earth dimly and by material instruments, but by those more intimate approaches which spirit admits of and our present faculties cannot comprehend. And in some unknown way that place of rest has a communication with this world, so that disembodied souls know what is going on below. The martyrs, in the passage before us, cry out, "How long, O Lord, holy and true, dost thou not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth?" They saw what was going on in the church, and needed comfort from the sight of the triumph of evil. And they obtained white robes and a message of peace. Still, whatever be their knowledge, whatever their happiness, they have but lost their tabernacle of corruption, and are "unclothed," and wait to be "clothed upon," having put off "mortality," but not yet being absorbed in "life.”—J. H. NEWMAN (1837).

They are all gone into a world of light:
And I alone sit lingering here;

Their very memory is fair and bright,
And my sad thoughts doth clear.

It glows and glitters in my cloudy breast

Like stars upon some gloomy grove,

Or those faint beams in which the hill is dressed

After the sun's remove.

I see them walking in an air of glory,
Whose light doth trample on my days—
My days which are at best but dull and
hoary,

Mere glimmerings and decays.

Dear beauteous death! the jewel of the justShining nowhere but in the dark

What mysteries do lie beyond thy dust,

Could man outlook that mark?

He that hath found some fledged bird's nest may know

At first sight if the bird be flown;

But what fair grove or field he sings in now— That is to him unknown,

HENRY VAUGHAN (1621-1695).

Almighty God, with whom do live the spirits of them that depart hence in the Lord, and with whom the souls of the faithful, after they are delivered from the burden of the flesh, are in joy and felicity, we give thee hearty thanks for that it hath pleased thee to deliver this our brother out of the miseries of this sinful world.

CHAPTER XIV.

ONE FLOCK: ONE HOUSEHOLD.

For our conversation (Gr. citizenship) is in heaven. Phil. 3:20.

Now therefore ye are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellow-citizens with the saints, and of the household of God. Eph. 2:19.

DEATH doth hide, but not divide,

Thou art but on Christ's other side

Thou art with Christ, and Christ with me;
In Christ united still are we.-ANON.

Observe the special help that God has given us in this dispensation. He lifts up the veil, and he shows us an eternal glory beyond. In the last book of the Bible we have a revelation of a "great multitude," now alive, in that manifested glory. And we are told that this part of the body of Christ, which we cannot see, but to which we are so closely united, is but one step in advance of us. They are rid of the mortal body;

they are freed from the temptations of the world; but in other respects they are still one with us. Both we and they are in Christ, in the heavenly places, in light, in glory. Only they are free from this double life of ours.-BISHOP WILKINSON, "THE COMMUNION OF SAINTS."

The visible and the invisible members of our Father's household-those whom we see on earth and those who are unseen and yet so near—all belong to one great family.

"One family in Christ we dwell,

One church above, beneath."

But those that are invisible are like the elder brothers and sisters of the family; they are more in advance. And we are to be "followers" of them. Heb. 6: 12. As the little child watches the sister of fifteen or sixteen years old, and copies every little detail, and grows up imperceptibly into the likeness of that elder sister, so it is with us. Around us and near to us are those true brothers and sisters, a little above us, older in the spiritual life, set free from the corrupti