brood over our case, and make self the ob- ject of our sad and anxious care. If we are to have glory as surely and as cheaply as the lilies have their clothing, or the ravens their food, why be so solicitous about self? Or why think about self at all, save to re- member and to rejoice that God has taken all our concerns into his own keeping for eternity ?
Thus God beguiles us away from our griefs by giving us something else to muse over, — something more worthy of oui thoughts. He allures us from the present, where all is dark and uncomely, into the future, where all is bright and fair. He takes us by the hand and leads us, as a father his child, out from the gloomy region which we are sadly pacing, with our eye upon the ground, bent only upon nourishing our sorrows, into fields where all is fresh and Eden-like ; so that, ere we are aware, joy, or at least the faint reflection of it, has stolen into our hearts, and lifted up our
THE GLORX. 217
heavy eyes. He would not have us abiding always in the church-yard, or sitting upon the turf beneath which love is buried,— as if the tomb to which we are clinging were our hope, not resurrection beyond it ; — he would have us to come forth ; and having allured us away from that scene of death, he bids us look upwards, upbraiding us with our unbelief and folly, and saying to us, — ■" They whom you love are yonder ; ere long He who is their life and yours shall appear, and you shall rejoin each other, each of you embracing, not a weeping, sickly fellow mortal, but a glorified saint, set free from pain and sin."
There is nothing more healthy and ge- nial for the soul than these anticipations of the morning, and of morning-glory. They are not visionary, save in the sense in which faith is " the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen." They transfuse the life of heaven through our frame, either, on the one hand, making
218 THE GLORY.
our languid pulse to beat more swiftly, or, on the other, our feverish pulse to throb more calmly and evenly. They act as re- gulators of the sottl in its wild and incon- stant movements, neither allowing us to sink too low nor to soar too high. They tend to steady our extreme impulses by acting as a counterpoise to the weight of grief which so crushes us with its pres- sure.
They withdraw us from self and self- broodings, they widen the circle of our sympathies, and throw back into the dis- tance the fence of exclusivenes*s, which, in times of suffering, we are apt to throw up around ourselves. They check mere sen- timentality, and forbid us to indulge the flow of grief for its own luxury. They pro- hibit morbid gloom, which loves to shut out society, and chooses loneliness. They fill us with energy for facing the toils, and with ready courage for braving the dangers of the night: They animate us with the
THE GLORY. 219
?alm but indomitable confidence of hope, — a hope which expands and brightens as its object approaches.
The morning ! That is our watchword. Our matin and even-song are full of it. It gives the hue to life, — imparting colour to that which is colourless, and freshening that which is faded. It is the sum and term of our hopes. Nothing else will do for us or for our world, — a world over which the darkness^ gathers thicker as the years run out. Stars may help to make the sky less gloomy; but they are not the sun. And besides, clouds have now wrapped them so that they are no longer visible. The firmament is almost without a star. Torches and beacon-lights avail not. They make no impression upon the darkness ; it is so deep, so real, so palpable. We might give up all for lost, were we not assured that there is a sun, and that it is hastening to rise.
The church's pilgrimage is nearly done,
220 THE GLORY.
Yet she is not less a pilgrim as its end draws nigh. Nay, more so. The last stage of the journey is the dreariest for her. Her path lies through the thickest darkness that the world has yet felt. It seems as if it were only by the fitful blaze of conflagra- tions that we can now shape our way. It is the sound of falling kingdoms that is guiding us onward. It is the fragments of broken thrones lying across our path that assures us that our route is the true one, and that its end is near, — that end, the morning with its songs ; and in that morn- ing, a kingdom ; and in that kingdom, glory ; and in that glory, the everlasting rest, the sabbath of eternity.
THE END.
BOOKS
PUBLISHED BY
Unlint Carter k Iratjms,
285 BROADWAY, XEW YORK.
ABEEL'S (Rev. David) Life. By his Nephew, mo $ 5U
ABEROROMBIE'S Contest and The Armour. 32mo, gilt.... &
ADAM'S Three Divine Sisters — Faith, Hope and Charity Ji
ADVICE TO A YOUNG- CHRISTIAN. 18mo
ALLEINE'S Gospel Promises. 18mo ^U
Life and Letters. 12mo 60
ALEXANDER'S Counsels to the Young. 32mo, gilt &>
ANCIENT HISTORY of the Egyptians, Syrians, &c, 4 vols. . 2 00
ANDERSON'S Annals of the English Bible. 8vo V 75
Family Book. 12mo .5