purely relative-Redeemer, Father, Master. Thus only is he re11arded. Of what he is in himself, what he is in the nuivcrse, what he is in immensity, he understands nothing. Iu et~rnity we shall "see him as b~ is." 4. In servility. 'l'he child yields his under- standing up to others, often allows 1t to be used as "clay in the bands of a potter." So it is often with Christians here. They are not generally independent in their inquiries. They put themselves in the hands of Churches and priests, and call them masters. Not so in heaven. Each with a full consciousness of his individuality will be independent in his investigations and conclusions. Ill. This is the case in relation to REASONING. "I thouuht as a child." In the margin the word reasc,r,ed is put for "ihought." The child re~sons. Loo-ic is not mere art, it is an instinct iu human nature. How does the child reason? 1. From an insuf- ficiency ef data. Having neither the power nor the opportunity of makincr an adequate obserrntion and comparison, he draws his conclusions from passing impressions and unfounded conjectures. Thus it is often with the Christian here. His knowledge of the facts of God and the universe on which he reasons, is ~o limited that his conclusions .are often inconclusive and puerile. The grave and pompous discussions of our most learned theologues on the ways of God roust appear to the ear of an anO'el 0 as absurd as the prattle of children on the affairs of kingdoms does to us. 2. From the impulse of desire. In all cases the wish is the father to the thought. It is too often so with Christians here. Their likings control their logic. Not so in heaven. How sublime the difference between the Christian in time and the Christian in eternity ! How vast the disparity between the speech, understanding, and reasoning of Saul, the little Jewish boy, and "Paul, the aged,'' the great theologian and sublime apostle! This is only a faint type of the difference between the Christian here and the Christian yonder. Co:scLUSION. This subject teaches : 1. The educational character ef this life. The true view of this life is that it is a school for eternity, Here all souls are in a state of pupilage. Some are deriving the true advantages from the discipline, and some are not. 'IYhilst thousands leave this school from year to year unimproved, incorrigible, utterly unfit for the services of eternity, worthless to God and the universe, others are being made "meet for the inheritance of the saints in light." Brother disciples, be reconciled to this state. School-days are not al ways the most pleasant. 'l'here are restrictions, disciplines, and studies, more or less painful. Struggle on till you "put away childish things," all that is childish in speech and understanding and reasoning. We shall leave this school soon for the family mansion and the grand inheritance. 2. The organic unity of man through all the scenes and stages of his heing. Though the man here talks and judges and reasons very differently to what he did when a child, he is nevertheless the same being. He is but the child more fully developed. He is but the sapling grown into the tree. It is so with the Christian in the other world. He is the same being as he was here, he is but the child grown into the man, freed from "all childish things." Man in heaven is but the child matured. We shall never be greater than men. Whatever is brilliant and great for us in the future will be but the development of the germs that slumber in us now. 3. The necessity of modesty in the maintenance -of our theological views. In the light of this subject, how preposterous it is fur poor frail, fallible man to set himself up as an authority in theological matters, to assume the priest, the bishop, the pope ! " I do not know," says Sir Isaac Newton, "what I may appear to the work!; but to myself 1 seem to have been only like a boy playing on the 6eashore, and diverting myself by now and then finding a smoother pebble or a prettier shell than ordinary, while the great ocean of truth lay all undiscovered before me." Ver. 12.-The body the darlc mediitm of spiritual vision. "For now we see through ,l glass, darkly," etc. It needs no illustration to show that our vision of spiritual things i:; Yery dim. 'l'he cause of this is our subject-the medium is dark, that medium is the body. Through the five senses we gather all the lights that fiash on our consciousness and form within us ideas. But why is it dark? I. 'l'he body tends to MATEllIALIZE THE CONCEPTIONS OF THE MIND. We "judge after the flesh." II. 'l'he body tends to SWAY THE DECISIONS OF THE MIND. The desires of the flesh often move and master the soul. CH. xm. 1-13.] 'l'HE FIRST EPISTLE TO THE CORINTHIANS. 431
III. The body tends to CLOG THE OPEnATio~s OF THE MIND. Business, sleep, refresh- ment, exercise, diseasc,-all these interrupt the soul. Our visions of spiritual thin"s being so dim: 1. None should pride themselves in their knowledge. 2. None should arrogate infallibility of :judgment. 3. All should anticipate higher and fuller visions. \Vhen the medium is removed, we shall see "face to face."