ceive what bears upon it the infallible and indelible stamp of truth, "Thus saith the Lord."

That in heaven the spirits of justified men abide with angels, is quite indubitable on Scripture ground; but we are also warranted to believe that they enjoy, occasionally at least, the angelic privilege of visiting earth, or of beholding clearly what goes on in the militant church. Otherwise, how could the souls under the altar know that their blood was not yet avenged on them that dwell on the earth? And why, if forever divorced from all the ties of mortality, should they express impatience for the arrival of that time? Assuredly not from any vengeful feeling: such is forbidden in just men in the flesh, and cannot reside in the spirits of just men made perfect. Besides, the generation on whom their blood was to be avenged, was probably not the same as the generation who shed it. We can only understand it as expressing a fervent desire for the speedy arrival of that day of vengeance which we know synchronizes with the year of the redeemed. Those souls beheld and mourned over the desolate state of the Lord's still persecuted Church; the devoted little flock to which they also belonged; and knowing that He would at once put all enemies under his feet, and exalt his Church to glory and everlasting peace, they pleaded for the hastening of that promised day.

Another instance, of which it cannot be said that it was figurative, as may be objected to the foregoing, is the appearance of Moses and Elias on the mount with

our Lord, in glorified bodies. Elias, indeed, did not die; he took his own body with him; but Moses died and was buried, though of his sepulchre no man knoweth to this day. Whether the body in which he then appeared was his own, raised again from death and the grave for a special purpose, or whether it was what the disciples meant when they talked of Peter's "angel,' we cannot possibly tell. This we know, the person was Moses, who had been dead for many generations, and he talked with our Lord, as also did Elias, concerning his decease, which he should accomplish in Jerusalem. They spoke of a coming event; of the locality assigned to it in the purposes of God; and, eminent as were these two lights of the Old Testament church, we have no pretence for supposing that what was clearly revealed to, and perfectly understood by them, in the state of blessedness to which they had attained, was concealed from Abraham, Isaac, Jacob; from Noah, Daniel, and Job; or from any who had, by the like precious faith, entered the presence of God; with whom is no respect of persons, and who often maketh the first last, and the last first.

This may seem somewhat irrelevant to the precise matter before us; but the connexion is very intimate. To every individual among the great multitude before the throne, have the angels of God been ministering spirits; and seeing that the privilege of believers in the life to come is to be made like unto the angels, to be equal with the angels, and that "those also who sleep in Jesus will God bring with him," when "the Son of Man shall come in the glory of his Father, and

of the holy angels," we are sure the departed saints shall with the angels bear a very conspicuous part in the proceedings of that day; but we have a striking indication that they will not descend to earth as strangers long divorced from all its concerns, but as those who have like the ministering angels, with keen interest watched the progress of the church below toward the final consummation of all its hopes.

The apostle Paul, after enumerating many of those who by faith obtained the heavenly inheritance, includes in the same company all who had borne testimony during their lives to the truth, and staid themselves on the promises of God. He then shows that they had not yet obtained the promises to which all looked forward, but were kept waiting for us; that is, for the whole multitude of them which shall be saved. He speaks of them in their present state as a great cloud of witnesses encompassing us; and points to the circumstance as calculated to quicken us in "the race set before us," the same race wherein they also strove, and succeeded. As too often happens, the force of this beautiful passage is greatly weakened by the injudicious division into chapters of what was written continuously but a little attention bestowed on these two chapters without any regard paid to such arbitrary disjointing, will present in a very glorious light the perfect union and uninterrupted communion of the whole body of the elect, from the time of Abel to the last period-the removing of those things that may be shaken, and the final establishment of the kingdom that cannot be moved. It is very remarkable, that he does

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not say to believers still in the flesh, Ye shall come, but, “Ye ARE come unto Mount Zion, and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company of angels, to the general așsembly 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 to the blood of sprinkling that speaketh better things than that of Abel." Heb. xii. 22-24. By faith the child of God enters into this community, embracing all that is of God, both in heaven and on earth; and when he puts off his tabernacle of flesh, it is not to lose sight of what he has hitherto beheld, and to open his eyes on a different scene, but to take in all that before he saw not, in addition to that which he has already seen. Having passed the waves of this troublesome world, and obtained a sure footing on the heavenly shore, he does not in selfish contentment turn his back upon his former companions, still struggling through the surge, but with deep interest contemplate their painful progress, and if so the Lord permit, joyfully unite with the ministering spirits who are commissioned to render such help as divine wisdom sees good, by their instrumentality to impart. This, carried a little way beyond what revelation sanctions, leads to perilous idolatry; and so we find it was, even in the apostles' days; but what then? If some of the unlearned and unstable wrest certain Scriptures to their own destruction, are we, therefore, to shrink from receiving the whole word of God? There is no doctrine so wholesome, so pure, so essen

tially necessary to be believed, that by overstepping its prescribed bounds it may not be wrested to a fearful error, and some who will not entertain this exceedingly important and unspeakably encouraging subject of an. gelic ministry, and the communion of saints, lest it lead them into unsafe paths, will dogmatize on the origin of evil, free-will, and the secret counsels of the Most High, until they totter on the extreme verge of most presumptuous sin. John's mistake is recorded for our warning, and the angel's gentle rebuke for our instruction; and with these before him, what has the humble worshiper of God to fear from an attentive, thankful investigation of this lovely portion of the divine economy of grace?