his name.  The apostle John complains that he could not communicate to his friends the many things he had to say by pen and ink, and longs for personal intercourse.  “I trust,” he says, “to come unto you and speak face to face, that our joy might be full.”  Ah, there is no tabernacling here with Jesus, nor yet with Moses or Elias!  But such a dispensation is no doubt wise.  It marks the condition of those who have no continuing city here, but who look for one to come.  It also greatly helps to weaken, on the one hand, our tendency to idolise the creature, and to strengthen, on the other, our faith in God, who abideth for ever, and thus to unite us to one another, both now and in the end, more truly than we ourselves as yet understand.  But, nevertheless, the joy from Christian intercourse experienced here is among the most precious gifts of God, and its value is enhanced by the prophecy which it contains of the glorious future.  Union is the gospel watchword; it is the grand result of redemption; for holy union is holy love, the drawing of heart to heart, because all are drawn by one Spirit, through one Saviour, to one God, a union which is to be perfectly realised in our future social state, when we shall be fellow-citizens with the saints in the heavenly Jerusalem.

Now, consider what ample resources heaven affords for the cultivation of the social affections among those of the highest intellect, taste, and moral worth in God’s universe, “But ye are come unto Mount Sion, and unto the city of the living God, 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.”  Here we have summed up the society in our future home.

We shall there enjoy the society of the angels.  We know about those holy beings, but we do not know themselves as yet.  But how often does it happen to us in regard to our earthly friends, that those who are unknown to us in our early years even by name, become in our latter years indissolubly bound up with our history and our joy?  And thus the angels, whom on earth we have never seen, will, nevertheless, when the manhood of our being is reached, become our intimate friends and dear companions for ever.  Let us not forget, however, that the angels know each saint on earth more intimately than the saints themselves are known by their nearest friends.  “For are they not all ministering spirits, sent forth to minister for them who shall be heirs of salvation?” But this fact suggests another analogy between our social relationships with men and angels,—­viz., that as earthly friends who have been acquainted with ourselves and our family history during the forgotten days of infancy, are met by us, in after-years, not as strangers, but with feelings of sympathy and intimacy akin to those awakened by old kindred; even so will