Page:Spiritual Reflections for Every Day in the Year - Vol 2.pdf/142

 a kind of sympathy, the angels of the heavens around him—in their company he finds his delight and life. By his presence, the very angels themselves feel an increase of joy! He enters upon the realities of heavenly life; and, consoling thought! he will increase in joy, happiness, and wisdom, throughout a glorious eternity!

HE explanation of heaven, in the previous meditation, being a state of holiness and wisdom formed in the soul, and really constituting the kingdom of God, will assist us in the illustration of our present subject.

As heaven, or the kingdom of God, is a state of love and wisdom, reigning in the souls of the sincere disciples of Jesus Christ, so hell is a state of evil and falsity ruling and impelling the souls of those who are unholy and depraved. Do we ask what is hell, and where is it? The answer is ready. As in the former case, respecting heaven, so in this respecting hell,—we are not to look out of ourselves but within; for every man may, if he be true to himself, discover what kingdom is within him, and whither he is going. If the loves of self and the world be his ruling principles, let him know that from these will spring, as from a corrupt root, all that is evil and abominable; these loves which are opposite to the love of God and the