A Goodly Heritage

Heaven is not to be a blank existence. Even on earth there is a blessing in the law of labor—a blessing wrapped up in the very curse, "In the sweat of your brow you shall eat bread." The most wretched of lives is a life of compelled idleness. The most joyous is a life of active usefulness—the apostolic combination of diligence in business with fervency in spirit. And the same law will hold good in Heaven. It will be no dreamy, sentimental, Mohammedan Paradise. The Redeemed will be engaged serving God in active ministries of holy love. "They rest," and yet "they rest not." They rest in the perfect peace of God, the realized possession of His favor. But they rest not, in the labor of a faithful service.Their highest happiness is in doing His pleasure. They "serve Him day and night in His temple."J R Macduff

"God setteth the solitary in families." - Psalm Ixviii. 6 v. There are some lives to whom the nuptial torch is denied. They form no family ties, and, as the ties into which they were born are dissolved, one fears that they will be alone. They need not be. "God setteth the solitary in families." Religion supplies the place of marriage. Often have I thought of these words of the Master, "Whosoever shall do the will of My Father, which is in heaven, the same is My brother, and sister, and mother." The soul surrendered to God is brother, sister, mother, to the race of Man. Who, think you, of merely human birth, had the widest heart for earthly ties? Was it not the solitary man of Tarsus? Who speaks of the family like Aim? Who legislates for the household like him? Who feels for the bereaved like him? And why? Because they who are united to Christ are wedded also to humanity. They have the ring and the robe. They have the bridal garment. They have the marriage

Because thou hast made the Lord, which is my refuge, even the Most High, thy habitation; 10. There shall no evil befall thee, neither shall any plague come nigh thy dwelling. The sentiment in these verses is evidently the same with that in verses $, 6. namely, that God preserves such as trust in him, after the pattern of the holy Jesus, from those evils, and from that perdition, which are reserved for the ungodly. Dr. Duracell translates the 9th verse, in the way of apostrophe, literally thus: "Surely, thou, O Lord, art my refuge; O Most High, thou hast fixed thine habitation;" i. e. in S ion, to be the protector of his servant. George Horne