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As the servant, even when he loves his work, earnestly desireth the shadow that brings his hard day's labour to a close ;- -as the traveller, who eagerly pursues his homeward journey, gladly takes his rest at convenient stages on the way; so do we, both in our temporal and spiritual life, however much we may love our work and our home in heaven, eagerly press onward to desire and enjoy those intervals of rest after labour which the constitution of our nature demands, and which a beneficent Providence supplies. External nature has the same necessities and cravings, and enjoys the same intervals of repose. Not only the beasts of the field and the fowls of the air, but the whole vegetable world, from the cedar that is in Lebanon to the hyssop that springeth out of the wall, needs and seeks its night of relaxation after its day of labour, and its winter of profound repose after its summer of persistent toil. Nor does the need and the craving end here. In the higher and brighter mansions of our Father's home the same necessary but beneficent law prevails. There are the same alternations of labour and repose, of wakefulness and sleep. 'Angels are men in lighter bodies clad." They are only more perfect men than we. Like us, they are finite: being finite, they are progressive. And progress cannot be made

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without exertion, nor exertion without fatigue. Their minds and bodies have greater elasticity than ours, but they have not the power of unwearied endurance. A day of active wakefulness requires and brings a night of tranquil repose. There is only one difference between those brighter and happier beings and ourselves. Their days and nights are the effects and measure of their states. Their sun knoweth no going

down. Yet one eternal day of light without shade, and even of heat without variation of temperature, would neither be in harmony with, nor supportable by, their finite and changing nature. Although they live in the more immediate presence of Him who knoweth no change, and who neither slumbers nor sleeps, they have in themselves the elements of alternation, and that which closes around them as the curtain of their night.

But in the Divine economy rest and sleep are not intended simply to restore what we have expended in past labour, but to reinvigorate us for renewed activity. Day does not exist for the sake of night, nor summer for the sake of winter; nor does activity exist for the sake of rest, nor wakefulness for the sake of sleep; but contrariwise, the passive exists for the sake of the active. All changes in the divine economy are for the sake of progression. Not change only, but progression underlies all happiness. However intensely a parent loves a child, his happiness in him is not simply for what he is, but for what he will be. Were it possible for the mind and body of an infant to remain for ever the same, the fondest mother would sink into sadness: her happiness, because her hopes, in her little one would be blighted. True, indeed, it is, and not less beautiful than true, that parents cling with greater tenacity of affection to helpless and hopeless children; but we see by their strenuous efforts, and by the sacrifices they would willingly make to have their helpless ones restored, how much of their happiness is bound up in the progressive welfare of their offspring. Such cases are not perfect examples. In most of them there are compensations; and even where there is little hope for the present world, there is sometimes more for the future. but exceptions that prove the rule. is the rule? Has not our Creator His desire that we should progress? man on earth, grow in stature and in wisdom, and in favour with God and man? He exemplified the law of human progression, and in His own progress provided for ever the power by which His human creatures can progress. He also progressed in the same way and

These, however, after all, are And can we doubt that progression made us for progress? Is it not Should we not, like Himself, as a

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by the same means as those by which His followers progress. had His alternations of labour and rest, of light and darkness, of joy and sorrow. He has thus not only exemplified, but sanctified all states of human experience that involve progression, and taught us the blessedness arising from the right use both of labour and repose.

We have been led into these reflections by the approaching close of the year. Days and months and years follow each other in ceaseless succession, and afford us the means of going on through successive states towards that eternity of happiness for the sake of which time, with all its conditions, was given. It is a stage in our journey of life, a temporary rest after a period of labour. It has a moral as well as a physical use. It invites us to inquire what work we have done, what real progress we have made. Providence no doubt designed that time and state should advance together-that as time was an outbirth of God's immensity, and an image of the infinity of His wisdom, it should be employed by man so as that he may, with its advancement, become wise unto salvation; and that which invites us to reflect on the past, and to be thankful for being brought in safety with profit through its perils and its labours, requires us to look with earnestness and trustfulness to the future.

Labour and reliance go hand in hand. If we do not work with Providence, how can we trust in it? If we hope for results, we must use the means which He whose kingdom is one of ends and uses supplies for effecting them. Our ends must be in heaven, even when the uses we perform seem to be only of the world. The far greater

part of human life is necessarily employed in the performance of duties which concern man's temporal existence. But our temporal life is the reflex of our spiritual life; it is the shadow of which the spiritual is the substance, the body of which it is the soul. Even those works in the world which are more spiritual in their form and immediate uses, are only spiritual in those who perform them from a spiritual end. When we pass into the spiritual world, our works assume another form, but their nature remains the same-heavenly if our ends have been in heaven, infernal if our ends have been in hell.

Let those whom the Lord in His Providence sees good to bring to the end of another year of life and labour, rest and be thankful; but let their rest and gratitude lead them for the future to strive after a nobler and a purer life.

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ABIDING UNDER THE SHADOW OF THE ALMIGHTY.

"He that dwelleth in the secret place of the Most High, shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty."--Psalm xci. 1.

THE shadow of the Almighty! What means a shadow? Naturally, it means nothing. The light of the sun is something; a shadow means the absence of that light: nothing in its place. The shadow is that where something is not. Such is the meaning of shadow in its natural sense, in the sense in which the word is commonly understood. Now, spiritually, shadow means substance. The shadow of the Almighty" means the protection of the Almighty,—the substantial, enduring, and everlasting protection of the Lord Most High. This is the science of correspondences: every natural thing is a shadow, making evident a spiritual reality. Does spiritual truth run converse to natural? Not when rightly understood. The shadow in naturethe shade thrown by a house or a tree, which is nothing in itself— means something: it means that the sun shines. We should know nothing of the sun but for the shades it throws. Nothing can be conceived as more barren, intellectually, than would be a monotonous glare of light. Without light and shade we should nothing know. As in nature the shadow, which is nothing, means light, which is something, so all things of nature present evidences of the Author of nature. All things pourtray His love and wisdom infinite, His truth, and His unfailing beneficence. They proclaim His presence. By these all things may be known of heaven, even His eternal power and Godhead. By all things of His creation His presence and providence are ever evident. This is, in brief, the science of correspondences, the grand but yet simple science of the New Church.

That we

The shadow of the Almighty means His divine protection. may abide under this is ever the will of our Heavenly Father. By His prophets He has ever earnestly invited all to this eternal security. In reference to the countless instances of this our Lord, in His lamentation over Jerusalem, says-" How often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not!" Chickens protected under the shadow of the parental wings is the divine protection extended to the fowls of the air by virtue of the instinct given them. Even the sparrow finds a house for her young, and the swallow a nest; and how exalted in import, to David, is this simple evidence of divine beneficence! "Even Thine altars, O Lord of hosts, my king and my God!"

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The omniscience of God is written in all the works of creation. Everything, in its inmost sense, directs us to Him as the source of all good. He is the protector of all. No creature, however, but man can abide under His protection, and of men, only those who will to do so. Instinctive creatures have only their day here and they have fulfilled their use; but man, in his finished state of regeneration, abides therein.

We have here two verbs-to dwell and to abide. "He that dwelleth in the secret place of the Most High, shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty." There must be a difference betwixt these two words— dwell and abide; if not, either might be put for the other. We do not mean to bring into question any philological difference. We feel pretty sure, however, that we are in agreement with sound authorities; but whether or not, the true and certain meaning of Scripture must be derived by clear deduction from that only divine authority. We have no higher appeal. Suppose, for instance, an English word adopted in the translation of Scripture should be disputed, as not expressive of the meaning of the Hebrew word-why, the Hebrew word itself can obtain its meaning only from the same source. The words dwell and abide may be used synonymously in ordinary language, but there is a difference; one implies what the other would not. For instance, a man may dwell in a house, but he may not abide therein. To abide is to continue to dwell. In the spiritual sense, these words are remarkably distinct as to their import. To dwell is of man's will; to abide is of the Lord's will. Man's will is changeable, the Lord's will is immutable. We find the spiritual sense of the words by ascertaining the spiritual causes of what they imply. Why is it men dwell here or there? Is it not because they desire to do so? We like a house, or we like a place, and we dwell there accordingly. We sometimes grow tired of our house and place, and resort to some other place to dwell in. Man's highest love, or ruling desire, is fixed on his home or dwelling, and he improves it whenever he can. To dwell in any house or place, therefore, is the effect of which the desire thereof, or the delight therein, is the cause. Now, while this desire or pleasure is natural, the cause, which is spiritual, produces also its spiritual effects. Thus a man may spiritually dwell in error or truth, in good or evil. If he loves evil, he dwells therein; if he has pleasure and delights in all things good and true, he dwells therein.

But our states are often very changeable; they are not our abiding states. Some are of more fixed principles than others; but none can endure, that is, dwell, long in any good state. None can be estab

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