lieved generally by theologians will appear from the following quotations: Paley says, speaking of Col. 1: 28, "If this be rightly interpreted, then it affords the manifest and necessary inference, that the saints in a future life will meet and be known to one another; for how, without knowing again his converts, in their new and glorious state, could St. Paul desire or expect to present them at the last day? Dick wrote, "It has been asked whether, in the blessed abode, the saints will know one another? One should think that the question was unnecessary, as the answer naturally presents itself to every man's mind; and it only could have occurred to some dreaming theologian, who, in his airy speculations, has soared far beyond the sphere of reason and common sense. Who can doubt whether the saints will know one another? What reason can be given why they should not? Would it be any part of their perfection to have all their former ideas obliterated, and to meet as strangers in the other world?" Nevin said, "that the saints in glory shall continue to know those whom they have known and loved on earth, seems to me to flow necessarily from the idea of their im mortality itself; for this cannot be real, except as it includes personal identity or a continuation of the same consciousness." Bishop Hall thus spoke, “thou hast lost a friend; - say, rather, thou hast parted with him. That is properly lost which is past all recovery, which we are out of hope to see any more. It is not so with this friend thou mournest for; he is but gone home a little before thee: thou art following him; you two shall meet in your father's house, and enjoy cach other more happily than you could have done here below." Baxter thus expressed himself, "I now delight to converse with my pious friends, in a firm persuasion that I shall con verse with them forever; and I take comfort in those of them that are dead or absent, as believing that I shall shortly meet them in heaven, and love them with a heavenly love that shall then be perfected." Doddridge said, "Let me be thankful for the pleasing hope that, though God loves my child well to permit it to return to me, he will ere long bring me to it. And then that endear paternal affection, which would have been a cord to tie me to earth, and have added new pangs to my removal from it, will be as a golden chain to draw me upwards, and add one further charm and joy › paradise itself. *** It is for no language but that of heaven, to describe the sacred joy which such a meeting must occa sion." Chalmers wrote concerning the death of a child, "The blossom which withered here upon its stalk, has been transplanted there to a place of endurance; and it will then gladden that eye which now weeps out the agony of an affection that has been sorely wounded; and, in the name of Him who, if on carth, would have wept along with them, do we bid all believers present to sorrow not even as others which have no hope; but to take comfort in the hope of that country where there is no sorrow and no separation." ་ Edwards said, "The father shall know that such a one was his child; the husband shall remember that such a no was his wife; the spiritual guide shall know that such bclonged to his flock; and so all other relations of persons snall be renewed and known in heaven." From a sermon of Dwight upon the Happiness of Heaven, I extract the following: "Husbands and wives, here mu tually and singularly beloved, will there be united, not in ✦ For several of the preceding quotations the author is indebted to Harbaugh deed in their former earthly relations, but in a friendship far more delightful, and, wafted onward by the stream of ages without a sigh, without a fear, will become in each other's eyes, more and more excellent, amiable, and endeared forever." Emmons thus wrote, "All pious brothers and sisters, all pious parents and children, all pious husbands and wives, all pious friends and all pious ministers, and their pious hearers, will be forever known to each other and intimately connected in heaven, and mutually promote each other's felicity. *** All Christians in every part of the world, who are now alive, will very soon meet together with their departed friends in heaven, and their meeting in that holy and happy place must fill their hearts with mutual joy, and remove all the pains and sorrows of their former parting." Quotations of a similar character might be multiplied indefinitely, but the above will serve to illustrate to what extent the belief in this doctrine obtains. The difficulty is not in finding theologians who believe as above, but in finding those who do not thus believe. It is objected to this doctrine that Christ himself will absorb the affections, interest and time, in heaven, and that it is a disparagement to him to believe that the sainted throng will be interested in each other. That Christ will be the centre of all love and attraction with he ransomed, “the chief among ten thousand and the one altogether lovely," is readily admitted. That it will be heaven enough to dwell where the Saviour is, and that saints will desire to "see his face" first of all, is not denied. But, that this superior interest in Christ precludes the possibility of such interest in kindred as has been described, is untrue. As well might we contend that the love of Christ on earth hinders our love of kindred, when facts prove it the reverse. Christ, the more we love our friends. There is many a reckless prodigal returned to his father's house to re-love his The more we love kindred, because he has learned to love Christ. The love of Christ destroys no affection between friend and friend, but elevates and purifies it makes it stronger, more abiding, and holier. Why will it not be thus in heaven? Rather will not the ties of kindred there be more complete because of the augmented love of Christ? The Scriptures declare "that we love the children of God, when we love God," and command hat he who loveth God, love his brother also." Hence, the great love of Christ, that will fill the hearts of the glorified above, becomes an additional reason for believing, that the social tics of sanctifed humanity will exist there. We have now presented some of the reasons for believing that Christian friends will recognize cach other in the "many mansions." There are many natural and moral truths which men receive upon far less evidence than that which supports the doctrine under consideration. We have scen that the doctrine is sustained by the universal desire and belief of mankind, by the existence of the remembering facul ty, by the increasing knowledge of the mind, by the principle of sociality implanted in the human heart, and by the unerring Word of God. Upon this we are willing to rest our belief in the doctrine, and fondly cherish the hopes and desires which it awakens. We hail it as a real God-send in this world of broken tics, worthy of a place in the formulary of the Christian faith, and glorifying to its Divine Author. Here, then, we base our plea for The Whole Family in Heaven. It surrounds the heavenly abode of the saints with sweeter attractions, to feel that in addition to the joy of bcholding Christ, we may also meet father and mother, husband and wife, son and daughter, brother and sister, never to be parted more. "Oh happy world! Oh glorious place! Where all who are forgiven, Shall find their loved and lost below, And hearts like meeting streams, shall flow Eternal home of the Christian family! How beautiful is our holy religion, when it hallows the various relations of the household, and finally brings its members from the divergent paths of life to their" Father's house," a joyous, unbroken band! "There," as another has said, "the mother again clasps her beautiful babes to her bosom, all resplendent in the glory of that Saviour who carried them in His arms thither. There, she who was the solitary widow, and who for long had to tread the melancholy path of immaculate sorrow for the husband of her heart, and who, perhaps, had to accept of life's coldest conditions to secure for her self and orphans a piece of bread-there, she finds the desire of her eyes; and, in garments of white, they together walk the streets of the heavenly city. There the orphan, the poor, shivering, timid orphan, who stood over a father's and a mother's grave, ere he knew or could appreciate such a loss, and who struggled on unbefriended through the battles and breezes of this selish world, at length beholds and luxuriates in parental love. There the kind friends, the choice benefactors, to whom we have been indebted during our pilgrim passage for many comforts and precious aids, and whose departure from us to the world of spirits has made earth more gloomy, and life less joyous, shall again be met. and again enjoyed. In a word, all the blessed dead who have died in the Lord there meet again, and meet to part no more." # What consolation is here for the bereaved! The separation, which death has caused between Christian friends is only for a transient season. The translation of every saint * McFarlane. |