aions, their passing splendor, their glorious purity, their blessed peace. It shows us the happy courts, the harmonious company, the adoring multitudes. It opens our ears also, so that when beholding these great sights we seem to hear the heavenly melody, and to catch the very words of the new song they sing, " Thou art worthy, for thou wast slain, and hast redeemed us to God by thy blood out of every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation, and hast made us unto our God, kings and priests, and we shall reign on the earth."* It moreover points our eye forward to what is yet to come ; the coming of the Lord, the judgment of the great day, the restitution of all things, the kingdom that cannot be moved, the city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God. While thus it gives to things invisible a body and a form which be- fore they possessed riot in our eyes ; on the other hand it divests things visible of that semblance of excellence and reality with which they were formerly clothed. It strips the world of its false but bewildering glow, and enables us to penetrate the thin disguise that hides its poverty and meanness. It not only * Rev, v. 9.
26 THE FAMILY LIFE.
sweeps away the cloud which hung above us, obstructing1 our view of heavenly excellence ; but it places that cloud beneath us, to coun- teract the fallacious brightness and unreal beauty which the world has thrown over itself to mask its inward defo'-mity.
Thus it is that faith enables us to realize our true position of pilgrims and strangers upon earth, looking for the city which hath founda- ions, whose builder and maker is God. It is into this that we are introduced by faith at our conversion. For what is our conversion, but a turning our back upon the world, and bidding farewell to all that the heart had hitherto been entwined around 1 It is then that like Abra- ham we forsake all, and go out not knowing whither. Old ties are broken, though some- times hard to sever. New ones are formed, though not of earth. We begin to look around us, and find all things new. We feel that we are strangers ; strangers in that very spot where we have been so long at home. But this is our joy. We have left our father's house, but we are hastening on to a more enduring home. We have taken leave of the world, — but we have become heirs of the eternal kingdom, sons and daughters of the Lord Almighty. We
THE FAMIT..Y T1FE. 2"7
have left Egypt, but Canaan is in view. We are in the wilderness, but we are free. Ours is a pathless waste, but we move forward under the shadow of the guardian cloud. Sorrowful, we yet rejoice ; poor, we make many rich ; having nothing, we yet possess all things. We have a rich inheritance in reversion, and a Jong eternity in which to enjoy it without fear of loss, or change, or end.
Walking thus by faith, and not by sight, what should move us? What should mar our joy ? Does it not come from that which is within the veil ; and what storm of the desert can find entrance there? Our rejoicing is in the Lord, and he is without variableness or shadow of turning. We know that this is not our rest ; neither do we wish it were so, for it is polluted ; but our joy is this, that Jehovah is our God, and his promised glory our inheri- tance for ever. Our morning and our evening song is this, " The Lord is the portion of mine inheritance and of my cup ; thou maintainest my lot : the lines have fallen unto me in pleas- ant places ; yea, I have a goodly heritage."*
Why should we. then, into whose hands the cup of gladness shall ere long be put, shrink
* Psalms xvi. 5.
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from the vinegar ar d the gall ? Why should we, who have dearer friends above, better bonds that cannot be dissolved, be disconsolate at the severance of an earthly tie? Our homes may be empty, our firesides may be thinned, and our hearts may bleed : but these are not enduring things : and why should we feel desolate as if all gladness had departed ? Why should we, who shall wear a crown, and inherit all things, sigh or fret because of a few years' poverty and shame? Earth's dream will soon be done ; and then comes the day of " songs and everlasting joy," — the long reality of bliss ! Jesus will soon be here ; and " when He who is our life shall appear, then shall we also appear with him in glory."
Shall trial shake us? Nay, in all this we are more than conquerors through him that loved us. Shall sorrow move us? Faith tells us of a land where sorrow is unknown ! Shall the death of saints move us ? Faith tells us not to sorrow as those who have no hope, for if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, them also that sleep in Jesus will God oring with him. Shall the pains and weari- ness of this frail body move us ? Faith tells us of a time at hand when this corruptible
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