Everlasting Joy

Make a good use of your talent. Be wise, diligent, faithful, holy, and humble in the employment of it, and Christ shall come with comfort and will entertain you with a sweet and comforting declaration of approval: “Well done, good and faithful servant; thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things: enter thou into the joy of thy lord” (Matt. 25:23). And let us be excited and stirred up to work our hearts to this longing for Christ’s coming, considering first the gratification of our estate in heaven. There is a tree bearing twelve sorts of fruit (Rev. 22:2), youth without old age, health without sickness, fullness without loathing, liberty without bondage, beauty without deformity, feelings without grief, abundance without want, peace without trouble, security without fear, knowledge without ignorance, glory without disgrace, and joy without sorrow (Rev. 21:4). Secondly, considering the security of that estate, no enemy can reach us. It is a city never besieged and a haven never bothered. There is no death, neither of sin nor of misery nor of nature. Thirdly, the pleasantness of it: a day without clouds, a paradise without thorns, and fullness of joy (Psalm 16)—true joy without deceit, sincere joy free from the mixture of sorrow, and constant joy, a sun that never sets. Of this, we may say as Augustine, “O joy above joy, overcoming all joy, without which there is no joy! when shall I enter into thee, that I may see my God who dwelleth in thee?” Here is joy above us, in the vision of God; joy within us, in the glorification of our soul and bodies; joy about us, in our communion with saints and angels; and joy beneath us, in our evasion and escape of hell and everlasting darkness. Here is to the souls of all believers joy concerning Christ, as the author of our welfare; in Christ, as He is the Head and we the members; with Christ, as coheirs with Him of the same inheritance; after Christ, every soul joying according to proportion; by Christ, being reconciled to God by Him and beholding God with joy through Him; for Christ, He being exalted above all creatures and having purchased all things. Oh, let these things sweeten the thought of Christ Jesus to us, enflame our souls with longing after Him, and make us all say, “Come, Lord Jesus.” Alexander Grosse

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