THIRTY-FIRST DAY. THE The Joy of the sun shall be no more thy light by day; neither for brightness shall the moon give light unto thee: but the Lord shall be unto thee an everlasting light, and thy God thy glory. Thy sun shall no more go down; neither shall thy moon withdraw itself: for the Lord shall be thine everlasting light, and the days of thy mourning shall be ended. Isaiah lx. 19, 20. His lord said unto him, Well done, good and faithful servant: thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things: enter thou into the joy of thy Lord. St. Matt. xxv. 23. Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him. And I saw no temple therein: for the Almighty and the Lamb are the temple of it. I Cor. ii. 9. Lord God And the city had no need of the sun, neither of the moon, to shine in it : for the glory of God did lighten it, and the Lamb is the light thereof. And the nations of them which are saved shall walk in the light of it: and the kings of the earth do bring their glory and honour into it. And the gates of it shall not be shut at all by day: for there shall be no night there. And they shall bring the glory and honour of the nations into it. And there shall in no wise enter into it any thing that defileth, neither whatsoever worketh abomination, or maketh a lie: but they which are written in the Lamb's book of life. And he shewed me a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding out of the throne of God and of the Lamb. In the midst of the street of it, and on either side of the river, was there the tree of life, which bare twelve manner of fruits, and yielded her fruit every month: and the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations. And there shall be no more curse: but the throne of God and of the Lamb shall be in it; and his servants shall serve him and they shall see his face; and his name shall be in their foreheads. And there shall be no night there; and they need no candle, neither light of the sun; for the Lord God giveth them light: and they shall reign for ever and ever. Rev. xxi. 22-27; xxii. 1-5. T. V. FOSBery. HAVE you not sometimes felt almost weary of hearing the happiness of Heaven dwelt on unceasingly when Heaven was the theme? Has it not sometimes crossed your mind that a mere selfish selfcentred happiness cannot be the chiefest thing either in this life or in the next? Doubtless when a man is in great bodily pain, he can do but little, all his faculties seem for the time to be paralysed; he must have ease from his sufferings ere he can go about his work, and do it efficiently once more. So again, when the burden of sorrow lies heavy on the heart, though this discipline may indeed, through God's mercy, be in its issues greatly blessed to the sufferer, yet he is not at the time so fit for the active service of God or his fellow-men. surely the best men, when they seek to be delivered from these afflictions, do not think mainly of the comfort and ease which will come with the release from pain, anxiety, and sorrow; they reckon rather how much more they will then be able to do, with how much freer hearts and hands they may then fulfil the duties which God has appointed for them. But if even on earth any immunity from pain and grief is chiefly precious, not for itself, but for what it may set us at liberty to do, shall we not count happiness in Heaven rather as a means than as an end? Christians, who have learned unselfishness at the Cross of Christ, are not likely to forget the lesson when in sight of His Crown; their hearts will still be But more occupied with their Lord and His appointed ministrations, whatever these may be, than with themselves. 'My Father worketh hitherto,' said Christ, and I work.' We cannot then suppose that for us Heaven I will be a blissful idleness. If the very angels are ministers sent forth to minister to them who shall be heirs of salvation, can we think that we, when we reach the Angelic condition, shall fold our hands and do nothing? That text, 'Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord, for they rest from their labours,' applies undoubtedly to the intermediate state, before the resurrection. But active service seems to be the law of the highest and truest life. Rest indeed there shall be, if by rest we mean relief from all sense of fatigue and weariness; unbroken rest, if by that we mean a perpetual spring of freshness and vigour. Rest there shall be from hurry, from fierce excitement, from the throng and press of conflicting and importunate claims, rest and leisure, but who does not know how different these are from idleness; how compatible with zealous activity and healthful diligence? Yes, there shall be no more weariness there; none there shall have to till the ground in the sweat of his brow; none there shall say in the morning, 'Would God it were evening!' and in the evening, 'Would God it were morning!' for life shall be in itself a joy. If we can but look at all this unselfishly, we may safely encourage ourselves in this dark world with blessed anticipations concerning the inheritance of the saints in light;' counting over the treasures laid up for them who are faithful unto death, though ever remembering that after the fullest search, there will yet remain undisclosed the things which 'eye hath not seen, nor ear heard,' and which have not entered into the heart of man to conceive,' of what God hath prepared for them that love Him. What then is the nature and character of that life which God will give His people in the Resurrection? In Heaven there will be no tempter and no temptation. O ye who have long striven against the power of evil within and around you, and bear the marks of battle, there will be no more downward tendencies to resist. The law of that evil gravitation will be reversed; ye shall suffer no more from the failing of your purposes or the vacillations of your will, from the wandering of your affections or from your divided hearts. The Holy Spirit will no more be resisted or grieved, all the glory and all the purity of Heaven will be reflected from the stainless mirror of your renewed nature, in truth and beauty. And there will be no more sorrow. O ye who have watched by beds of suffering, and mourned by the graves of the lost; and who know how lonely and desolate the soul is made when the blight of disappointed hopes has passed, like some parching wind, across it; there shall be none of all this for ever. The thorns and thistles which sprang up after the fall shall grow no more in the garden of your life. No crosses, no wrongs, no priva |