Man is a _social_ as well as a sentient, intellectual, and moral
being; and as such he will have joy in the presence of God in heaven.
We are made for brotherhood. It was in reference to this original
craving of the heart for society that God said of man when he came
perfect from His hands, "It is not good for him to be alone." The fact
of solitariness is, indeed, unknown in God's intelligent and moral
universe. With reverence, I remark, that God has existed as Father,
Son, and Spirit, three Persons in the unity of the Godhead. We cannot,
indeed, conceive of God, whose name is love, existing from eternity
without a person like Himself as an object of His love. Certain it
is, however, that for the creature to have joy in himself alone, is
impossible. Isolation would, in time, produce insanity. The heart will
lavish its affection upon the lowest forms of animal creation, or
upon ideal beings, rather than feed upon itself. But there can be
no solitude to him who knows there is a God, nor who possesses any
religion; for religion is love to God. And even where the society of
men is shunned, and solitude fled to by the weary, this is often,
after all, but an unconscious protest in favour of brotherhood; the
bitterness of one who, having sought it from men in vain, feels as if
robbed of his brother's affections, which he had a right to possess as
a portion of his inheritance.
But while God has planted in every breast this passion for congenial
society, and has supplied to so great an extent its want by the family
institution into which we are born in our early years, and by the
"troops of friends" who accompany us during our pilgrimage, and by the
fellowship of the Christian Church, in proportion as that fellowship
is not a mere name, but expresses the intention of Christ in gathering
His people into a society,--there are, nevertheless, innumerable
drawbacks here to anything like its full gratification. Take away the
time consumed in the necessary and often absorbing labour of life, and
during the unavoidable separations and partings from those we know
and love, how little is left for the cultivation here of the truest
friendships. We are, moreover, severed as yet by death from all
congenial minds among past generations, and from those who are yet to
come. Of the many now alive whose hearts would beat to ours, could we
only meet and know them, how few can stand together on the small space
allotted to us on the earth's surface. Then, again, of those whom we
know best and love best on earth, and who know and love us best too,
oh, what mutual ignorance must necessarily exist of innumerable
thoughts and feelings lying deep clown in our inner man, half hidden,
half revealed, even to ourselves, but altogether incommunicable and
unutterable by word or sign to others! We may at times be conscious
that we stand with them on the same lofty summit, and gaze on the
same prospect, but the atmosphere is too rare to permit of any heard
communication between us. And thus in no case can there be, not the
meeting, but that blending of soul with soul by which one being,
without losing his individuality, seems completed in the being of
another. Add to all this the granite walls that rise up between us
during our wanderings in this desert--the differences, not only from
intellect, pursuits, rank, education, but also from character, and
those sins and infirmities of which all more or less partake, such as
pride, vanity, prejudice, envy,--one and all making sad drawbacks from
the fulness of joy which we are capable of deriving even now from
intelligent and holy society. We are made to realise this fact in
reading the history of the holiest society that ever was on earth,
that of Jesus Christ and His apostles. Only three years together,
often separated during this brief period by dark nights, stormy seas,
long journeys, and the sin and ignorance OR their part which made Him
exclaim, "Nevertheless I am not alone, for the Father is with me,"
intimating that, without this Divine sympathy, He was indeed alone in
His joys and in His sorrows amidst His brethren. After His departure,
how soon were the apostles scattered, and how seldom did they meet!
For years Paul was not acquainted with any of them, and possibly never
met them all, while he was quite unknown by face to many of those
Christian churches who read his letters, and revered 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 the saint, on reaching heaven,
find God's angels to be, not strangers, but old friends who have known
all about him from the day of his birth until the hour of his death.
It is true that these high and holy ones belong to a different order
of beings from ourselves, and this, we might be disposed to think,
must prevent the possibility of their sympathising with us. But let us
remember, that while in material forms there is no one common abiding
type, by which, for example, the vegetable, beast, bird, or fish are
formed; yet that it is quite otherwise with intellectual and moral
beings, who are all necessarily made like God, and therefore like
one another. And, finally, though we might conjecture that beings
possessed of such vast stores of knowledge, the accumulated wealth
of ages, and of such high and glorious intellects, would necessarily
repel our approaches by the awe they would inspire in a child of earth
when with all his ignorance he enters heaven, yet let our confidence
be restored by remembering the fact, that in them, as in the great
Jehovah, all majesty and wisdom become attractive when combined with,
and directed by love. The love which enables us to cling to the
Almighty and love Him as a Father, will enable us to meet the angels
in peace, and to love them as brethren. And thus I am persuaded that
a saint on earth, compassed about as he is with his many infirmities,
would even now feel more "at home," so to speak, with angels, because
of their perfect sympathising love, than with most of his fellow-men,
because of their remaining pride and selfishness.
But "just men made perfect" also form apart of the society above.
Their number is daily increasing. Day by day unbroken columns are
passing through the golden gates of the city, and God's elect are
gathering from the four winds of heaven. There are no dead saints; all
are alive unto God, and "we live together with them."
But I further remark in reference to all this glorious society, that
there shall be _perfect union_ among its members. That union will not
be one of sameness; for there can be no sameness either in the past
history, or in the intellectual capacity of any of its members. How
vast must be the difference for ever between the history of Gabriel,
the thief on the cross, the apostle Paul, and the child who died on
its first birthday! There is, moreover, every reason to believe that
each person must retain his own individual features of mind and
peculiarities of character, there as well as here. All the stars will
shine in brilliancy, and sweep in orbits more or less wide around the
great centre, but "each star differeth from another star in glory."
Yet this want of sameness is what will produce the deepest harmony,
such as one sees in the blending of different colours, or hears in
the mingling of different notes. And I repeat it, the bond of this
perfectness must be the same in heaven as on earth--love. For it is
love which unites exalted rank to lowly place, knowledge to ignorance,
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 concealed them in heaven, and
recognising one another for the first time amidst the light on Tabor's
hill, did they then return into darkness again? Oh, what is there in
the whole Word of God,--what argument derived from, our experience of
the blessings of Christian fellowship,--what in the character of God
or His dealings with man,--what in His promises of things to come laid
up for those who love Him, that could have suggested such strange,
unworthy, false, and dreary thoughts of the union, or rather disunion,
of friends in their Father's home! Tell me not that special affection
to Christian brethren, from whatever causes it may arise, is
inconsistent with unfeigned love to all, and with absorbing love to
Jesus. It is not so here, and never can be so from the nature of holy
love, and was not so in Christ's own case when He the Perfect One
lived amongst us. With supreme love to God, "He loved His church
and gave Himself for it;" with love to His church He yet loved the
disciples as "His own;" while again within this circle one of these
was specially _the_ loved one; and beyond it "He loved Martha and Mary
and Lazarus!" Tell me not that it is enough to know that our friends
are in glory. I know this now in regard to some of them, as surely as
I know anything beyond the grave; yet my heart yearns to meet them
"with the Lord," and I bless Him that He permits me to comfort myself
with the hope of doing so. Nor let it be alleged as an insuperable
objection to all this anticipated happiness, that knowledge of the
saved would imply knowledge of the lost, and that this would balance
the pleasure we hope for, by the great pain by which we, it is
assumed, must thus be compelled to endure. For even admitting that
such knowledge would be possessed at all, which is very doubtful; yet
surely, at the worst, this is a strange way of escaping pain from the
knowledge that some are lost, by taking refuge in the ignorance of any
being saved! I shall not prove this further, but express my joy in
heartily believing that we shall resume our intercourse with every
Christian friend; that remembering all the past, and reading it for
the first time aright, because reading in the full light of revealed
truth, we shall know and love as we never knew and loved here; and
shall sit down at that glorious intellectual, moral, and social feast,
not with ideal persons and strangers, but with Abraham, Isaac, and
Jacob, with Peter, Paul, and John, and with every saint of God!
But I have not as yet spoken of one friend there who will be the
centre of that bright society--"Jesus the Mediator of the new
covenant!" "I will take you to _Myself_," is the blessed promise. "We
shall see Him as He is," is the longed-for-vision. "We shall be like
Him," is the hoped-for perfection. To know, to love, to be in all
things like Jesus, and to hold communion with Him for ever--what "an
exceeding weight of glory!" Jesus will never be separated personally
from His people; nor can they ever possibly separate their character,
their joy, or their safety from His atoning death for them on earth,
or from His constant life for them in heaven. It is the Lamb who shall
lead them to living fountains of waters; and the Lamb upon the throne
who shall still preside over them. The Lamb shall be the everlasting
light of the New Jerusalem; and "Worthy is the Lamb!" will be its
ceaseless song of praise. Beyond this I cannot go. In vain I endeavour
to ascend in thought higher than "God manifest in the flesh," even to
the Triune Jehovah who dwelleth in the unapproachable light of His own
unchangeable perfections; and seek to catch a glimpse of that beatific
vision which, though begun here in communion with God, is there
enjoyed by "the spirits of just men made perfect," "according to
His fulness," and therefore in a measure which to us passeth all
understanding. But if any real spiritual intercourse with Jehovah is
now "joy unspeakable;" if the hunger of the soul to possess more,
fails often from its intensity to find utterance for its wants in
words, what must it be to dwell in His presence in the full enjoyment
of Himself for ever! There are saints who have experienced this
blessedness upon earth to a degree which was almost too much for them
to bear; and there are some who have had glories flashed upon them as
if snatched from the light beyond, just as the soul was loosening from
the ligaments of the body, and preparing itself for flight from the
prison-house to its own home--strange moments when things beyond were
seen by the eye closing on the weary world, and overpowering bliss was
experienced by the chilling heart. And if men, sinful men, yea, dying
men, can behold such visions of joy even while dwelling in tabernacles
of clay that are crumbling around them, what is the measure of that
bliss which fills the souls of those redeemed ones at this moment in
the temple above, in perfectly knowing and enjoying God, Father, Son,
and Holy Ghost! May the Lord give us all grace to love on earth such
as we may hope to meet in heaven; and if we cannot as yet enjoy the
communion of angels, may we seek for, and enjoy, the communion of
saints!