There is no death! The stars go down to rise upon some fairer shore; And bright in heaven's jeweled crown they shine for evermore.

Another remark I have to make concerning these illustrious immortals is that they are multitudinous. Their census has never been taken and no one but God knows how many they are, but all the Bible accounts suggest their immense numbers. Companies of them, regiments of them, armies of them, mountain-tops haloed by them, skies populous with them. John speaks of angels and other beings around the throne as ten thousand times ten thousand. Now, according to my calculation, ten thousand times ten thousand are one hundred million. But these are only the angels in one place. David counted twenty thousand of them rolling down the sky in chariots. When God came away from the riven rocks of Mount Sinai, the Bible says he had the companionship of ten thousand angels. I think they are in every battle, in every exigency, at every birth, at every pillow, at every hour, at every moment. The earth full of them. The heavens full of them. They outnumber the human race in this world. They outnumber ransomed spirits in glory.

When Abraham had his knife uplifted to slay Isaac, it was an angel who arrested the stroke, crying: "Abraham! Abraham!" It was a stairway of angels that Jacob saw while pillowed in the wilderness. We are told an angel led the

hosts of Israelites out of Egyptian serfdom. It was an angel that showed Hagar the fountain where she filled the bottle for the lad. It was an angel that took Lot out of doomed Sodom. It was an angel that

shut up the mouths of the hungry monsters when
Daniel was thrown into the caverns. It was an
angel that led Elijah under the juniper tree.
was an angel that announced to Mary the ap-
proaching nativity. They were angels that
chanted when Christ was born. It was an angel
that strengthened our Saviour in his agony. It
was an angel that encouraged Paul in the Medi-
terranean shipwreck. It was an angel that burst
open the prison, gate after gate, until Peter was
liberated. It was an angel that stirred the Pool
of Siloam, where the sick were healed.
It was
an angel that John saw flying through the midst
of heaven, and an angel with foot planted on the
sea, and an angel that opened the book, and an
angel that sounded the trumpet, and an angel

that thrust in the sickle, and an angel that poured out the vials, and an angel standing in the sun. It will be an angel with uplifted hand, swearing that Time shall be no longer. In the great final harvest of the world, the reapers are the angels. Yea, the Lord shall be revealed from heaven with mighty angels. Oh, the numbers and the might and the glory of these supernals! Fleets of them! Squadrons of them! Host beyond host! Rank above rank! Millions on millions! And all on our side if we will have them.-Rev. T. De Witt Talmage, D.D.

HEAVEN'S NEARNESS

The nearness of heaven is suggested by the epithet "veil." Christians. there is only a veil between us and heaven! A veil is the thinnest and frailest of all conceivable partitions. It is but a fine tissue, a delicate fabric of embroidery. It waves in the wind; the touch of a child may stir it, and accident may rend it; the silent action of time will moulder it away. The veil that conceals heaven is only our embodied existence; and though fearfully and wonderfully made, it is wrought only out of our frail mortality. So slight is it that the puncture of a thorn, the touch of an insect's sting, the breath of an infected atmosphere, may make it shake and fall. In a bound, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, in the throb of a pulse, in the flash of a thought, we may start into disembodied spirits, glide, unabashed into the company of great and mighty angels, pass into the light and amazement of eternity, know the great secret, gaze upon splendors which flesh and blood could not sustain, and which no words lawful for man to utter could describe! Between us and heaven there is but a veil!-C. Stanford.

"A LEAF FROM THE TREE OF LIFE"

The sweet young sister of a little boy was dying. The child had heard that if one could secure but a single leaf from the tree of life that grew in the garden of God, every illness could be healed. No one had dared to attempt the quest, however, for the way was very hard and a great angel guarded the gate of the garden against mortals. The child loved his suffering sister so well that he resolved to find the garden and plead with the angel for the healing leaf. So over rock and moor and hill he went, until in the golden sunset the beautiful gate appeared, and he tearfully made his request to the angelic sentinel. "None can enter this garden," replied the angel, but those children for whom the King has sent, and he has not called for you." "But one leaf," pleaded the child, “one little leaf to heal my sister. The King will not be angry. He cannot wish that my sister should suffer so and die and leave me all alone. Have pity, great angel, and hear my prayer."

The angel looked down on the little suppliant with deep love and said: "The King has sent my brother, the Angel of Death, to bring your sister to Himself. If you are allowed to keep her, will you promise me to see that she shall never again lie tossing on a sick bed of pain?" "How can I?" said the wondering child. "Not even the wisest physician can keep us from sickness alway." "Then will you promise me that she shall never be unhappy, not do wrong, nor suffer sorrows, nor be cold or hungry, or tired, nor be spoken to or treated harshly?" asked the angel. "Not if I can help it," answered the child, bravely; "but perhaps even I could not always make her happy." "Then," replied the angel, tenderly, "the world where you would keep her must be a sad place. Now I will open the gate just a little and you may look into the garden for a moment, and then, if you still wish it, I will myself ask the King for a leaf from the tree of life to heal your sister.”

And the astonished child looked in where grew the living tree, and where flowed the crystal river, and where stood the bright mansions, and where walked and talked immortal children under a light more beautiful than that of the sun and with friends more loving than those of earth, and where love and blessing reigned forever. He looked until his eyes widened in surprise and glowed with joy, and, turning to the angel, he said softly: "I will not ask for the leaf now. There is no place so beautiful as this; there is no friend so kind as the angel of death. I wish he would take me, too."

So the child turned back under the stars that shone like celestial eyes upon him. And as he went a ray of holy light fell upon his path, and wonderful music, such as he never before heard, filled his ears, and he knew that the golden gate. had opened to receive his sister. And it was so that when re saw her silent form upon her little bed at home, he was comforted.

The generous who is always just, and the just who is always generous, may, unannounced, approach the throne of Heaven.-Lavater.