desired none on earth besides him. A real penitent never dreads ' to have God near him. Forgiven in Christ, all aspects of all things are changed. Life's experiences are exalted into a spiritual discipline. God's dealings appear all glorious to his trustful faith. He is reconciled to every attribute of God's character, and loves them. He obeys God, not lest he should be punished, but because he loves him. He submits to God for the same reason, and rejoices in his universal presence, as that of a friend and a father! Oh, how delightful the thought, that the great God is one in whom we can confide! How transporting the thought, we can not go where he is not-that "he will be our guide, even unto death!" And though he must know all our guilt, yet because he knows it all, he has provided a Redeemer from it. How Christ saves us, we may never fully know, but we know he does save us. This is enough; if he saves us from our sins, we have nothing else to fear, and we can rejoice in the omnipresence of just such a God as he has declared himself to be. But in this, the perverse sinner never rejoices. Rather is it a gloomy thought, that God's eye, more to be dreaded than ten thousand witnesses, searches all his secret sins, pierces all his serene respectability this is so appalling, that his only relief is to forget it. But whither can he flee from God's Spirit? He may resist it, quench it, grieve it; but still it is around him. He may close his heart and his eyes, but he can not close the eyes of God's Spirit, while he deprives himself of his only possible consolations in life or in death. In a world, made, redeemed, and filled by God, yet without God in the world, and without hope in his end! II. But the text bears chiefly on our relations to God's presence in another world. Somewhere we must live hereafter. Of the future state we know nothing by experience, nor has any soul ever returned to tell us of it. But each shall soon know all about it for himself. And when our disembodied spirits step forth from their tabernacles, who can guess what we shall see? what we shall hear how we shall communicate with the intelligences that inhabit eternity, or they with us? What new faculties-whose existence we never suspect while wrapped up in the body-will then come into play! Our souls are awfully profound. Elements of woe or bliss lie cradled in these rare and exquisite structures, all ready to rise in giant might. Sometimes, in this life, we tremble, as the depths are uncovered; and, sometimes, are thrilled with unspeakable rapture at glimpses of the heights to which no wing, save of a Christ-redeemed soul, can soar. Now, what we are here, we shall be hereafter; the self-same beings. He who is holy shall be holy still, and he who is evil shall be evil still. So God has told us, and so we feel it. Whatever we do not know of the future state, we know this of it, we shall carry our identity into it. And whatever we may see or may not see in that state, we know we shall see God, far more distinctly than ever here; that, when these material eyes are dissolved, these shutters of the soul's vision taken down, we shall know and feel the actual truth of the words: "Whither shall I flee from thy presence?" Aye, then we shall be able to add, "If I ascend up into heaven, thou art there: if I make my bed in hell, behold, thou art there." Hell, some will tell us, is here only sheol, the grave. That is indeed the word, but this is not the only place where it must mean far more than the receptacle of the body. It is here put in contrast with heaven, and the opposite of that is hell. Moreover, the Psalmist speaks of living, conscious being, and that is found, not in the grave, but in the world of departed spirits. Yes, God shows his glory to all the spiritual universe, as he did to Moses, by making all his goodness pass before them. The proclamation issues from the throne, and sounds through all the eternities: "The Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious, long-suffering, and abundant in godness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, and that will by no means clear the guilty." What is the character of God in this world, will be his unchangeably in the world to come; and these attributes will there shine forth, so that every eye shall see them. Every soul shall see that he is gracious and long-suffering, and that he will by no means clear the guilty. It shall be seen by all heaven, and it will make them happy; it shall be seen by all hell, and it will make them miserable. But in their hatred of it, where can they go from his presence? Now I suppose that we often attach erroneous ideas to the existence of that place called hell. We say, perhaps, it is a place where God is not, where wicked souls are shut up so that they can not see God. I apprehend that conception is incomplete. A wicked soul would like nothing better than to be shut up, where he can not see God, nor God see him. It is his great object in this life to get away from God, or have God get away from him; such a place would be his paradise, not his prison. But it is not so. The rich man in hell saw Abraham and Lazarus in his bosom. Lost souls behold views of God's character the most distinct, visions of his glory the most bright-his mercy on believers, his justice on unbelievers. The sight of a holy company, "afar off," will be before them; and though to them Christ shall say, "Depart from me," it will be from him only as a Redeemer, never as their Judge and their Eternal Ruler. If they make their bed in hell, behold, he is there. A clear sense, also, of their obligation to love and praise him 4 will rest upon them, and yet they will not love, and will not praise him. Nay, the very same glory that draws divinest music from the harps and voices of heaven, will draw from them weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth. Their everlasting destruction shall proceed "from the presence of the Lord and the glory of his power;" that same presence and glorious power that shall "be admired in all them that believe." Oh, it is terrible to think of it; to have no place where one can flee and wrap himself up in his own lonely misery; to hate to see God, and yet to have to see his glory in the vessels of wrath, his glory in the vessels of mercy; to try to hide from God's Spirit and escape from his presence, and yet to feel that God is awfully and dreadfully near him. To sink deeper and deeper into the bottomless pit, to find in the nethermost abyss, behold, God is there! Now it is evident if you put such a man in the place called heaven, he would still be most wretched. He must there remember what good things he received in his lifetime. He must there remember that he did not choose what God chose for him, did not try, ever so faintly, to love God and be like God. And there. would he be miserable in what he saw of God. With no sympathies with the holy ones, full of contradictions and antagonisms toward God, he would not and could not be happy. So Satan fell, even before the throne-so learned to hate Him whose name is Love. And so any sinful being would be there or any where, for it is not where he is but what he is, that makes him blest or wretched. How great must be the change in him, before he can be ready for that heaven of which it is the chief joy, God is there! On the other hand, he who delights in God and loves his whole character however it may be displayed, can not be miserable any where. If he ascend up into heaven, God is there; if he make his bed in hell, behold, God is there. Yes, in hell. Lost souls are there monuments of his justice; they are those to whom he stretched out his hand of mercy all the day long, whose souls were recious in his sight; but who did not, and do not, choose that hẻ should reign over them. We read that those in heaven say, "Amen, Alleluia," as the smoke ascends for ever and ever. Most solemnly true, because it is in God's word of truth. One thing is certain, this they do; and we can no more doubt this element in eaven's praise, than any other. And they say it, not because they delight in suffering, or find it easy to be reconciled to the woes of others, but because they recognize God even there, while the least malevolence or injustice in his dispensations would hush all their praise and cool all their love. The bliss of heaven is not ignorance, as many fancy. God has not one side that may there be seen, and another that must not be shall be evil still. So God has told us, and so Hell, some will tell us, i forgivi mea W ogs, to exs of his do il must make unhappy, who d sinful; no sin therefore can not Besides, all con e consideration of ove of God, even in derstand it here, vet will resign the ungodly of her happiness. No, the harmony with God unhappy. this. You may take such a one if there God answereth his cry, "Cast presence, and take not thy Holy Spirit from sull praising him. Those manifestations of God der may be) would give him no more misery in the em than in the sight of them. There would be talk face to face, as a man talketh with his friend; for God God's will, than to be able to say, I resign all my interests, I take it, there is no higher evidence of a soul's harmony as well as time, into thy sovereign hands. Do with seemeth good in thy sight. I am not worthy of the least eternity me as of all thy mercies. You know, my friends, the pithy remark of Newton, that if God were to commission two of his angels, one to sweep the streets, and the other to be prime minister in the capital of an empire, each would proceed with equal alacrity to his allotted place. So with all saints. In whatever part of God's dominion he might send them, they would go. The cry, "I beseech thee, show me thy glory," would be answered too; for there is no place where it is not. What is misery to all unholy beings would be joy to them; and they would love just that which sinners hate. The beatific vision they would see and adore, and the sight of the redeemed would cheer them in their obedienee. All that is needed is a heart to see, and adore, and obey. Do I then mean to say it should be a matter of indifference whether we go to heaven or hell when we die? Not at all; there are many reasons why we should never choose the companionship of the enemies of God. But if we could glorify God and enjoy him that chief end of man-more in one place than another, we ought, certainly, to submit our wills to his. "Were I in heaven without my God, "Twould be no heaven to me," soul in hell, as a locality abstractedly considered, could not serable with God. "Songs in the night" would sweetly ile wondering angels stooped to listen. We suppose the a soul sent to sing one of the melodies of heaven in the oe, would carry such spiritual power and character, tary praise would go up clear and distinct over all the age and despair. And how glorious such a soul w grand and deep the sanctification, by which a irit is ransomed from sin's discords, and attuned of love! When God's love is perfected in it, t out, the illimitable universe shall be filled s of praises shall keep pace with the ages, while shall vanish, like mists in the clear morning! d now suffer me to apply this: 1. As a matter of great comfort to the people of God. Some of them have many fears respecting the future. They long for a token of their acceptance. Let me say, the question of their preparation for heaven is that of their relation to God. If, in his dear Son, you are reconciled to him, if the thought of his everlasting presence is not a huge shadow in your soul, if you can praise him for all he is and all he does, if you love what he loves and hate what he hates, the great question is already settled. Love works by contraries, so to speak; we know what we love by what we hate. The love of God, shed abroad in the soul, produces in the soul an aversion to sin; and this evidence of love grows the more, as we hate sin the more. We know more of the preciousness of Christ, as we know more of the dreadful evil from which he saves us; and the law makes the cross more appreciated. All the comforts of the Holy Spirit proceed on this. All the processes of sanctification tend to this. And if you, my friend, study God's word to learn what in you is different from what God expects it to be, if you abhor what God condemns, then you are growing in the love of God as well, and are more and more like him, as you grow in the likeness of your Saviour. If your mind. is stayed on him, you will be kept in perfect peace. True, you do not see God as you will in eternity. There comes an hour when that will break upon you. But this earth is before you, and the same God here. Can you see his glory here; and in His spirit who drank the bitter cup say, "Father, glorify thy name?" This happiness is now within your reach. Whatever is not, this is. Whatever you may not know, this you may know. Whatever you may lose, this you may not lose. It is quietness and assurance for ever. Nothing can really harm him who is God's friend. He whose will is God's, must evermore be happy. He who loves to see God now, in whatever forms he may be revealed, will love to see him in all the forms of eternity. |