ed work. But even the best of us, at our best, walk by faith and not by sight, and our poor halting faith often makes us walk very feebly in the way to heaven. There shall be an end of all this state of things one day. We shall at length see Christ as He is, and know as we have been known. We shall behold Him face to face, and not through a glass darkly. We shall actually be in His presence and company, and go out no more. If faith has been pleasant, much more will sight be ; and if hope has been sweet, much more will certainty be. No wonder that when St. Paul has written, " We shall ever be with the Lord," he adds, " Comfort one another with these words." (1 Thess. iv. 17, 18.)
We know little of heaven now. Our thoughts are all confounded, when we try to form an idea of a future state in which pardoned sinners shall be perfectly hap- py. " It does not yet appear what we shall be." (1 John iii. 2.) But we may rest ourselves on the blessed thought, that after death we shall be " with Christ." Whether before the resurrection in paradise, or after the resurrection in iinal glory, the prospect is still the same. True Christians shall be " with Christ." We need no more information. Where that blessed Person is who was born for us, died for us, and rose again, there can be no lack of anything. David might well say, " In Thy presence is fulness of joy, and at Thy right hand are pleasures forevermore." (Psalm xvi. 11.)
Let us leave this wonderful prayer with a solemn recollection of the three great petitions which it con- tains. Let holiness and unity by the way, and Christ's company in the end, be subjects never long out of our thoughts or distant from our minds. Happy is that Christian who cares for nothing so much as to be holy and loving like his Master, while he lives, and a com- panion of his Master when he dies.