1 Louise Chandler Moulton.
i32 YET POSSESSING ALL THINGS
sobbing grief and heart-broken prayers, but the chant of victory, for a faithful soul is coming to its own. All the pomp and circum- stance of heaven centre there. The face of the pilgrim has lost its death pallor and the eyes shine with the light of expectant immortality. God is once more placing the crown of life on the brow of death.1
Peace, peace! he is not dead, he doth not sleep — He hath awakened from the dream of life — 'Tis we, who lost in stormy visions, keep With phantoms an unprofitable strife, And in mad trance, strike with our spirit's knife Invulnerable nothings.2
(3) Death does not separate and isolate us, but unites us to Jesus and all His lovers. Those we have lost — we have not lost them. Death is the guardian of our treasures. Here they would have faded, faded, faded. Do we ever think, that if friendship were to last for ever on this earth of frailty, the last horror would come — the hearts even of friends would get worn out? This mortal must put on immortality before life can stand its own strain and the glory of its meaning ; the life we learn on earth is too high for earth ; death alone can release it to its fit dominion. And death is the guardian of your hidden treasures and the keeper of your secret wealth, of all the unknown that lies beyond the veil for us — not only those whom we have let go, but those we have never known, whom God has made and is keeping for us. Our treasures, some of them, are here ; but we will not know how rich we are till we have passed beyond.
I cannot think of them as dead
Who walk with me no more; Along the path of life I tread
They have but gone before.
The father's house is mansioned fair
Beyond my vision dim ; All souls are His, and, here or there,
Are living unto Him.
And still their silent ministry
Within my heart hath place, As when on earth they walked with me,
And met me face to face.
1 J. I. Vance, Tendency, 229, 233. 2 Shelley, Adami9x xxxix.
i CORINTHIANS in. 21-23 *33
Their lives are made forever mine;
What they to me have been Hath left henceforth its seal and sign
Engraven deep within.
Mine are they by an ownership
Nor time nor death can free; For God hath given to Love to keep
Its own eternally.1
If I have no fear lest my Saints should be far from me in their upper heaven; God's hierarchy is the hierarchy of con- joining love, and His great ones have their place in power to draw near even to the very least. The heights of heaven must be close to every lower place, as close as heart and heart may be.2
iv. Things Present, Things to Come.
All things are yours, says the Apostle, in the spiritual order (whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas) and in the terrestrial order (the world); the great powers of the world are yours (life and death); now he adds a third pair in relation to time (things present, and things to come). " Things present " comprehends all that can happen to us in the present state of things, and as long as we form part of it ; while " things to come " denotes the great expected transformation, with its eternal consequences.
"Or things present, or things to come." How quickly the incidents of daily life are gliding over us ! and as they pass, to our weak gaze they steal from us so much that we hold dear — the elastic step, the clear vision, the strong nerve, the beloved friend, the hard-earned gold. Sometimes they manifestly enrich us. For the young there is a constant sense of acquisition. One good and perfect gift follows swiftly on the heels of another. But when we have crossed the summit of life's hill there is an incessant consciousness of loss. Yet in God's sight, and in the spiritual realm, these distinctions vanish and pass away as mists under the touch of the sun : and we find that all incidents come to bless us; all winds waft us to our haven; all tribes bring their tribute into the throne-room of our inner being. We are not the creatures of circumstances, but their masters, their kings, their lords. All these things are the servants and tutors
1 Frederick Lucian Hosmer. 2 A Modem Mystic's Way,
134 YET POSSESSING ALL THINGS
appointed by our Father, to wait on and minister to us, His heirs.
1. " Things present" — Our present lot is one of the " all things " which belong to us. We may not like it ; we may greatly desire to be quit of it ; we may be looking forward with intensest eager- ness to a happier day, when our griefs or our difficulties shall no longer be with us. But these, remember, are from God to us, and God's love is in them. Let us not be anxious merely to rid ourselves of them. Let us dig in them, and we shall find treasure.
Tf We read some time ago, in an Australian paper, of a nugget worth a thousand pounds. In its picture a very ungainly block it looked. Most of us might have fallen in with it and heed- lessly passed it by, or cast it aside as something in the way. The "digger" knew better, and he and his "mate" made a little fortune in a day.1