March 10

Who inherit the promises, - Hebrews 6:12.

GOD from the beginning has dealt with his people in a way of promise. He could have accomplished all his grace and mercy in their behalf without having previously announced them. But then they could not have known them: they could not have believed in them; they could not have hoped for them, and pleaded them in prayer, or have made them their song in the house of their pilgrimage. Many advantages are derived from the promises; some of these promises regard the life that now is, but many more of them regard the life which is to come.

Few of the promises of God, indeed, are ever completely accomplished in this world; they draw us, therefore, forward and upward. “We are saved by hope;” “we rejoice in hope;” heaven will fill up every void; heaven will perfect everything that concerns us. Heaven will perfect the intellectual life. “Here we see through a glass darkly, there face to face; now we know in part, then shall we know even as we are known.” Heaven will perfect the Spiritual life. We now groan, being burdened, and when we would do good evil is present with us; we shall then be presented faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy. Heaven will perfect the social life. Here we dwell in Mesech, and have our tents in Kedar; there shall we join the general assembly and church of the firstborn, whose names are written in heaven; and the Spirits of just men made perfect; and an innumerable company of angels; and Jesus, the Mediator; and God, the Judge of all. Heaven will perfect the corporeal faculties. What limbs, what senses, what imaginations, shall we have then! What a state heaven must be, if we take but this one view of it- that it brings us into the possession of all the promises. “To die is gain,” says the Apostle; and no wonder, if we are to gain all that God has spoken of, and if all that the Scriptures have told us is to be there realized.

Now observe that this inheritance is & present possession. They inherit-not that they shall inherit. Now, says our Saviour, “God is not the God of the dead, but of the living,” for all live unto him. And do not the Scriptures perpetually imply it? How else could we understand the words of the Saviour to the poor thief, or the language of the Apostle? “Absent from the body, present with the Lord.” This intimates an immediate transition. “Having a desire to depart, and to be with Christ, which is far better.” This regards immediate enjoyment. How delightful to remember that our pious friends and relatives, who have been removed from us, now inherit the promises! Delivered from the burden of the flesh, they are now enjoying the felicity of heaven. They have done with sorrow, and, what is best, they have done with sin, and are freed from all their infirmities. They have entered that blessed world of light and life-of peace and joy-and are for ever with the Lord.