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DEATH OF CHILDREN FELICITOUS.

When the child of wicked parents is taken away from the evil that surrounds it, it is not hard to say, It is well, or even to rejoice in the event. We say it is more fortunate than in this ungenial atmosphere, where there is no probability that it will develop into soul-beauty, dispensing fragrance in its path that will benefit and gladden others. It is true, we are glad for such, that the Lord takes them from the evil to come; that he takes them into his own presence, and saves them by grace.

When the little ones are marked as victims of suffering, then, too, we rejoice in an early translation to a world where suffering is unknown. We feel not like wishing their protracted stay, for it is only prolonging the sorrow we cannot mitigate. A sigh of relief almost bursts from the heart when the last breath leaves an expression of peace upon the body, whence the viewless, painless spirit has fled, and we say, It is a mercy to the child that it was taken. In some of these things we can see reasons, but there are other instances that we are wont to signalize as trying dispensations, mysterious providences.

When a beautiful child of Christian parents is smitten down, -one around whom the hallowed influences of Christ's religion will be made to gather from earliest infancy, with their power to fit for a useful and happy life, then it seems more strange that the Destroyer is abroad-that he is permitted to send an arrow just there.

When the wife has been bereft of companion and children, and one, the last, remains as a beam of sunshine on her path, that one grows pale and languishes, and shuts its eyes upon all sublunary things, we mingle our tears with the mourner, and wonder that the only solace was taken away. But why these selfish wonderings? Are not the great plans and purposes of God better than all human calculation?

"If God needs my child for his glory," said a father, eminent for his piety, "I am willing he should take it." He needs what he takes he takes what he needs; and this should be the feeling with which little rigid bodies and little graves should be viewed.

DEATH OF CHILDREN MYSTERIOUS.

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From whatever condition children are taken, they are called in heavenly wisdom, and with their early death ends all uncertainty of final salvation; for we repeat, that He who cares so tenderly for the lambs, He who regarded them so lovingly when he was upon earth, will not banish them from his He will not leave them to perish apart from the fold.

presence;

So much of beauty is associated with the death of infants with a certain people, and this an unchristian one, that, instead of symbols of mourning, everything is decorated with the greatest care. The coffin which encloses their remains is an elegant embroidered trunk, in which the child lies enveloped in flowers. "The cloisters where they are deposited are remarkably dry and neat, kept always fresh with paint and whitewash, and generally in a pretty garden, embellished with parterres and aromatic flowering shrubs; so that the charnel-house is divested of everything offensive, or even dismal, and redolent with incense and perfumes."

The inhabitants of an island of the sea were formerly in the habit of bearing their infants to burial with lively and playful airs of music sounding all the way to the grave. Shall heathen nations see occasion for joyful emotions, and not those in Christian lands, who see angels bending down to clasp their little and bear them to the bosom of the Saviour, to regions of pure and unending delight?

ones,

Shall they sing lively strains at burial-places, and Christians refuse to sing the Lord's songs because he sometimes calls them hither. Mourning for the dead is a privilege that is not denied us. We should prove ourselves unnatural did we not weep; but grief should be chastened and moderated, and may be by the application of the sovereign remedy, Gilead's balm.

The sweet, opening buds are lovely; we love to look at them; we love to cherish them; and we grieve to see them droop from the parent stem; but there is much, O, how much! that is comforting in the death of infant children. "Of such is the kingdom of heaven."

CHAPTER XXIX.

THE BODY GLORIFIED.

Rich Endowments of Immortality.-Conflicting State of Body and Spirit here. The glorified Body powerful. — Glorious and honorable. — Incorruptible and spiritual. Blessedness of the Combination. - Holiness and Perfection the End of true Self-Discipline.

"Made like him, like him we rise."

"O, how the resurrection light

Will clarify believer's sight."

How richly endowed is immortality! No mortal being can traverse the length and breadth of this broad avenue; none know its heights, that tower so sublimely above the skies, or look into the depths to discover the shining ore that sparkles beneath the gaze of the Omniscient One. These places have been trodden alone by the Infinite, in the past eternity of his existence; but in a time coming he may act as guide in conducting the sainted ones to the place where the treasures lie concealed. Moreover, he may say unto them, as they stand with admiring gaze, "These are thine; use them for thy pleasure." There is a great deal of beauty and of wealth in this world that we call ours; but it is limited, being confined to a few that we call favored - a few whom Fortune and Nature seem to have crowned with special honor. There are places in remote lands, far over desert plains and stormy oceans, where veins of gold and silver run through the earth; and a few leave all to gain their treasures, that the current of life may run quicker and smoother with them. There are pearls imbedded deep beneath the dark waves of the ocean, and life

RICH ENDOWMENTS OF IMMORTALITY.

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is put in jeopardy to obtain the brilliant drops that sparkle like dew on the petals of the summer flower of the morning; and there are diamonds washed from sands that many thousands cannot buy, and which men value as the glory of kingdoms. There are green-clad hills, and sunny glens. There are beautiful landscapes, and smiling, "happy valleys,” that are not all fable. But the beauty grows dim, and the wealth fades away, before the superior brightness and richness of all things on the immortal shores.

There is no peril in extracting the pearls from the ocean of immortality, no weariness in searching for the diamonds that glisten in the sands of the "crystal stream." Golconda is not to be mentioned beside the richly-freighted mines of the celestial world. The treasures there exceed, both in quantity and quality, all ever obtained below. There is no dross, nothing of inferior value. All is pure gold, without alloy. The hills, glens, and vales are more bright and fair than the fairest here. Discontent came into the "Happy Valley," of fabled memory, and marred the happiness of a strangely-favored family; but it is a forbidden guest among the Immortals, and they roam the whole country with never a feeling of this sort. Why should they, with so rich an inheritance, so rich a nature?

We speak of remarkable endowments in this life, and language has a fitness for these things. It expresses our appreciation of it—its power, strength, and beauty; but when we come to speak of the rich endowments of immortality, what terms can proclaim its glory? It has blessings for both body and soul; and who can tell what these blessings involve --what it is to rise to a spiritual existence to rise with that spiritual body" of which Paul speaks? Body now is a hinderance to the soul's activity; but then it will be a most desirable and blessed auxiliary in effecting those things to which God calls, and holy ambition prompts. Now it cripples the energy of spirit, continually dragging it downward, when it is ever desirous of pluming itself for lofty and ennobling flights

496

CONFLICT OF BODY AND SPIRIT.

keeping it in the "Valley of Humiliation" when it would stand on the "Delectable Mountains." Now it is deformed, imperfect, and inefficient; but there it will be beautiful, perfect, wondrously and gloriously efficient, working harmoniously with spirit in the blessed sphere they occupy, together a rising monument to God's glory — an everlasting memorial to his praise. We leave out something of the completeness of salvation, if we leave out the body; if we suppose it merely a framework built up around the spirit for its temporary advantage, while maintaining its connection with the material world, and to be of no more use forever, when this connection ceases. At the last, they that are in their graves shall come forth." What shall come forth?

ee

The spirit never was there. That has long been with God. Our "slumbering dust" is the Father's care, and would he guard it to no purpose, if it had no end to serve hereafter?

Into every proper conception of the heavenly world there enters the idea of a glorified body. What that body may be we learn only by revelation, though its analogies bring us to the silent and unseen influences of nature, which produce results that we can see, while the manner of operation is not seen. It is for us to "take what the Lord revealeth." The question was once asked by the children of men, "How are the dead raised up? and with what body do they come?" and the answer was, "That which thou sowest is not quickened except it die." Through the power of God, and the work of Christ, there is to come from the "corruptible body," that is deposited in the grave, one that is incorruptible; from one that is weak, one that will be strong; from one that bears the marks of dishonor, one with which will be associated the greatest of honor.

Know we not that Omnipotence is equal to the production of all this? Pagan philosophers answer, no!—that it is absurd — contrary to nature; that the body is only the place of confinement, the tomb of the spirit; and that upon the flight of the latter there is no more need of the former; therefore it