some things concerning it: here it is called life, not only because it is mysterious; but life in opposition to hell, which is death. Life is a self-active thing, and ye must not imagine that heaven is a state of idleness; no, the saints are busier at work there than ever they were upon earth. It is a life there where the most perfect faculties, exercising their highest and their utmost vigour, do terminate their chief operations upon their most proper objects it is life, even life for evermore.

2. It is called "God's house." "In my Father's house are many mansions." (John xiv. 2.) Christ is telling his disciples that he was going to leave them, and they are sinking with discouragement, as if their troubled hearts would have suggested such words as these-"What, is this the end of our coming unto thee-of our leaving our parents, abandoning the world, and following after thee with so many circumstances of worldly loss and trouble, and now thou art going to leave us alone ?""Yea," says he, "but trust me, I will not forget you, for I am going home upon your errand: I go to prepare a place for you: I assure you ye shall have room enough, for in my Father's house are many mansions. Your dwellings here are but flitting tabernacles, but above there is a fixed residence for ever: ye shall dwell in the same house with me: I will be your king, and ye my subjects: and we shall live in one house together: I am your master, and ye are my servants; and where I am, there shall my servants be: ye have a home, it is the same that I have; there is a familiarity betwixt us in that house, it is my Father's house, and a house that is a palace."

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3. It is called a state of peace. They shall enter into peace." (Isaiah lvii. 2.) It is a sweet way of speaking of heaven to call it by the name of peace. When a man is brought out of a state of enmity to a state of reconciliation with God, then peace enters into him; but when he goes to heaven, he enters into peace. It is much

more for us to be swallowed up in an ocean of water, than to have a drop coming into our mouths. Reconciliation with God in time brings a little peace to us; but when we die we are swallowed up with peace, a region of uninterrupted profound tranquillity. Christians have no quiet now; the devil disturbs their peace, indwelling sin makes them mourn, and the wicked of the world disquiet them; but then they shall enter into peace, and never be troubled with these any more.

4. It is called rest. (Heb. iv. 9.) There remains, therefore, a rest for the people of God; all the believer's motion tends to rest, and centres in rest; all the tossings and wanderings, all the pilgrimage of Christians, terminate in rest. They would fain have their rest here: No, says their wise Father, that is not your interest, your rest is reserved for you in another world; arise, this is not yourrest.

5. This future state of believers is called joy, the joy of the Lord. "Well done, good and faithful servant, enter thou into the joy of thy Lord." (Matt. xxv. 21, 23.) Intellectual joy is a great part of the happiness of heaven. The epicurean's sensual pleasure, his dreggy delight, and criminal joy, are unworthy of a man; but this intellectual joy, arising from the knowledge of God above, is our happiness. Yea, but what joy is the joy of the Lord? If we may speak so, it is joy of the same kind that God has —it is the joy of the Lord. Oh! who can think or speak of this bliss: the very entering into it, is accompanied with inexpressible joy, as Ps. xlv. 15. "With joy and gladness shall they be brought: they shall enter into the King's palace," that is a great deal of joy. We see an afflicted Christian tossed with the pangs of death, and upon the setting point of his life he is groaning, being oppressed with pain and sickness! but could you see him crossing the gulf, and going home to his Father's house, you would see him exulting, full of joy. If faith gives us unspeakable joy, and if in believing we rejoice with joy

unspeakable, what will not the sight do? What will not the entering upon the full possession do? "Christ shall present you faultless," saith St. Jude, "before the presence of his glory, with exceeding joy," rapturous joy, the joy of the Lord. Oh! ye have had much sorrow in your time, ye have been men of sorrow and acquainted with grief, ye have been tossed with tempests and not comforted; but now begins your joy, and it shall never have an end; the redeemed shall come to Zion with everlasting joy upon their heads, they shall obtain gladness, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away: sighing and sorrow now flies away, and there is no more mourning, no more crying, no more death; but the Lamb will wipe away all tears from their eyes.

6. This state is frequently expressed by glory. Christ entered into glory, and believers enter into glory,-what is glory? It is excellency made conspicuous; it is perfect happiness, and the brightness of a thing. The glorified above have both subjective, objective, and circumstantial glory they have subjective glory in that their holiness is consummate and perfect, and this makes them all-glorious within; they behold the glory of God, the glory of his perfections, the shining of his glorious attributes, and that is their objective glory, and they enter into a possession of it, a sight of it, a fruition of it; the place is glorious, all the riches of the nations are nothing to it.-"I saw no sun there," says John, "but the Lord God and the Lamb were the light thereof." There is the light, there is the glory, of an incarnate Godhead.

7. It is called a kingdom. "Fear not, little flock, it is your Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom.” Oh, a kingdom is the very top of created felicity: men reckon it the highest pitch of happiness they can attain unto upon earth. What battles, what insurrections, what treason and bloodshed, have been for the gaining of but a little kingdom; but what are all the kingdoms of this earth

compared to the kingdom of God in heaven? Men are just like so many ants, that imagine a ridge of land to be a world, and every molehill to be a kingdom, and they fight for it, and when they get an inch they think they gain half a kingdom. Such is the madness of men! But here is a kingdom that cannot be moved-here is the imperial crown put upon their heads-here they sit upon the throne with Him-here they have the robe royal put upon them. It is very extraordinary to see a king make a king of a subject, for a monarch cannot bear with a rival; but every subject here is a king; he hath made us unto God kings and priests.

"I was caught up inThe air is the first hea

8. It is called the third heaven to the third heaven," says Paul. ven; the starry heaven, where the sun and moon are, is the second heaven; and above all these the imperial heavens, where God dwells in majesty and glory, that is the third heaven; and "who hath measured the heavens?" We cannot see the boundaries of the highest heavens, that great and vast habitation, where the Lamb leads them, and they follow him; through this vast region of glory "they follow the Lamb whithersoever he goes.

9. It is frequently called Paradise. St. Paul says he was taken up into Paradise. Paradise was the most beautiful spot of the lower creation, indeed the whole earth before the fall, was a paradise; but this was the best part of this paradise. We will not enter upon the notions that some men have about the place where it was, for, whereever it was, it was the garden of God. 'Tis true all was his, but this was his in a more peculiar manner, as it was a compound of all worldly pleasure and a model of all earthly perfection, and to this heaven is compared.

10. And, to conclude, it is called salvation. "He became the author of eternal salvation unto all them that obey him." It is not only salvation by a deliverance from hell, but a positive salvation by setting them in a state of happiness, saving them from all evil.

SYMPATHY FOR THE IMPENITENT.

We all know the power of sympathy. When we behold the miseries of the suffering, we catch their pain, without any direct cause of pain to ourselves, and really suffer affliction from the mere violence of another's anguish. There is, too, a charm in the gladness of others, which will steal upon us insensibly; and, if we have no particular cause for sorrow, it is sufficient for our momentary happiness that we are in the company of the happy. Who is of such fixed melancholy as never to have felt the delight that arises without any other cause than the delight of others, which precedes it? And we weep with those that weep. Without any misfortune of our own, we are afflicted at the sight of affliction in those around us, and shrink and shudder at the application of pain, though it cannot reach ourselves. Such is the great and beautiful law of sympathy. Such the rapid and touching affinities knitting us together, that nothing which man can feel is foreign to us. But tell me, Christian reader, for whom should this instinctive compassion be so strongly and sorrowfully felt as for those who know not God, who have never felt the sweetness and peace of forgiving sin? And from whom should it come, welling up from the depths of a sanctified heart, strong and unquenchable, if not from those who have been taken out from under the heavy pressure of God's curse, and relieved from the awfulness of the impenitent's doom? "Think on me when it shall be well with you," was the touching petition of the suffering, misused Joseph to the chief butler, as he predicted his speedy release and restoration to the royal favour. Were things regarded in the true light, would not the same question be anxiously asked by every unrenewed sinner?

It is well with you. Christian, should you not think on those in the sad and guilty condition of sinners against God? You are free from the dominion of sin. You

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