heaven are Marthas and Maries with whom we can weep; and prodigals
whom we can receive back; and saints in sickness, in prison, or in
nakedness, whom we can visit, soothe, and clothe. And therefore is
earth a noble school by reason of its very sins and sorrows. It is
asked, indeed, in triumph, What employments can there be in heaven
for saints? This question I cannot answer. The _how_ employed, and
_where_, must be as yet mere conjecture. But who will be so bold as
to deny, that in the new heavens and in the new earth, there may be
employment for even those powers--such as inventive genius--which
might seem to be necessarily confined to this our temporary scene? If
we are through a bodily organisation to be for ever united to matter,
why may not science and art be called into exercise then as well as
now, in order to make it minister to our wants or desires? And even
as regards the noble creations of artistic genius, why should the
supposition be deemed as unworthy of the most exalted and spiritual
views of heaven, that man may for ever be a fellow-worker with the
Divine Artist who fills the universe with His own endless creations
of beauty and magnificence? And can it be that our moral habits and
Christian graces shall never be called into exercise in works and
labours of love among orders of beings of whom as yet we know nothing?
Countless worlds may be teeming with immense populations, and who
knows but such worlds may be continually added to the great family
of God. And if throughout the endless ages of eternity, or in any
province of God's boundless empire, there should ever be found
some responsible beings who are tempted to depart from God by the
machinations of wicked men or evil spirits,--permitted, then, it may
be, as well as now, to use all their powers in the service of sin and
against the kingdom of God,--and who being thus tempted shall require
warning or support to retain them in their allegiance;--or if there
be found others who are struggling in an existence, which, however