uty, and
glory, and causing it to thrill with inexpressible pleasure. The
Beatific Vision, which was the essential happiness of the soul before
the resurrection, is now the essential happiness of man.

In our meditations on the life of Christ, we make ourselves present
to the mysteries we are contemplating. We do not look upon them as
past, but as actually taking place under our eyes. Thus we see Jesus
lying in a manger; we see Him flying into Egypt, disputing with the
doctors in the temple; we see Him laboring, preaching, and dying upon
the cross. We shall endeavor to do the same in our meditations on the
life of the blessed.

Let us, then, transport ourselves in spirit to that great day, which
St. John saw, when a mighty angel, coming down from heaven, stood
upon the land and sea, and, lifting up his hand on high, swore by Him
who liveth forever and ever, that "time should be no more." Then,
says St. John, "I saw the dead, great and small, standing in the
presence of the throne, and the books were opened, and the dead were
judged by those things which were written in the books.... And I
heard a great voice from the throne, saying: Behold the tabernacle of
God with men, and He will dwell with them, and they shall be His
people; and God himself shall be their God. And He that sat upon the
throne said: Behold I make all things new."*

* Apoc. xx.

Here is a new order of things, in a new world--a world of beauty and
perfection inconceivably greater than the one wherein we now live.
This is the world in which we are to live the life of the blessed. In
this chapter, we shall examine five of its most prominent attributes.

1. First, it is a life of peace. When Jesus was born, the angels
sang: "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth, peace to men of
good will." And when He arose from the dead, his first words to the
Apostles were: "Peace be to you." But, though the peace He wished and
gave was great; it was not, and, in the existing order of things,
could not be perfect. For they still had to battle against the world,
the devil, and the flesh. But in heaven that peace is perfect,
because it flows immediately from the bosom of God himself. Besides,
none of those things which in this world disturb our peace, can ever
enter the kingdom of peace.

We now have perfect peace with God, of whose love for us we no longer
doubt, as we may have often done when on earth. We also have peace
with ourselves; for those unruly pass