the gospel; and, what is more, the claims of God and the Lamb are chiefly enforced by the glories and terrors of eternity: facts which demonstrate that there is no lack of light, whatever lack of looking there may be.

It is not much wiser to refer to the weakness of our minds, when the duty of looking to the things which are unseen and eternal, is enforced upon us. It is, indeed, very plausible, and seems very humble, to ask, "What can we make of such a subject as eternity? We are lost the moment we attempt to realize it! Even in its barest form-that of endless duration-it defies all our calculations. We are no nearer to the comprehension of it, when we think of countless myriads of millions of ages, than when we think of countless moments. Like infinity, it has its centre everywhere; but its circumference nowhere. What then is the use of trying to comprehend the incomprehensible?"

All this, however, is equally true of God and the Lamb; but we never ask, what is the use of trying to realize their incomprehensible glories. We feel it to be both our duty and interest, to try what can be made of them, by meditation and prayer. We confess and rejoice, that the divine character sometimes opens

on the mind, in such light and loveliness, such power and glory, that we are amply repaid for all the time, and thought, and prayer, which led to these discoveries. We know, that still brighter discoveries would be the certain reward of a more devotional spirit. We have told our souls, on retiring from some secret interviews with God, that they were for ever without excuse, if ever they doubted the fact or the felicity of communion with God, or ever grudged the time required for it. Even these passing hints awaken recollections of times of refreshing from the presence of the Lord, which compel us to exclaim, "O, that it were with me as in months past, when the secret of God was upon my tabernacle, and his candle shined on my head." Let, therefore, these experimental facts answer the question,-what is the use of trying to comprehend the incomprehensible?

Besides, what is it, in eternal glory, that is so very incomprehensible? We ourselves have not spent so very much time or thought upon the subject, as warrants us to pronounce it inconceivable; and the books written upon it, are neither so many nor so meagre as to prove that little can be made of it. Baxter's Saints' Everlasting Rest, and especially his Dying Thoughts, are not failures. Drexelius was too

ignorant of the gospel to succeed; and Cayley too quaint; and Welwood too fanciful. Besides, like the present little work, all these books are too small to determine the real ca`pabilities of the subject. They only prove, when compared with our standard works on other lofty topics, how little has ever been attempted on this one. Is it not evident, that if we had nothing more elaborate and profound on the subject of the divine character and government; of the glory and grace of the atonement; of the nature and effects of divine influence; there would be less interest taken in these cardinal points than there now is? Can any thoughtful man doubt, that, if Baxter's time and thought had been equally divided between eternity and controversy; Owen's, between it and doctrine; Howe's, between it and discussion; Doddridge's, between it and experience; Jeremy Taylor's, between it and casuistry; we should have had works on Eternity, as valuable and sublime as the other master-pieces of these master-spirits? would, of course, have all failed to define everlasting duration, and to specify the precise character of the "fullness" of heavenly engagements or enjoyments. What then? A definition of eternity would not be of much

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use, if we had one; and, therefore, the impossibility of grasping the idea of never-ending duration, is a poor apology for not trying to realize eternal things. The mental effort of measuring "everlasting" is not the exercise we are called to engage in; nor is it one that could lead to any spiritual result, even if we were qualified to make that effort.

In like manner, the usual objections founded upon the general character of invisible things, are more plausible than weighty. For, what if we cannot map out the landscape of heaven? We know that it is "Emmanuel's land," our "Father's house," the temple and the throne of "God and the Lamb." There is surely enough in all this both to instruct and delight, however little we can make of its sea of glass or its river of life. What if we ought not to attach material ideas to its crowns, or palms, or harps? They are tokens of divine favor, and of the joy that springs from that favor; and these are ideas equally simple and sublime. What if we can form no idea of the precise order in which the "general assembly" are arranged around the throne? They are around the throne where Deity reigns in unveiled glory!-a fact so distinct and transporting, that the mind which will dwell on it for a mo

ment, will feel incapable of giving a thought to the childish question of local arrangements. The armies of heaven are in the immediate presence of "the God of order." That is enough. What, also, if we can form no idea of the precise way in which angels and the redeemed interchange their knowledge, and reciprocate their enjoyments, nor of the way in which God and the Lamb communicate their will and feelings to both? There is communion between saints and angels, and between the Godhead and both. And, as it must be majesty of the divine

in a way worthy of the nature and character, and becoming the intelligence of perfect spirits, questions about speech or language are really unworthy of such a subject. For, could we answer them, the knowledge of the forms and mediums of mental communication, could add little to the grandeur of the fact, that there is communion with God and with each other. What, also, if we can neither tell nor conceive, whether all things in heaven and throughout the universe will remain for ever, exactly as they will subsist at the consummation of time; or whether the cycles of eternity will witness the creation of new worlds, and new orders of beings, and the establishment amongst them