Perhaps we now think of the last day with dread, as a day of consternation.  It is not always that we can think of the heavens on fire, the earth dissolved, the dead arising, and the judgment proceeding, without some feeling of dismay.  But in heaven, we shall long have anticipated that day as the day of our complete triumph.  The grave will, till that time, have imprisoned one part of our nature.  The curse of the law will not have passed away entirely, and in every respect, till all which belongs to us is redeemed from every natural, as well as moral, consequence of sin.  It will be an expectation of unmingled joy to see this accomplished.  The approach of the day will fill us with more pleasure than the arrival of any other wished-for moment.  We shall come with Christ to judgment.  “Them that sleep in Jesus will God bring with him.”  We shall have a part in the glory of Christ, and be associated with him; for, “Do ye not know that the saints shall judge the world?” “Know ye not that we shall judge angels?” What curious interest there will be to receive back from the dust of the earth the dishonored, corrupted, mouldered, wasted, perished body.  In the Saviour, even, we shall not have seen all the wonders of the resurrection from the dead; for, “He whom God raised saw no corruption;” but we shall be raised from corruption.  To be clothed upon with that house which is from heaven, to be a completed, perfected human being, will be, up to that time, the greatest possible manifestation to us of divine wisdom and power.

The new body will bring with it sources of enjoyment which will be a vast addition to the previous happiness of heaven.  There will be perfect satisfaction in every one with his own body—­no consciousness of defects, of deformity, of weakness.  Comparisons of ourselves with others will not excite dissatisfaction and envy; every one will be perfect of his kind, and will differ in some things from every other, and will be an object of love and admiration with all.  We are astonished here with the intellectual, oratorical, vocal powers of others, with their knowledge, their talent, their skill; but there we shall no doubt be filled also with astonishment at our own powers and acquisitions, and thus we shall be more capable of appreciating and enjoying the endowments of others.  God is pleased to raise up one and another, from time to time, with great powers to charm their fellow-creatures; and thus he would lure us on to heaven, teaching us how much we can enjoy, and how much we shall lose if we are not saved.  Those who are deprived of very many intellectual and social pleasures here, which they could appreciate as well as their more favored friends, will soon have it made up to them.  By the likeness of their glorified nature to the human nature of Christ, they are to be intimately associated with him forever.  This, of itself, is an assurance and pledge, that their heavenly happiness will not be measured by their relative inferiority to their