Now, in eternity this species of knowledge must exist in the very highest degree.  The human soul will be encircled by the character and attributes of God.  It cannot look in any direction without beholding it.  It is not so here.  Here, in this life, man may and does avert his eye, and refuse to look at the sheen and the splendor that pains his organ.  He fastens his glance upon the farm, or the merchandise, or the book, and perseveringly determines not to see the purity of God that rebukes him.  And here he can succeed.  He can and does live days and months without so much as a momentary glimpse of his Maker, and, as the apostle says, is “without God” in this world.  And yet such men do have, now and then, a view of the face of God.  It may be for an instant only.  It may be merely a thought, a gleam, a flash; and yet, like that quick flash of lightning, of which our Lord speaks, that lighteneth out of the one part of heaven, and shineth unto the other part, that cometh out of the East and shineth even unto the West,—­like that swift momentary flash which runs round the whole horizon in the twinkling of an eye, this swift thought and gleam of God’s purity fills the whole guilty soul full of light.  What spiritual distress seizes the man in such moments, and of what a penetrating perception of the Divine character is he possessed for an instant!  It is a distinct and an accurate knowledge, but, unlike the cognition of the future state, it is not yet an inevitable and unintermittent one.  He can expel it, and become again an ignorant and indifferent being, as he was before.  He knows but “in part” at the very best, and this only temporarily.

But carry this rational and accountable creature into eternity, denude him of the body of sense, and take him out of the busy and noisy world of sense into the silent world of spirits, and into the immediate presence of God, and then he will know upon this subject even as he is known.  That sight and perception of God’s purity which he had here for a brief instant, and which was so painful because he was not in sympathy with it, has now become everlasting.  That distinct and accurate knowledge of God’s character has now become his only knowledge.  That flash of lightning has become light,—­fixed, steady, permanent as the orb of day.  The rational spirit cannot for an instant rid itself of the idea of God.  Never for a moment, in the endless cycles, can it look away from its Maker; for in His presence what other object is there to look at?  Time itself, with its pursuits and its objects of thought and feeling, is no longer, for the angel hath sworn it by Him who liveth for ever and ever.  There is nothing left, then, to occupy and engross the attention but the character and attributes of God; and, now, the immortal mind, created for such a purpose, must yield itself up to that contemplation which in this life it dreaded and avoided.  The future state of every man is to be an open and unavoidable vision of God.  If he delights in the view, he will be blessed; if he loathes it, he will be miserable.  This is the substance of heaven and hell.  This is the key to the eternal destiny of every human soul.  If a man love God, he shall gaze at him and adore; if he hate God, he shall gaze at him and gnaw his tongue for pain.