hosts of
glorious orbs into being is abundantly able to multiply, to an equally
incalculable number, the humble sands which line the oceans of
terrestrial grace, the brilliant stars which shall yet adorn the heavens
of celestial glory. All, of every nation, who shall partake of Abraham's
faith, are Abraham's children. They are Christ's, and so Abraham's seed,
and heirs, according to this promise.[318] When the great multitude,
which no man can number, out of every nation, and tongue, and people,
stand before the throne of God, and cause the many mansions of our
Father's house to re-echo the shout, "Salvation to our God which sitteth
on the throne, and to the Lamb," the answering hallelujahs of the most
distant orbs shall expound the purport of that solemn oath to Abraham
and Abraham's seed: "By myself have I sworn, saith the Lord, for because
thou hast done this thing, and hast not withheld thy son, thine only
son, that in blessing I will bless thee, and _in multiplying I will
multiply thy seed as the stars of heaven, and as the sand which is upon
the seashore_."[319]

5. It is not probable that the mysteries of the distant heavens, _or of
those future glories of the redeemed which the Bible employs them to
symbolize_, will ever be fully explored by man, or adequately
apprehended in the present state of being. But it is most certain that
God would not have employed the mysteries of astronomy so frequently as
the symbols of the mysteries of the glory to be revealed, had there not
been some correspondence between the things which eye hath not seen, and
these patterns shown in the mount. So habitual, indeed, is the Scripture
use of these visible heavens as the types of all that is exalted, pure,
cheering, and glorious, that, to most Christians, the word has lost its
primary meaning, and the idea first suggested to their minds by the word
_heaven_ is that of future glory; yet their views of the locality and
physical adornments of the many mansions of their Father's house are dim
and shadowy, just because they do not acquaint themselves sufficiently
with the divine descriptions in the Bible, and the divine illustrations
in the sky. The Bible would be better understood were the heavens
better explored. "I go," said Jesus, "to prepare a _place_ for you." The
bodies of the saints, raised on the resurrection morn, will need a
_place_ on which to stand. The body of the Lord, which his disciples
handled, and "saw that a spirit ha