presence with us, we shall
see that impurity always drew a membrane over the eye of our souls, or
cast a mist of invisibility over the heavens. The smallest sin hides God
from us. A very, very little grain of dye stuff will darken miles of a
river, and make it incapable of reflecting the blue sky and the
sparkling stars. The least evil done and loved blurs and blots, if it
does not eclipse, for us the doers the very Sun of Righteousness
Himself. No sinful men can walk in the midst of that fiery furnace and
not be consumed. 'The pure in heart'--and only they--'shall see God.'

Nor need I remind you, I suppose, that in this, as in all these
Beatitudes, the germinal fulfilment in the present life is not to be
parted off by a great gap from the perfect fulfilment in the life which
is to come. And so I do not dwell so much on the differences, great and
wonderful as these must necessarily be, between the manner of
apprehension and communion with God which it is reserved for heaven to
bestow upon us, and the manner of those which we may enjoy here; but I
rather would point to the blessed thought that in essence they are one,
however in degree they may be different. No doubt, changed
circumstances, new capacities, the withdrawal of time and sense, the
dropping away of the veil of flesh, which is the barrier between us and
the unseen order of things in which 'we live and move and have our
being,' will induce changes and progresses in the manner and in the
degree of that vision about which it would be folly for us to speak. If
there were anything here with which we could compare the state of the
blessed in heaven, in so far as it differs from their state on earth, we
could form some conception of these differences; but if there were
anything here with which we could compare it, it would be less glorious
than it is. It is well that we should have to say, 'Eye hath not seen,
nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things
that God hath prepared.' So let us be thankful that 'it doth not yet
appear what we shall be'; and let us never allow our ignorance of the
manner to make us doubt or neglect the fact, seeing that we know 'that
when He shall appear ... we shall see Him as He is.'

III. Lastly, notice how this sight brings blessedness.

There is nothing else that will 'satisfy the eye with seeing.' The
vision of God, even in that incipient and imperfect form which is
possible upon earth, is the one thing that