lived the more tenderly did he express his judgement of others. Many a man, he remarked, did not speak his religion, but he lived it. A comparison of the English and Scotch characteristics was made, and a belief was expressed that anger was not a sin. The man with a flash of anger was often the most amiable, whilst he who nursed his anger to keep it warm was the volcano most to be feared.
Dr. Cumming then gave an eloquent and interesting description o the coming paradise, arguing that it would be just the reversal of the curse pronounce at the fall. What he understood was that the curse of barrenness should be removed; that nothing which was transient should be there. The earth would be Tabor, with more of its splendour, and more of its transience. There would be none of its battle-fields. In the earth there would be no more hospitals for the sick; there would be no more graves, no more strange contrasts of a funeral procession on one side of the street, and bridal parties on the other. Surely the earth must be weary of being the depository of those who once trod its surface; for it was a sad though that more of her people slept beneath the ground than were walking upon it. It was a beautiful idea of our forefathers in calling the churchyard "God's Acre". In the new earth, there would be no more graves dug, no more partings, no more tears; and there would be no more inner and secret troubles in the hearts of its inhabitants. Now there was not a home that had not its shadow on the wall, and there not a heart beating in that room that had not some grief, some secret, and that could not find word to tell its sorrow. These sorrows of a greater private catastrophe, these heart-quakes that were worse than earthquakes, shall all disappear in that day, and all will be happiness within and blessedness without.
"There shall be no more sea" was the next sentence upon which the reverend gentleman dwelt. He did not believe that the sea would be literally extinguished, but that the sea would pass away, like the first heavens and the first earth, and would be succeeded by a new sea. Why should the sea be destroyed? As he had walked along the beach a few moments before entering the room, he felt the sea had in it something magnificent and sublime in its beauty and aspect. Referring to Christ's miracle of walking on the sea, the lecturer remarked that it might not be fanciful to suppose that instead of being as spulchre as the earth is and a barrier between nations and brotherhoods, as at present, it would be then earth's lovely spot, and that it might be the most walked promenade for the bodies that had substance to walk upon.
In treating of the New Jerusalem, he expressed a belief that the Jews would be restored, that the city would be rebuilt and that the Messiah would be the king. Supposing he should not be right, there were still ideas connected with the new Jerusalem - permancy and fellowship. What was the idea of future rest? Not a place for monks or nuns to live isolated in cells. The Millenium would -
