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In this clause extremes meet. Things that are distant are brought together — "heaven" and "earth."

1. We know something of the "days...upon the earth." If we told our story, each would be different from the other; yet there would be a wonderful sameness. It would be a story of light and shade, beauty and barrenness, laughter and tears, success and failure.

2. We have dreamed, most of us, of "the days of heaven"; when the sun, no longer battling with the mists, should shine in the glory of his brightness; when fleecy clouds, like angel chariots, should fleck the blue expanse; when all the bustle and riot should be exchanged for unbroken peace and perpetual quiet; when vision should be no longer blurred by the uprising vapours of evil.

3. The text speaks to us of realisation, enjoyment, benediction, contentment. It contains the ideas of continuity and felicity, duration and fulness, or a blending of these ideas.

I. THE TEXT FINDS A PLEASING ILLUSTRATION IN HAPPY CHILDHOOD UNDER KINDLY PARENTAL CONTROL.

1. Given all the healthful influences of a home where judicious training is linked with affectionate yearning; where example is set like a jewel in a circlet of gold, and the parents are recognised as priest and priestess of the home sphere: I know no words more fittingly appropriate to describe that period of life than these, "As the days of heaven upon the earth."

2. The child's best interests are secured by obedience and subjection, and his heaven is found in harmony with the parental will. Then shall his course be crowded with sunny memories, for his way shall be illumined by the father's smile; voices shall cheer him in the darkness; while from day to day shall be added mercies new and many, the true value of which shall only be discovered upon review.

II. THE TEXT IS SUGGESTIVE OF THE NEW EPOCH INAUGURATED AT CONVERSION. One summer morning a lady I knew well went into her garden. She looked up at the blue sky, she gazed at the trees, she bent over the flowers, she examined everything as though she had not seen anything of the kind before. Her sister inquired, "Why are you looking at everything thus?" She replied with a smile, "Well, it is all so very lovely, and seems so new." She had been converted the previous evening, and that was the explanation of her awakened interest and evident admiration.

III. VIEW THE TEXT AS THE EPITOME OF THE GRATEFUL SOUL'S ESTIMATE OF A LIFE THAT OFTEN SEEMS ANYTHING BUT HEAVENLY. The point of view makes all the difference in the estimate of the life of faith on the earth. I read somewhere of one who had moved into a new flat, which could hardly be described as cheerful in its surroundings. The outlook was not very pleasant, and the building had not what the Frenchman called "a sunny exposition." The ordinary woman would have regarded it but as a dismal shelter from the frosts of winter or the rains of summer. A friend called one day, and was asked by the cheerful housewife to notice the pleasant view from the window. "Yes," said the friend, "I see a remarkably fine lot of chimney pots." "Chimney pots," said her hostess in astonishment, — "why, I never saw any chimney pots before. I looked over the chimneys, and saw only those trees which form the line on the horizon. I thought only of the trees and the sunsets." Happy are they who look beyond all which tends to depress and distress!

IV. THE TEXT SINGLES OUT THE RED-LETTER DAYS IN THE SPIRITUAL EXPERIENCE OF THOSE WHOSE FACES ARE HEAVENWARD SET. Cannot we recall seasons of elevation, times of transport, periods of exceptional delight? When thoughtfully reading, when quietly meditating, when kneeling in prayer, when gathered for worship, when observing the ordinances with our fellow believers, have we not often been lifted out of and above ourselves? Such experiences are not to be forgotten. The record of them must be deeply engraven.

(Isaac O. Stalberg.)

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KJV: And ye shall teach them your children, speaking of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, when thou liest down, and when thou risest up.

WEB: You shall teach them your children, talking of them, when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise up.