t was doing behind it,
yet such beams of brightness now and then darted through the cloud,
as enabled those who used a telescope, provided for that purpose,
to see the _substance of things hoped for_; but it was not every
one who could make use of this telescope; no eye indeed was
_naturally_ disposed to it; but an earnest desire of getting a
glimpse of the invisible realities, gave such a strength and
steadiness to the eye which used the telescope, as enabled it to
discern many things which could not be seen by the natural sight.
Above the cloud was this inscription: "_The things which are seen
are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal._" Of
these last things many glorious descriptions had been given; but as
those splendors were at a distance, and as the pilgrims in general
did not care to use the telescope, these distant glories made little
impression.

The glorious inheritance which lay beyond the cloud, was called
"_The things above_," while a multitude of trifling objects, which
appeared contemptibly small when looked at through the telescope,
were called "_the things below_." Now as we know it is nearness
which gives size and bulk to any object, it was not wonderful that
these ill-judging pilgrims were more struck with these baubles and
trifles, which by laying close at hand, were visible and tempting to
the naked eye, and which made up the sum of _the things below_, than
with the remote glories of _the things above_; but this was chiefly
owing to their not making use of the telescope, through which, if
you examined thoroughly _the things below_, they seemed to shrink
almost down to nothing, which was indeed their real size: while _the
things above_ appeared the more beautiful and vast, the more the
telescope was used. But the surprising part of the story was this;
not that the pilgrims were captivated at first sight with _the
things below_, for that was natural enough; but that when they had
tried them all over and over, and found themselves deceived and
disappointed in almost every one of them, it did not at all lessen
their fondness, and they grasped at them again with, the same
eagerness as before. There were some gay fruits which looked
alluring, but on being opened, instead of a kernel, they were found
to contain rottenness; and those which seemed the fullest, often
proved on trial to be quite hollow and empty. Those which were the
most tempting to the eye, were often found to be wormwood