_This corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality._
OH glorious and ever transporting thought! Sure and never failing remedy for all the troubles and disappointments of life!――Incorruption and immortality!――Let me dwell on the charming words: they carry peace and everlasting joy in the sound. And yet how little can my soul understand of their full import, clogged by the weight of flesh and blood? Darkened by this cloud of sin and error, what true idea can she form of incorruption? But if the faint shadow and distant prospect affords such delight, what will the full enjoyment give? Imagination is lost in the dazzling reflection! All the scenes of this lower world vanish as a mist before the sun: and my elevated soul wholly absorbed in contemplation of those mighty blessings seems to soar above the stars, and launch into the sea of eternity. My God! My everlasting hope! Great and adorable Creator of all things! Where shall I find words expressive of my wonder, my joy, and gratitude? Thy mercy, thy free, and boundless mercy, from nothing called me into being, and made that being capable of an endless duration: formed me for eternity! And what raises the benefit infinitely higher, for an eternity of happiness! Not the united power of men and devils can deprive me of this without my own consent: and if I am miserable I have no one to blame, except myself. O merciful God! I adore thee past all expression, and the notions I have of thy divine attributes inspire me with an unbounded confidence. Unworthy as I am of the least of all thy mercies, I cannot but hope for the greatest; and in the midst of my continual offences, I look up to thee, as my friend, my only refuge, and constant benefactor. When I grieve for my sins, ’tis not from fear of punishment, but from the cutting reflection of my black ingratitude, in offending my Creator and Preserver, the God in whom I live, and move, and have my being; the God to whom I owe infinitely more than I can conceive; to whom I owe the glorious, and the assured hopes of incorruption and immortality. And here again, O my soul, take wing, again lose thyself in the blissful prospect! Think on the joy thou wilt feel, when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption; when this companion (which in spite of the miseries it betrays thee into, is still dear and still too tenderly beloved) shall become (instead of a clog, or a prison) a vehicle pure and ethereal, perfectly fitted for all the purposes of thy enlarged faculties, and the completion of thy glory and happiness. O blessed and desirable re-union! State of permanent delight, and never fading joy! With what rapture does thy idea inspire my soul! Fired by thoughts like these, I rise far above the most glorious prospects, earth, with all her boasted varieties, can give. Pleasures, riches, honours, what are ye all? Emptiness and nothing.――At the least glimpse of eternal day, how ye vanish into soft air! Lost are all your shining toys; your painted glories intirely lost! And Oh may their deluding shadows never return to darken my soul! May the God whom I trust, preserve me from all their temptations; may his mercy ever protect and guide me, and bring me in the end to that state of incorruption and immortality, which I hope for through the merits and mediation of our blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. _Amen._
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_Then |Peter| said, Now know I that God is no respecter of persons; but in every nation, he that feareth him and worketh righteousness, is accepted of him._