1.A 31. LETTER XXXI
LETTER XXXI.
Beholding the glory of God a principal source of happiness- Negative character of enjoyment No pain, <fec. Wicked cease from troubling Positive character of it Fulness of joy Recognise each other Proved from Tupper The author anticipates the pleasure of recognising his friends Poetry This pleasure shall never end Increase of knowledge another source of enjoyment This evident to those who taste the pleasure of knowledge Saints shall raise the highest notes of praise Angels unite with them in songs of praise Concludes with poetry by Charles Wesley. MY DEAR M : No doubt that one portion of the enjoyment of the saints in heaven will consist in the glory which they shall inherit as a reward of their good works. But this is not all, and by no means the principal part of their happiness. Its principal source will, doubtless, be in beholding the glory of God as manifested in Christ Jesus, for then, and there, they shall " see Him as He is." We now " see through a glass, darkly, but then face to face; now we know in part, but then shall we know even as we are known." Those mysterious workings of Divine providence which we could not comprehend in this world; the reasons and ends of God’s dispensations, which were often hidden from our view; and all those deep designs into which we could not penetrate with our limited perceptions, shall be fully unfolded, explained, and made plain to us when we get home to glory.
One part of the happiness of the heavenly world will be of a negative character. There will be " no pain, nor sickness, nor death;" there " shall be no night there; nor shall they have any need of the sun, for the Lord God and the Lamb shall be the light" of that holy temple. The power and goodness of God shall forever have removed, through the process of the grave and the resurrection, having first, in this life, purified their souls from the pollution of sin all the causes of sickness, pain, and death; they shall never be permitted to infect that holy atmosphere, or to seize upon those raised and immortal bodies which will inhabit the New Jerusalem; and the glory of God will shine so resplendently as to banish all moral and natural darkness from that holy palace of " Angels and of God." So our poet teaches us to sing in that admirable hymn, which seems to have been com posed with a bright anticipation of a joyful en trance into that heavenly world, where all is light and peace. Surely his soul must have expanded with a full and delightful view of the superlative happiness which awaited him on his release from the bondage in which he was held in this life, when he penned those words of poetic melody and rapturous delight. Hear him, my dear M , while he depicts in glowing colors, and in numbers so sweet and smooth as to charm the dulcet ears of even angels them selves, those ecstatic joys in which the saints shall participate at the right hand of God :
" No need of the sun in that day Which never is follow d by night, Where Jesus’s beauties display A pure and a permanent light : The Lamb is their Light and their Sun, And, lo! by reflection they shine; With Jesus ineffably one. And bright in effulgence divine." In the present life the righteous are often annoyed with the conduct of the wicked, with a tempting devil, and with the allurements of a vain and deceitful world. But there "the wicked cease from troubling;" the devil shall have been "cast into the lake of fire;" and all vanity and deceit shall be forever separated from those " new heavens and new earth." These, with a thousand other nameless evils which " flesh is heir to," shall be forever banished from our sight, being excluded from the New Jerusalem.
How beautifully is this all expressed in the following words of the poet!
" Our mourning is all at an end, When, rained by the life-giving Word, We see the new city descend, Adorn d as a bride for her Lord : The city so holy and clean, No sorrow can breathe in the air; No gloom of affliction or siii; No shadow of evil is there." But their enjoyment shall not be merely of a negative character. They shall have " fulness of joy, for at His right hand there are pleasures forever more." As I have already said, there is the pleasure of beholding God " without a dimming veil between," of being assimilated into the likeness of Jesus Christ, and participating in all the joys of the upper world all those joys arising from perfect health of body and mind a perfect supply of all our wants, and perfect union with all the redeemed of the Lord, and a never ending felicity in the beatitudes of heaven. But shall we recognise each other in heaven? Undoubtedly we shall. Is not this fully implied in those words of the Saviour, Luke 13:28, "When ye shall see Abraham, Isaac, and 50:-i- cob, and all the prophets in the kingdom of God, and you yourselves thrust out?" For if those who are summoned to the judgment-seat to be condemned are permitted to recognise those holy men of God. Abraham, Isaac, and
Jacob, and all the holy prophets, surely those associated with them in the kingdom of God will know them personally, and be able to distinguish one from the other. Yes : then " shall we know even as we are known;" and one part of our joy shall consist in the renewal of that holy fellowship which we enjoyed on earth, and recounting together those acts of Di vine love which brought us safely through our trials, and made us " more than conquerors, through him that loved us." How just and true, then, as well as exhilarating, are the words of the poet, when he says :
" I yearn for realms where fancy shall be filled, and the ecstacies of freedom shall be felt, And the soul reign gloriously, risen to its royal destinies. I look to recognise again through the beautiful mask of their perfection The dear familiar faces I have somewhere loved on earth. 1 long to talk with grateful tongue of storms and perils past, And praise the mighty Pilot that hath steered us through the rapids.
He shall be the form of it all; the very heart of gladness : My soul is athirst for God for God in man!"
These sentiments perfectly accord with the feelings and desires of every sanctified soul. All such feel that union one with another which makes them desire each other’s society, and they delight even now to converse one with an other, to mingle their souls together in mutual acts of kindness. And surely they would be deprived of one source of the purest enjoyment in the heavenly world, were they denied the privilege of recognising each other there, of conversing together, and hailing one another blessed forever more. Hence those " dear, familiar faces," as the poet expresses it, will be recognised again when they meet on that eternal shore, and they shall more sweetly than ever interlock their affections, intermingle their souls, and interchange their sentiments of love and friendship, recount those mutual sorrows, afflictions, and trials, through which they had passed in this world, and all shall unite together in " praise to the mighty Pilot," in ascribing " honour and glory, power and dominion, to Him that sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb, forever."
Allowing that the saints in heaven have a personal existence, as they unquestionably have, and especially at the resurrection have an identity of bodily appearance, I can see no possible reason why those who were acquainted with each other in this world, should not recognise each other in that; and thus heighten each other’s enjoyment by mutual recognitions, mutual congratulations, and mutual interchanges of love for love, and joy for joy with n perpetual round of mutual pleasure, arising from the eternal sunshine of God’s smiling countenance beaming upon them in the face of Jesus Christ. There parents will salute their children, hus bands their wives, one friend will hail his other friend, and ministers will meet their flocks; while those who have been peculiarly blessed under their ministry, and who have been endeared to them by a thousand acts of kindness, and tender offices of friendship, will clasp each other in the arms with inexpressible delight, while they all bow together, and sing :
" More than conquerors at last, Here we* find our trials o er; We have all oar sufferings past, Hunger now and thirst no more. No excessive heat we feel From the sun’s directer ray; In a holier clime we dwell, Region of eternal day."
I certainly look forward with a delightful anticipation to that day when I shall have the unspeakable pleasure of hailing the numerous friends with whom I have been associated in the bonds of Christian fellowship some of whom were converted under my ministry; and they and others were often strengthened an
* I have altered the third to the first person, to accommodate the language to the supposed circumstances. comforted by the words God enabled me to speak and comfort myself with the contemplation of spending an eternity with them in the paradise of God! This pleasant thought softens the bed of affliction, fills the heart with rapture, alleviates the pain of parting with those here in whose society I have often taken such exquisite delight. And therefore I comfort myself with the pleasing expectation of a re-union with those from whom I shall never no, never be severed. Did not the poet feel something of this, when he penned those well-known, often-repeated, and often-sung and sung too by holy souls with rapturous delight words, which I give with the more pleasure, because I know that you, my dear M- -- , dwell upon them with a pleasing anticipation of one day realizing their complete fulfilment. I allude to the following :
" O what are all my su/Tring* here, If, Lord, thou count me meet With that enraptur d host to appear, And worship at thy feet! Give joy or grief, give ease or pain, Take life or friend* away; But let me FIND THEM ALL AOAI*, In that ETERNAL DAY."
Surely the poet M.-^-.l himself with the bright hope of finding his numerous " friends again in that eternal day!" And may we not participate with him in this desire and expectation? We may we do; for I know that your holy heart beats high in the well-grounded hope of a re-union in " that bright world above " with those whom you have loved on earth; and I certainly have a kindred feeling in my poor heart, that, however unworthy, I may be permitted to renew my friendship, and to connect my fellowship with all those ivith whom my heart has been united in the bonds of Christian love, in an eternity of reciprocal acts of kindness, and mingle with them around the throne of God. An eternity thus enjoyed! the transporting word! In this imperfect state of being, our pleasures are often interrupted by pains, our happiness by misery, and our most exquisite enjoyments are transitory in their nature they all must soon terminate; but in that world of bliss to which the saints are hastening, there is not only universal delight it shall never be interrupted by a fear that it will end; it shall continually roll on, wave after wave, swelling as it rolls, to all eternity! This is enough, and therefore no words can make it appear more lastincr than is included in that word, ETERNITY!
Strangers and pilgrims here below, This earth, we know, is not our place; But hasten through the vile of woe,
And, restless to behold thy face,
Swift to our heavenly country move,
OUR EVERLASTING HOME ABOVE."
Another source of enjoyment shall be the perpetual increase of our knowledge. In this world our knowledge, at best, is imperfect. We are often deceived through the fallibility of- our judgment liable to imposition by the stratagems of others, through false appearances, and by a thousand other hallucinations that are continu ally playing around our imaginations, and tempting us to yield our understanding and heart to their exclusive sway; so that even when we arrive at truth we seem to hold it with a trembling hand, fearing it may slip from us before we are aware of it. Though, therefore, we may be so far successful as to find the truth, how little of it do we know! We are often compelled to dwell upon the surface of things, without being able to dive into their depths, to scan their essences, or to comprehend those secret laws by which the world is sustain ed, governed, and kept in perpetual motion. Hence, as the apostle expresses it, W<- know but in part." We know, indeed, that we exist, that the world exists around us, because we see it, and all those self-evident truths with which
\ve are surrounded; but how little do we know of the internal structure of our bodies, of the powers of our minds, of those mysterious laws which bind them together; and how much less still do we know of that curious mechanism by which the world is held together, and each planet and system is made to keep its place and move around continually in its respective orbit? But in that bright world, all those impediments to the ascertainment of truth being re moved, we shall see things clearly all will appear as it is; and though we may not be able to discover the whole field of vision at once, yet we shall be ever ranging through it with in creasing delight, while God will unfold to our ravished vision, new, and ever-varying beauties, of his "eternal power and Godhead," as dis played in his magnificent works. With this prospect before him, the poet expresses himself in the following delightful strains :
" I long to behold Him array d With glory and light from above; The King in his beauty display d, His beauty of holiest love : I languish and sigh to be there, Where Jesus hath fix d his abode; O when shall we meet in the air, And fly to the mountain of God!" And in the prospect of eternally dwelling on that happy shore, with his vision of knowledge immeasurably enlarged, he breaks out in the following language :
" With him I on Zion shall stand.
For Jesus hath spoken the word;
The BREADTH of Immanuel’s land
Survey by the light of my Lord." To those who can testify by their own experience to the pleasure which every new discovery of truth affords to the mind even here, I need say nothing to convince them of the exquisite delight that this ever- increasing, ever-unfolding, and ever-expanding " breadth of Immanuel’s land " shall impart to those redeemed and saved souls who shall be perpetually " surveying it in the light of the Lord." O the transport! O the fulness of that joy with which tluir souls will be ravished to all eternity! O, my dear M , does not this anticipation fill your soul with an overwhelming sense of the goodness of that God who hath redeemed you, and washed you in the blood of the Lamb? To think that we shall be permitted to gaze upon the beauties of God in Christ; to turn this way and that, ami at every turn meet an object that we love; to have some new truth in all its uncreated beau ties presented to us; and thus we shall past from truth to truth, from one scene of beauty to another, and that to all eternity! Is not this enough to fill the soul with ecstatic delight, and make us cry out in those poetical strains with which the pen of Charles Wesley moved, while his holy heart dictated the following words?
" Away with our sorrow and fear, We soon shall recover our home; The city of saints shall appear, The day of eternity come. From earth we shall quickly remove, And mount to our native abode; The house of our Father above, The palace of angels and God."
I know not how to quit this theme; it is so glorious, so ravishing to the soul! As Tupper expresses it,
" Thou shall drink, and deeply, filling the mind with marvels; Thou shall watch no more, lingering, disappointed of thy hope; Thou shall roam where road is none, a traveller untrammelled, Speeding at a wish, emancipate, to where the stars are seen."
Yes; from that river, exhaustless as its Fountain, shall forever flow those streams, not only of Divine joy, but of endless knowledge, which shall fill the soul with the purest pleasure and the most ecstatic delight. But who shall swell the highest note of praise? I know that the angels are represented as being nearest the throne, but they are only as servants of the redeemed, who were before sent to " minister unto the heirs of salvation," and now join in the general acclamation of giving glory to God for having washed the saints in the blood of the Lamb, and clothed them in robes white and clean, that these might appear without spot or wrinkle, "adorned as a bride to meet her bridegroom." While, therefore, the angels unite with the saints in ascribing honour and glory to God, the latter shall far exceed the former in raising their notes of praise for the wonders of redeeming love, and in shouting forth their loud hallelujahs to God and the Lamb forever and ever; because they have tasted of redeeming and sanctifying love, and have been made partakers of His great salvation, and have passed through the fire of affliction unhurt, thoroughly purified from all their sins; and therefore they shall sing a song of praise that does not belong to the an gels, and cannot be adopted by them, but shall be sung exclusively by those that have been thus " redeemed from the earth." Hut they shall both unite in ascribing the honour and glory to Jesus Christ, in whom the Godhead’s rays are concentrated, and from whom they are radiated forth in every direction, and over shadow the whole heavenly host as with a cloud of glory. Take from heaven this supreme object of Jove, worship, and adoration, and heaven itself would be emptied of its glory, and ita inhabitants would lack a common centre of praise, and would, methinks, mournfully inquire, Where is He " that loved us, and washed us from our sins in his own blood, and hath made us kings and priests unto God and his Father?" But while they look up and behold Him seated upon the throne, a thrill of joy runs through their hearts, and they all, angels and saints, unite in one common anthem of praise, " Saying, Amen : blessing, and glory, and wisdom, and thanksgiving, and honour, and power, and might, be unto our God forever," and all heaven re sounds. " For the Lamb which is in the midst of the throne, shall lead them to living fountains of water," of which they shall drink, and never thirst again. To HIM BE, therefore, GLORY FOR EVER AND EVER. This is in exact accordance with our own poet, whom I have so often quoted, and whose poetry is so conformable to the language of truth, that it cannot be appealed to with too much frequency. Hear him in the following flowing numbers :
" Angel powers the throne surround;
Next the saints in glory they; Lull d with the transporting sound, They their silent homage pay : Prostrate on their face, before God and his Messiah fall; Then in hymns of praise adore, SHOUT THE LAMB THAT DIED FOB ALL I" may you, my dear M., and I, and all who read these lines, together with all who profess the name of Christ, so live, that we may all join in the general chorus of Be it so, we all reply :
Him let all our orders praise; Him that did for sinners die, Saviour of the favour d race! Render we our Ood his right.
Glory, wisdom, thanks, and power. Honour, majesty, and might.
Praise Him, Praise Him evermore!" To this your full heart cries, Amen, and my heart echoes back the loud assent, while we unitedly proclaim " Raised by the breath of love divine.
We urge our way. with strength renewed; The church of the Brut-born to join. We travel to the mount of Ood : With Joy upon our heads arise. And meet our Saviour in the skies." THE END.