its cold hand upon them, and put an end
to their earthly happiness.

* Ps. xxxvi.

In heaven, that awful death shall be no more. We have the word of the
Living God for it: "And God shall wipe away all tears from their
eyes: and death shall be no more, nor mourning, nor crying, nor
sorrow shall be any more, for the former things are passed away."* In
very deed, "the former things have passed away"--sorrow, mourning,
poverty, labor, the vicissitudes of time, temptations to sin--all
these things have passed away, never more to return. The children of
God have entered into the enjoyment of their inheritance, which shall
never be torn from them, because "death shall be no more." Never
shall they see the dawn of a day when father and mother must bid
farewell--a long and sad farewell--to their heart-broken children,
because "death shall be no more." Nevermore will there come a day
upon which affectionate children must print the last kiss upon the
cold and pallid cheek of their dying parents, because "death shall be
no more." Never more shall we see our kindred and friends slowly
descending into the grave, nor hear the cold and cruel clods of earth
falling upon them, because "death shall be no more." "Death is
swallowed up in victory. O death, where is thy victory? O death,
where is thy sting?"+ This is the joyful song of triumph which ever
resounds through the vaults of heaven, because "The just shall live
forever more: and their reward is with the Lord, and the care of them
with the Most High. Therefore shall they receive a kingdom of glory,
and a crown of beauty at the hand of the Lord."**

* Apoc. xxi. + 1 Cor. xv. ** Wis. v.

In conclusion, let me exhort you, Christian soul, to meditate often
and seriously on the happiness of heaven. Such meditations, besides
deepening our knowledge of God, and of the things He has prepared for
them that love him, have a wonderful power of detaching our hearts
from the transitory pleasures and honors of this world. They,
moreover, create in our soul an unquenchable thirst for the vision
and possession of God, while they infuse into us a new courage to
battle manfully against all the obstacles which beset our path in the
practice of virtue.

Such meditations fill us, moreover, with a laudable and noble
ambition of reaching a high degree of union with God. This was the
ambition of the saints, and it should be ours also. It was this
desire of a most intimate union with God, that cause