nd betrayed them into deeds and words so very different
from what is seen in them at present, that did their friends know of
them what they themselves know, they would not think them the same
persons, and would be quite overpowered with astonishment. We never
can guess what a man is by nature, by seeing what self-discipline has
made him. Yet if we do become thereby changed and prepared for heaven,
it is no praise or merit to us. It is God's doing--glory be to Him,
who has wrought so wonderfully with us! Yet in this life, even to the
end, there will be enough evil in us to humble us; even to the end, the
holiest men have remains and stains of sin which they would fain get
rid of, if they could, and which keep this life from being to them, for
all God's grace, a heaven upon earth. No, the Christian life is but a
shadow of heaven. Its festal and holy days are but shadows of
eternity. But hereafter it will be otherwise. In heaven, sin will be
utterly destroyed in every elect soul. We shall have no earthly
wishes, no tendencies to disobedience or irreligion, no love of the
world or the flesh, to draw us off from supreme devotion to God. We
shall have our Saviour's holiness fulfilled in us, and be able to love
God without drawback or infirmity.

That indeed will be a full reward of all our longings here, to praise
and serve God eternally with a single and perfect heart in the midst of
His Temple. What a time will that be, when all will be perfected in us
which at present is but feebly begun! Then we shall see how the Angels
worship God. We shall see the calmness, the intenseness, the purity,
of their worship. We shall see that awful sight, the Throne of God,
and the Seraphim before and around it, crying, "Holy!" We attempt now
to imitate in church what there is performed, as in the beginning, and
ever shall be. In the Te Deum, day by day we say, "Holy, Holy, Holy,
Lord God of Sabaoth." In the Creed, we recount God's mercies to us
sinners. And we say and sing Psalms and Hymns, to come as near heaven
as we can. May these attempts of ours be blest by Almighty God, to
prepare us for Him! may they be, not dead forms, but living services,
living with life from God the Holy Ghost, in those who are dead to sin
and who live with Christ! I dare say some of you have heard persons,
who dissent from the Church, say (at any rate, they do say), that our
Prayers and Services, and Holy days, are only forms, dead forms, whic