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MORNING OF JOY 5
A. SEQUEL TO THE NIGHT OF WEEPING
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PSAL. XXX. 8k
REV. HORATIUS BONAR,
KJSL80.
NEW YORK:
ROBERT CARTER & BROTHERS,
No. 285 BROADWAY.
1854.
,£-ss
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CONTENTS
MM
PREFACE 7
CHAPTER I.
THE ANTICIPATIONS ....... 1
CHAPTER II.
THE NIGHT-WATCH ....... 11
CHAPTER III.
THE EARNESTS OF THE MORNING .... 32
CHAPTER IV.
THE USE OF THESE EARNESTS . , • .49
CHAPTER V.
THE MORNING-STAR .69
CHAPTER VI.
THE MORNING .75
CHAPTER VII. THE VICTORY OVER DEATH 93
tf CONTENTS.
paos
CHAPTER VIII.
THE KBTJNION . 108
CHAPTER IX.
THE PRESENCE OP THE LORD. . . . .128
CHAPTER X.
THE KINGDOM . . -. 150
CHAPTER XL
THE GRACE . . 171
CHAPTER XII.
TAB GLORY . . . . . • • 190
PREFACE.
I have been asked, once and again, to follow up "The Night of Weeping " with "The Morning of Joy," the words of David, in the 30th Psalm, hav- ing suggested the addition. After much thought and some hesitation I have done so.
The former work was meant to be complete in itself, presenting not merely the night-side of tribu- lation, but bringing out also, though less promi- nently, some of its day-hues. As, however, it has been thought incomplete, having in it so much more of night than of day ; an endeavour has been made to complete it by drawing forward the eye to the scenes of morning, so soon to open upon us, in all their breadth and beauty. In this way we are led to forget the things that are behind, and to reach forward to those before, pressing towards the mark for the prize of our high calling. And the fuller, the truer, the more frequent our anticipations of promised glory are, the deeper and the richer will our consolations be.
Sitting down beneath the shadow of the cross, and reading in its inscription God's record of free love, our fears are put to flight and our souls find rest. Possessed of forgiveness and assured of the life that dies not, we feel that all is well with vis. " Come life, come death," we can say, " come calm or storm, come gain or loss, come joy or grief, all is well." For "the work of righteousness is peace, and the effect of righteousness quietness and assurance for ever."
And surely this is much in the way of con sola-
n PREFACE.
tion, even though we had nothing more to cheer us. But it is not all. There is much more than this.
While sitting there God opens upon our eye a wide prospect, stretching far into eternity. Per- haps he sends trial, "breaking us with his tempest." Then he spreads out before us the vision of bright- ness for our comfort, and as the grief presses heavier, the vision enlarges on the view. The going down of our sun, though it covers earth with a shadow, draws the curtain from the firmament above us, and encircles us with the splendour of ten thousand stars. Then we not only are led to see that the greater portion of our being lies beyond either pre- sent joy or sorrow, but are also led to inquire into those outlying hopes, and to survey the whole breadth of that goodly inheritance, of which we are the heirs.
These inquiries and surveys are, as we shall see, most blessed in their nature, and purifying, as well as comforting, in their tendency. They are fraught with holiness and full of joy. They tend to make us forget the present in the future, and to assimilate us to the objects thus vividly presented to us. For, though it is true that " tears make the harvest of the heart to grow; " yet it is the anticipated light of the unrisen morning that ripens it.
This is more than mere negative consolation. It is positive and efficacious. The negative is, " Where- fore should a living man complain? " or, " There the wicked cease from troubling and the weary are at rest." This, so far as it goes, is precious. But God has given us something more than this. The hope which he furnishes is not merely the hope of a quiet close to this world's weariness, but the
PREFACE. Vll
hope of infinite gladness which is then to begin. There is a passage in Job which exemplifies both of these very fitly. Groaning under the pressure of no common grief, he cries out,
Oh that thou wouldst hide me in the grave ! That thou wouldst keep me secret ! Till thy wrath be past.
As if he would be glad to be hidden any where,
even in the grave, from such calamities. But then
this is not enough. This is mere negative comfort.
It is the mere cessation of suffering. And this does
not content him. He bethinks himself, and cries
out again,
Oh that thou wouldst appoint me a set time And remember me !
He cannot bear the thought of always lying in the
dust, even though it is a secure hiding-place from
the storms of earth. He would not be forgotten there.
He would have a time set, at the end of which God
might remember him. Then abruptly he asks,
If a man die shall he live ?
and, evidently answering himself, " Yes, he shall
live again," he calmly adds,
All the days of my appointed time will I wait, Till my change come.