belief of those old patriarchs themselves seems perfectly evident. When Joseph's brothers brought Jacob the lying news of his death, the old man said: "I will go down into Sheol (the spirit world) unto my son mourning" (Gen. xxxvii. 35, R.V.). It is plain that the brokenhearted father did not refer to burial, to lying in the same grave with his child, both from the word that he used, a word not signifying "grave" as it is rendered in the Authorized Version, but Sheol or the spirit world, as the Revised Version translates it; and also from the fact that, according to the heartless story brought to Jacob, Joseph was neither buried nor likely to be buried at all, since the report was that he had been devoured by some wild beast. Clearly the only comfort that the father could lay hold of was the thought of meeting and seeing his child again—

"Where the wicked cease from troubling,
And the weary are at rest."

Similarly, when David lost his baby, his consolation was: "I shall go to him" (2 Sam. xii. 19), i.e. in the other world. The comfort

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of both bereaved parents was just the comfort that is offered to bereaved parents still—that they and their children should be together again, of course in full knowledge of each other.

There are two singularly fine poetical passages in the Old Testament which one quotes, not so much for the purpose of proving the doctrine before us, as of showing how universally the idea of recognition in the future world was entertained among the Jews. Both refer, not to the case of those happy souls with whom in this work we are specially concerned, but to tenants of the abodes of despair. But what applies to one applies mutatis mutandis to the others. One of these pictures is given us by Isaiah, and is one of the grimmest and weirdest pieces of word-painting to be found even in that book of vivid colouring. It refers to the king of Babylon. He is represented as dead, and just entering the land of shades. The prophet-poet says: "Hell from beneath is moved for thee to meet thee at thy coming it stirreth up the dead for thee, even all the chief ones of the earth; it hath raised up from

their thrones all the kings of the nations. All they shall speak and say unto thee, Art thou also become weak as we? art thou become like unto us? Thy pomp is brought down to the grave, and the noise of thy viols: the worm is spread under thee, and the worms cover thee. How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! How art thou cut down to the ground, who didst weaken the nations!

They that see thee shall narrowly look upon thee, and consider thee, saying: Is this the man that made the earth to tremble, that did shake kingdoms; that made the world as a wilderness?" (Isa. xiv. 9-16). No doubt about the recognition there.

The other picture is from the pen of Ezekiel, and resembles Isaiah's portraiture not a little. He says: "The strong among the mighty shall speak to him out of the midst of hell with them that help him they are gone down, they lie uncircumcised, slain by the sword;" and then follows a wonderfully graphic and minute description of the denizens of that strange place. The whole passage is to be found in Ezek. xxxii. 21, and will well repay perusal.

Its bearing on our subject is similar to that of the quotation just referred to.

Let us now glance at the teaching of some plain passages in the New Testament in addition to those previously adduced. Already we have looked at various places in it which speak of the knowledge that will be in heaven, and the love, and the memory, and drawn our conclusions therefrom. But there are many others. Among the rest, the account of the Transfiguration deserves notice. We are told that Jesus "took Peter, and John, and James, and went up into a mountain to pray. And, as He prayed, the fashion of His countenance was altered, and His raiment was white and glistering. And, behold, there talked with Him two men, who were Moses and Elias, who appeared in glory, and spake of His decease which He should accomplish at Jerusalem" (Luke ix. 28). It has often been noticed how on this mountain-top the Law, the Prophets, and the Gospel met together. Moses represented the first, Elijah the second, and our Lord the third. But, what is more to our present purpose, we have here three inhabitants of the heavenly

world meeting, recognising one another, conversing together. Moreover, one of those three is a disembodied spirit, for it is not of course to be supposed that the corpse of Moses was raised for the occasion, while another was a man just as he had lived on earth, Elijah having been snatched up directly thence, without undergoing the pains of dissolution. At present all except a few of the saints in glory are disembodied spirits. But by and by, when the resurrection. has taken place, it will be different-all will be in the body again. In this Transfiguration scene we have both classes represented, and, notwithstanding the difference between the pure spirit and the man, body, soul, and spirit, there is no difficulty in mutual recognition or intercourse. Have we not here a little bit of heaven brought down to earth for a brief interval, showing us something of what its society is like?

Luke gives us a pregnant saying of our Lord which gives us another quick, brief glimpse into the realms of glory: "I say unto you, make to yourselves friends of the mammon of unrighteousness, that when ye fail they