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GRANDMOTHER'S SPECTACLES

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HESE optical instruments get old and dim. Grandmother's pair had done good work in their day. They were large and round, so that when she saw a thing she saw it. There was a crack across the upper part of the glass, for many a baby had made them a plaything, and all the grandchildren had at some time tried them on. They had sometimes been so dimmed with tears that she had to take them off and wipe them on her apron before she could see through them at all. Her second-sight" had now come, and she would often let her glasses slip down, and then look over the top of them while she read. Grandmother was pleased at this return of her vision. Getting along so well without them, she often lost her spectacles. Sometimes they would lie for weeks untouched on the shelf in the red morocco case, the flap unlifted. She could now look off upon the hills, which for thirty years she had not been able to see from the piazza. Those were mistaken who thought she had no poetry in her soul. You could see it in the way she put her hand under the chin of a primrose, or cultured the geranium. Sitting on the piazza one evening, in her rocking-chair, she saw a ladder of cloud set up against the sky, and thought how easy it would be for a spirit to climb it. She saw in the deep glow of the sunset a chariot of fire, drawn by horses of fire, and wondered who rode in it. She saw a vapor floating thinly away, as though it were a wing ascending, and Grandmother muttered in a low tone: "A vapor that appeareth for a little season, and then vanisheth away." She saw a hill higher than any she had ever seen before on the horizon, and on the top of it a King's castle. The motion of the rocking-chair became slighter and slighter, until it stopped. The spectacles fell out of her lap. A child, hearing it, ran to pick them up, and cried: "Grandmother, what is the matter?" She answered not. She never spake again. Second-sight had come! Her vision had grown better and better. What she could not see now was not worth seeing. Not now through a glass darkly! Grandmother had no more need of spectacles!

-Rev. T. De Witt Talmage, D.D.

READY

It is little matter at what hour of the day
The righteous fall asleep. Death cannot come
To him untimely who has learned to die.
The less of this brief life, the more of Heaven;
The shorter time, the longer immortality.

-Dean Millman.

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JESUS IS THERE

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For a human being to go out from this earth is a dreadful thing if it is only with this earth that humanity has any known relation. But now let us believe in the Ascension. Once a human being-the best and completest of all human beings that have ever lived, the human being whose humanity was perfect by its very union with Divinity-has gone, still human, out of the sight of men,-gone, evidently all alive. We can not trace His course. The cloud received Him. But yet we know that somewhere out beyond the limits of our little earth that true humanity of His has found at home. Humanity can live beyond the earth, can keep broad, live relations. with the universe. The man who goes to-day, then, goes still into the dark, but the darkness into which he goes is pierced by a path of light, and at its heart there is a home of light to which he goes. The humanity of Jesus has gone before, and makes the vast unknown not unfamiliar. Around our thought of it our thoughts of the men we have seen die, our thoughts of our own coming deaths, can gather with confidence and calmness.-Phillips Brooks.

THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN

This is that kingdom of heaven or of God, which is within us: "Even righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Ghost."

And what is righteousness but the life of God in the soul; the mind which was in Christ Jesus; the image of God stamped upon the heart now renewed after the likeness of him who created it? What is it but the love of God, because he first loved us, and the love of all mankind for his sake? And what is this "peace," the peace of God, but that calm serenity of soul, that sweet repose in the blood of Jesus, which leaves no doubt of our acceptance in him; which excludes all fear but the loving filial fear of offending our Father which is in heaven?

This inward kingdom implies also "joy in the Holy Ghost," who seals upon our hearts "the redemption which is in Jesus;" the righteousness of Christ imputed to us, "for the remission of the sins that are past," who giveth us now "the earnest of our inheritance" of the crown which the Lord, the righteous Judge, shall give us at that day? And well may this be termed "the kingdom of heaven," seeing it is heaven already opened in the soul; the first springing up of those rivers of pleasure which flow at God's right hand forevermore.

"Theirs is the kingdom of heaven." Whomsover thou art to whom God hath given to be poor in spirit, to feel thyself lost, thou hast a right thereto, thro' the gracious promise of him who cannot lie. It is purchased for thee by the blood of the Lamb. It is very nigh; thou art on the brink of heaven. Another step, and thou enterest into the kingdom of righteousness and peace and joy!-John Wesley.

JOY IN HEAVEN

And it is not thy joy only; it is a mutual joy as well as a mutual love. Is there joy in heaven at thy conversion, and will there be none at thy glorification? Will not the angels welcome thee thither and congratulate thy safe arrival? Yes, it is the joy of Jesus Christ; for now he hath the end of his undertaking, labor, suffering, dying, when we have our joys; when he is "glorified in all his Saints and admired in all of them that believe;" when he "sees of the travail of his soul, and is satisfied."

This is Christ's harvest, when he shall reap the fruit of his labors. And it will not repent him concerning his sufferings, but he will rejoice over his purchased inheritance, and his people will rejoice in him.

Yea, the Father himself puts on joy, too, in our joy. As we grieve his spirit and weary him with our iniquities, so he is rejoiced in our good. Oh, how quickly does he now spy a returning prodigal, even afar off. How does he run and meet him. And with what compassion does he fall on his neck and kiss him, and put on him the best robe, and a ring on his hand, and shoes on his feet, and kills the fatted calf to eat and be merry! This is, indeed, a happy meeting; but nothing to the embracing and joy of that last and great meeting. Yea, more; as God doth mutually love and joy, so he makes this his rest, as it is

our rest.

What an eternal Sabbatism when the work of redemption is all finished and perfected forever. "The Lord, thy God, in the midst of thee is mighty. He will save; he will rejoice over thee with joy; he will rest in his love; he will joy over thee with singing." Well may we then rejoice in our God with joy, and rest in our love and joy in him with singing.-Richard Baxter.

HEAVEN'S COMMUNITY

Heaven will be a home, a vast brotherly community, where the richest resources of social delight and improvement shall satisfy those social affections that are now one of the deepest elements of our nature, and which the grace of God strengthens and purifies in all who are born of the spirit. How unutterably blessed the high society that from this world has been assembling in the seats of disembodied saints! There was a time when the first spirit from earth entered the abode of angels. Abel's song was a human solo beside the throne. How many, and of what varied excellence, are the multitude that have since then joined the fellowship of the blessed! The venerable throng of patriarchs, the goodly fellowship of prophets and apostles, the noble army of martyrs, and the ever increasing hosts of the pure and good. the firm in righteousness and the gentle in love, the deep-thoughted sage and the blooming infant spirit, all, from many lands, have been joining the great multitude of the society of the saved. How rich, how varied, how fresh, and glad, and sweet must be the commingling of thought and love in such society; and how exalted their devotions!-J. Graham.

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