receive, can hinder an Almighty God from giving far greater and more wondrous things to His children, than, at present even Heaven knows any thing about?

VIII. In a sacred, mysterious sense, by faith in Christ Jesus, the soul becomes the child of God, and the mother of Jesus. The Lord spoke no meaningless word, when pointing to His disciples, He said: "Behold, My mother!" The nature of God's Dear Son is brought forth in every one, whom a living faith has joined to Him. To be personally accepted in the Beloved, the Beloved must be begotten in us. Christ, conceived of the Holy Ghost, in the inmost virgin affections, is the hope of glory to each soul. But that which is brought forth in the soul, by the power of the Holy Ghost, is absolutely one with the Son of God, and therefore the Lord calls His true disciple, not only "My mother," but "My brother." And this same new-born holy nature, being related to Him by most tender womanly affections, He calls also, "My sister." In an ineffable manner, every soul, in whom He brings forth His own nature and image, is His mother, His brother, and His sister.

IX. There is, there can be, but one sure, indis

soluble bond between creature and creature, and that is God. If the great bond be wanting, all other bonds are vanity: not even in appearance will they last long. Every tie must dissolve and cease, save the one Essential Divine tie between the Eternal Father and His children. They are a family. Another family cannot be made. Every other relation is as though it were not. Every other is a world-dream. Widows, orphans, broken hearts, and a world of graves, bear witness to the unreality of every bond, except one, namely, that which makes us one with God, and with one another in Him. Out of this one Bond, all Heaven grows. If this Bond is lacking, Hell lurks in disguise under all the relations of flesh and blood. That which is not founded in God cannot cohere together: it is destitute of true being. All husbands and wives, parents and children, brothers and sisters, who are at variance with God, will soon be at variance with each other.

The fulness of the Godhead bodily dwells in One Man, and through that One Man, in all who are His: these are brethren, God's family, members one of another, and beside these there is no family. You might as soon find another Living and True God, as find, or make another living and true family.

X.-As members of the Divine family, let

us look upon each other no longer as fellow mortals, buying and selling, toiling and striving, meeting and parting, marrying and dying, but as fellow partakers of the Divine Nature. Let us regard each other from our faith and hope, rather than from sight. Let the infirmities of our brethren and sisters, and all unloveliness, whether of temper or character, disappear from our eyes: let us look upon them as they are in Jesus, and as they will shortly be in themselves. Look forward a few years, and behold the meekness and sweetness of Christ settled in them, as their own eternal disposition. Behold the symmetry and beauty of their eternal forms, as they stand "without fault before the throne of God."

AIDS TO THOUGHT.

THE loss of a quality from any substance induces a change in the substance. What a change must have been brought about in the creature, by the loss of the first, or absolute quality, namely, the Divine Glory!-bringing him at once down, from his relation to the infinite and eternal, under bondage to space and time.

Man's imprisonment within matter, and his consequent subjection to space and time, are conditions of changed being, deficient being; which conditions followed immediately upon the loss, or extinction of the Eternal Light,-God's Glory.

Regenerate souls, in whom the marvellous Light is again kindled, will find upon the loss of their earthy, darkened body, a strange increase. A cloud-wrapped star comes into universal relationship, a vast inheritance,-by losing its cloud.

But when shall the whole creation be loosened from her bonds, and let go floating in the Lightocean of God? When shall Nature be relieved

of her grave-clothes, and the napkin which is about her face, and shew once more her longveiled Beauty?

Dear, loving, godly kindred,-long watching at the gates which divide the sensible from the super-sensible,—watch on, in meek patience; the night is still deep, but the Ancient Morning is very faithfully returning, and at the appointed hour will be here!

STRICTLY speaking, as yet, there is no universe. Heaven, earth and hell, are not even a triniverse, still less, a universe. Heaven and hell are con

tradictory and contending spheres. Heaven is the only harmonious sphere. Hell is rampant disharmony. The visible creation is a disharmonizing sphere, slowly harmonizing. Heaven is active good, Hell is active evil. In nature, these two actives embody themselves, and give evidence of their hostility. In their form, odour and taste, some things are Heaven-types; and some, Hell-types. Likewise the instincts and passions of the creatures, are, some, Heaven-types, and some, Hell-types.

For the same reason that faith in God and in a perfect world, is possible, unbelief, or spiritual darkness, is also possible. If the material creation