No parted friends O'er mournful recollections have to weep; To watch the coming of a pulseless sleep. No blasted flower, Or withered bud celestial gardens know; No scorching blast, or fierce-descending shower Scatters destruction like a ruthless foe. No battle word Startles the sacred host with fear and dread; Let us depart, If home like this await the weary soul. Look up, thou stricken one! Thy wounded heart Shall bleed no more at sorrow's stern control. With faith our guide, White-robed and innocent, to lead the way, IV. "I beheld, and, lo, a great multitude, which no man could number, of all nations, and kindreds, and people, and tongues, stood before the throne, and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, and palms in their hands."-REV. VII. 9. HAT a different scene, what a different world, WHAT separated only by a slight veil from that which we inhabit, is here exhibited to our view! a world into which we may enter by a single step, and in a moment of time! Here we see a busy world, eager in vain pursuits, agitated by mere trifles, contending about objects of no moment, and immersed in things which perish with the using. All is noise, and confusion, and vanity, and sorrow, and evil. But behold another world nigh at hand, composed of different beings, governed by different principles; where all things are as momentous, as here they are frivolous; where all things are as great, as here they are little; where all things are as durable, as here they are transitory; where all things are as fixed, as here they are mutable! That world has also its inhabitants -so numerous, that the population of this world is but as a petty tribe compared to them. It has its employments; but they are of the noblest kind and weightiest import; and compared with them, the whole sum of the concerns of this life is but as a particle of dust. It has its pleasures; but they are pure and spotless, holy and divine. There, perfect happiness, and uninterrupted harmony, and righteousness, and peace, ever prevail. What a contrast to our present state! And is this blessed scene near us? may we be called into it in a moment? With what anxious solicitude, then, should we endeavour to realize it; and how ardently should we desire to be prepared for an admission into it! The number of the blessed inhabitants of heaven is represented as infinite: "I beheld, and lo! a great multitude which no man could number:"-and if we consider the infinite power and glory of him who created them; the magnificence, and even profusion displayed in the works of his hands; the end and design for which they were created, namely, to manifest his glory; we shall at once feel that their number must be, in the fullest sense of the word, infinite. Let us reflect, that to create a million, or a million of millions of the brightest and most glorious spirits, is as easy to the Almighty, as it was to create our first parents he has but to will, and it is done. Let us consider that he rejoices in the multitude of his works: that every part of the universe is filled with beingfrom the immeasurable systems of worlds, to the atom whose minuteness eludes the keenest sight. Let us reflect, that heaven is the perfection of his works, the grand scene of his glory, the immediate place of his Our residence. There he is to be known, and adored, and glorified; there he is to receive the homage so justly due to his majesty. And shall this part of his works only be scantily peopled? Shall those realms alone, which he made for himself, be without inhabitants? shall heaven alone be a blank in the creation? Lord, it is true, hath said, speaking of the race of man, that "narrow is the way which leadeth to life, and few there be that enter in thereat;" but this expression relates solely to the earth we inhabit-one world amidst, perhaps, an innumerable multitude. It relates also, principally, to the time in which our Lord lived. Even this world, we trust, will not ultimately be barren, but produce numerous and faithful witnesses to the glory of the Redeemer. He made this earth the scene of his sufferings, and we may expect it to become the scene of his triumphs. Only allow the Gospel of Christ to prevail, as the prophets lead us to hope that in the latter days it will prevail; allow the world to continue, as there is ground to expect it will continue, to a period of which the infancy is scarcely yet past; and we may conclude, that even from this fallen world shall multitudes, as numerous as the drops of the morning dew, crowd into the realms of light, to ascribe "glory, and praise, and honour, to Him that sitteth on the throne, and to the Lamb for ever." In considering the multitudes, beyond the power of calculation, which will people the realms of bliss, we must recollect, that, there, multitudes constitute happi ness. On the earth, where a difficulty of subsistence is often experienced; where there exists a constant collision of interests; where one stands in the way of another; where jealousies and envyings, anger and revenge, pride and vanity, agitate and deform the world; numbers may tend to diffuse wretchedness and to multiply evil. Hence we flee for peace and joy from the crowded haunts of men, and court the sequestered habitation and the retired vale. But in heaven, where there can be no thwarting interests; where the wants. of one are never supplied at the expense of another; where every bosom glows with love, and every heart beats with desire to promote the general happiness; the addition of a fresh individual to the innumerable throng diffuses a wider joy, and heightens the universal felicity. The multitude assembled there is described as composed of all "nations, and kindred, and people, and tongues." Here, again, we must beware of forming our judgment from the feelings and views of this fallen world. There, it will be no cause of jealousy, or rivalry, or hatred, that one person received his birth on this, and another on that side of a river or sea. A man will not despise his brother on account of the different shade of his complexion; he will not seek his destruction because he spoke in another language; nor renounce communion with him because he praised the same God, with the same spirit of piety, in a house of a different form. All these petty distinctions will have |