Page:God Manifest.djvu/135

Rh Decay cannot touch it: time has no effect upon it. It stands in the strength and beauty with which God has endowed it, an image of its glorious Maker, immortal and eternal. Boiling ages will only add to its perfections,—not dim in the least its lustre, nor diminish its power. When ten thousand years have passed away, it will be still shining on, like the star Sirius in the heavens. It is written, "they that are wise shall shine as the brightness of the firmament, and those that turn many to righteousness, as the stars for ever." And so will it be. The good and great of various ages, clustered together, will form, as it were, constellations in the spiritual firmament, giving light to that inner sphere, and sending down, perchance, many rays to illumine the mental darkness of this world, also. And they will shine on, "as stars for ever." For ever! what a thought is that! In this world a man of "threescore years and ten," is counted old,—one of a hundred years, as aged in the extreme. But in the spiritual world, there are men of a thousand years old, and probably of five and six thousand years. And these are but just born, as it were,—they are but infants,—taking into consideration their whole future life. When a hundred thousand years shall have passed, indeed, they will but be in the commencement of their existence; for what is a hundred thousand years, compared with eternity? Nay, when a million of years shall have passed away,—or ten millions,—still will they be but in the morning of life: in truth, it will be a perpetual morning, for there will still be ever the whole day, so to speak, of existence before them: the evening of that grand day will be no nearer than at first. Indeed, that evening will never come; life will