THE CHRISTIAN NATURALIST. 19 



" As one star differeth from another star in glory, so 

 is the resurrection of the dead." This is St. Paul's 

 inference from the scene now before us : and a high 

 consolation it is if we have a well grounded hope, 

 that we shall shine even as a star of the fifth or sixth 

 magnitude in the kingdom of our Father ! Our blessed 

 Lord dignifies this subject, and gives it the highest 

 practical bearing, when he observes, tliat at the day of 

 his second coming, '' The righteous shall shine as the 

 sun in the kingdom of their Father." And the 

 prophet Daniel, referring to the same momentous period, 

 declares, " That they who are wise shall shine as the 

 brightness of the firmament; and they that turn many 

 to righteousness as the stars for ever and ever," xii. 3. 

 Wisdom for ourselves and others ; a zeal that leads us 

 to promote the glory of God and the good of our fellow 

 mortals ; as well as a moral and spiritual fitness for 

 heaven ; these seem to be qualities essential to the 

 lowest degree of heavenly exaltation. Without these 

 even the soul of a Newton, would but grovel in the 

 dust, though it might be able to reach the loftiest 

 flight of geometrical knowledge, and to measure and 

 weigh the shining orbs above us. Religion, after all 

 that may be said, is the sublimest science, and science 



