of the Revelation. But first I
would ask you to consider what, according to the Bible, is the chief
feature in the conception of the happiness and glory of Heaven, what is
its essential nature. Is it not this, that being the dwelling place of
GOD Himself, the glory and happiness of Heaven will consist in the
Presence itself of GOD, and therefore in the vision of GOD? As a great
writer has said, "It must be remarked by everybody that the glory of the
future state is always put before us not as an inner consciousness or
mental communion simply, not as an absorption into ourselves within, but
as a great spectacle without us, the spectacle of a great visible
manifestation of GOD. It is a sight, a picture, a representation, that
constitutes the heavenly state, not mere thought and contemplation. The
glorified saint of Scripture is especially a beholder; he gazes, he
looks, he fixes his eyes upon something before him; he does not merely
ruminate within, but his whole mind is carried out towards and upon a
great representation. And thus Heaven specially appears in Scripture as
the sphere of perfected sight, where the faculty is raised and exalted to
its highest act, and the happiness of existence culminates in vision."
{23} If this be so, all the most entrancing spectacles and scenes of
earth shall appear dim and coarse and uncouth in comparison with the
sight on which the ravished gaze of eternity shall be fastened. For then
shall our eyes see "The King in His Beauty." {24a} They shall see GOD,
see Him face to face,--GOD! No higher conception of happiness is set
before the heart of man, which ever craves for heaven and for perfection,
than GOD Himself, the sight of GOD, the Presence of GOD, the Knowledge of
GOD. "In Thy Presence is the fulness of joy." {24b} But we must not
lose sight of the effect which this vision of GOD produces upon those who
gaze. To see Him is to become like Him. "Then," says S. John, "we shall
be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is." {24c} "We all," says S.
Paul, "with open face, beholding, as in a glass, the glory of the Lord,
are changed into the same image from glory to glory." This is what
seeing GOD will do.

When, then, shall this vision be granted? At death to any? No! but only
at the Second Coming of Christ. All the great writers of the Epistles
speak, as with one voice, of this. What says S. Peter? "When the chief
Shepherd _shall appear_, ye shall receive the crown of