CHAPTER XLIII. Ah! happy spirits that behold The stars and planets shine; The dim abysses of the air, And earth's green orb revolving there. Each hath his proper meed above For actions nobly done; But love that can another love Makes ever that her own; Each hath his own peculiar good, But shared by the whole brotherhood. PETER DAMIANUS. MARHAM. THE righteous will differ from one another in glory, as the stars do. This we know. Now may not this imply that they will be in separate places, in regions, some more and some less happy? Is this earth the same thing to all us earthly dwellers? Is not it one thing to one man, and another to another, and a third thing to a third man? Is not it thousand-fold and million-fold ? To one beholder, the earth is a daily revelation of God; while another man is so mere a merchant, that the earth is to him the wide floor of a place of exchange; and the firmament is only the high roof of it. There are gluttons, to whom the world is only a fish-pond, a poultry-yard, a stall for fattening cattle in, and a kitchen garden; and to these men, the seasons, as they change, suggest only thoughts of what fresh dishes may be had. There are wretched persons in London, to whom the world is simply a place for streetcrossings to be swept in. One man is only a farmer, and only more cunning than one of his oxen; while another is a poet, as well as a farmer; and another is a father, as well as being a poet and a farmer; now these three persons see the world in very different lights. On account of his health, one man as he walks the earth feels it under him like the floor of an everlasting home; and another, because he is ill, stands on it like a gravestone; while another, who is hopeful as well as dying, feels the earth under him like a broad stepping-stone to heaven. MARHAM. For the dissatisfied man, all life is unsatisfac tory; and for one that is contented, the world is full of comforts. AUBIN. Yes, and, for the cheerful man, even the easterly wind is musical in the window-crevices, and it makes solemn anthems for him in the woods. MARHAM. So it does. And, to a great extent, life is what we think it. AUBIN. Day and night, and every moment, there are voices about us. All the hours speak, as they pass; and in every event there is a message to us; and all our circumstances talk with us; but it is in divine language, that worldliness misunderstands, that selfishness is frightened at, and that only the children of God hear rightly and happily. MARHAM. True, Oliver, true! AUBIN. It is many things to its many dwellers; this world is. It is a home; it is a workshop; it is a place of amusement; it is a school, with trouble and pain for chief teachers in; and for the devout, it is a church to worship in; and for them that have eyes to see, it is the wisdom, and the beauty, and the love of God. So it is. MARHAM. AUBIN. So, then, if this world is to us what we think it, the next may be to us just what we are fit for, perhaps. And there may be a thousand of us stand together in heaven, and every one of us with a different degree of glorious feeling. MARHAM. But we shall all be in sight of God. AUBIN. But not all in the same full sight. For now do we all feel God about us the same? No. And so in heaven, there may be one eternal look of blessing on us all, and we all feel it, but not alike. MARHAM. One disciple will be a ruler over ten cities, and another over five. This rule of cities is not to be understood literally, of course; and you think it is figurative, when heaven is spoken of as more than one city. AUBIN. Perhaps it is. In the Revelation, heaven is said to be only one city, the New Jerusalem. MARHAM. So it is, and in a passage not incidentally, but purposely, descriptive of heaven. AUBIN. There is no reason why we should not expect men more and less rewarded, men of many and few talents, to be together hereafter. According to our worthiness of heaven will be our enjoyment of it. This earth is only an occupancy of some seventy years for us, and the round of it is only some few thousand miles, yet it is a different world to every man of many millions in it; so that the kingdom of heaven may well be a different place to every one of its gainers, for it is infinite and eternal. It will be, yes! heaven will be what we feel it, what we are ready to feel. And our feelings are much in our own making. I cannot will my head to be a storehouse of knowledge; but my heart I can make the issue of what life I please, -holy, most holy, loving, and hopeful, if I choose. MARHAM. Yes, and much wisdom comes of loving; though a man may know largely, and love nothing. AUBIN. For admission into heaven, God asks of us nothing impossible. We have a law to keep, his law. True, we are creatures of frailty, and yesterday, and the dust, while he is God most high. But it is not knowledge, nor the perfection of service, but it is love, that is the fulfilling of the law, the love of the law, for what of God's is in it, the love of God, for his godhead's sake, and the love of man, for what good is in him, or, if not in him yet, for what will be. We cannot all of us be knowing, nor can |