5. The life of heaven is, moreover, one of perfect enjoyment. In this world, there can be no perfect and lasting enjoyment; and this not only because creatures have not the power of giving perfect happiness, but also because our powers of enjoyment are imperfect in themselves, and because also our bosom swarms with ungoverned passions, which spread the gall of bitterness over our joys. How many thousands are there not, for whom fortune smiles in vain! How many are there not, who, though surrounded with untold wealth, are nevertheless more wretched than the tattered beggar! One, for instance, is always suffering from bad health, and hence he cannot enjoy the pleasures which fortune has placed within his reach. Another is not only wealthy, but is, moreover, elevated to some honorable position, and one would think he must enjoy the honors with which he is surrounded; but there is in his bosom an ungoverned passion, which, like a canker-worm, eats away his joys one by one. Holy Scripture gives us a striking instance of this in the person of Haman. He had been highly exalted by King Assuerus; and the servants of the king bent the knee before him, and worshipped him, "only Mardochai did not bend the knee nor worship him." This apparent slight so wounded the pride of Haman, that he could enjoy neither peace nor happiness so long as Mardochai, the Jew, sat at the king's gate. Listen to his own confession: "He called together his friends and Zares his wife, and he declared to them the greatness of his riches, and the multitude of his children, and with how great glory the king had advanced him above all his princes and servants. And after this he said: Queen Esther also hath invited no other to the banquet with the king, but me: and with her I am also to dine to-morrow with the king. And whereas I have all these things, I think I have nothing, so long as I see Mardochai, the Jew, sitting at the king's gate."* What a revelation this is! How little it takes to destroy our powers of enjoyment! It is only a small worm that eats away the very core of the most delicious fruit, leaving it tasteless and rotten. * Esther v. In heaven only shall we live a life of perfect enjoyment; not merely because all the objects of happiness exist there in their highest perfection, but because we shall also be made perfect by our union with God. "We shall be like Him, because we shall see him as He is." Wherefore, no inordinate passion will ever lurk in our bosom, and spread bitterness over our joys. No torturing disease ever will enervate or prostrate the energies of our glorified bodies, and render them incapable of enjoyment. All the powers of enjoyment which belong to the glorified state will ever remain fresh and unimpaired. It follows from this, that our life in heaven will be one of continued, undisturbed enjoyment of God himself, of the society of the saints, and of all other creatures that He has prepared to perfect and complete the beatitude of man.