affection in adoring love and gratitude; and the Lord Himself, from the inmost of that adoring soul where He has fixed a throne on which He sits, looks down approvingly upon the efforts of His child. He is the wise son, and shines as the brightness of the firmament.
Nor are those who turn many to righteousness lost in the effulgence of this glorious brightness; no, they perform their allotted uses, and shall shine as the stars for ever. Love, faith, and knowledge, though in a lower degree than in those who shine as the firmament, animate their hearts and understandings. For the stars are all suns, their remote distances alone causing them to appear so small, and to twinkle with such diminished lustre. They are lost in the effulgence of the glorious sun of our system, and cheer the obscurity of our atmosphere, when the sun of our world has withdrawn its light. So those who are to shine as the stars, represent such as labour in the remotest part of the field of the great Householder. They who possess a knowledge of the holy truths of God's word, in however limited a degree, who instruct others in the duty of repentance, and thus turn them from folly to righteousness, or right-wise-ness—these shall shine as the stars for ever, because all their instructions tend to edification, and to the ultimate elevation of the soul to heaven. Their own knowledge will increase, will become more and more luminous. Their own hemisphere will be studded with purer gems of faith, with more fervent fires of charity, with more settled serenity of obedience. Yes, the prophecy is of universal application: "They that be wise shall shine as the brightness of the firmament, and they that turn many to righteousness as the stars for ever and ever."
