taught His disciples to look away from earth to heaven. "Blessed are the poor in spirit; for theirs is the kingdom of heaven' "Blessed are they that mourn "Blessed are the meek"-" Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness' sake"-" Blessed are ye when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely, for my sake." Very different indeed is this from the language of the Law. It had spoken of blessings on the obedient of quite another sort. Blessed they were to be in the cityblessed in the field-blessed in their basket and their store: the Lord would cause their enemies to be smitten before them, and all people should be afraid of them. The Lord would make them the head, and not the tail; they should be above only, and not be beneath. Now it is "Blessed are ye when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely, for my sake." But how blessed? Hear the answer: "Rejoice and be exceeding glad; for great is your reward in heaven." They who, attracted by heaven's light and love in the Person of Jesus, followed in His steps, and so shared His rejection by the earth, should find, like Him, both their solace and their reward in heaven-a solace so sweet, a reward so rich, that, amid all their trials and persecutions, they might, in the hope of it, "rejoice and be exceeding glad." Heaven, then, is the place of reward for those who, through grace, have suffered with Christ, and suffered for Him on earth.

Heaven's love, we have said, as well as heaven's light, was displayed in Jesus. And surely it was so. And He would have it so in us, beloved, as well. "Love your enemies, bless them that curse you..... that ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven. For He maketh His sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust

.Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect" (Matt. v. 44-48). If Jesus had come from heaven to let in the light of heaven upon our souls, attracting us away from earth so effectually that earth's rudest blasts of persecution should only cause us

to "rejoice and be exceeding glad" that our reward was great in heaven, how was this joy to be evinced? Surely in practical resemblance to our Father in heaven, who showers blessing on both the evil and the good, on the just and on the unjust. A heathen or a Jew, who looked not beyond the earth, could be kind to those who were kind to him; but if grace has opened heaven to us, and caused us to know that we have a Father in heaven, surely that Father's mind and heart and ways must now become our standard. "Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect."

The instructions addressed by our Lord to the disciples as to prayer afford precious light respecting heaven. Those instructions were perfectly adapted to the state in which the disciples were then found; and in their spirit, and in many respects as to the letter, they are still adapted to ours. "Our Father which art in heaven." It is not only that God dwells in heaven; that is abundantly shewn in the Old Testament. But now that God in heaven is revealed in such a sort that poor sinful mortals on the earth can say to Him, "Our Father which art in heaven." But, further, that Father is obeyed in heaven -cheerfully and perfectly obeyed. There is but one will consulted or regarded there; and that the infinitely perfect will of our Father in heaven. "Thy will be done in earth as it is in heaven." Happy, happy place! No struggles of the creature's will for pre-eminence there. No disobedience-no self-will. How happy that family, even on earth, where the children delight to obey their parents; or rather, in the intelligence of affection, to anticipate their wishes and fulfil them before they can be expressed. What profound happiness there is in the spirit of obedience. What must heaven be, where every movement of the affections, every word, and every action is in absolute, perfect obedience to our Father who dwells there! And what will earth be when this prayer is answered? "Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth as it is in heaven."

Alas! how different from this is earth at present; and how divine and perfect the wisdom and love which

would have us transfer our hearts and our treasures from such a place to heaven. "Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal; but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal; for where your treasure is, there will your heart be also." Would that these words might be written indelibly on our hearts. Vain indeed is the attempt to have our treasures below and our hearts above. Is not this the real secret of the want of heavenlymindedness so universally complained of even where heavenly truth is known. "If ye know these things,' as our Lord said on another occasion, "happy are ye if ye do them."

Towards the close of Matthew's gospel, we have a passage which teaches us that in heaven those relationships have no existence which so principally form the character of human existence here below. The Sadducees had thought to entangle our Lord by the question respecting a Jewish woman who, according to the Jewish law in that special case, had had seven husbands in succession. "In the resurrection," they asked, "whose wife shall she be of the seven?" Jesus, in the perfection of his wisdom, replied, "Ye do err, not knowing the Scriptures, nor the power of God. For in the resurrection they neither marry, nor are given in marriage, but are as the angels of God in heaven." I only cite this here as conclusive proof with regard to heaven, that there our divine relationships to God and Christ by the Spirit, and to one another as in the Spirit, will have entirely superseded those natural, human relationships which only exist on earth. We shall be "as the angels of God in heaven" (Matt. xxii. 30).

We shall be no losers by this, beloved. If natural, earthly relationships have no place in heaven, there are relationships there which will fill up all the capacious affections of the renewed heart. These we know by faith even now, and find, however feebly, their blessed operation on our souls. What else is it that is set forth to us in Matt. xxv. under the representation of virgins

going forth to meet the bridegroom? The night may be long and dark. Faith, and hope, and patience, may all be tried to the uttermost. Even those who are most wakeful, and have the fullest supply of oil, may, through unfaithfulness, yield in some measure to the universal drowsiness; and the lamp may require a special trimming on the immediate approach of the Bridegroom. But

there will be those, when he comes, who will have thus trimmed their lamps, and of whom it is said, "they that were ready went in with him to the marriage, and the door was shut." What must it be to be inside that door? Happy souls-wise and favoured virgins who are admitted there!

But another parable in this chapter tells us something of heaven's happiness, or rather of the happiness of those who are to dwell there with Jesus. Such are represented as servants to whom their master has entrusted goods to be employed for him during his absence. And what is the reward to be bestowed at his return on those who have faithfully occupied their respective talents in his service? "Well done, thou good and faithful servant; thou hast been faithful over a few things, 1 will make thee ruler over many things; enter thou into the joy of thy Lord." O yes, it will be a part of heaven's happiness, though heaven be not mentioned here, for those who have made Christ's interest their own, and have faithfully used for him the few opportunities here afforded them for glorifying him, to be admitted by him to a participation in his joy, with inconceivably augmented opportunities for serving and glorifying that Lord, to serve and honour whom is all their happiness and delight. "I will make thee ruler over many things: enter thou into the joy of thy Lord."

Passing over Mark's gospel as not differing materially with regard to the present subject from Matthew's; in Luke, we find throughout in a special way the moral expression of what heaven is. We dont wait in this gospel till Jesus is thirty years of age, to learn heaven's joy over him as incarnate and on earth. The very night on which he was born, the angel of the Lord visits the pious shepherds as they watch their flock; the glory of

the Lord shines round about them, and the angel announces to them, in language sufficiently expressive of his own interest and delight in the message he conveys, the tidings of the Saviour's birth. And ere the words have well fallen from his lips, "suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host, praising God, and saying, Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men." What a testimony this that Jesus is the centre of heaven's joy! And what a reproof, too, of man's-of our-indifference to that Blessed One who has condescended to link himself with us as he never did with the angels in heaven.

In Luke ix. we have an account of the vision seen by Peter, John, and James, in the holy Mount. This vision, we are told by Peter, represented "the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ." They had not followed cunningly-devised fables, in making known this power and coming, "but were eye-witnesses of His majesty (see 2 Pet. i. 16-18). Three of the Evangelists give us an account of this vision; and there are circumstances noted by each one, which are not mentioned by the others. Altogether, it presents us with a delightful view of the blessedness to which the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ will introduce us. There is the beholding Christ in glory. What will it be to gaze on that countenance, once marred for our sins, and covered with gore, but now, even as for a little season on the holy Mount, resplendent with glory? He "was transfigured before them; and His face did shine as the sun, and His raiment was white as the light." So says Matthew. "And He was transfigured before them; and His raiment became shining, exceeding white as snow; so as no fuller on earth can white them." Such is the testimony of Mark. "And as He prayed, the fashion of His countenance was altered, and His raiment was white and glistering." So writes Luke. But how shall we bear to gaze on such glory? Ah, we shall be in like glory ourselves! "There talked with Him Moses and Elias, who appeared in glory.' To see Jesus, to be with Him, to be like Him-is this not heaven? But further, "they talked with Him." Each Evangelist tells us this. "And, behold, there