sense of the nearness of the eternal world, its reality, its fulness, and its perfection. This class of thoughts pervaded his career and conduct. He had no doubt of the community of thought between good souls here and the worthy objects of their love who have gone before them— "To earth his heart, his love, his griefs were given, But all his serious thoughts had rest in heaven; Like some tall cliff that lifts its awful form, Swells from the vale, and midway leaves the storm, Though round its breast the rolling clouds are spread, Eternal sunshine settles on its head."

I could illustrate this by several touching circumstances, but they are the sacred things of his affection, too sacred for public observation. The communion of saints has always been the teaching of the Church of the Lord, and really is a lesson of universal experience. Scripture recognizes it everywhere.

In ancient times, we are told in the Book of Samuel, the prophets were anciently called SEERS (1 Sam. ix. 9). They could see what others could not see, but what really existed nevertheless. When the young servant of Elisha saw the army coming to apprehend his master, and trembled with dismay, the prophet said, "Fear not, there are more for us than all that be against us." And the prophet prayed, and said, "Lord open the eyes of the young man," and the Lord, it is said, opened the eyes of the young man, and he saw horses and chariots of fire all round about Elisha. This was but a glimpse into the inner world always near us. The apostle said to the Christians of his time, Ye are come to mount Zion, and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company of angels, and to the spirits of just men made perfect (Heb. xii. 22, 23). The Apostle John says he beheld, when he was in the Spirit, "a great multitude which no man could number, of all nations, and kindreds, and people, and tongues." They stood before the throne clothed with white robes, and palms in their hands. These were not at an immense distance. They were near at hand, and when the spiritual sight of the apostle was opened, he beheld them. We need not wonder at this. We should not see the world of light around us if we had not eyes adequate for the purpose.

We have in this world five spheres of being, five worlds we may call them, each only cognizable by its proper sense. The world of brightness, colour, and form would never have been known to us, although all around, if the sense of sight had not also been given.

So with sound. The thunder's roll, the grand base of the ocean's roar, the songs of the birds, the charms of music, the tones of the human voice, would have been non-existent, unless mankind had also been gifted with ears.

So is it with the spiritual world. Heaven lies about us in our infancy. Spiritual beings are near us ever. The good with the good, the evil with the bad. "Are they not all," said the apostle, "ministering spirits?" Only when our spiritual senses are opened shall we manifestly behold them. At present, for wisest purposes of human safety, does an all-wise Providence keep us shrouded from open intercourse. This is the world of coverings. The bark covers the tree; the pea has its pod; the chicken is in its egg. What are all seeds but eggs, out of which are evolved the myriad beauties of the vegetable world? So the real man is clothed—is covered up by his material body. It is called in Scripture his house. "If the earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens."

The outer house is the earthly body, the inner house is the spiritual body, which will last for ever in the heavens. But notwithstanding our covering for the present prevents our outward observation of the spiritual world, all men have evidence of its existence.

How often has every man thoughts which come from agencies external to himself! Suggestions come sometimes in harmony with our train of thoughts, sometimes in blank opposition, sometimes like a sudden flash of unexpected light, sometimes a persistent pressure of odious oppositions. We often say such and such a thing has struck But thoughts only come from minds, not from posts or stones; and if not from our minds, then from others.

us.

"The angels of the Lord encamp round them that fear Him.” "He hath given His angels charge over thee, to keep thee in all thy ways." "Unto the upright there ariseth a light in the darkness." This was our beloved friend's experience and conviction; the accompaniment of his constant effort to live for heaven; the spring of a thousand comforts. Like others, he had his times of weakness and of cloud, but the presence of the heavenly side of the inner world supported him.

Our text says of the good man, "Though he falls, he shall not be cast down." The external of a good man requires correction and purification. He will have hours of weakness, of trial, of temptation, of sickness, of sorrow, of fault, but he shall not be utterly cast down; only purposed guilt and persistent degradation can do that. "He shall not be utterly cast down: for the Lord upholdeth him with His hand."

His bodily power shall fail; nature shall flicker to its end, and he will sink into sleep, the sleep that knows no waking in the world; but he will rise to the better world, to the arms of those who love Him, to the land of the angels. The Lord upholdeth him with His hand, and will say, "Well done, good and faithful servant, thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things, enter thou into the joy of thy Lord." Our dear friend was convinced of the fulness and perfection of the inner world as compared with this, as well as its reality. This is set forth in the passage I have just cited in the proportion expressed. We rule here a FEW things; there MANY things.

We rule to a certain extent our condition of health and of body, but not altogether. We are controlled by our hereditary qualities, and by our circumstances and connections in life. The spiritual body is just what the man is, beautiful as he is good. “God giveth it a body," says the apostle, "as he hath pleased Him."

Another beloved friend of this Society, esteemed by all who knew him, upright, intelligent, gentle, and good, mourned not by his bereaved family alone, but by a wide circle of friends,-I mean Mr. Roderick Anderson,—has passed from earth by the strain of business probably being too much for a delicate, nervous organization. He could only rule his health as to few things, but now he will rule over many things.

Dress, home, paradise, all correspond in heaven to the just made perfect. The spiritual bodies, vile once with carnal mindedness, are made regeneration like, though far inferior, to the glorious body of their Lord. "I shall be satisfied," said the Psalmist, "when I awake in Thy likeness." Whatever orderly wish the soul has, the body there can accomplish. It is now in a world of order, loveliness, and perfection. It has entered the joy of its Lord. "In His presence there is fulness of joy; at His right hand there are pleasures for evermore."

Finally, before quitting this effort to make our dear friend useful in his departure, as he always strove to be in his life, let us make two additional reflections. Let us especially strive like him to avoid anything that would hurt the feelings of another. Let us realize the

beautiful words of a Manchester poet

"O be kind to each other,
The night's coming on,
When friend and when brother
Perchance will be gone.

Then midst our dejection,

How sweet to have earned

The blest recollection

Of kindness returned."

Let us imitate him also in his active practical goodness. Remember the Divine words of our Saviour, "Well done, good and faithful servant." Not well said, or well believed, but as our dear brother Broadfield would have said, "Well done, do your duty; a little more if you like, but not less. Always do your duty."

I. SCIENCE SINCE THE LAST JUDGMENT.

THE inaugural address of the President of the British Association, though none the worse for being without that intense theological interest which marked Dr. Tyndall's discourse at Belfast two years ago, is yet disappointing. A bald epitome of a year-book of science could scarcely be made less interesting. Its topics are all important, but fifty themes are named in an address which might usefully have treated of three, or two, or one.

Yet while half a hundred themes are recited, including the Challenger and cosmical chemistry, the transit of Venus, and the smoke of Glasgow, it is impossible to read it without feeling the progress of the last century to be immense, unmeasured. There is scarcely a single matter referred to in which any man had an interest a hundred years ago. The one exception is the transit of Venus. "It was to observe this rare astronomical phenomenon on the occasion of its former occurrence in 1769 that Captain Cook's memorable voyage to the Pacific was undertaken, in the course of which he explored the coast of New South Wales, and added that great country to the possessions of the British Crown" (Inaug. Address).

In the year 1768, when Cook was commencing this voyage, there were 10,000 men in arms in America to meet any force which England might send to coerce the colonies there. At the same time, John Wilkes, not personally, but as representative of political liberty, was the most popular man in Middlesex. Thus at one moment we see the beginning of American independence, the type of a popular protest against any infringement of English liberty, the starting of almost the first national enterprise in which scientific truth was aimed at, and the beginning of a voyage which was to win a new world for Christian civilization. In that same year theological labour was absorbing the attention of a man who had announced that the Last Judgment had taken place eleven years before.

It is this assertion to which attention is now invited-that in 1757, in the spiritual world, without any of the paraphernalia of opened graves and a burning universe, the Last Judgment had been effected.

The statement involved startling consequences: thus-All enlightenment comes to man through the other world from the Lord. This is the true genesis of genius, the true history of all its triumphs; but before the judgment the state of the spiritual world and of the minds of men was such that enlightenment of every kind was impeded and almost impossible; now, however, that those spirits had been removed, who, like a dark cloud, had intercepted the light of heaven, it was become possible for men again to receive light from on high. This draws after it the consequence that not only could men receive revelations of Divine truth, but also political and scientific progress might be looked for.

One sign of the new era of scientific history is recognizable in the transit expedition of Captain Cook, and its grand results crowd the history of science since the date 1767. Take a few examples :—

The President, Dr Andrews, declares that James Watt not only founded but largely built up that mechanical engineering to which all the nations are so deeply indebted. Watt's first project for improving the steam-engine dates from 1763-4. He was at that time in frequent intercourse and intimate friendship with Dr. Black, of whom we hear in this address as the founder of modern chemistry. Another science to be numbered among the results of the new age is that of political economy, which may be said to have been created by Adam Smith's great work on the "Wealth of Nations," published in 1776.

Dr. Andrews connects most justly the history of electricity and molecular physics with that chemistry which, originating in the laboratory of Dr. Black, so soon won triumphs in those of Priestley, Lavoisier, Berzelius, and others.

We may refer to the records of electricity. Prior to the Last Judgment, electricity was little more than a name, but in 1780 Galvani was experimenting on the connection between this force and muscular contraction. Volta appeared as a writer on this science as early as 1764, and soon by the invention of the electrophorus and electrometer he made the new science strictly scientific by rendering its phenomena and results amenable to measurement. Since those days Fabroni has suggested (1792-9), and others have proved, the connection between. current electricity and chemical action. Nicholson and Carlisle used the galvanic current to decompose water in 1800. Davy in a similar way separated for the first time the alkaline metals in 1807. Oersted in 1820 originated the knowledge of electro-magnetism; in the same year that of electro-dynamics resulted from the investigations and reasonings of Ampère, who in the following year anticipated the invention of the telegraph by the construction of an instrument having a separate wire for each letter.

It would, however, enormously extend this essay were we to detail the progress of that electrical science which is now so intimately con