his cave on barren Patmos, was brought in vision into the midst of these glories, and saw these principalities and powers there gathered, and dwelling in sweet fellowship.

"And behold," he says, 66 a throne was set in heaven, and one sat on the throne. And he that sat was to look upon like a jasper and a sardine stone and there was a rainbow round about the throne, in sight like unto an emerald. And round about the throne were four and twenty seats: and upon the seats were four and twenty elders sitting, clothed in white raiment." "And I beheld and I heard the voice of many angels round about the throne and the beasts and the elders and the number of them was ten thousand times ten thousand, and thousands of thousands, saying with a loud voice, Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power, and riches, and wisdom, and strength, and honor, and glory, and blessing."2

Imagery like this we can not misapprehend. This is the home life of heaven; the united worship, the mutual sympathy and affection, the social interlinking of all ranks of the celestial tenantry. This is society, unmistakably. The same idea is present in the parable which represents that the rich man saw Abraham afar off, and "Lazarus in his bosom"; and the same in our Saviour's words to the dying thief: "This day shalt thou be with me in paradise." Paul calls the converts at Thessalonica his joy and crown of rejoicing "in the presence of our Lord Jesus Christ at his coming"; as if he confidently expected to know them and to be associated with them in that great day. There was nothing in that expectation which can be foreign to the pious heart now. Religion appropriates to itself the social element within us, and sanctifies it; and in turn is itself cherished and strengthened by the tender intercourse of heart with heart. Thus constituted, we anticipate as a matter of course a social fellowship among the redeemed in heaven. If the people of God below associate for mutual edification and growth and joy, and are commanded so to do, it is not to be doubted that the people of God above will do the same. The Christian's aspirations for holiness point in the same direction. Helped on earth by the encouragement and example of his fellow disciples, he can but believe that a share in the friendship and employments

of the more perfect worshippers above will aid him still more. In leaving the companionship of the church on earth, he would not go forth into an eternal solitude, even of sunshine and heavenly content. He would go from strength to strength. He thinks of Christ and the prophets and the apostles and the martyrs as dwelling together a "general assembly and church of the first born"; and he wishes to be with them, and see them, and talk with them, and with them bow down and adore. After the training God gives his people on earth, it can surely be no part of his design to confer upon them a solitary heaven, a state of isolated blessedness. The idea repels even the most submissive heart; and happily comes from no suggestion of the word of God.

The idea of society necessitates the idea of place. There is but one Spirit which pervades all space. Spirits created are not omnipresent. They are as certainly limited in point of extension as they are finite in nature. Association then implies proximity; and proximity, locality. If spirits associate there must be a place for the theatre of their presence and intercourse. That place is abundantly designated in Scripture as about the throne of God. It is the place which he has chosen as the centre of his kingdom, and to which he has gathered a countless company of holy intelligences. It is the place to which our Redeemer ascended when he took his leave of earth. "So then after the Lord had spoken unto them, he was received up into heaven, and sat on the right hand of God." It is the place to which Elijah was borne by the chariot and horses of fire. It is the place of which Christ said to Peter: "Whither I go thou canst not follow me now, but thou shalt follow me afterward." It is the place to which Paul desired and expected to go, at death: "For I am in a strait betwixt two, having a desire to depart, and to be with Christ, which is far better." It is the place toward which all Christians look with the same hope: "Therefore we are always confident; knowing that whilst we are at home in the body, we are absent from the Lord..

4

We are confident, I say, and willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord." Can it be doubtful to any mind, that the Bible describes heaven without metaphor as a place?

It is equally certain that that " place" is now ready for the redeemed. Let us turn to the direct evidence that heaven, the same heaven which shall be the home of the saved after the resurrection and judgment, is already prepared. If the Scriptures define it as now in existence, now occupied by the heavenly hosts, and now waiting for the ransomed that are yet to come, the suggestions of science, that this planet is to be rejuvenated for their accommodation, are futile. "Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world." This is the happy sentence which our Saviour himself tells us will be pronounced upon the righteous. By the kingdom prepared for them, must be meant the honors, the employments, and the joys, which they were to share eternally in the presence of the King. They were to enter upon the magnificent heritage at once. It had been ready for them "from the foundation of the world." Can there be any mistaking of such an announcement as this?

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"Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ," said Peter to the Christians of Asia Minor, "which according to his abundant mercy, hath begotten us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for you." The "inheritance," which impels the glowing apostle to break out in such a rhapsody of praise, can be no other than the final inheritance of the saints, since it is imperishable in itself, and is still "reserved," not yet completely bestowed; and this he declares to be then in existence in heaven, and awaiting their possession.

"We give thanks to God," said Paul to the church at Colossæ,* .." for the hope which is laid up for you in heaven." "Hope" is evidently equivalent to the object of hope, that is, the Chris

tians' final blessedness with God, their inheritance of honor and joy in the divine presence; which Paul declared to be then waiting for them in heaven. Of himself Paul said: "Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness which the Lord, the righteous Judge, shall give me at that day; and not to me only, but unto all them also that love his appearing. "The advent of Christ to judge the world and reward the faithful, was the scene before the Apostle's mind; he thinks of the promised reward as a "crown," to be bestowed upon himself and upon all the followers of Jesus; he is confident the crowns are ready now, and only wait the day appointed for the grand coronation. We have seen what is meant by the " new heavens and the new earth" spoken of by Peter and John. And instead of regarding the New Jerusalem, which John saw descending from God out of heaven, as a foreshadowing of some terrestrial preparation for the final home of the saints, we are satisfied with the explanation of the angel, that it is "the bride, the Lamb's wife"; in other words, a scenic representation of the surpassing beauty and adornment of the glorified church.2

The Bible then plainly teaches that the place of final blessedness for the righteous is already in existence. Their inheritance is now in reserve. The crown, the robe, the palm, are now waiting the arrival of the pilgrim. Jesus is there, expecting us, gone beforehand to prepare a place for us in the many mansions of the Father, that where he is, there we may be also. Glorified saints will need no other place for an eternal home, than that which now exists. A heaven adapted to the spiritual bodies of Christ and Enoch and Elijah, will not come amiss to them.

We can not find it in our heart to imagine that God intends to refit this globe to take the place of the existing heaven. Still

12 Tim. iv. 8.

2 If what is said of the new heavens and the new earth (Rev. xxi. 1) is to be taken literally, it follows that what is said of the New Jerusalem (Rev. xxi. 2-10,) must be taken literally. The latter can not be, (Rev. xxi. 9, 10,) and therefore by every fair rule of interpretation, the former must not. Furthermore, a literal understanding of the expression "new heaven and new earth," involves by sequence the literal interpretation of the whole of the twenty first and twenty second chapters; and we are driven to the a surdity of believing that Jehovah will transfer his heavenly kingdom from its present position to this mere speck of creation! (See Rev. xxi. 3, and xxii. 3.

less can we discover such an idea in the Bible. What defect then in the scriptural conception of the future state, is it proposed to remedy, by this theory of a mundane heaven? Does scientific compulsion, or do the necessities of interpretation, constrain us to suppose that the happy spirits now thronging to the regions of eternal light, are there for only a transient stay, and will be finally remanded to this planetary sphere, to find the completion of their happiness here? Is this puny globule, alone out of all the systems, to be spread for the populous principalities of God's domain? Pray God a thousand such may not be able to contain them!

The Bible avers that this earth is to be destroyed. Whether, or when, or how, or why, to be rebuilded, it gives no hint. At the touch of Omnipotence, a "new earth" may spring likemagic from the ruins of the old-but who shall say? And if it should, to what end will the renovated planet be destined? We know not. The Bible utters no sign. We can only infer that whatever it may become, it will never be heaven. The Scriptures signify in manifold ways, that heaven is ready now. The city of our God is already builded, "not made with hands, eternal in the heavens." No earthly globe will be needed to increase its capacious amplitude, or to bear over the bosom of space, as a ship on the sea, the royal splendor of its thrones and the anthems of its echoing halls.

ARTICLE IV.

DR. BUSHNELL'S RECONSTRUCTED THEOLOGY.

The Vicarious Sacrifice, Grounded in Principles of Universal Obligation. By HORACE BUSHNELL.

552. New York: Charles Scribner & Co. 1866.

8vo. pp.

THE learned Andrew Fuller was once requested to write a series of monthly letters that would, when finished, form a complete system of divinity. Unfortunately for the church, he lived to write only nine. In the third letter he makes these suggestive remarks: