How long, O Lord? May this be the continual inquiry of our hearts as we pass along to that rest and glory which lie before us. "Time is short," and eternity, with all its divine and glorious realities, is at hand. May we live in the light of it! May we ever be able, by the eye of faith, to see the bright beams of the millennial morning--the morning without clouds--irradiating the distant hills! Everything points to this; every event that happens, every voice that reaches the ear, tells of the speedy approach of the kingdom: the sea and the waves may be heard roaring--nations are convulsed, thrones overturned;--all these things have a voice for the circumcised ear, and the voice is, "Look up!" Those who have received the Holy Ghost have received the earnest of the future inheritance; and the earnest, as we know, is part of the thing to be received. They have been on the mount; and although the cloud may overshadow them too,--although they too may have to come down from the mount to meet the trial and sorrow below,--yet they have a foretaste of the joy and blessedness which shall be theirs forever; and they can unfeignedly thank God, as they journey on from day to day, that their hopes are not bounded by this world's gloomy horizon, but that they have a home beyond it all.
"Oh wondrous grace, oh love divine, To give us such a home! Let us the present things resign, And seek this rest to come. And gazing on our Saviour's cross, Esteem all else but dung and dross; Press forward till the race be run, Fight till the crown of life be won."