ll
know his friends hereafter is not impossible, not improbable;
neither is it certain. He may desire it, expect it, but not with
speculative pride dogmatically affirm it, nor with insisting
egotism presumptuously demand it.

5 Gravell, Das Wiedersehen nach dem Tode. Wie es nur sein konne.

To the uncritical Christian the recognising reunion of friends in
heaven is an unshaken assurance.6 There is nothing to disturb his
implicit reception of the plain teaching of Scripture. The
legitimate exhortations of his faith are these. Mourn not too
bitterly nor too long over your absent dead; for you shall meet
them in an immortal clime. As the last hour comes for your dearest
ones or for yourself, be of good cheer; for an imperishable joy is
yours. You:

"Cannot lose the hope that many a year
Hath shone on a gleaming way,
When the walls of life are closing round
And the sky grows sombre gray."

Put not away the intruding thoughts of the departed, but let them
often recur. The dead are constant. You know not how much they may
think of you, how near they may be to you. Will you pass to meet
them not having thought of them for years, having perhaps
forgotten them? Let your mind have its nightly firmament of
religious communion, beneath which white and sable memories shall
walk, and the sphered spirits of your risen friends, like stars,
shed down their holy rays to soothe your feverish cares and hush
every murmuring doubt to rest. From the dumb heavings of your
loving and trustful heart, sometimes exclaim, Parents who nurtured
and watched over me with unwearied affection, I would remember you
oft, and love you well, and so live that one day I may meet you at
the right hand of God. Early friends, so close and dear once, who
in the light of young romance trod with me life's morning hills,
neither your familiar faces nor your sweet communion are forgotten
by me: I fondly think of you, and aspire towards you, and pray for
a purer soul, that I may mount to your celestial circle at last;

"For many a tear these eyes must weep,
And many a sin must be forgiven,
Ere these pale lids shall sink to sleep,
Ere you and I shall meet in heaven."

Blessed Jesus, elder Brother of our race, who sittest now by thy
Father's throne, or pacest along the crystal coast as a leader,
chief among ten thousand, whose condescending brow the bloody
thorns no longer press, but the dazzling crown of thy Divinity
encircles, oh, remember us, poor erring p