marked, there is a dim shimmer of glory, suggestive of uncounted
millions of stars and systems farther on. This golden glimmer of distant
worlds has been likened to a candle shining through a horn. We are
simply lost in the extent and glory of the starry hosts. Do we not begin
to see that the universe is far too vast to be revealed to mortals? To
have the essentials of truth and duty revealed to us here, in this dim
corner of the universe, is as much as we ought to expect. By and by we
may hope to have larger revelations.

We may realize this principle more fully if we come down again to the
earth, and to enquire if this earth is to be the future abode of the
righteous? Some say it is. We simply do not know. When we do not know if
this earth is to be our future dwelling place, can we reasonably expect
to have details of the place and manner of our purification--though it
be a matter of far higher moment?

Then again: Is the earth the final abode of the righteous? Or is it
only to be the initial place of future blessedness? Or, are there many
heavens, each preceding one to be a preparation for a higher? Here again
all our thoughts are drowned.

Or again: Is heaven to be a solid world like this earth, or is it to be
an ethereal world? Such questions are far too high for us. In this
narrow sphere of earth and time we know almost nothing of the glory to
be revealed. I would say that a study of the extent and magnificence of
creation would give us some hints of what eye hath not seen, nor ear
heard. At all events the more we are acquainted with the glories of the
universe, the more we shall realize how little is likely to be revealed
of the details of any preparatory stage of final blessedness.