LITTLE ONES IN HEAVEN.

REV. DR. ROBERT FERGUSON, LONDON.

WE are not forbidden to mourn over the loss of those who have been taken from us; but our sorrow should be moderated by the reflection that our loss is their gain. The joy which was felt, and whose expression could not be repressed at the birth of the child, is surely not to become extinct in the event of his departure and introduction to a nobler state of being. Are all those delightful emotions which took possession of our breasts when he began to develop his intellectual power, or his spiritual life, to die out when that very same child is taken up into the society of perfected spirits, in whose midst his mental powers and his inner life will be revealed as they never could have been in this inferior state? Is it nothing that we have given birth to one who is now numbered with the sons of glory, and whose presence in heaven has widened the circle of the redeemed around the throne of God? If death be a condition of life, then those whom we may have lost by death are not lost, but gone before. They are not dead, but live; and with the living only do they hold communion. If the highest type of created life be that of the redeemed and the glorified, then our joy ought to be proportioned to those higher conditions of being and of bliss to which they have been raised.

Christian parent! dry up thy tears; or if you must weep, make a rainbow of your tears. Let joy rise above grief as heaven rises above earth. If the

birth of your child filled your breast with emotions which no human words can express, and if on his being born again you became the subjects of feelings yet more tender and peculiar, then think of him now amid the beatitudes and the blessedness of the heavenly world, sinless in character, deathless in life, exhaustless in energy, ceaseless in activity, and through the ages on ages, ever moving in the light of the throne, expatiating amid its unquenchable glories, and upholding communion with the Eternal Life.

How delightful the idea that some of our little ones are there, ever beholding the face of their Father, reposing in His immutable love, and being filled with the fulness of joy! How cheering the thought that they have been admitted to the society and the fellowship of perfected spirits, are now the companions and associates of patriarchs, and prophets, and apostles, of martyrs and confessors, of the mightiest and the noblest dead, and hold the most intimate intercourse with them on all that is holy and true, unchangeably good and sublimely grand! How inspiring the belief, that they are now waiting our arrival, and are beckoning us onward and upward to join their wider circle, to enter with them on brighter scenes, and to enjoy life with them in its fulness and its fruitions!

If we have

Nor let us

ties on earth, we have ties also in heaven. forget that heaven is our home, as it is the home of those little ones now in glory. It is there that we are to meet them again, to be reunited in indissoluble

bonds, and to dwell in endless life.

Their very existspirits up to their

ence there is meant to charm our bright abode. Let us, then, set our affections on that higher world; let us yield to its attractive influence; and let us rejoice in this prospect of mingling for ever with our little ones and our loved ones in scenes of ineffable light and life, of glorious love and boundless joy.

MUTUAL RECOGNITION IN HEAVEN.

REV. DR. GEORGE SMITH, POPLAR, LONDON.

THE hope of reunion in a future state of being has been prevalent amongst devout and thoughtful persons in all ages of time, and under the various dispensations of divine truth which have passed over men. Some glimmerings of this expectation have visited communities and individuals unblest with the light of a written revelation, but who probably derived their impressions from traditionary recollections of a primitive faith. A definite and ever-brightening impression of the truth has been obtained under the Patriarchal, the Jewish, and the Christian economies. This hope has been a great comfort to mourners in seasons of bereavement. They have felt as did the monarch of Israel, who when lamenting the decease of his child, encouraged his heart by uttering the well known words, "I shall go to him, but he shall not return to me.”

By many of those who receive the kingdom of God as little children, this consoling doctrine is admitted

without gainsaying, and is almost intuitively perceived. Not very long since, an aged disciple, a highly valued relative of mine, fell asleep in Jesus at the advanced age of eighty-one years. On hearing of the event, his sister, more aged than he, said, "How glad my dear mother will be to see her darling boy again!" When the tidings of death reached my home, a grandchild of the departed saint, my own youngest boy, Richard Morley, being then only in his fifth year, exclaimed, "How delighted grandmamma will be to see him again!" Thus youth and age, both taught of God, testified to a glorious truth. They have both since then passed into the world of light; the child after a few weeks only, and they are doubtless reunited to the loved ones of whom they believingly spoke.

This subject is adapted to comfort the orphan deprived of parental support, and cast on the fatherhood of God. It is equally suited to bind up the wounds of parents who mourn, like Rachel, over their children, because they are not. Nor is it less fitted to support the mind of others who are deprived of companions in labour, and sorrow, and joy. We can follow them by faith within the veil, and behold their ever increasing happiness. We can listen to the voice of revelation, which assures us that they without us cannot be perfect; and we can look forward with hope to the time when, knowing as we are known, we shall rejoin them in the climes of bliss, and with them place the crown of redemption at the feet of the Redeemer. With Richard Baxter, the eloquent dis

courser on "The Saint's Everlasting Rest," we may say, addressing the Captain of our salvation

As for my friends, they are not lost;

The different vessels of Thy fleet
Though parted now, by tempests tost,
At length shall in the haven meet.

SAFE WITH CHRIST.

REV. CHARLES GARRETT, MANCHESTER.

OH weeping, trembling mother, the Good Shepherd who carries the lambs in His bosom, looks pityingly upon you, and says in loving tones, "Can you not trust your child with Me?" Surely your heart, in the midst of its agony, will reply, "Yes, Lord, I can." You have often said to an earthly friend, "I have no fear nor anxiety about my child when it is with you.” And if this be true, for it to be with Christ must be far better. Think of His unerring wisdom, His almighty power, His boundless resources, His unutterable tenderness, and, above all, His infinite love, and your faith will be strengthened and steadied. Remember that He loves your sainted child as tenderly as if there were not another child in the universe, and, oh, how safe, how happy it must be with Him! Bear in mind also that the separation is only for a "little while," as little as is consistent with your eternal welfare. Your heavenly Father is far more anxious to have you in heaven than you are to get there. All the events of your life are working together for this end.