r being has the same capacity
to afford us joy, or that the flood can pour itself into the soul with
the same fulness through each of these channels, as if, for instance,
we depended in the same degree for enjoyment upon our sentient as we
do upon our intellectual or moral nature. All I mean to assert is,
that whatever proportion may come through each, God has so made us,
that perfect joy is derived only through all. Such is man's actual
constitution as he came from the hands of his Maker; and such would
have been his happiness had he remained unfallen. Placed, as Adam was,
in a material world so rich in sources of physical happiness, with
an intellect capable of unlocking the countless treasures of
science,--with a nature pure and spotless, delighting in the excellent
God,--with society begun with woman as a helpmeet for him, and
with the active labour required "to dress and keep" his earthly
paradise,--he possessed, in such perfect adaptations, a heaven upon
earth. And had perfect man been translated to another region, we
cannot conceive his joy thereby to become essentially different in
kind, though different in degree, supposing him to remain the same
being, and to possess the same human nature. Now, man's fall has not
altered this principle. Sin is a perversion of human nature, not its
annihilation; a disorder of its powers, not their destruction. Nor is
restoration by Jesus Christ the gift of a different constitution, as
if He made us something else than human beings, but the renovation of
the old constitution after its original type. It is making the "old
man," diseased, bent down, paralysed, deaf, blind, the "new man," with
frame erect, limbs strong, eyes and ears open, and all his powers
fresh and vigorous for immortality; and, therefore, that which would
constitute the happiness of man were he perfect on earth, will be
his happiness, though in a higher degree, when he is made perfect in
heaven. This supposition, I repeat, only assumes the fact that we
shall be the same persons for ever; that human nature will never
cease to be human nature, or be changed into a different species of
existence, no more than Jesus Christ, the Head of His Church, will
ever cease to be what He is--"_the man_ Christ Jesus," with a human
body and a human soul, "the same yesterday, to-day, and for ever."

There is another way in which I might describe the nature of our
future life, although I shall base my remarks on the principles no