atisfy curiosity about the other world. But yet some glimpses of the
blessed life have come to us, for our teaching.

The first thing to learn is that the chief joy of Heaven shall consist
in that of which we can only dream in this life, of which we can have
but a partial glimpse even in the Hades or Paradise Life--_the Beatific
Vision_, the clear vision and knowledge of God. All this life and all
the Paradise life are fitting and training and preparing us for this
consummation.

Wise theologians of old divided the happiness of Heaven into
"_Essential_" and "_Accidental_." By _essential_ they meant the
happiness which the soul derives immediately from God's presence, from
the Beatific Vision. By _accidental_ they meant the additional
happiness which comes from creatures, from meeting with friends, from
the joyous occupations and all the delights of ever-widening knowledge.

But the Presence of God, the Vision of God, is the essential thing
which gives light and joy to all the others. Without that Vision of
God all would be dark as this beautiful world would be without the sun.
Without that joy of God's presence all other joys would be spoiled,
just as the gifts of this life would be without the central gift of
health.

That is the central thought about Heaven in the Bible, the central
thought of God's noblest saints of old, aye, and the central thought of
some of the noblest amongst ourselves to-day.

Does it seem unreal, unnatural, to some of us? I can well believe it.
Few of us love God well enough yet to desire Him above all things.
Most of us, I fear, if we would honestly confess it, think more of the
joy of meeting our dear ones than of the joy of being with God. But
God is very gentle with us. "He knoweth our frame; He remembereth that
we are but dust." He will gradually train us here and hereafter, and
one day we, too, shall love Him above all things. Oh! I do think that
to know the tender patience of Christ's love as we shall know it then,
to know God as He is, with all the false notions about Him swept away,
will make it impossible to withhold our love from Him. And if even our
poor love for each other on earth is such a happiness think what joy
may come from dwelling in that unutterable Love of God.

III. THE LIFE IN HEAVEN

What can we know further about the life in Heaven, about what the old
theologians called the _secondary_ or _accidental_ joys as compared
with the supreme joy of t