III.

OUR DEVOTIONAL LIFE.


Our joy in heaven will, above all, be derived from the perfection of
our moral being. We shall be "without fault before the throne of God."
"He shall present us to Himself without spot, or blemish, or wrinkle,
or any such thing."

Truly and beautifully has Sir Thomas Browne said,--"There is no
felicity in what the world adores: that wherein God himself is
happy, the holy angels are happy, and in whose defect the devils are
unhappy--that dare I call happiness; whatsoever else the world terms
happiness, is to me an apparition or neat delusion, wherein there is
no more of happiness than the name." Following out this thought, let
us reverently inquire in what chiefly consists the joy of God, or what
especially constitutes His glory. Now, He is glorious in that creative
mind by which things are made so wisely with reference to the end
which each has to serve; and made so beautiful and grand in their
sculptured forms and harmonious colours. He surveys all His works, and
rejoices in them as "very good." He is glorious also in that miracle
of a wondrous providence by which without a miracle the wants of
all the endless worlds of His creatures are supplied; and by which
responsible persons also are created and trained to glorify and enjoy
Himself for ever. But while perfection beams in every feature of the
Divine mind, His glory, His joy, is in His _character_. Not His power,
but the character which wields the power; not His wisdom, but that
which His character accomplishes by it; not His majestic sovereignty,
but that majestic character which stamps His reign as one of right and