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reasons; but all else is doubtless within their intelligence. So though we hear no more with outward ears, that voice upon whose lightest tones we once fondly hung, we may know that it rings amid the choir of seraphim; and but for our dull carnal hearts might reach us even now. And oft as we think of them, their thoughts may also be with us; oft as we speak of them they may know it, and the thought that we remember them give tranquil pulses to their joy; oft too as we assemble here, they are doubtless gathered with us in the presence of our common Lord; and, most of all, when we kneel before the altar, our hearts may tell us their delighted spirits hover near. And oh how earnestly and tenderly, now they can better sound the great deep of God's judgments:[1] with what tenderness and anxiety may they watch to see if their removal is working in us, that effect which they know our Father meant it should. What joy and gladness must be theirs, if, instead of grieving unduly, they see us thankful that, at least, their peace and salvation are secured beyond the reach of all accident or reverse, and endeavouring so to conduct ourselves as to assure our ultimate re-union with them.
But enough perhaps has been said, generally, of those who now live thus with Christ and shall hereafter, when He takes His great power and reigns,[2]
