This cannot be! Such a heaven has not been prepared for man. Arguing
from analogy, the presumption is that those mental and moral habits
which have been acquired with so much difficulty, and at so much
expense in this present world, will not be cast away as useless in the
next, but find there such scope for their exercise as cannot possibly
be afforded to them within their present limited sphere of action. But
this presumption is immensely strengthened by what we know of the life
of the angels, to which I have more than once alluded, as it bears so
much upon the several topics discussed by us. These angels "excel in
strength;" and they "do His commandments, and hearken to the voice of
His word." As "ministers of His," they "do His pleasure." They are
represented to us as ever actively employed as messengers of peace or
of woe. They have destroyed armies and cities; delivered captives;
comforted the disconsolate; and are represented as the future reapers
of the earth's harvest. All this proves, at least, that the sinless
perfection and happiness of heaven are not inconsistent with a life
of busy labour; and that though God can dispense with the services of
either men or angels, yet, as they cannot be happy without rendering
such services to Him, He, in accordance with His untiring, ungrudging
benevolence, satisfies this desire of their nature as created by
Himself. Let it be remembered also, that men have acquired a wider
experience than even angels, by reason of that very sin which might be
supposed to render them less fit for the exalted services of heaven.
For the very storms and vicissitudes of earth have given a form and a
strength to those "trees of righteousness, the planting of the Lord,"
that could not have been acquired amidst the sunny skies and balmy air
of the heavenly paradise. The saints of God have learned lessons here
of patience, endurance, self-denial, and faith, that could not have
been learned there. Like old soldiers, they have been trained by long
campaigns and terrible combats with the enemy. On earth and not in