PREFACE.

THE subject of this little work is one which comes immediately "home to every man's business and bosom." No person who has ever lost a friend, but desires to know whether they shall ever meet to recognise each other again; and, if so, whether the feelings of love and friendship will continue in heaven. Most Christians, it is believed, wish that the doctrine were true, that we shall know and love one another after death;-and most of them, it is presumed, have some general ideas that it is true; but without so firm a conviction of its truth as to derive from it such consolation and hope, as it is calculated to inspire. The design of the present volume is to show the consonance of this doctrine with reason and

Scripture; to exhibit some of the most important arguments for its support, and thus, while confirming the faith of those who entertain this belief, to enable them also "to give to every one that asketh them a reason of the hope that is in them."

The author does not pretend to have brought forward all the passages of Scripture which throw light upon this subject. If he has succeeded in making it appear that the belief of this doctrine is reasonable in itself, and that the word of God allows us to indulge in it, his end will be attained. He now sends forth his unpretending little volume, in the humble hope that it may be found an acceptable visitant to the house of mourning, and cheer those who are sorrowing over the grave of the dead, who died in the Lord, by the hope of meeting them again in those mansions of their Father's house, "into which," as the pious Bishop Horne beautifully expresses it, "no enemy enters, and from which no friend departs." His fervent prayer is, that all such

may be led, by the Spirit of grace, to "set their affection on things above," so that finally they may come "to the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company of angels, to the general assembly and church of the first born, which are written in heaven, and to God the Judge of all, and to the spirits of just men made perfect, and to Jesus the mediator of the new covenant;" and in this blessed society may spend an eternity of unmingled bliss.

Philadelphia, October, 1838.

ແ Friends, even in heaven, one happiness would

miss,

Should they not know each other when in

bliss."

BISHOP KEN.

THE

RECOGNITION OF FRIENDS

IN

ANOTHER WORLD.

CHAPTER I.

THE HAPPINESS OF THE BLESSED.

ST. PAUL informs us that "all Scriptures were written by inspiration of God, for our learning;"* that they are all “ profitable;" and that they were written, not only for our admonition and instruction, but "that we through patience and comfort of the Scriptures,

* 2 Tim. iii. 16.