July 7

"The day is at hand." — Romans 8:12.

THE revolutions of time shall soon be lost in the ages of eternity; the dark veil which now shrouds futurity shall soon be drawn aside; Jordan's streams shall soon be crossed, and the believer shall be surrounded by purity and never-ending peace; "the night is far spent, the day is at hand." Consider

THE BRILLIANCY AND GRANDEUR OF THE DAY. If this world to the Christian is night, heaven shall be to him a day. Let us notice several things respecting it.

It is a day of rest and peace. Peace marks every object there. If there is an ocean there, it is never disturbed by the rufle of a wave. If there is a firmament there, it is never darkened by the appearance of a cloud, and knows not the destruction of a storm. If there are harps there, all are tuned to Jehovah's praise, and there is not a jarring sound to spoil the harmony. If there is a sun there, it never goes down. There every inhabitant is animated by the same spirit, a subject of the same emotions, consecrated to the same object, employed in the same contemplations, and swelling the same song.

It is a day of enjoyment and triumph. What is heaven? It is the realization of this hope: "As for me, I will behold thy face in righteousness." There is the full, free, and uninterrupted enjoyment of communion with God, and fellowship with angels and the spirits of the redeemed.

It is an eternal day. Its brilliancy shall never be diminished, its employments shall never close. There is an assembly which no devastation can dissolve, and enjoyments which ever-rolling ages shall only enhance. Consider the approach of this day. It is "at hand" — the tale of life will soon be told. Death will soon visit us, and the grave will soon receive us. Already, Christian, we may imagine the beams of the morning stretching forth, and the shadows of the night declining. Even now we are on the borders of the unseen world, standing on the threshold of eternity, and some of us may be near the brink of that river into which we must soon launch. How many tremble like the last leaves of autumn, only waiting for the gentle breeze to blow them away, and cause them to disappear! The righteous are ready whenever the summons comes; but the ungodly stand as upon a shelf, undermined by every wave borne in upon it by the tide of time; and if the last shock be given, before they are reconciled to God, they will be ingulfed in ruin.