You also want an ePaper? Increase the reach of your titles
YUMPU automatically turns print PDFs into web optimized ePapers that Google loves.
experiences, these clear testimonies of my Father's love, to my fearful,<br />
unbelieving heart! O then, what a blessed day will that be when I shall have<br />
all mercy, perfection of mercy, and fully enjoy the Lord of mercy; when I<br />
shall stand on the shore and look back on the raging seas I have safely<br />
passed; when I shall review my pains and sorrows, my fears and tears, and<br />
possess the glory which was the end of all! If one drop of lively faith was<br />
mixed with these considerations, what a heaven-ravishing heart should I<br />
carry within me! Fain would ‘I believe; Lord, help my unbelief.'<br />
"How sweet, O my soul, have ordinances been to thee! What delight hast<br />
thou had in prayer and thanksgiving, under heavenly sermons and in the<br />
society of saints, and to see ‘the Lord adding to the church such as should be<br />
saved!' How, then, can my heart conceive the joy which I shall have to see<br />
the perfected church in heaven, and to be admitted into the celestial temple,<br />
and with the heavenly host praise the Lord for ever? Was the word of God<br />
sweeter to Job than his necessary food, and to David than honey and the<br />
honeycomb, and was it the joy and rejoicing of Jeremiah's heart; how blessed<br />
a day will that be when we shall fully enjoy the Lord of this word, and shall<br />
no more need these written precepts and promises, nor read any book but the<br />
face of the glorious God! If they that heard Christ speak on earth ‘were<br />
astonished at his wisdom and answers, and wondered at the gracious words<br />
that proceeded out of his mouth,' how shall I, then, be affected to behold him<br />
in his majesty!<br />
"Can the prospect of his glory make others welcome the cross and even<br />
refuse deliverance; and cannot it make thee cheerful under lesser sufferings?<br />
Can it sweeten the flames of martyrdom and not sweeten thy life, or thy<br />
sickness, or thy natural death? Is it not the same heaven which they and I<br />
must live in? Is not their God, their Christ, their crown and mine the same?<br />
And shall I look upon it with an eye so dim, a heart so dull, a countenance so<br />
dejected? Some small foretastes of it have I myself had; and how much more<br />
delightful have they been than any earthly things ever were! What, then, will<br />
273
Change language