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floated before my eager eyes: and for years did I expect that fortune would make me her minion. I followed the capricious goddess, till, quite wearied with her freaks, I discontinued the pursuit. Tired and jaded by my former efforts, I would by no means renew them. Ten thousand disappointments have taught me to expect nothing from this insolvent world. She promises uncertain bliss, but gives me certain pain. My only wish, at present, is to find some shady covert, that, retiring from this barren heath, I might rest me there in quiet. I read here of a place where the wicked cease from troubling, and the weary are at rest. Where, O where shall I find that enchanted bower? The grave!-In the grave the good man finds a calm and welcome retreat from the cares and vicissitudes of this life.

We do not take it on us entirely to justify the temper in which Job uttered these words. Indeed, in the context, he speaks as though the tempter had taken the advantage of him; and, in the tempest of his soul, while groaning under the accumulated load of his unequalled afflictions, he thought of little but relief from his present sufferings. He knew that in the grave no pain is felt; and for the moment he scarcely looked any further His present miseries made him think insensibility more desirable; though in more lucid intervals he expressed a strong and unshaken faith concerning the happiness of the eternal world. Abstracting, then, from the painful association of circumstances which led Job to utter these words, we shall regard them as pointing out, in a twofold figure, two characteristics of future happiness. The first is,

I. The absence of trouble, or evil of any kind.
The second is;

II. Positive enjoyment.

This view of future happiness will not be uninteresting to any, who, aiming at the heavenly Canaan, have to march through this wilderness,-this valley of tears. Have we not reason to believe that the wonderful power of association which dwells in the human mind, led our departed sister to choose these words as the foundation of her funeral discourse, by holding up the contrast between the afflictions of this world, (of which she shared largely) and the glory of heaven, of which, through the merits of the Redeemer, she hoped to be a partaker? To contemplate the happiness of the next life, in connexion with the termination of the afflictions of this, is certainly an association justified in Scripture. Not to mention the text, does not the holy Spirit take this view of the subject in the Revelation, xivth chapter, 9th verse :—— "Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord from henceforth: Yea, saith the Spirit, that they may rest from their labours; and their works do follow them." Again, in the viith of the Revelation, and at the 16th and 17th verses, "They shall hunger no more, neither thirst any more; neither shall the sun light on them, nor any heat. For the Lamb which is in the midst of the throne, shall feed them, and shall lead them unto living fountains of waters: and God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes." Immediately after the text it is said, "There the prisoners rest

heart is in league with a wicked world; and sometimes Satan himself arms an arrow from his own quiver. In conflict with this threefold troop, how often does the believer cry, "O that I had wings like a dove, for then would I fly away, and be at rest! "Blessed citizens of heaven, banished at present to these dreary abodes of misery, death shall soon lend you the wings you want. Then shall you escape from this wretched world, in which you have lived only in submission to the will of God. Then shall you hide yourselves from the errors and the weaknesses of the understanding; from the heart, that anxious seat of so many tumultuous passions. You shall also escape from the snare of the devil, and contend no more with his cruel devices. "Come, my people, enter thou into thy chambers, and shut thy doors about thee: hide thyself as it were for a little moment, until the indignation be overpast."

II. But we said, the second figure of the text pointed out a state of positive enjoyment. The word rest, signifies ceasing from labour; and also a cheerful confidence in the promises and providence of God. "Return unto thy rest, O my soul," says the Psalmist; give thyself no uneasy doubts about the result of things, whilst thou art in the way of duty; "for the Lord hath dealt bountifully with thee"-he hath been better to thee than thy unbelieving fears had anticipated in former straits, therefore leave thy cause in his hand.

The word rest, also signifies the positive happiness prepared for the people of God. "There remain

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eth therefore a rest for the people of God." In what this rest shall consist, we know but in part. We have already observed, that it implies the absence of sin, temptation, conflict, persecution, pain, and reproach. These, however, are but the negative parts of that happiness. In what the full enjoyment of the soul shall consist, is a question which will not be completely developed until we shall know even as we are known.

But with reverence we may draw some inferences from eternal truth, which, at least, throws some light on the subject. In one place it is said, " Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord; yea, saith the spirit, for they rest from their labours, and their works do follow them." This verse not only declares, that a holy life is necessary to prepare men for the pure and spiritual joys of that high and holy place; but that the rewards of that state shall be proportioned to our advancement in holiness in this life. This is confirmed by another passage, for, saith St. Paul, "One star differeth from another star in glory-so also is the resurrection of the dead." "And," saith Daniel, "they that be wise shall shine as the brightness of the firmament; and they that turn many to righteousness, as the stars for ever and ever.”

The gradations of rank and of splendour, unfold a character of eternal happiness, which we can trace but very imperfectly in this life. We are taught in another place, to contemplate heavenly happiness in connexion with the progressive endowments of the mind; "But we all, as with open face, beholding as in a glass, the glory of the Lord, are changed into the

same image from glory to glory." It is thought by some, and not without probability, that the apostle refers to the privilege of the Christian, even in this world; and that he was drawing the contrast between the dark dispensation of Moses, (at whom the children of Israel had to look through a vail,) and the clear revelation of eternal truth, under the luminous dispensation of Christ, whose glorious perfections were openly displayed in the Gospel, leading the believer from grace to grace, which in that text is called "glory," even till he attains to perfect holiness. But the idea may doubtless be extended to the progression that shall be realized even in heaven. And how could we contemplate the glories of heaven in a more pleasing point of view?

There is nothing more grateful to the human mind than the idea of progress. There is a degree of delight in ascending the successive swells of a cloudeapt mountain: there is still more in ascending the steep of moral and intellectual science. The human being is at first destitute of any thing like intellect, but soon his dawning genius begins to open: soon we behold him a man of mature thought, capable of the most rigid discrimination. In separating truth from error he discovers the utmost dexterity. To what a vast height of perfection may human nature attain, even in this life! What, then, shall be the state of improvement to which the soul shall arrive, when, unmixed with error, it shall drink in eternal wisdom from God, the fountain of all knowledge?-Here we might dwell upon the different employments which shall then engage our hearts and our tongues; (em

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