has clothed them again with the body, the final judgment has passed
over them, and their last unending state has begun. There are no words
in Holy Scripture so well calculated to give a general summary of that
state as those concluding ones of a passage from which I have before
largely quoted: 1 Thess. iv. 17: "AND SO SHALL WE EVER BE WITH THE
LORD."

For these words contain in them all that has been revealed of that
glorious state, included in one simple description. The bliss of the
moment after death consisted in being with Christ: the bliss of
unlimited ages can only be measured by the same. Nearness to Him that
made us, union with Him who redeemed us, the everlasting and unvexed
company of Him who sanctifieth us: what glory, what dignity, what
happiness can be imagined for man greater than this?

And yet it is not by dwelling upon this, and this alone, that we shall
be able to arrive at even that appreciation of heaven which is within
our present powers. We may take these words, "for ever with the Lord,"
and we may find in them, as in our Father's house itself, many
mansions. In various ways we are far from the Lord here; in various
ways we shall be near Him and with Him there.

But first of all we must approach these various mansions through their
portals and the avenues which lead up to them. And one of those is the
consideration, who, and of what sort, they shall be, of whom we are
about to speak. It will be very necessary that we should conceive of
them aright.

Well, then, they will be men, with bodies, souls, and spirits like
ourselves. The disembodied state will be over, and every one will have
been reunited to the body which he or she had before death. What do we
know of this body? Very glorious thoughts rise up in our minds when we
think of it: but in this course of sermons I am not speculating; I am
inquiring soberly what is revealed to us about the blessed dead. Well
then, again, what do we know of this body of the resurrection? In
Phil. iii. 21, there is a revelation on this point. It is there said
that "our home is in heaven, from whence also we expect the Saviour,
the Lord Jesus Christ: who shall change the body of our degradation
that it may be fashioned like unto the body of His glory." And this
change is very much dwelt on as a necessary condition of the heavenly
state in 1 Cor. xv. "_Flesh and blood_," we are told, _i.e._, this
present natural or psychical body, the body whose informing tenant