sea of glass mingled with fire: and them that had gotten the victory over the beast, and over his image, and over his mark, and over the number of his name, stand on the sea of glass, having the harps of God. And they sing the song of Moses the servant of God, and the song of the Lamb, saying, Great and marvellous are Thy works, Lord God Almighty; just and true are Thy ways, Thou King of saints.'

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And in this place: "And I looked, and, lo, a Lamb stood on the mount Sion, and with Him an hundred and forty and four thousand, having His Father's name written in their foreheads.'

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This is a revelation of things which shall be hereafter; an anticipation of the perfect fulfilment of the secret mystery of grace now advancing in the world.

This blessed company seen upon mount Sion is the whole Church as it shall be, "without spot or blemish," gathered and glorious: the Head and the Body, the whole mystical Person of the Second Adam, the beginning and the fulness of the new creation of God.

The hundred and forty and four thousand is a number divinely chosen to express the multitude of God's elect, as they are foreknown in the Book of Life; a number which stands as a symbol for

1 Rev. xv. 2, 3.

2 Ibid. xiv. 1.

a number unrevealed, as the stars of the heavens for multitude: the fellowship of all saints, from all ages and generations, of all families, races, and tongues.

It reveals also the perfect unity of the whole mystical body. They were arrayed all alike, bearing each the palm of victors and their harps of praise, symbols of the divine ineffable unity of all God's saints. They chanted before the throne a new song, which no man but they could learn ; and their voice went up all one, as the mingled voice of many waters.

We have here the multitude and the unity of the saints of God. Though beyond all number, they were but one; having one bliss, one crown, one eternal energy of love and worship. This reveals to us the great mystery we confess in the Catholic faith: "I believe the Communion of Saints." Let us look into it a while.

1. First, then, the Communion of Saints is the restoration of fellowship between God and man.

God and man were united in the first creation as the substance and the shadow, the type and the likeness, the very and true original with its image and reflection. There was an unity of love and will between the Lord as He walked in Paradise, and the man whom He had made from the dust to dress the garden of Eden.

But there was no union of the divine and human substance: neither was God man, nor man God; but God and man were each several and apart. The finite and the infinite, the created and the uncreated, were joined in no personal unity. The communion of God with man was external and perishable, hanging on the frailty of an infirm, created will.

Sin dissolved that fellowship, and the creature fell into corruption. The will of God and the will in man were turned in variance, with the energy of direct contradiction. The whole soul of man rose in rebellion against God, and the whole majesty of God stood in array against the sin of His creature. And in this original revolt the race of man fell off from God, and gathered itself against Him. The multiplication of mankind was the multiplication and perpetuity of the conflict between God and man. There was no fellowship between heaven and earth; for the divine foundation had been broken up, and no new foundation had been laid.

God, therefore, sent His Son into the world; "God was manifest in the flesh." God and man were united in one inseparable mystery; two whole and perfect natures in one person-the divine and human, the created and the uncreated-never to be again divided, never to be dissolved for ever; as a foundation of eternal communion.

There are in the will and work of God three perfect and eternal unities: the unity of three Persons in one nature; the unity of two natures in one Person; and the unity of the Incarnate Son with His elect, the Head with the members

of His Body mystical.

This is the foundation of the communion of God and man. "A Lamb stood upon mount Sion, and with Him an hundred and forty and four thousand."

2. And next, the Communion of Saints is the restoration of the fellowship of men with each other. It is the mutual and universal fellowship of those who have fellowship through Christ with God.

Sin, which dissolved the communion of mankind with God, dissolved also the fellowship of man with man. The will once turned against its divine Lord is turned also against all its like. The will in man, by its selfish intensity, turns every way, with the vehemence of a tempest.

And therefore, by nature, we are isolated and isolating. Sin begets self-love; self-love destroys sympathy. Cain is the very type of our fallen race: bound by kindred, but without affections; herding together, but without a common soul: "Am I my brother's keeper ?" By our first birth into

1 Gen. iv. 9.

this world we have a common heritage of flesh and blood; but no communion, because no spiritual life we have a common portion of death and sin; but no fellowship, because no head or centre. By nature we may unite in bonds of kindred, and in a material life of social order; but we can have no communion of spirit with spirit and of soul with soul. No imperfect person could unite us, or be our head. Every individual will born into this world is several and selfish, and therefore in conflict and division.

Such is the natural state of man on earth ; such are fallen angels, for whom is no Redeemer; and such will be the misery of hell,—the perfection of conscious isolation, banishment from God, and estrangement from universal being, loneliness in a throng, multitude without unity, discord and strife, sin carried out to its perfection; individual wills absolute in solitude, hateful, and hating one another. This is the nethermost hell.

Such, then, are we by nature, and such is the eternity to which the impenitent are doomed.

But, by the power of God, through the Incarnation of His Son, we are redeemed from our natural isolation, and, by union with Him, united to each other.

Our regeneration unites us to the Divine Person in whom God and man are one; and by union