wise men of Greece.

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gnothi seauton," know thyself— a rare attainment even by those who have soared to the loftiest heights, and descended to the profoundest depths of knowledge. He who has made the acquisition is more than Bachelor of Arts; he is MASTER OF ARTS.

The soul is a harp of a thousand strings, and few are they who can make music on them all. A slight neglect may destroy the blissful harmonies. You have listened with wrapt attention to the strains of melody bursting from a full and practised orchestra. Note swells and blends with note in enchanting sweetness. Voice soars and mingles with voice in volumes of richest sound. And wave after wave of the sacred song pours upon the listening spirit to captivate and charm. But one little jar- one discordant note-will dissolve the melody, and waste the music on the air. So the laws of God, mental, moral, and material, are so many chords strung to a universal anthem; and he who dares resist the philosophy of his being, in the violation of the simplest of these laws, sunders a chord, and withdraws a note from the harmonies of creation.

THE first chapter closed with a view of the frail and un<certain tenure which marks the family relation. The union, at best, is brief-its dissolution inevitable. But death does not sever the bond forever. If it did, sad, indeed, would be the earthly fellowship of kindred. If no hope of reunion were offered to the faithful, how many would exclaim at the goal of life, overwhelmed at the thought of an eternal parting, would that I had never been born!

Thanks for the precious Gospel which comes to restore the severed ties to reunite the broken families-to renew the fellowship of kindred! The family on earth may become the whole family in Heaven! Though scattered over the face of the earth, and dying in different lands, its memders may meet again, to renew their intercourse on Mount Zion above, where

"Those long parted meet again.""

They, who have sat at the same table, may sit together at the marriage supper of the Lamb. They who have bowed at the same family altar with the beginning and close of day, may unite their devotions before the "great white throne." They who have walked in company to the earthly temple of

God, may sit together in the " temple not made with hands." They, who have loved in the earthly mansion, than which no other spot is dearer, may rejoice together in a "mansion in the skies"

"In my father's house are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you, I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to myself; that where I am, there ye may be also." Beautiful and precious words are these to fall upon the heart of sorrow! Here the thoughts are bornc upward to the "many mansions," where the heavenly family commune together, after the sad reverses and separations of a trial-land, in the sweeter, purer, better intercourse of an eternal home. That is a precious sentiment, "I go to prepare a place for you." The figure is drawn from a company of travellers, one of whom precedes his associates to provide a place for their entertainment and rest. So Christ has gone to prepare a residence for his saints in their " father's house." Here they have " tinuing city." They are "sojourners," strangers," "pilgrims." They seek "a better country "-a permanent abode. They are "children" of God, absent upon the "journey of life." They will soon reach their "father's house"-their everlasting HOME.

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no con

Thus the Scriptures describe the future abode of the saints by allusion to an earthly home-that retreat of loving hearts, where social endearments exist even in the face of poverty and wo-that garden of delight where hopes and loves expand in the sunshine of a parent's smile. As this homeresidence commands the affections of the heart wherever man sojourns, so does the christian's view of heaven allure his heart. In his wearisome pilgrimage, it rises before him as the consummation of his hopes, and he anticipates a welcome from its family of kindred spirits, and joy in a father's smile.

My theme is, that the whole family may be gathered there, known and loved by each other.

The first part of this proposition-the whole family may be gathered in heaven-demands no proof. It is the universal sentiment of all believers in the Christian religion. It is presented simply as a delightful view of the abode of the sainted dead-that which magnifies the sacredness and loveliness of the family relation. The latter part-that they will be known and loved by each other-admits of discussion; and yet, unless this latter portion is true, the particular pleasure, which the former doctrine is calculated to impart, is wholly sacrificed. It will be joy exceeding great to know that our friends are safe in glory, even though we may not recognize them. But how much greater that joy if we are able to identify them amid the countless throng. This is the basis of the pleasing view of heaven which we shall attempt to unfold. Will kindred recognize each other there? It is the first, yea, the only question to be answered, in order to establish that alluring view of heaven which is dear to the christian heart. Heaven will be far more blissful, if the whole family, admitted there, are known to each other.

A proof of heavenly recognition is found in the fact, that it appears to be the universal sentiment of mankind. It is not the belief of a single sect. It belongs not to a single age. It is not the dogma of a particular school. Men of all creeds and no creeds, of all sects and no sects, of true piety and no piety, alike believe and defend this doctrine. Even the benighted pagan, far off in some dark corner of the earth, believes in a bright elysium, where he will be reunited to his departed kindred. He makes the blissful land the abode of all that can delight the senses and captivate the heart, in order to heighten the conception of friendships there renewed. The fields teem with buds and blossoms of unearthly beauty. The valleys sparkle with crystal streams, and the hills wave with forests more beautiful than the firs

of Senei. The skies are pure and cloudless; and the air is loaded with delicious odors, and is vocal with the sweet songs of the blessed. Fit, though imaginary abode, in which to renew the ties of kindred!

The wild Indians of our Western forests believe that far away beyond the mountains "there is a wide river; beyond that river a great country; on the other side of that country a world of water; in that water are a thousand islands, full of trees and streams of water, and that a thousand buffaloes, and ten thousand deer, graze on the hills, and ruminate in the valleys. When they die, they are persuaded that the Great Spirit will conduct them to this land of souls," to renew the relations which existed between them on their

hunting-grounds. We are told, that over the grave of friends they will load a certain bird with caresses, and then let it fly away to bear them to the departed in the spiritland.

The same sentiment is found among the ancients. Socrates said in view of death, "if the common expression be true, that death conveys us to those regions which are inhabited by the spirits of departed men, will it not be unspeakably happy to escape from the hands of mere nominal judges, to appear before those who truly deserve the name, such as Ninus and Rhadamanthus, and to associate with all who have maintained the cause of truth and rectitude? it possible for you to look upon this as an unimportant journey? Is it nothing to converse with Orpheus, and Homer, and Hesiod? Believe me, I would cheerfully suffer many a death on the condition of realizing such a privilege."

Is

Cicero, in language too good to proceed from a pagan heart, exclaimed, "O, glorious day! when I shall retire from this low and sordid scene, to associate with the divine assembly of departed spirits; and not with those only whom I have just now mentioned, but with my dear Cato, that best