that happiness, and enjoying that society; and nothing less than this, the reflection of David seems to imply.”

Such are the principal evidences, drawn from the words of the sacred writers, of the probability of recognizing our friends in a future state. But much presumptive evidence may also be deduced in corroboration of the former, from some facts recorded in holy writ, which seem, as it were, to afford us a glimpse of the world beyond the grave: I mean the supernatural return of departed spirits, who, for wise and important purposes, have been permitted to revisit the earth, and have been recognized by those to whom they were known before their deaths.

The first of these appearances was that of Samuel to Saul." The prophet having been long dead, and God refusing to vouchsafe any communication, either by vision or prophecy, to Saul, he resolved to have recourse to witchcraft, in order to learn the issue of his conflict with the Philistines. He accordingly applied to a woman, supposed to have

91 Sam. xxviii. 3, et seq.

dealings with the powers of darkness, to raise up for him the spirit of Samuel. The intention of the woman probably was, to delude him by some vain phantasm, trusting to the effects of credulity and terror, to make her employer believe that it was really the apparition of the person whom he desired to behold. But God caused the result to be contrary to her expectation, and sent the real spirit of the prophet to denounce the sentence of death against the disobedient monarch and his sons. Now here the disembodied spirit must have been made to assume the resemblance of its mortal frame, and as such was recognized both by Saul and the

sorceress.

Again, at the time of the crucifixion of our Saviour," the graves were opened, and many bodies of the saints arose, and came out of the graves after his resurrection, and went into the holy city, and appeared unto many.' Here it is said that the bodies of the saints arose. Were these, then, their glorified or their corruptible bodies? The

Matt. xxvii. 52, 53.

former would seem the most probable, the latter having long since mouldered into dust; and it can scarcely be supposed that their scattered particles would have been restored for so brief a space, only to be turned again to corruption. It is clear, too, that they

must have been recognized by those to whom they appeared, or what end could have been answered by their appearance? And if the filmy eyes of mortals, which see now but through a glass darkly, were permitted to behold and recognize the departed saints who were thus sent to revisit them, is it not much more probable, that when our knowledge is made perfect, we shall also recognize those with whom we have been acquainted in this world?

Of a similar nature to the foregoing facts, was the transfiguration of our Lord. In this case, Jesus himself; as well as Moses and Elijah, certainly appeared in their glorified bodies. And there is something very remarkable respecting the appearance of these two persons on this occasion. Elijah never died; therefore his body could not have

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known corruption, but must have been changed at the moment of his translation into heaven: the disposal of that of Moses is involved in mystery; that he died, we are certainly informed; for he "died there in the land of Moab, according to the word of the Lord. And he buried him in a valley of the land of Moab, over against Beth-peor : but no man knoweth of his sepulchre unto this day." Now all these three persons were recognized by the apostles who witnessed the event; Jesus, from personal knowledge; Moses and Elijah, necessarily, by inspiration but it is clear that the glorified bodies, as well of our Saviour as of the two persons who afforded the most remarkable types of him in the Old Testament, were capable of being recognized at this time and why not hereafter also?

Having thus concluded the evidences, both direct and indirect, which reason as well as revelation afford for the belief of this doctrine, I shall now, Christian brethren, conclude with making a few practical reflec2 Deut. xxxiv. 5, 6.

tions upon the improvement we may derive from it.

It is evident how much our present happiness must be affected by the joyful expectation of meeting our friends hereafter in a state of eternal existence, freed from weakness and error, from infirmity and pain; and by the glorious hope of being introduced. to that vast assemblage of holy persons, whose characters we have studied with admiration, and longed to imitate. One of the greatest comforts amidst the evils of this present life, is derived from the pleasures of kindred, of friendship, and, above all, of connubial love but these joys are liable to interruption; and certain, in the course of time, to be terminated by death. Is not, then,

the hope of their renewal in a better world a means of lessening the bitterness of the grief which we feel at their loss? While, indeed, we dwell upon this blessed expectation, our griefs must vanish as the summer cloud, which shades the brightness of the sunbeams for a moment, but is dissipated by the sweet