Imágenes de páginas
PDF
EPUB

The future bliss of HEAVEN is, by the Sacred Writers, described not in particulars but in very general terms. The aggregate of heavenly felicity is left to swell upon the imagination in its own native grandeur. and sublimity! This is wisely attempered to our present capacities, and adapted to rouse our desires after the enjoyment of it. In the representation of the inspired writings, there is nothing low, nothing mean, all worthy of the Supreme Being to bestow, and of a glorified spirit to receive! The design of religion is to empower men to live soberly, righteously, and godly in this present world, thus educating them for Eternity.

The metaphors also used by the Sacred Penmen, are indicative of the extent and dignity of the rewards conferred beyond the grave. Crowns, and palms, and white robes, are among all nations, emblems of joy and of victory. What an object is here held out to the aspiring soul! The indulgence of this holy ambition neither tramples on human rights, nor stains the earth with blood. It sublimates the understanding, purifies the affections, and ripens the soul for the participation of eternal life. In the view of the true Christian, both worlds claim an appropriate share of his attention. The temperate disclosures of revelation beam upon his mind with a steady effulgence. He is not enveloped by the shades of midnight, nor irritated by the impertinent glare of noonday. Enough he knows to keep him firm in the path of duty, as well as ardent in: the contemplation of the recompense of reward.

Like the two great forces of Nature, which preserve the planets in their orbits, so the attachments of the Christian to heaven and to earth are wisely adjusted, impelling him on to the goal of his prescribed destination! I have fought a good fight, I have kept the faith, I have finished my course, henceforth there is laid up for me a CROWN OF RIGHTEOUSNESS, which the righteous Judge shall give me at that day, and not to me only, but ALL who love his appearing. Nor was the Apost Paul alone impelled in his career, by the prospec of future glory, it apimated even CHRIST himself, the captain of our salvation, who for the joy set before him, endured the cross, and despising the shame, is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.

Finally, the prospect of the happiness of HEAVEN, held forth in the gospel of Jesus Christ, cherishes and promotes purity of heart.

Not so the Mahometan Paradise, which directly tends to generate a spirit of hatred and cruelty. "The sword (saith the Koran), is the key of heaven and of hell; a drop of blood shed in the cause of God, a night spent in arms, is of more avail than two months of fasting and prayer. Whosoever falls in battle, his sins are forgiven at the day of judgment; his wounds shall be resplendent as vermillion, and odoriferous as musk; and the loss of his limbs shall be supplied by the wings of angels and cherubims!"

'Our SAXON FOREFATHERS imagined that the

happiness of their heaven arose from this circumstance that they should be assembled together in the hall of their God Woden, and there drink blood out of the skulls of THE ENEMY! So depraved was their idea of the employments of the blest. But, Brethren, it is the exalted privilege of us, their descendants, to be better instructed in the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven. To behold, in softened effulgence, the perfections of DEITY; to contemplate the meek and humble Saviour, encircled by his mediatorial glory; to associate with pious relatives and friends, founded on a knowledge of each other, as well as with the virtuous of every description, both Jew and Gentile; to meditate on our own progression in knowledge, in holiness, and in joy— These, FELLOW CHRISTIANS, are the sublime exercises by which you will be engaged in Heaven

GRAVE, the guardian of our dust,
GRAVE, the treasury of the skies,

Every atom of thy trust,

Rests in hope again to rise

Hark! the Gospel trumpet calls,

Soul, rebuild thine house of clay,
IMMORTALITY its walls—

And ETERNITY its day!

MONTGOMERY.

But I would not have you ignorant, BRETHREN, (1 Thess. iv. 13.), concerning them that are fallen asleep, that ye may not lament as others do, the heathens, who have no hope. For if we believe

that Jesus died and rose again, we must believe that, in like manner, also, God shall bring with him those who sleep in Jesus. For this we say to you, by the word of the Lord, that we who remain alive at the coming of the Lord, shall not prevent those that are asleep, so as to be glorified before them. For the Lord himself shall descend from Heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, even with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ shall rise first, afterward we who are left alive, shall, together with them, be snatched up into the clouds in order to our meeting the Lord in the air, and so shall we be with the Lord for ever. Therefore comfort one another with these words

"O! WHO can be sufficiently thankful, (says a truly devotional writer), for the strong consolations which these divine words administer! How many drooping hearts have been cheered by them in every age, while successively mourning over THE PIOUS DEAD! How often have we ourselves been driven to them, as to a sacred anchor, when our hearts have been overwhelmed within us, and if God continue us a few years longer, what repeated occasions may arise of flying to them again! Let us charge it upon our hearts, that we do honour to our holy profession in every circumstance, and particularly in our SORROWS as well as our joys. When Providence is pleased to make such breaches upon us, let us not sorrow as those who have no hope, for our deceased friends or for ourselves.

Surely we cannot doubt the .very first and most fundamental article of our faith, the death and resurrection of JESUS, the Son of God; and if we do indeed assuredly believe these, what a blessed train of consequences will they draw after them, and this consequence most apparently, that they who sleep in JESUS shall not finally perish, but shall be brought with him to grace his triumphs. And, O-what a triumph shall that be! Let us now anticipate the joy with which, if TRUE BELIEVERS, we shall then lift up our heads, and SEE our complete salvation drawing nigh. What though we die and moulder in the grave? The saints then alive shall not prevent us, though the last memorial of our names may long have perished from the earth, it shall appear that they are written in HEAVEN. And when the Lord himself descends from heaven with that heart-rending shout, when the trump of God shall sound, his dead shall live-like his dead body shall they revive-they that dwell in the dust shall rise and sing, for his dew is as that falling upon herbs, and the earth shall cast forth its dead! But who can Now conceive the rapture with which so many millions shall start up at once from their beds of dust, all arrayed in robes of glory, and spurning the earth in which they have been so long entombed, and all that is mortal and corruptible shall soar aloft in one joyful company with those who shall then be found alive, to meet the Lord in the air, forming a mighty host, bright as the sun, clear as the moon, and awful as an army of

« AnteriorContinuar »