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January 13, 1909. THE PRESBYTERIA For Presbyterian of the South. THE HOUSE NOT MADE WITH HANDS. A Vision. I li ?i Knnn * ?? ? -1 - - ? a. ' <* * 4 u<.tn vfiucM mici\ iu eunuuct several iutierai rservices. In looking to find some word of sure comfort I lighted on that passage in 2 Cor. 4:11-18; 5:1-10. The phrases "I know," "we know," flashed with glorious meaning. We know?It is no guess about great mysteries and invisible conditions. It is no product of rapt imagination. It is no conclusion of reasoning from the seen to the unseen. It is clear vision. We know. We know 011 grounds more trustworthy than any human testimony. any deductions of logic, any verdict of the senses. We know that which of all things we desire to know, mat which ot all things we have least power of knowing by any means within our reach as mere creatures of earth. We know that, contrary to all visible evidence, we are immortal. That which the wisest of earth have only guessed at, we know. To us il is a clear and fixed fact. We know that this immortality will be an enlargement of life. The house not made with .hands will be made, all glorious within and without, after the similitude of the pattern shown in the mount. We shall be like him whose white glory shone through and trans figured the enveiling flesh and raiment. It will be no crumbling tabernacle, but one eternal in the heavens. We know that there is a redemption of this body, the groanings changed into ecstacies, the burdens changed for palms and crowns, weakness into strength, dishonor into glory, mortality into life eternal. We know that beyond the dark and the silence is light and song, beyond the dust and the worm we are clothed upon him incorruption and are present with the Lord. 1??.. .i <?< " ? - ?> t miuw inai me ooay sown in me grave is liKe me grain of wheat sown in earth. In the day of quickening God will give it a new body, as it pleases him; but yet to every one his own body; a body, spiritual it is true, but yet a body, an individual body. The same being who sinned will be sanctified, the same who through faith became united to Christ will forever be with the Lord. We know, because God himself has given us the vision of it. By every aspiration of our souls, by every trilimnh of nalntc ih K\- tllA ric<?ti T rvf by the eternal promise of God, all this is certain. Glorious vision! The years are slipping fast away. Life's boundary is set somewhere just a little way yonder before me. This tabernacle is nearly ready to fall. I am getting anxious to go out of it and, with the escort sent by my T'-?r brother, to travel swiftly to him into a far and radiant land. When I am gone, the windows darkened, the ashes cold upon the hearth, the voices hushed, dear ones, know that I am gone to a mansion prepared for me by N OF THE SOUTH. 7 him who loves me, always loved me. loved me even unto death that I might he with him where he is. J. A. M. THE WONDERFUL BOOK. Senator Beveridge has pronounced the Bible the best and most fascinatine: bodv of literature in the world There is every reason to believe that this judgment willl meet with general and abiding approval. The Bible vibrates with human interest. It touches every note in the gamut of human experience. It contains the records of a most significant history. It is rich in gems of inspiring poetry, splendid oratory, discriminating essays, and practical philosophy. Finally, the Bible is the world's best compendium of the best short stories. Such a literature is worthy of the most intelligent and discriminating study. Get acquainted with the great personalities of the Bible. Do not stop with a mere introduction?go on to intimate friendship. These are some of the world's great and good. We cannot know them on intimate terms without great pleasure and profit. Get acquainted with the great masterpices of the Bible. These include almost every form of literature: great essays, great orations, great prayers, great poems, beautiful stories, and sublime meditations. Know what they are and where they may be found. Be as familiar with them as with the gems of your favorite poet. Give the central place in your program to the teachings of Jesus. He is the incomparable Teacher, and his messages are the climax of all teachings.?Russell B. Miller. THE BOOK. J. A. Froude, the historian, said: "The Bible, thoroughly understood, is a literature of itself?the rarest and richest in all departments of thought or imagination." President Butler, of Columbia University, said: "Without the Bible, it is impossible to understand the literature of the English language from Chaucer to Browning." Horace Greelev said: "It is imnossible to mentallv or socially enslave a Bible-reading people." Edmund Gosse, librarian to the British House of Lords, said: "When young men ask me for advice in the formation of a prose style, I have no counsel for them except this: 'Read aloud a portion of the Old and another of the New Testament as often as you possibly can.' "?Selected. FAITH. Faith is a belief in testimony. It is not a leap in the dark, as some tell us. That would be no faith at all. God does not ask any man to believe without giving him something to believe. You might as well ask a man to see without eyes, to hear without ears, and to walk without feet, as to bid him believe without giving him something to believe.?D. L. Moody.