beauty and sacredness of these ties. The links in that chain of love formed by the members of a happy family, how golden and precious! The affection between brothers and sisters, how cordial and sincere! The love of children for their parents, how sweet and confiding! The love of parents for their children, how deep and tender! The affection between husband and wife, how beautiful and holy!
These natural relationships image more faithfully than anything else can, the higher and enduring spiritual relationships which exist in heaven. The relation of the children to each other, affords the truest type of the fraternal relation existing between the members of an angelic society. The relation of children to their parents—their affection for them, their dependence upon them, and their obedience to the parents' every wish and word—furnishes the best idea of the relation of the angels to the Lord, of their affection for, their dependence upon, and their obedience to, the Heavenly Father. The relation of the parents to the children—their tender love and ceaseless care for them, their consideration for their weakness, their patience with their faults, and their thoughtful provision for all their wants, what a beautiful image is this of the relation of the Lord to the angels, of his infinite love and ceaseless care for them, and his bountiful provision for all their wants!
Thus does a loving, well-ordered and happy family furnish the truest picture of heaven, of anything known on earth. Such a family is itself a heaven in miniature. Accordingly we find that, in the written Word (which, in its true sense, treats altogether of spiritual things) the
