404 LIFE AXD CORRESPONDENCE OF THE [l793 



are filled with the knowledge of great and wonderful things, each of 

 them happy in himself and rejoicing in the happiness of each other. 



If, therefore, love and friendship complete; if rest and peace undis- 

 turbed ; if treasure and riches which cannot decay; if power and do- 

 minio-n secure from every foe — if these can constitute a happy society, 

 with the everlasting God, and Jesus the Mediator of the new covenant, 

 and the blessed Spirit of grace ruling at the head of all, and supplying 

 and diffusing new irradiations of love and goodness, and perfection 

 without measure, to all eternity — if this be happiness. But I am lost in 

 the contemplation and description of its immensity — in the joy to be 

 derived from the vision of God, the displays of his love, the fellowship 

 of spirits so highly exalted, the raptures of converse and union, with 

 intelligences so perfect and enlarged, so full of all that is great and good 

 and heavenly, having the whole works of God, and all the ways and 

 wonders of his Providence, which we now so little understand, as the 

 everlasting objects of their investigation and praise. 



"The works of the Lord are great, sought out of all them that have 

 pleasure therein. How manifold are his works — in v.-isdom hath he 

 made them all." "This is the language of good men, even in this 

 world." But how s-mall a portion of his ways and works do we now 

 understand ! In the blessed world above it will not be so. Here, in- 

 deed, we may examine a little corner of this little speck of earth ; we 

 may strive hardly to analyze a plant, a flower, an animated substance, 

 and think to explain the laws of vegetable and animal motion. We may 

 assist our dim sight to view some planets and stars, which we call distant 

 and that traverse a small portion of universal space; but all that fills the 

 immeasurable tracts beyond lies hid from our keenest search. 



Yet, still, if that little, which is subjected to our limited view, appears 

 so great, so beautiful, and wonderfully grand and harmonious to an in- 

 quisitive mind, with what rapture shall we be filled when, with faculties 

 more enlarged, we shall be enabled to survey all the works of God, to 

 have for our instructors and associates the angels that have surrounded 

 his throne from the morning of the creation ; to teach us on what the 

 foundations of the earth were laid ; from whence are the springs of the 

 sea, and the treasures of snow and hail ; what kindles the lightning's 

 blaze, and gives the thunder its loud and solemn voice; to count all the 

 stars and all the suns and planets that fill infinite space ; to understand 

 the laws by which they are balanced and suspended and guided in their 

 unerring revolutions ; and, when understanding this, to sing with those 

 morning angels of joy, as they did at the first creation, as we behold 

 world after world filled with hap])iness ; to take the harp, in company 

 with those that have overcome, and join in the song of Moses, the ser- 

 vant of God, and song of the Lamb — "Great and marvellous are thy 

 works. Lord God Almighty ! Just and truj are thy ways, thou King of 

 kings." 



