another, is necessarily imperfect. We stand "face to face," it is true; but we can behold each other only through the dim and soiled "glass' of humanity, and hence but imperfectly-" darkly." But when this vail is taken away, "then shall we know even as also we are known."

2. It is objected, again, that the contemplation and glory of Christ will so entirely occupy us in the future state, that we will never think or desire to make search for friends or kindred. That Christ will be the chief object of attraction in heaven, and the perpetual theme of adoring wonder and praise, we have not the shadow of a doubt. But that the soul is to be so absorbed, as to know nothing

else, to look at nothing else, and to feel the thrill of joy flowing from no other source, the Scriptures no where intimate. Their general tone and teaching, as well as all the analogies of the Divine government, and all the constitutional elements of the human character, indicate exactly the reverse. Christ is best loved and served on earth-not by perpetual inactive adoration, however tender and truebut by active sympathy and coöperation in all his works, and by active obedience to all his commands. The cup of cold water ministered to the least of Christ's children is as spontaneous an outflow of the true Christian heart as the loftiest hymn of praise; and infinitely more precious must it ever be in the eyes of the blessed Redeemer, than the most complacent admiration of his character and person. And will it be different in heaven? Christ and Christianity are the same whether in earth or in heaven. The person who here loves Christ so intently that he can neither know any other object, nor feel any other emotion, nor perform any other act, may be a very sentimental, but not a very Scriptural Christian. The love of Christians is at once the evidence and the manifestation of our love to Christ. we love ONE ANOTHER, God dwelleth in us, and HIS LOVE is perfected in us." (1 John iv, 12.) Nor is it a passive, inoperative love; but one that manifests itself in act as well as in word. Then, too, if we love Christ, we shall love his children for his sake, and because they bear his image. This heavenly abstraction, then, is rather a weakness of earth than a mirror of the heavenly glory. The saints in glory are represented, not as gazing upon God, but as serving him day and night. "Then also Christ is to be glorified in his saints, and to be admired in all them that believe." (2 Thess. i, 10.) That is, they are the representatives of Christ; show forth his wonderful work, and mirror his glory. Suppose we should enter the studio of

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some celebrated painter, and instead of looking upon and studying the wonderful creations of his art, hung all around upon the walls, should appear entirely inattentive to them, while we fixed our gaze upon the person of the artist. Such anomalous action might spring from great admiration of the artist and great love for his person; but it would savor more of a weak and sickly sentimentalism than of any just appreciation of his character and work. And to him, it could be only distasteful and offensive. We can hardly imagine such sentimentalism will find place in heaven. The character of Christ and his relations to his redeemed children forbid it. The very nature of a soul, invigorated, ennobled, and purified in the process of being saved and fitted for heaven, forbids it.

3. It is objected, again, that the declaration of the Savior that "in the resurrection they neither marry nor are given in marriage," implies the abnegation of the relations peculiar to this life, and, consequently, personal recognition as the individuals to whom we once sustained such relations must cease. The Sadducees, caviling at the doctrine of the resurrection, had suggested the case of a woman who had seven husbands, and inquired which of the seven should have her as his wife in the resurrection. Our Savior replies that "in the resurrection they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are as the angels of God." (Matt. xxii, 30.) He here simply asserts that the marriage relation will not be continued in another life, not that we shall be unacquainted with each other. So far from asserting this, the very reverse is implied in the declaration that they are as the angels of God; for, certainly, it will not be denied that the angels of God are acquainted with each other.

But let us be understood. It is not the remembrance of this relation that is to be obliterated, but simply that the relation is not to be continued. As this relation constituted