Shall we recognize each other in the Heavenly World?-a question often anxiously asked. Nothing on earth is so dear to us as the ties of friendship and kindred; and we cannot reconcile ourselves to the thought that we shall not recognize and feel the influence of these ties in heaven. It, certainly, is not unlawful to reason about this question in any way that shall not bring us into conflict with the Holy Scriptures. Let us then indulge ourselves a little in some unpresumptuous thoughts. God will not judge us severely for yielding to that kindly nature which He himself has given us.

If we do not recognize each other in the heavenly world, it must arise from the following

causes :

We must inhabit separate regions, so that our intercourse shall cease; or, our forms must be so changed that we shall retain no resemblance of what we were on earth; or, if not so changed, we must lose our recollection of them; and in either of these two cases we must either lose the knowledge of our own identity, or not be permitted, or not feel a sufficient interest in the past, to introduce ourselves to each other by our earthly names and relations; nay, we must not recur to earthly histories or experiences at all, for we cannot conceive of this being done without involving personal recognitions: in fine, we must either lose all recollection of our earthly state, or the new relations into which we are introduced in the heavenly world, must so absorb us that we shall feel no interest in recurring to the past.

Now, does all or any part of this appear scriptural or reasonable !

First, shall we be separated from each other, by inhabiting different regions? The Scriptures give no intimation of any such thing. On the contrary, the redeemed are represented as constituting a glorious assembly present with the Lord. Heaven is a glorious Mount Sion, the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, inhabited by an innumerable company of angels, and the general assembly of the Church of the first-born which are written in heaven-the spirits of the just made perfect. When the Lord shall come, he will bring with him those that slept in Jesus, and those which are alive shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air; and so shall we ever be with the Lord. Indeed the whole current of Scripture goes to show the union, and not the separation of the saints. Heaven is the organized, social and happy community of the redeemed. But, it may be asked, may not this united community dwell in different planets or worlds, forming a heavenly system? We can neither affirm nor deny this. If it be so, it would be natural, and not unreasonable, to expect that the inhabitants of any particular world will consist of those who are bound together by the most intimate ties. Now, among these ties we cannot but believe that those which were formed during our earthly probation in being helpers of each other's faith, in bearing one another's burdens, in exerting over one another the most holy and endearing influences in domestic and friendly relations, must, even in heaven, be regarded as dear and precious, and form a ground for the constitution of particular heavenly communities. But inasmuch as the redeemed from our earth have been con