ings? "For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain. But if I live in the flesh, this is the fruit of my labour: yet what I shall choose I wot not. For I am in a strait betwixt two, having a desire to depart, and to be with Christ, which is far better." It is impossible, perhaps, for language to convey more forcibly to our minds a notion of the conflict which agitated the apostle's breast when endeavouring to fix his choice respecting life or death. There seems to be in it an allusion to the situation of a ship riding at anchor, but likely to break loose from its moorings and to be driven out to sea. So he, however strong the attachments were which bound him to the present world, and which made him willing to endure afflictions and storms of persecution, vehemently desired to be unloosed from them all, and to bear away to the heavenly country. This desire was produced by the conception of the immense accession which should be made to his happiness when he reached that place. So elevated, indeed, were his conceptions of that happiness, that he labours for language in which to give expression to them. Had he imagined that the souls of the righteous, when they quit the body, pass into a state in which their powers of action and their capabilities of enjoyment are suspended, or that they are conveyed to a place "in some respects a prison" -" a place of unfinished happiness, consisting in rest, security, and hope, more than enjoyment," and where they do not behold the full manifestation of the Saviour's glory, would he have expressed such a vehe

ment desire to leave the scene of his labours, where he could actively glorify his divine master, and promote the spiritual interests of the human race? The thing is improbable in the highest degree. "To depart, and to be with Christ," he considered to be no μaddov Kрewσоv-better beyond all expression. This is the highest superlative which it is possible to form in any language, and the use of it here by the apostle proves that he expected immediately after death, not only to rest from his labours, and to be completely exempted from the anxieties, privations, and sufferings which he endured in the present life, he expected to be introduced into the immediate presence of the glorified Redeemer, there to enjoy happiness of which it is impossible for human language to convey an adequate conception.

This view of these passages is in perfect harmony with the language which is elsewhere used respecting the disembodied souls of the righteous. In the twelfth chapter of the Epistle to the Hebrews, it is said :"Ye are come to an innumerable company of angels, to the general assembly and church of the first-born which are enrolled in heaven, and to the spirits of just men made perfect." The paragraph of which these words form a part, contains a description of the state of God's people in the future world, and the privileges they are honoured to enjoy in this. When they believe the gospel, they are brought into a close connection with the heavenly world, and are permitted to hold communion with "God the judge of all,"

with "Jesus the Mediator of the new covenant," with "an innumerable company of angels" who inhabit "the heavenly Jerusalem," with the "church of the first-born which are enrolled in heaven," and with "the spirits of just men made perfect." The class last-mentioned in this enumeration forms part of the society into whose communion believers are admitted, and it consists of those who, in every age, have died in the faith of the gospel. What is affirmed respecting them, cannot, surely, be understood of what they shall be after the second coming of Christ, but of what they are now in the separate state; because, when their bodies are raised from the grave, the term spirits could not, with propriety, be applied to them. In the disembodied state they are "made perfect," not simply because every stain of moral pollution is washed away, nor because they are entirely exempt from misery and suffering, but because, in addition to these, they enjoy the highest degree of felicity they are capable of enjoying in that state. No doubt their happiness will be augmented at the resurrection; but, unless we suppose that, even in the disembodied state, all the powers of their minds are in constant and delightful exercise upon objects suited to their nature, and their enlarged capacities filled with the overflowings of divine love, as it is poured forth in the celestial world, how can it be said that they are made perfect?

This subject is set in a somewhat clearer light by one or two passages in the book of the Revelation.

D

The apostle John, in the description which he gives of the interior of heaven, mentions" a great multitude which no man could number, of all nations, and kindreds, and people, and tongues, which stood before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, and palms in their hands." And in another vision he saw a Lamb which stood on the mount Zion, and with him an hundred and forty and four thousand, having his Father's name written in their foreheads. And they sung as it were a new song before the throne. The whole book of the Revelation, it is readily admitted, is a highly figurative one. It would be injudicious, therefore, as well as unsafe, to put a construction upon its mystic visions inconsistent with the principle of interpretation which must be applied generally to the book. Still, there are some of its visions of such a nature, that no doubt can be reasonably entertained respecting the things they are designed to reveal. Those which are described in the passages I have quoted evidently belong to this class. Their meaning can scarcely be misunderstood. The scenes they disclose are not exhibitions of future events, they are symbolical representations of an existing state of things in heaven, and clearly unfold the condition in which the departed souls of the righteous now are. Their being with the Lamb on mount Zion," their being

"clothed in white robes" and having " palms in their

Chapter vii. 9.-xiv. 1, 3.

hands," and their being in singing a new song," can indicate nothing else than that they are in the celestial temple, in the immediate presence of God. If this is not the truth set forth by these visions, it would be difficult, if not impossible, to attach a meaning to them at all. There must be a correspondence betwixt the symbols employed in the description of a scene, and the things they are designed to represent, or else there can be no kind of notion of it conveyed to the mind. Now, what meaning consistent with the nature of the symbolic representation in the visions, can we fix upon, but the one I have stated? Indeed, whether we understand the language in which they are related literally or figuratively, the passages illustrate and confirm the fact, that the souls of the righteous do at death immediately pass into glory," to enjoy the pleasures which are at God's right hand.

"before the throne" engaged

Death, considered as a separation of the soul from the body, is invested with all that is repugnant to the feelings of our nature, and considered as an expression of the divine displeasure against sin, it is an object of dread. But when it is viewed through the medium of faith in the atonement of Christ, it assumes a different aspect, and may be regarded as a deliverer who comes to emancipate the soul from its earthly prison-house. And, O! how delightful is the thought, that the stroke which separates the righteous from the fellowship of Christians upon earth, is the means of introducing them to the immediate fellowship of