August 26

Fulness of joy. - Psalms 16:11.

IT has been asked, Are there degrees in glory? We are persuaded there are. All analogy countenances the conclusion. Diversities and inequalities pervade all the works of God. There are gradations among the angels, for we read of thrones and dominions, principalities and powers; and, though all believers are redeemed by the same blood and justified by the same righteousness, we know there are degrees in grace. The good ground brought forth in some places thirty, in some sixty, and in some a hundred-fold. And the apostle tells us that every man shall receive according to his own labour. But here we approve of the old illustration: however unequal in size the vessels afore prepared unto glory may be, when plunged into this ocean they shall all be equally filled.

It has also been asked, Shall we know one another in heaven? Whether there be mutual recognition or not, we may be assured of this,-that nothing will be wanting to our happiness. But we may cease our anxiety respecting recognising the dear departed. Memory cannot be annihilated. Did not Peter, James, and John recognise Moses and Elias? and does not Paul tell the Thessalonians that they are his hope, and joy, and crown at the coming of the Lord Jesus?

Another inquires, Where is heaven? What part of the vast universe hath God assigned for the abode of the blessed? This it is impossible to determine: most probably it will be our present system renovated. May we not infer this from the words of the Apostle Peter?- “Looking for and hastening unto the coming of the day of God, wherein the heavens being on fire shall be dissolved, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat; nevertheless we look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness.” But is it a place? Our Lord has a body like our own, and this cannot be omnipresent; and wherever he is corporeally, there is heaven. As he himself hath said, “Where I am, there shall also my servants be.” Enoch and Elias have bodies, all the saints have bodies, and these cannot be everywhere.

We read of the hope laid up for us in heaven; of “entering into the holy place.” “And I go,” says Jesus to his disciples, “to prepare a place for you.” But, though heaven is really a place, we must chiefly consider it as a state. Even now, happiness does not essentially depend on what is without us. What was Eden to Adam and Eve after sin had filled them with shame and sorrow and fear? And Paul in prison was infinitely happier than Caesar on the throne of the nations. Oh, says the soul, when enjoying communion with the Saviour,-

“’Tis heaven to rest in thine embrace,

And nowhere else but there.”