st be grand, glorious, and magnificent
beyond the power of words to express.

This illustrates the meaning of St. Paul when he says that we now see
God by means of a mirror. All creatures, the sun, the moon, and the
stars, the vast expanse of the ocean, the earth, trees, flowers,
animals, and man especially, are a grand mirror in which the
perfections of God are reflected in a dark and imperfect manner. We
see, in them all, faint reflections of His divine beauty, wisdom,
goodness, power, and of His other perfections; but himself as He is,
we cannot see. Therefore, all the knowledge of God which we can
derive from the contemplation of creatures, adding even all that he
has been phased to reveal of himself, far from satisfying, rather
increases the thirst of the soul for more. They who know most of God
are the saints, and they are the very ones who can say, with the
royal prophet: "As the hart panteth after the fountains of water, so
my soul panteth after Thee, O God. My soul hath thirsted after the
strong, living God; when shall I come and appear before the face of
God?"* This is the continual sigh and cry of the saints, because the
knowledge which they have of God in creatures, and even in their
visions, does not satisfy their longings. But listen to St. Paul: "We
now see through a glass in a dark manner; but then face to face: now
I know in part; but then I shall know even as I am known."+

* Ps. xli. 2. + 1 Cor. xiii. 12.

How consoling are these words of inspiration! Yes, in heaven, we
shall see God as He is, face to face. We shall see Him in all his
adorable perfections by a clear and unclouded perception of his
divine essence. We shall gaze with unspeakable delight and rapture
upon that beauty, ever ancient and ever new. We shall drink in all
knowledge at its living source--unmingled with error or doubt. All
the darkness and ignorance caused by sin will forever vanish in the
light of God's countenance, as the darkness of night disappears
before the rising sun.

We shall then see, as it is, the august and awful mystery of
the most Holy Trinity--the deepest, the sublimest, and the most
incomprehensible of all those that God ever revealed to man. We shall
then see the eternal Father, ever begetting His only Son, and the
Holy Ghost ever proceeding from both Father and Son. We shall then
see how they are really three distinct Persons, and yet one undivided
Essence. We shall see, face to face, and as he is, this gre