December 1

It doth not yet appear what we shall he. - 1 John 3:2.

WE have here an intimation of the obscurity that veils the Christian’s future destination. And it is well that “it doth not yet appear what we shall be;” for the full disclosure would be too much for our poor faculties now. The full display of them here would render us insensible to many things which have claim upon us. But the full disclosure would be also impossible, if proper; for with regard to the Christian’s future condition there is that which no human understanding can now take in. The medium through which we make discoveries, as well as our faculties and powers of mind, are very defective, and will remain so till we hear the voice from heaven saying unto us, “Come and see.” It doth not yet appear what we shall be in the intermediate state.

The apostle tells us that “absent from the body we shall be present with the Lord.” But what do we know of the soul in its unembodied state, and of its retaining its consciousness when freed from material organization? The body and soul now participate in all our sorrows and enjoyments. But what do we know of the feeling of the soul when set free from this?-whether it has any knowledge of or any communication from the material world?-whether the “spirits of the just made perfect” know one another before the resurrection?-for now we know one another by the body, not by the soul. It doth not yet appear what we shall be in the resurrection of the just.

What do we know of the difference there will be between our present and our future bodies? It will be the same body, but infinitely superior. “There is a natural body, and there is a spiritual body;” but what know we of the qualities of these? What conceptions have we of a spiritual body?-of a body that can render itself visible or invisible, and that can by a wish transport itself from one region to another? What know we of a body that needs no food or sleep,-that is incapable of any accident, or disease, or of death? What know we of a body which, instead of being a toil, a burden, or a clog, will even add to the soul’s perfection, and enable it to enjoy pleasure and delight more completely than without it?

It doth not yet appear what we shall be in social intercourse. Moses and Elias, when they appeared on the mount of transfiguration, spake, and spake of our Saviour’s death, which he should accomplish at Jerusalem. The Apostle Paul tells us of words he heard when caught up to the third heaven, which were not lawful for a man to utter; and he speaks of the tongues of angels and of men. Do they depend, then, upon the utterance of words as a medium of communication of thought, as it is with us here? Are words arbitrary signs, as they are with us? Or what better mode have they?

We know not what latent power awaits us when we shall be born out of this embryo state into another and happier world. It doth not yet appear what we shall be as to employment, nor as to our pleasures; after all the experience of believers, (and they have a much better acquaintance by experience than from all the works they have ever read, or all the sermons they have ever heard,)-after all they know of its earnests and foretastes,-after all their views and feelings on which they have often said,-

“While such a scene of sacred joy

My raptured eyes and ears employ,

Lord, I would sit and gaze away

A long and everlasting day.”