Imágenes de páginas
PDF
EPUB

ers better than himself. Ostentation is unknown there. A common attire, the white robe, is furnished to all; but no phylacteries are there. In their deportment and praises there is no effort to attract attention or admiration. The Pharisee's trumpet is unheard. In simplicity and godly sincerity, not with fleshly wisdom, but by the grace of God, do they have their conversation in that world.

Does spiritual culture have an engrossing interest with me? Is the holy education of my immortal soul the object of earnest effort and unceasing prayer? Who that looks for an entrance into the New Jerusalem would not say, Close the prison door upon me; chain me to the oar; place me on the rack; let all outward evils befall me, if I may but be like my Saviour, pure, even as he is pure.

If there be in the universe such a place as the Elysium of the ancients, or the Paradise of the Moslems, may the holy God deliver us from such abodes of inanity and impurity! Scarcely more scriptural than the views of Pagans and Mohammedans are those of not a few nominal Christians. In this age of utilitarian schemes, it is quite characteristic that a sermon should have been published on the " Utility of Heavenly Bliss!

The number is not small who appear to think of

heaver, and desire it, only because they must die, and go somewhere. They consent, from necessity, to choose it as the least of two evils. Few, it would seem, have any intelligent scriptural aspiration after the blessedness of heaven; panting for that world mainly because therein dwelleth righteousness; because the holy God and the spotless Lamb are the light thereof; because there shall in no wise enter therein anything that defileth, neither whatsoever worketh abomination, or maketh a lie. "I long for untainted purity!" said a departing pilgrim; "I long for untainted purity!" May my last end be like his. "As for me, I will behold thy face in righteousness. I shall be satisfied when I awake with thy likeness."

CHAPTER XIV.

ACTIVITY IN HEAVEN.

There shall He welcome thee, when thou shalt stand
On his bright morning hills, with smiles more sweet
Than when at first he took thee by the hand,
Through the fair earth to lead thy tender feet;
He shall bring back, but brighter, broader still,
Life's early glory to thine eyes; again

Shall clothe thy spirit with new strength, and fill
Thy leaping heart with warmer love than then.

BRYANT.

In the minds of many, future blessedness resolves itself into little else than escape from future punishment, and from the inconveniences of the present life. It is to them the consummation of ease; perpetual repose from labor and suffering; a quietism so complete as to admit of no effort; an Elysium, on whose hazy horizon and in whose balmy atmosphere no cloud ever rises; where everything is quiescent save the river of life, and that soon discharges itself into the Dead Sea; where, indeed, the negation is so complete as to admit not only of no trouble, but scarcely of anything else.

Others, having more sentimental activity of mind, not satisfied with a scene monotonous and torpid, introduce more that is positive and life-like. Theirs is a paradise of spacious groves and lawns; of tasteful avenues and bowers; of soft breezes perfumed by perennial flowers; where society the most cultivated is always at hand, including companionable angels; where all are very beautiful and very graceful, and have the most exquisite sensibilities; where are no sighs, no farewells, no rudeness; where there is nothing in particular to do but to saunter over beds of violets, or muse in some sequestered spot, lulled by the softened notes of distant cherubim.

True, when we reflect that toil and suffering are a part of the penalty under which our fallen race now labor; that bereavements are unavoidable; that disappointment comes from the failure of plans; heartaches from poverty, and ingratitude, and in general from the calculating selfishness of this world; it is not strange that the drying up of these sources of sorrow should sometimes seem the perfection of bliss; that the cessation of these sources of annoyance should seem all that is necessary to constitute heaven. Nor is it strange that even sanctified minds, and particularly the less reflecting, while longing to be free from sin, should also, in their desires for freedom

from its present penal consequences, unduly magnify the negative elements of future blessedness. It is natural, and justifiable, too, that such of God's people as have suffered much from physical infirmities, yes, that all of them should look joyfully to the hour of death as the hour of release from fatigue and pain. We sympathize with prophets stoned and tormented; with primitive Christians in their baptism of blood; with the hunted Waldenses; with persecuted Protestants, who have come out from corrupt Christian organizations, and from Judaism, Mohammedanism, and Heathenism; we sympathize with them all, as they sigh for their abode, "where the wicked cease from troubling, and where the weary are at rest." Jesus! No chain, or scourge, or fagot, can touch you in the world whither ye are gone! Ye living and suffering witnesses for the truth, we give you apostolic greeting: "So that we ourselves glory in you in the churches of God, for your patience and faith in all your persecutions and tribulations that ye endure. Which is a manifest token of the righteous judgment of God, that ye may be counted worthy of the kingdom of God, for which ye also suffer. Seeing it is a righteous thing with God to recompense tribulation to them that trouble you;

Joy to you, ye martyrs of

« AnteriorContinuar »