3 o THE OLIVE LEAF. CHAP. 



citizenship is even now in heaven ; we are come even 

 here to Mount Zion, the city of the living God. Of one 

 Lord the whole family, the one family, in heaven and 

 earth is named. Living and dead believers make but 

 one communion, constitute the body of Christ, the ful- 

 ness of Him that filleth all in all. We are under the 

 narrow, sensible horizon of time ; they are under the 

 great rational horizon of eternity, which comprehends 

 ours as the great sky comprehends the tent that is 

 erected beneath it. We have here on earth, in the 

 beauties of nature, and in the joys of life, types and 

 shadows of brighter substances and more satisfying joys 

 in heaven. We have golden taches and foretastes and 

 antepasts of 'the things unseen and eternal, connecting 

 this life with the next. The glories of the inmost shrine 

 are embroidered upon the veil that falls between us and 

 the full realization. In our more immediate approaches 

 to the God who fills both worlds with His presence, we 

 stand on the same ground with the redeemed in glory ; 

 we feel that this is none other than the house of God 

 and the gate of heaven. If we worship God in spirit 

 and in truth, the substance of that worship, whether in 

 the body or out of the body, is the same. In purely 

 spiritual exercises the wall of partition is thrown down, 

 and heaven and earth are one. And while we believe 

 and continue in the communion of saints, and partake 

 of the same celestial food, we are not altogether parted 

 from them. Between the spirits of just men made per- 

 fect and believers remaining on the earth there is a 

 unity far more intimate than we commonly suppose. 



