was indeed alone in
His joys and in His sorrows amidst His brethren. After His departure,
how soon were the apostles scattered, and how seldom did they meet!
For years Paul was not acquainted with any of them, and possibly never
met them all, while he was quite unknown by face to many of those
Christian churches who read his letters, and revered his name. The
apostle John complains that he could not communicate to his friends
the many things he had to say by pen and ink, and longs for personal
intercourse. "I trust," he says, "to come unto you and speak face to
face, that _our joy might be full_." Ah, there is no tabernacling here
with Jesus, nor yet with Moses or Elias! But such a dispensation is
no doubt wise. It marks the condition of those who have no continuing
city here, but who look for one to come. It also greatly helps to
weaken, on the one hand, our tendency to idolise the creature, and to
strengthen, on the other, our faith in God, who abideth for ever, and
thus to unite us to one another, both now and in the end, more truly
than we ourselves as yet understand. But, nevertheless, the joy from
Christian intercourse experienced here is among the most precious
gifts of God, and its value is enhanced by the prophecy which it
contains of the glorious future. Union is the gospel watchword; it
is the grand result of redemption; for holy union is holy love, the
drawing of heart to heart, because all are drawn by one Spirit,
through one Saviour, to one God, a union which is to be perfectly
realised in our future social state, when we shall be fellow-citizens
with the saints in the heavenly Jerusalem.

Now, consider what ample resources heaven affords for the cultivation
of the social affections among those of the highest intellect, taste,
and moral worth in God's universe, "But ye are come unto Mount Sion,
and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an
innumerable company of angels, to the general assembly and church of
the first-born, which are written in heaven, and to God the Judge of
all, and to the spirits of just men made perfect, and to Jesus the
mediator of the new covenant." Here we have summed up the society in
our future home.

We shall there enjoy the society of the _angels_. We know about those
holy beings, but we do not know themselves as yet. But how often does
it happen to us in regard to our earthly friends, that those who are
unknown to us in our early years even by name, b