of accumulation, until they come up to what may be called the ripening
period of the globular cluster." Unnumbered ages may be occupied with
such a grand evolution of celestial progress, beyond our power of
calculation; but will the changes of created things, even then, have
come to an end? Hear again the voice, not of the prophet, but of the
astronomer: "Around us lie stabilities of every order; but it is
_stability_ only that we see, not _permanence_." As the course of our
inquiry has already amply illustrated, even majestic systems, that at
first appear final and complete, are found to resolve themselves into
mere steps or phases of still loftier progress. Verily, it is an
astonishing world! Change rising above change--cycle growing out of
cycle, in majestic progression--each new one ever widening, like the
circles that wreathe from a spark of flame, enlarging as they ascend,
finally to become lost in the empyrean! And if all that we see, from
earth to sun, and from sun to universal star-work--that wherein we best
behold images of eternity, immortality and God--if that is only a state
or space of a course of being rolling onward evermore, what must be the
Creator, the Preserver, the Guide of all!--He at whose bidding these
phantasms came from nothingness, and shall again disappear;--whose name,
amid all things, alone is _Existence_--I AM THAT I AM?

"Of old hast thou laid the foundations of the earth,
And the heavens are the works of thy hands;
They shall perish,
But thou shalt endure;
Yea, all of them shall wax old like a garment:
As a vesture shalt thou change them, and they shall be changed;
But thou art the same,
And thy years shall have no end.
The children of thy servants shall continue,
And their seed shall be established before thee."

Psalm cii. 25

"And I saw a new heaven, and a new earth;
For the first heaven and the first earth were passed away,
And there was no more sea.
And I John saw the holy city, New Jerusalem,
Coming down from God out of heaven,
Prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.
And I heard a great voice out of heaven, saying,
Behold the tabernacle of God is with men,
And he will dwell with them,
And they shall be his people,
And God himself shall be with them, and be their God."

Revelation xxi.

* * * * *

Reader, is this glorious heaven