And shall not the sharing of this presence with others augment their bliss? _We_ (they and us) shall be ever with the LORD. All the sons of GOD shall there meet together, and dwell with the LORD. Man, I need not tell you, is a social being: he is formed for company; he cannot be fully happy alone. It is by sharing his good things that he comes to enjoy them; it is by speaking of them, that he comes to feel them. (Would that Christians could be brought to act on this admitted truth, as Christians!) In this world there is no greater enjoyment than to associate with a band of fellow-countrymen, journeying towards the same place, with kindred tastes, and tempers, and hopes. Oh! what then shall be the blessedness of association in heaven with the whole body of the saints? Think of being associated in the presence, and favour, and adoration of GOD, with holy angels; with Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob; with David, and Daniel, and Mary, and John, and Paul; and all the others whose praise is in the Gospel! Think of meeting, in heaven, with all the primitive Christians and martyrs; with all the perfected saints who once walked on earth with us; with our relatives, our parents, our brothers and sisters, our children, our bosom friends: to be re-united with them in bonds that shall never be broken; where all are happy; where every eye looks to JESUS, where every heart leaps to Him; each mouth is opened in His praise; each knee is bent in His adoration; where GOD is the centre and the circumference, and heaven the roof and the floor! And all this for ever—uninterrupted, unending, growing fresher, intensified, better appreciated by the rolling on of eternity. _So_ shall we ever be with the LORD. Bereaved Christian, as you gaze upon the vacant place of one who is in Paradise, advancing to this heaven, will you dare to sigh that the old armchair, or the little cradle, is unoccupied? Would you prefer for your loved one, as a _better_ condition, that he or she should come back and share your sorrows, and difficulties, and perplexities, and be exposed to toil and contamination? Will your ingratitude think lightly of what GOD has done, and is doing, for the removed one? Will your selfishness (oh, if the dead should know of this!) demand—“Let me have my loved one’s company, though thereby that loved one lose GOD’S?” Oh! there is no religion, there is no human love, in the mourner who does not smile away the tears of worldly sorrow with the joy of this blessed consolation; who does not turn each thought of the righteous dead into a theme of praise for their deliverance; into a prayer, that he, too, may soon be added to the number of those who are ever with the LORD!