can hardly fancy home where there are thousands and tens of thousands of those you never saw before. Papa. Confiding trust, dearest child, was the essence of that feeling you spoke of, as in those favourite lines of ours— "Sweet is the smile of home, the mutual look, Now in heaven there will only be confiding, loving spirits, with hearts as transparent as the streets they walk on. When that delightful old Christian spent three days with us last month, did not you and Lily cry when he went away, just as if he had been one of ourselves? You see our poor narrow hearts opened then, so as to take in one more; but what will it be when they expand fully in the loving atmosphere of heaven, just like one of those close-shut rosebuds of yesterday, which now is drinking into its open cup all the beauty of the setting sun. Mary. Thank you, dear Papa. I think that helps me to understand it more than anything; for I think we never had such blessed. evenings as those, with our Bibles and hymnbooks, and all his bright thoughts about God and heaven. Lily. And then you know, Mary, we can go to Abraham, as Lazarus did, and to David, and to St. John. Oh! there are so many things I should like to ask him about Jesus, and I think he would tell me, for he seemed so fond of his little children. Arthur. And then to talk with the angels who have ministered to us, and watched over us all our life long, and carried us when we died to heaven. I sometimes long to see and thank our guardian angels for all their care. Mamma. There, too, shall we meet those who have fallen asleep in Jesus, whom we have loved and lost,-your dear little brother, your blessed grandfather. There shall we meet those by whose ministry we were brought to Christ, or whom we have, through the grace of His Spirit, led to His feet. But, of all the joys of that family circle, this will be the crowning one-our Father's presence, our Saviour's society. You know how strange and desolate the house felt when Papa was gone to London; but the prime of heaven's bliss is this, "so shall we ever be with the Lord." (1 Thess. iv. 17.) Papa. And separation soon mars earth's fairest hours, and our brightest fireside gatherings are incomplete; our children may seem to long for no one else, but we cannot forget our dear parents-our brothers and sisters; but in heaven there will be no parting, no imperfection; all who love Jesus will be there, and He Himself the Prince of the court, the soul of every joy. Arthur. Papa, you just mentioned another image-the court of heaven, which I, too, had thought of, from Jude 24, "Now unto Him that is able to keep you from falling, and to present you faultless before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy." When people are presented at the court of Queen Victoria, is it not a type of this? Papa. It is, my boy; and if you were to try to think of all the happiest hours of lifeits brightest pictures, its purest scenes, you would find the Bible uses almost all of them to set forth the joys of heaven. If we think of the domestic love of home, heaven is a family circle; if of intellectual and Christian society, Heaven has been gathering one by one in its capacious breast, All that is pure, and permanent, and beautiful, and blest; of the gladness of a wedding-day, heaven is ushered in with the bridal feast of Christ and His Church; if of the honourable intercourse of citizens, heaven is the perfectly ordered city; if of the pastoral joys of fields and waters, heaven is the paradise of God; if of the splen dour of a royal court-day, heaven has its presentations in glory; if of a musical festival, heaven has its voices without number, its pealing hallelujahs, and its harpers harping on their harps; if of the throbbing exultation of a victorious army, heaven has its patriot shouts of triumph; if of the chastened joys of the Lord's-day, heaven is one eternal Sabbath, and the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are the temple of it. Mamma. My children, I think we shall be compelled to sing to-night, "Oh, had I the wings of a dove, "but let us first ask ourselves, what will be the employments there; for though there remaineth a rest for the people of God, it is not the stillness of a stone, nor the luxurious repose of an idler. Lily. It is said; Mamma, "His servants shall serve Him." (Rev. xxii. 3.) Arthur. It was also said to the faithful servant, "Thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things; enter thou into the joy of thy Lord." (Matt. xxv. 21.) Mary. And to him who had been faithful with his pound," Have thou authority over ten cities.' (Luke xix. 17.) Mamma. I am so very anxious that my dear children should remember this, that the Lord is trying them every day, and proving whether He can commit to them higher trusts hereafter, for He says, "He that is faithful in that which is least, is faithful also in much." (Luke xvi. 10.) Every hour they live, He is watching how they use their time, and do the little things He bids them; and, if faithful now, greater things will be confided to them in after years, and in the world to come the eternal realities of the heavenly kingdom. Arthur. Dear Papa, I do think this thought will help me to do my lessons, and prepare for my Sunday class. But will not these things. committed to us in heaven be some weight upon our springing joy? for I do so love to think we shall not have one anxious care there. Papa. They will be no burden, no anxiety, my boy; for though we are made kings and priests, and have all royal responsibilities, and share in all sacred ministrations, we shall reign, but it will be with Christ. So there will be service, but no weariness; adoration, but no fear; kingly power, but no anxiety. There will be ever commissions to execute for Christ, but we shall be sinless servants in a sinless world. Probably the boundless, starry firmament, which astronomy is opening before us, is only one province of that vast creation throughout which we shall perform the commands of our God. Mamma. And we have said little yet of the highest employment of heaven,-I mean its temple worship, when they cast their crowns |