thoughts and affections thither. Deliverance from trouble; freedom from sin; increase of knowledge; separation from the ungodly; intercourse with the holy; communion with his Saviour; these and other delineations of the heavenly state make him ready, willing, eager to depart from the present life, and to enter upon that new and noble existence.

My chief conception of heaven," said Robert Hall, who was an almost constant sufferer from acute bodily pain, "is rest." And many sons and daughters of affliction can respond to his remark. They have so much to do and to suffer; they see so much misery and discord around them; their spiritual foes are so powerful and persevering, that the sigh of the psalmist is often heard from their lips, "Oh that I had wings like a dove! for then would I fly away, and be at rest."* Rest! Where? In heaven: there the weary are at rest.

They rest from toil. From physical exertion, and from mental labour. The hand no longer has to procure bread for the sustenance of life, and to provide things honest in the sight of all men; the head no longer has to plan for avoiding difficulties and distress, and to strive after a temporary relief from some of the cares of daily life. "They shall hunger no more, neither thirst any more." "They rest from

their labours; and their works do follow them."* All fatigue and anxiety are for ever ended.

They rest from pain. The inhabitant of that heavenly city shall not say, I am sick; and "there shall be no more pain: for the former things are passed away."+"I shall soon be at home now," said an aged Christian woman, who had been for many years afflicted with a painful disease, "and then all suffering will be over. I hope I am not impatient; I am willing to bear whatever God sends, and as long as he sends it; I know he is love. But it is very sweet sometimes, when my poor body is racked with pain and I cannot get a minute's relief, to think that I am every day nearer heaven, and to feel that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that shall be revealed. What a change it will be!"

They rest from sorrow. "God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying. crying." Yes; God himself shall wipe away their tears. The days of their mourning will be for ever ended, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away. Want, disappointment, care, unkindness, injustice, bereavement, and every other source of earthly distress, are unknown in heaven. The waves of grief cannot pass the confines of eternity. The clouds of sadness cannot float in the clear + Rev. xxi. 4. Rev. xxi. 4.

Rev. xiv. 13.

atmosphere of heaven. The voice of lamentation and weeping can never mingle with the songs of the redeemed.

They rest from spiritual conflict. Life is a period of warfare and trial. The foes of the Christian are many, and they are mighty. His own unsubdued passions; the world with its temptations on the one hand and its reproaches on the other; and the great adversary of mankind going about as a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour, are continually arrayed against him; and he must be always upon his guard, always ready for the encounter. Nor does he, except in occasional moments of discomfiture and depression, shrink from the battle-field. It is his earnest desire to fight the good fight of faith, and to endure hardness as a good soldier of Jesus Christ. To ask for victory and rest from a mere love of selfish ease, is inconsistent with his principles and feelings. God has called him to the contest, and when he sees fit will call him to his reward; till then he is willing to wait and toil and struggle on. His prayer is that when his Lord comes he may find him watching. This is a right spirit. We ought not to grow weary in well-doing. We ought not to wish for our crown before our conflict is ended. But at the same time we may look forward to our rest with hope and gladness. In the midst of our

conflict with evil we may soothe and refresh our spirits with the thought of final victory. As we press forward in our heaven-ward journey, encompassed by difficulties and beset with dangers, we may rejoice in the consideration that,

"We nightly fix our moving tent

A day's march nearer home!"

Yes: our warfare will soon be over-our rest attained.

And how cheering is the reflection that holiness as well as rest is linked with our anticipations of heaven! Nothing that defileth can enter there. The church above is "a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but holy and without blemish."* The Christian, it is true, is already sanctified by the indwelling of the Holy Ghost. Sin has no longer dominion over him; for the grace of God, which bringeth salvation, teaches him to deny ungodliness and worldly lusts, and to live. soberly, righteously, and godly in this present world. His heart is purified by faith. He has put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness. He has been adopted into God's family; renewed in his image; and made a partaker of his holiness. But as yet how imperfect is the resemblance which he bears! how feeble are the attainments

* Eph. v. 27.

which he has made! While he delights in the law of God after the inward man, he sees another law in his members warring against the law of his mind, and bringing him into captivity to the law of sin, so that in the anguish of his spirit he exclaims with the apostle, "O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?"* Day by day he presses toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus, but he is often sore let and hindered in running the race that is set before him; sometimes he stumbles and falls; and sometimes he wanders into some by-path which leads him into distress and danger; and although he never gives up; although each revival of the sin which so easily besets him-each temptation to which, through unwatchfulness and self-dependence, he yields, only prompts him to more prayerful and vigorous effort for the future; can we wonder if he anticipates with eagerness and delight the moment when he shall be freed from the defilement and imperfection of his present condition, and be perfectly conformed to the image of his Saviour? Oh to have his will entirely absorbed in God's will; to have every thought in unison with his mind; to have self for ever lost sight of in the radiance of his glory; to be holy, and unblamable, and unreprovable in his pre

Rom. vii. 24.