SIXTH NIGHT.
“It is a long time,” said Emma, running to her grandmother’s side, “since you were last able to tell me those nice things about Bible doctrines. I have been longing much for you to be able to speak to me again about them.”
“I feel better and stronger now,” said old Mrs Allan, who had been for many weeks laid aside, “and I am as happy as my little Emma can be, to find myself once more in my old oaken chair, with her at my knee.”
“Thank you, grandmamma,” said she, clinging affectionately to her withered hand; “and what are you going to speak to me about to‐night?”
“Our last conversation, my child, if I remember well, was on the intercessory work of the Lord Jesus. I think you would like to hear me speak of the final great act of His mediatorial reign, when He will come at the|The Resurrection and Judgment.|resurrection to judge the world.”
“Oh, yes!” said Emma; “I should like much to hear of that awfullyglorious day. I often tremble when I think about it.”
“It has no terrors, my child, to God’s own people. It is to them a very joyful day—the happiest of all their lives; for then they shall be brought to the full enjoyment of God for ever.”
|Souls of Believers at Death.|“But, dear grandmamma, I thought, when believers die, they go to heaven at the very moment of death; that the angels of God are waiting by their pillows to carry them into Jesus’ bosom.”
“True—most true, my child,” replied the aged lady; “the moment the saint closes his eyes on this world, he opens them in heaven. The souls of believers are at their death made perfect in holiness, and do immediately pass into glory. You perhaps remember some of the things the Apostle Paul said in the prospect of death?”
“Yes,” said Emma; “‘Having a desire to depart, and to be with Christ, which is far better;’ ‘Willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord.’ I remember, too, of Stephen, when his wicked murderers were stoning him, how he cried out, ‘Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.’”
“Quite right, my dear; and that other saying of the Saviour to the poor thief on the cross is more to the point still, when He said to him, ‘Verily I say unto thee,To‐dayshalt thou be with me in paradise.’”
“But then, from all these verses,” said Emma, “is not heaven begun at the hour of death?”
“It is, my child,” replied her grandmother. “I have already told you that, at the moment of death, the soul of the saint is made perfectly holy, and happy too, beyond what we can now conceive; but its state of final and complete glorification will not take place until the day of judgment.”
“What is it,” said the little inquirer, “which will then add to its state of glory and blessedness?”
|The Bodies of Believers.|“You know, my dear,” was the reply, “that thebodyof the believer is not taken to heaven at the hour of death. It is laid in the tomb. You remember too well that sad day when your little brother was laid in his grave in the churchyard. His happy spirit, I believe, is now in heaven, joyful in the presence and love of God; but hisfull state of glory and blessedness will not be complete until his body is raised again on the resurrection morning. Perhaps I should tell|Purchased by Christ.|you that the body, as well as the soul, is part of the purchase of the Lord Jesus Christ. Every particle of the saints’ dust is redeemed by His blood. The Apostle speaks of ‘ourbodiesand our spirits’ as ‘not our own,’ but ‘bought with a price.’”
“But how can this be?” inquired Emma; “do you mean that the bodies of those who have been buried for ages will come all to life again, and the soul be once more united to these?”
|Raised from the Grave.|“Yes, my dear, it is indeed a wonderful thought. But what cannot the power of God do? He hassaidthat He will raise us up at the last day. Do you remember any of the words of Jesus about this?”
Emma thought a little, and at last turned up her Bible to the verses, and read them: “Marvel not at this; for the hour is coming in the which all that are in the graves shall hear His voice, and shall come forth; they that have done good, unto the resurrectionof life; and they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of damnation.” “But how,” continued she, when she had finished, and once more repeating her question of surprise—“how, grandmamma, can this be?—does not the dead body crumble into dust? How can the particles that have for hundreds and thousands of years been mixed with the earth come together again?”
“God can do anything, I answer once more,” was the reply of the other. “We should always remember that what is impossible with man, is possible with God. We are not without examples, my child, in the natural world, of the wondrous changes which the power of God can produce in smaller|The Doctrine of the Resurrection probable from Analogy.|things; and this shews us (from what is calledanalogy) that we have no right to question the doctrine I am now speaking about, however strange and apparently impossible it may seem to be.”
“What instances, grandmamma,” said Emma, “may I ask, do you refer to in the outer world? I should like to understand better what you mean.”
“I like to hear you asking for more information, dear Emma, and I shall try to give it to you. Well, then, I know you have often seen the bright and beautiful butterfly with its golden wings and rings of silver. Can you believe that that lovely insect was once a little grub or caterpillar? I see you are astonished, my dear, at what I now say; but it is the case. During winter, these little worms lie in what is called achrysalisstate. During this time there is nothing in the least beautiful about them—I would say rather the reverse; but all at once, when the summer sun shines out, the little insect bursts its coating, and is changed into a lovely butterfly or moth, with expanded wings, flying up into the blue sky, or ranging at large amid the garden flowers.”
“Oh how wonderful is this!” exclaimed Emma; “and I see now, grandmamma, what you mean. This little creature teaches me to understand how the same mighty power of God, that changes the caterpillar into a butterfly, can bring about the still more wonderful change in raising our vile bodies from the grave.”
“You are right, my child,” said her grandmother.“I am glad you have understood me; and if I had time, I might give you other instances of a similar kind. You have seen, for example, the farmer put the little grains of seed into the ground; could you ever have expected that the small pickles thrown into the earth would spring up into the rich fields of yellow corn you have seen waving at harvest time?”
“Oh no,” replied Emma; “I have often thought how curious this is, and also that the little annual seed I sow in my own garden‐plot should spring up such lovely flowers. The seed looks so small and withered like, and the flowers are so beautiful in colour, and have such a sweet smell.”
“Well, my dear, does not God give us proofs in these smaller things of what He can do in greater things. The body laid in the grave is like the seed laid in the ground, ‘it is sown in dishonour, it is raised in glory.’ I should like you,” continued the old lady, “to take your Bible and read all that striking and beautiful passage of the Apostle Paul on|Testimony of St Paul.|this subject.” Emma immediately opened to the 15th chapter of 1st Corinthians,42d verse, and read aloud as follows:—“It is sown in corruption, it is raised in incorruption: it is sown in dishonour, it is raised in glory: it is sown in weakness, it is raised in power: it is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body. There is a natural body, and there is a spiritual body.... Behold, I shew you a mystery; we shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump (for the trumpet shall sound); and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality. So when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory.”
“What a wonderful scene that will be!” said Emma, as she closed her Bible. “Dear grandmamma, can you tell mewhenit will take place?”
|When the Resurrection will be.|“No, my child,” replied she; “the Bible tells us that ‘Of that day and hour knoweth no man; no, not even the angels that are inheaven.’ God seems purposely to keep us in the dark about the time of the coming of Jesus, that we may be always ready for it. It matters little how long or how short it may be, provided we are now living as we would wish we had done when we hear the trumpet sounding.”
“And what sort of bodies,” said Emma, “will they be that will then rise from the graves?”
“All that I can tell you,” replied her grandmother, “is, that they will be glorious|Glory of the Resurrection Body.|bodies, fashioned like unto Christ’s glorified body. They will be no more subject to decay, and weakness, and disease, and death. It is said of them, ‘They shall be like Him’ (like Jesus), and also, ‘Neither shall they die any more.’ And surely no blessedness can be greater than this—to belike Jesus, andnevertodie.”
“Oh, grandmamma!” exclaimed Emma, “I feel as if I would not be afraid to go to the grave, after all that you have been now telling me.”
“True, my child, the lowliest grave in yonder churchyard, if it be the grave of a truebeliever, is holy ground. Perhaps angels are watching over it, and Jesus himself counts its dustprecious. The grave of the wicked is a prison house, where they are detained in captivity until the day of awful vengeance; but the grave of the saint is a casket holding a precious jewel. It is a bed of rest, where he gently and peacefully ‘sleeps’ till awakened on the happy morning of immortality.
“But I must here, my dear, pause for to‐night. We have been speaking so much about this wondrous doctrine of the body’s resurrection as to render it necessary that I should wait till another Sabbath to speak as I promised about the day of judgment.”
“You promised, grandmamma,” said little Emma, as she found herself once more seated by the old oaken chair, “to tell me to‐night|The Last Judgment.|about the Day of Judgment. I long to hear you speak about so solemn a subject. There is much about it I do not understand.”
“Itis, my child,” replied the other, “asolemn subject. It will be a dreadful day to the wicked; but it will be a happy day to all God’s dear children—the happiest day in their lives.”
“Tell me, then, dear grandmamma, all that the Bible tells us about it. I shall promise to listen with great attention.”
|What it is.|“The Judgment,” answered the other, “is that great transaction which is to take place at the end of the world, when every man, and woman, and child, that ever lived, will be brought to trial before God’s ‘great white throne.’ A trumpet will sound over their graves. As I told you last Sabbath, the mouldering dust will come to life again, and the dead, small and great, will stand before God.”
“What a wonderful and awful thought!” exclaimed Emma; “but do you mean to say thatallwill be there, without any exception?”
“All!—all!” replied the aged lady, “from Adam to the last inhabitant of the world. There will be those who livedbeforethe flood, andsincethe flood. Patriarchs, and Prophets, and Apostles—Jews and Gentiles—Pagans and Christians—rich and poor—youngand old—learned and unlearned—kings and beggars—not one will be wanting; and more still,youandIwill be there.Oureyes will look on that vast crowd.”
“And tell me,” continued Emma, deeply impressed with the thought, “who is the|The Judge.|Judge that will be seated on the throne you speak of? and what will He do?”
“If you refer, my child,” said her grandmother, “to the seventeenth chapter of Acts, thirty‐first verse, you will there read who is set apart as Judge of the world.” Emma turned up the passage in her Bible, and read as follows:—
“For He hath appointed a day in the which He will judge the world in righteousness bythat Manwhom He hath ordained; whereof He hath given assurance unto all men, in that He hath raised Him from the dead.”
“Oh, I see now!” she exclaimed, as she closed her Bible; “it is the Lord Jesus Christ who is to be Judge. It makes me glad to think of this; for if I love and serve Him now, I will not be afraid to meet Him then.|The Throne.|But why is it said that He is to be seated on awhitethrone?—will it really be so?”
“I cannot tell,” replied the other, “what theoutwardmarks of majesty will be in which He will appear, although, doubtless, these will be very great; for it is said that He will come ‘in His glory,’ and that He is to have ‘all His holy angels with Him.’ But He is spoken of as seated on a greatwhitethrone, to denote His awful purity and holiness; that He will give on that day every one his due. His mercy will not interfere with the exercise of justice and holiness, and sinners will not escape unpunished.”
“I think I now remember, dear grandmamma,” said Emma, “of reading in that same chapter in Revelation which speaks of the throne of the Judge, that He is to have|The Books.|some books lying open before Him.”
“Yes, my child, you are right; ‘the books,’ we are told, are to be ‘opened.’ What these books may be we cannot tell; but perhaps they may be the books of the Law and the Gospel—the books of Conscience, and Memory, and Privilege; and especiallytheGreat Book of Remembrance, in which all|The Book of Remembrance.|our words, and deeds, and actions, are preserved. All that every individual has ever done will be found recorded in it. Many will wonder when they come to see how faithful the pen of God has been in writing downall;—heart sins, and tongue sins, and life sins. I fear not a few suppose that there are many trifling faults (or, as they call them, ‘little sins’) which they imagine God does not think it worth while to take notice of. They will find every one of them recorded.Theymay have forgotten them long ago; but they will all be brought to light again on that Great Day.”
“If this,” exclaimed Emma, “be indeed the case, who is there but must tremble at the thought of that day?”
“The wicked, my child,” continued her grandmother, “will and must be afraid to think of it. All who have not known the salvation of Jesus, and fled to His precious blood, must be covered then with confusion and shame. They will then be led to see, what they never saw before, what an evil thing sin is, and what a holy being God is.But His own people will have nothing to fear. They can say now, in the words of the beautiful hymn—
‘Bold shall I stand on that great day;For who aught to my charge can lay,While by Thy blood absolved I amFrom sin’s tremendous guilt and shame?’
‘Bold shall I stand on that great day;For who aught to my charge can lay,While by Thy blood absolved I amFrom sin’s tremendous guilt and shame?’
‘Bold shall I stand on that great day;For who aught to my charge can lay,While by Thy blood absolved I amFrom sin’s tremendous guilt and shame?’
‘Bold shall I stand on that great day;
For who aught to my charge can lay,
While by Thy blood absolved I am
From sin’s tremendous guilt and shame?’
Yes, dear Emma, they will be able to look up with joy in the face of their Judge, and say, ‘It is God that justifieth, who is he that condemneth?’”
“But what! Do you mean, grandmamma, that God does not take account of the sins of the righteous?”
“No, no, my child; every one of their sins is written down as well as those of the wicked—dreadful pages of guilt, too, that might well overwhelm them with wrath and condemnation.”
“How, then,” continued Emma, “can it be different with them from the others? How can God pass over their many sins?”
“Hedoesnot—Hecouldnot, my child,” replied the aged lady, “pass any sins over. But you may have heard ofanotherbook which|The Book of Life.|God will have before Him on that day. It is theBook of Life. There the names of all the redeemed are written. None who are writtentherein can be lost! It is as if the great Judge took His pen and drew it through every page of recorded sins, marking them all out with the blood of the Lamb of God.”
“But,” asked Emma, “will it not make the believer very sad and sorrowful on that day to see such an awful record of sins? It will be enough, surely, to bring floods of tears to his eyes.”
“I do not wonder at your saying so, my dear; but I think the thought of his sins will be lost in a still more wondrous and amazing one—I mean in thinking of the work of Jesus, that could takeso many sinsaway, making them all forgiven and forgotten, and blotted out for ever.”
“Oh thatmyname, dear grandmamma, were safely written there! I feel as if I never could be for another hour happy or joyful until I felt sure that my name was in theBook of Life!”
“You have, my dear child, all the assurance necessary, if you are now believing in the Lord Jesus—trusting in His merits—seeking to love Him—to do what He commands—and avoid what displeases Him. Of such He says (Rev.iii.5), ‘I will not blot out hisname out of theBook of Life; but I will confess his name before my Father and before His angels.’”
“But tell me further,” said Emma, “how will the work of judgment proceed?”
“Jesus, my child, after the books have been opened, and the vast multitude have been brought before Him, will go on to pronounce sentence upon each. It will be a solemn scene. We read that ‘He will|The Awards.|separate the righteous from the wicked as a shepherd divideth the sheep from the goats.’ In this world the good and the bad, the ‘tares and the wheat,’ are mixed up together.Wecannot tell the holy from the unholy; but Jesus knows them all; and on that day He will parcel all mankind into these two great classes. In one or other every human being must be placed.”
“On whom will He pronounce sentence first?” inquired Emma.
“He will address the righteous first,” said her grandmother. “It will not, indeed, be withthema day of wrath. Believers, at the time of their justification (as I explained to you on a former evening), were dismissedwith the sentence of ‘not guilty’ pronounced upon them. They are brought before God’s throne, that there they may be ‘openly acknowledged’—receive a public acquittal before men and angels—and listen to that happy, happy sentence, ‘Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.’”
“I can well imagine their joy,” said Emma; “but what next?”
“It will be a sadly different scene, my child. Let the words of Jesus himself tell you of it—you will find them in the 25th chapter of Matthew, 41st verse.”
Emma again turned to the passage, and read, “Then shall He say also to them on the left hand, Depart, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels.”
“After this,” continued the aged lady, “we read no more about the doings of that great day. The court is dissolved—the trial over. We see the golden gates of heaven open to receive happy saints and angels; and the miserable wicked sink down to the regions of despair! This solemn day terminates the kingdom of grace on earth. The kingdom of glory is then completed. The elect aregathered into it from the four quarters of heaven. They ‘enter into the joy of their Lord.’ But this I must reserve speaking to you about, if God spare me, till another Sabbath.”
Spring once more returned with its green fields and bright sky. The little birds were beginning to raise their earliest notes, as if telling one another how happy they were that winter, with its snow and its storms, was again over, and that the fresh buds were beginning again to appear. The small, old‐fashioned lamp, too, which was filled every Saturday, so as to be ready for the Sabbath evening, was, from the long twilight, no longer required. As the last rays of the setting sun were falling through the latticed window, Emma was found once more at her grandmother’s side.
“I think, my dear,” said the latter, laying aside her spectacles, and drawing her grandchild nearer her—“I think I left off speaking last Sabbath when we were just beginning totalk of the most wondrous and glorious of all Bible subjects.”
“Oh yes,” replied Emma, “you had told me about the doings of the great Day of Judgment, and you were commencing to|Of Heaven.|speak about the glories of heaven, when you thought it would be better to wait till now.”
“Truly, my child,” said her grandmother, “I would require rather to wait till that heaven itself begins, in order to give you any idea of its happiness. We are told that ‘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.’”
“I was reading a little ago, when sitting at the window,” said Emma, “the description of this glorious heaven given us in the last chapters of the Bible, where it is said to be a|How described in Revelation.|great city, with streets of gold like transparent glass, walls of jasper, and foundations of precious stones. And here, too, is another beautiful verse, grandmamma,” continued she, as her eyes glanced over the 21st chapter of Revelation: “‘And the city hadno 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 here yet another lovely description,” she added, “I love so to read it: ‘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.’”
“I have not interrupted you, my dear child, in reading these beautiful verses,” said the aged lady; “they give us a bright and glowing picture of happiness and glory, which our minds can in no other way conceive.”
|To be understood figuratively.|“But will thereindeedbe golden streets, and crystal walls, and all these precious stones that are here spoken of?” inquired Emma.
“There will be far greater magnificence, and far purer happiness,” replied her grandmother, “than all the gold and gems this world could give. These are just figures oremblems employed by God in His Word to convey to us some idea of the vast glory of heaven. No earthly words, or thoughts, or language, could describe this; and therefore, as men consider gold and precious stones the most costly and valuable things in the world, they are used as pictures to give us some feeble representation of heavenly blessedness.”
“What, then, dear grandmamma, will heaven really be? What kind of a place is it? and how are the righteous employed when they get there?”
|The Scenery of Heaven.|“I cannot tell,” replied the other, “what character of scenery there will be in heaven, nor in what particular spot in the universe this happy place is prepared. The Bible does not gratify our curiosity about this. For anything that is known to the contrary, there may be much there that we love and admire in this world. There may be beautiful skies, and clear rivers, and gushing fountains, and lovely flowers, and sweet music. But still, as I have said already, regarding all these the Bible says nothing.”
“What, then,willheaven consist in, grandmamma?” inquired Emma.
|Negative and Positive Blessedness.|“I was just going to say, my child, that there are many things we know willnotbe there, and many things we knowwillbe there. Does little Emma think she could tell me any of the things we have in this world that we shallnothave in heaven?”
“Oh yes,” replied the little girl, “I think I know. We shall have nosinthere, and nosorrowthere, and nodeaththere.”
|Negative.|“Quite right, my child,” said her grandmother. “This is a world of sin, and therefore it has become a world of pain, and sickness, and sorrow, and death; but in heaven all these will be unknown. I thought I saw you, my dear, but yesterday seated in the churchyard on little Robert’s tomb; and when you came home, I observed by your eyes that you had been weeping for the loss of your little brother. In that happy heaven I am speaking of there will be no graves and no tears, for there will be no sin and no death to cause them.”
“But then, dear grandmamma, will there be no other joys in heaven?”
|Positive.|“Yes, yes, my child,” replied the aged lady; “I have only spoken to you of what isnotin heaven. I have yet to tell you whatisthere. Can little Emma answer this question too, as well as the last?”
“I shall meet all my dear friends there,” said Emma—“my father and mother, who were both taken from me when I was so young, and little Robert, and you too, grandmamma, who have so kindly led me on in the way to that happy place, and told me often how I am to get there.”
“My dear child,” said her grandmother, “all that you have said about meeting departed friends there is true. All who are the friends of Jesus will meet in that happy home. Ibelieveit to be true,” she repeated, the tear filling her eye as she spoke. “Parents will know their children, and children their parents; and brothers and sisters will meet never to part any more. But this is but a very small portion of the joy of heaven. Can you not think of a far greater joy in that bright world than even the meeting of the dearest earthly friends?”
“Oh yes,” replied Emma, “we shall meetGod!—we shall see Jesus face to face!|Vision of God.|This will be the greatest, surely, of all the glories of heaven—to dwell for ever with God, and discover more of His grace and love!”
“Yes, truly, my child,” said the other; “this is to heaven what the sun is to the universe. All the other glories we can speak of are only, by comparison, like the light of the stars to that sun, or like little streams to the great ocean. We shall ‘see God;’ and what, perhaps, is more wondrous still, we shall belikeGod. Along with the holy angels, we shall have no higher delight than doing His will. We shall feel that in His presence ‘there is fulness of joy.’”
“But shall we indeedsee God?” inquired Emma; “the thought seems so wondrous. How can this be?”
|How God will be Manifested.|“Here again, dear child,” replied her grandmother, “we must not try to be wise beyond what the Bible has told us; for it is there said, that ‘He dwells in light that is inaccessible and full of glory, whom no eye hath seen, neither can see.’ That there will be some bright and glorious manifestation ofHis presence I cannot doubt; but what the|The Presence of Jesus in the midst of the Redeemed.|nature of this will be I cannot tell. This we know, however, with certainty, that Jesus, our blessed Redeemer, in His glorified human nature, will be seen and adored by the countless multitudes of His ransomed people.”
“I saw,” said Emma, “a verse immediately following the words I a little ago read, which speaks of this. Here it is: ‘Andthey shall see His face, and His name shall be in their foreheads.’”
“Yes, my child; and you may perhaps remember some other passages which tell the same blessed truth. Do you remember what made John so happy in the prospect of heaven?”
“Oh yes,” replied Emma, “I recollect now. He says with such joy, ‘We know that, when He shall appear, we shall be like Him; for we shallsee Him as He is.’”
“Quite right, dearest,” said her grandmother; “I shall just remind you of one more. It is the Saviour’s own last prayer for His people—‘Father, I will that they also whom Thou hast given me bewith me where I am,that they may behold my glory.’ Do you remember the name by which Jesus is spoken of again and again in the book of Revelation, describing to us how He now appears in glory?”
“Yes,” replied Emma; “I have often been struck with the title there given to Him. He is called ‘theLamb that was slain.’ I often wonder why He should be called so, now that He is in heaven, seated on His throne, with all His sufferings at an end.”
“It is, my dear child,” answered the aged lady, “a very precious name. It tells that He continues, and will continue, to wear His glorifiedhumannature there, and that, too, through all eternity. It tells us also that the redeemed will never cease to remember that it was to the shedding of His precious blood that they owe every gem of their crowns.”
“And doubtless,” said Emma, “the happy company of the saints will for ever delight to think more and more of the love of Jesus?”
|Their Contemplation of Christ’s Love.|“You are right,” said the other. “It will assuredly be one of the greatest joys in heaven to comprehend with all saints what is the height and depth, andlength and breadth, and to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge. They will ever be trying to know more and more of this love; but they will never be able to understand all its meaning.”
“I daresay, too, much that we cannot now understand will be cleared up?” said Emma.
“Yes, my dear,” replied her grandmother; “God’s wisdom and faithfulness will then be as fully revealed as His love. There is much that takes place on earth which is perplexing|Providences Explained in Heaven.|to us—what we call ‘dark dealings,’—as, for example, when good and useful lives are taken away, and evil and worthless lives are spared; but Jesus, you remember, said, ‘What thou knowest notnow, thou shalt know hereafter.’ I believe we shall then not only ‘know,’ butsee, that ‘all things have been working together for good to them that love God.’ Sore trials and afflictions will then call forth loud songs of praise; and it will be made manifest that the Judge of all the earth had done right.”
“And will all these blessed saints,” inquired Emma, “be equally holy and happy?”
“They will all, my dear, beholy,” said theold lady, “for ‘without holiness no one could see God,’ far less enjoy Him; and they will all, too, behappy—not one tear will be in their bright faces. But I believe, too, that some|Degrees of Bliss in Heaven.|will be happier than others.Allwill be like vessels full to the brim with glory and happiness; but some vessels will be larger than others, and able, therefore, to contain more happiness. We read that they shall differ ‘as one star in the firmament differs from another star in glory.’ Some stars are of a larger size than others; some are nearer the sun than others: so those who have lived nearer Jesus on earth, and loved Him with larger hearts, will be nearer Him in heaven. Whileall, therefore, who are believers will be happy, those will be happiest who are walking closest with God now. If you will turn to the twelfth chapter of Daniel, you will find there a striking verse, telling of different degrees of coming happiness. Here it is,” continued the old lady, pointing her little grandchild to the third verse: “‘They that be wise shall shine as the brightness of the firmament; and they that turn many to righteousness as the stars for ever and ever.’”
“Oh! what a glorious, happy prospect, dear grandmamma! Would that I could feel sure of being one even of these feeblest stars!”
|How Heaven is Obtained.|“There is but one way, my child,” replied the other, “of joining that bright company of which we have been speaking. It is the blood of Jesus alone that can open these glorious gates. But that bloodhasopened them, and keeps them open still, to the chief of sinners. That blessed Redeemer seems still to stand at the gate of heaven, and say, ‘I am the door: by me if any man enter in, he shall be saved.’
“But I feel, my dear Emma, that my strength is failing, and I am unable to speak more to you this evening. Give me your Bible, and I shall double down the leaf at my favourite description of the joys of heaven.” She accordingly took her little grandchild’s Bible, and putting a mark with her aged finger at the seventh chapter of Revelation, thirteenth verse, returned it to her again, saying, “Should you, my child, be with me at my dying hour, when my tongue is too feeble to speak, remember to read to me that sweetpassage. I have often wished that I might have some one to read to me these words when I pass through the Dark Valley.”
|Conclusion.|Little did Emma suppose that the words which now fell upon her ear would so soon come true. A few weeks only passed by, when her grandmother was laid upon a bed of sickness and pain, which soon proved a bed of death. The aged saint bore up under her sufferings with calmness and fortitude. She was kept in perfect peace, for her mind was stayed on God. Her dear little grandchild was her faithful companion during her last hours. The night before her death, when she was fast sinking, and her lips getting paler and paler, Emma remembered faithfully the request made to her. The tear started to her eye as she opened her Bible, and saw the leaf still folded down. She read it with a trembling voice. The poor old sufferer was able to do no more than clasp her withered hands as the happy sentences fell on her ears. When she had fallen asleep in Jesus, and was laid in the churchyard which she had so often looked to from her window, Emma delighted to go with her Bible in her hand,and, sitting on the green turf which covered her grave, to read the well‐known passage: “And one of the elders answered, saying unto me, What are these which are arrayed in white robes? and whence came they? And I said unto him, Sir, thou knowest. And he said to me, These are they which came out of great tribulation, and have washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. Therefore are they before the throne of God, and serve Him day and night in His temple: and He that sitteth on the throne shall dwell among them. They shall hunger no more, neither thirst any more; neither shall the sun light on them, nor any heat. For the Lamb, which is in the midst of the throne, shall feed them, and shall lead them unto living fountains of waters; and God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes.”
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