and strength to weakness; thus bringing things opposite into an harmonious whole.  See accordingly how the love which dwelt in “God manifest in the flesh,” poured itself into the lowest depths of humanity, and met men far down to lift them high up; so that at the very moment, for instance, when Jesus was intensely conscious of His dignity, “knowing that he came from God and went to God,” He even then shewed how inseparable was true love from true grandeur, for we read that “knowing” this, “He rose from supper and girded Himself with a towel, and washed His disciples’ feet!” And as Jesus in the might of the same Divine affection bridged over the gulf which separated man from Himself and His Father, drawing the impure to Him the Holy One, that they might become holy; and the ignorant to Him the All-knowing, that they might become truly wise;—­so shall the same Divine love include within its vast embrace all in heaven, from God seated on the throne down through the burning ranks of cherubim and seraphim till it reaches the once weeping Magdalene, and the once sore-stricken Lazarus, and the infant who has but the hour before left the bosom of its weeping mother!  HOW glorious, again, is the thought that the poorest saint here—­the most ignorant, the most despised, the most solitary and unknown—­shall not only admire and love, but be himself the object of admiration and of love on the part of the highest spirit there.  For the King who is not ashamed to call the poorest “brethren,” will, in His adornments of their mind and heart, as well as of outward form, bestowed “according to His riches,” make them in all things like Himself, and fit to move in regal grandeur with all saints and angels in the royal palace of his God.  “Fear not, little flock; it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom.”

After what has been said, it is unnecessary to prove what I have assumed as so evidently true; I mean the future recognition of our Christian friends.  It is almost as unreasonable to ask for proofs of this as for the probable recognition of friends in a different part of the country after having been separated from one another during a brief interval of time.  What! shall memory be obliterated, and shall we forget our own past histories, and therefore lose the sense of our personal identity, and be ignorant of all we have been and done as sinners, and of all we have received and done as redeemed men? or, knowing all this, shall we be prevented from communicating our histories to others?  Shall beloved friends be there whom we have known and loved in Christ here; with whom we have held holy communion; with whom we have laboured and prayed for the advancement of Christ’s kingdom; and with whom we have eagerly watched for His second coming,—­and shall we be unable throughout eternity, either to discover their existence or associate with them in the New Jerusalem?  Are the apostles now ignorant of each other?  Did Moses and Elias issue out of a darkness which mutually