And who can tell what sources of refined enjoyment, through the medium
of the spiritual body, are in store for us in God's great palace of
art, with its endless mansions and endless displays of glory! Well may
we say of such anticipated pleasures what good Izaak Walton says of
the singing of birds: "Lord, if Thou hast provided such music for
sinners on earth, what hast Thou in store for Thy saints in heaven!"
For if this little spot of earth is full of scenes of loveliness to us
inexhaustible; if, contemplating these in a body buoyant with health
and strength, we feel it is joy even to live and breathe; and if when,
seeing God in them all, the expression of praise rises to the lips,
"Lord, how manifold are thy works! in wisdom hast Thou made them all:
the earth is full of Thy riches!"--oh, what visions of glory may be
spread before the wondering eye throughout the vast extent of the
material universe, comprehending those immense worlds which twinkle
only in the field of the largest telescope, and vanish into the far
distance in endless succession; and what sounds may greet the ear from
the as yet unheard music of those spheres; while, for aught we know,
other means of communication may be opened up to us, with objects
ministering delight to new tastes; and sources of sentient enjoyment
discovered which do not exist here, or elude the perception of our
present senses. Add to all this our deliverance from those physical
evils and defects which are now the causes of so much pain, and
clog so terribly the aspiring soul. For how affected are we by the
slightest disorganisation of our bodily frame! A disturbance in some
of the finer parts of its machinery, which no science can discover or
rectify; a delicate fibre shadowed by a cloud passing over the sun; or
a nerve chilled by a lowering of the temperature of the atmosphere,
will tell on the most genial temper, relax the strongest intellect,
and dim the brightest imagination; while other physical causes, quite