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 THE NIGHTLESS WORLD

THE NIGHTLESS WORLD.

"And I with faltering footsteps journey on,
Watching the stars that roll the hours away,
Until the faint light that guides me now is gone,
And, like another life, the glorious day
Shall open over me from the empyreal height,
With warmth, and certainty, and boundless light."

"There shall be NO NIGHT there."—Rev. 22:5.

Here is another gleaning from the clusters of Canaan—another bright lamp hung out of our Father's distant dwelling! Amid the falling shadows of earth, let us come and anticipate the noontide glories of the better world, and enumerate a few respects in which it may be said—"There shall be no night there!"

We found, in our first Meditation, Heaven spoken of under the emblem of Rest. The present figure is suggestive of kindred reflections; which, though in some respects an echo of the former, we may, for the sake of the beautiful and expressive symbol itself, be permitted for a little to pursue.

There shall be no night of weakness or weariness there.
Here on earth, we are incapable of serving God without intervals of repose. The weary, jaded framework requires a periodic cessation from activity. Overly encumber either the body or mental powers, and we are sure to suffer for it. Here, how often does night suggest the memory of pain and sickness—the fevered pulse—the throbbing brow—the sickly candle burning to its socket—the terrible moments of anxiety, when the spirit of some loved one was struggling on the confines of eternity.

Or, if the body be comparatively exempt from prostration or suffering, how often has the believer to complain of a weak and languishing frame of soul—the chill dews of night-fall creeping over his best affections—no, often deprived of the sensible tokens of God's presence and favor, groping in darkness and seeing no light!

But, "there is no night THERE!"—no languor to steal over the body—no lassitude to chain down and hamper the eagle-soarings of the spirit; no physical weariness or debility to cause a cessation in the eternal song—no remnants of corruption to produce one solitary moment or experience of estrangement from the great Source of all light, and love, and happiness! The tide of love ever full—never ebbing—the sun of our bliss ever climbing higher and higher the meridian, and never shaded by so much as a passing cloud! "Oh! what a moment," says a now sainted spirit, "will that be, when the lamp of faith will be suddenly extinguished—not amid the darkness of eternal night—but amid the splendors of everlasting day!"

There shall be no night of ignorance there.
We are encompassed here on every side with enigmas—the doctrines of Scripture (not a few of them) irreconcilable with the dogmas of proud reason. The ways of God!—they are often a "great deep"—misapprehended—misinterpreted! Here, we are in the twilight of our being—Scripture speaks of it as "neither light nor dark." What, if revealed in broad day, would be all symmetrical in form, assumes dim and distorted and shadowy shapes.

Even in the acquisition of knowledge, the mind climbs its tedious way by slow and laborious processes. The ore is dug by dint of incessant toil; and often when the coveted load is just reached, the jaded explorer has to resign his task! But there, the "glass darkly" will give way to the "face to face." All will be made luminous. "In your light," O God, "we shall see light." Knowledge, which is here the result of assiduous labor, will there be gained by intuition. To see will be to understand.

And what shall be said of what we call "mysterious PROVIDENCES?" Eternity will unravel every mazy labyrinth in them. It will be one of Heaven's loftiest occupations, studying the volumes of the past—discovering them to be volumes of faithfulness—every page, which on earth seemed blurred, will then stand forth in illuminated characters, endorsed with, "God is Love!" The cloudiest sky will be seen to have had its rainbow, some token of covenant mercy. The higher we climb the mountains of glory, the wider spread at our feet will be the discoveries of Jehovah's wisdom. There will be no more room for misgivings. The "why" and the "wherefore" of every earthly dealing will be revealed. "The channels of the deep waters will be all made plain, through which the Almighty held His darksome way," (M'Ewen.)

There shall be no night of sorrow there.
A melancholy minor-note runs its under-tone through all our present joys. Even when the cup is full, there is the aching thought, "This cannot always last." Even when the gourd is most flourishing, there is often the too truthful foreboding, that the worm may come—in a moment, and it is DOWN!

Night!—poetry has ever spoken of it as the significant type and emblem of Death. How impressively it recalls that chamber of mysterious silence, where the footfall echoed no sound but its own, and the living lip of cherished friendship was sealed forever! With how many the mind is like a hall draped in sackcloth—the long winding passages of memory hung with portraits of those "who are not"—the memorials of buried love!

But there, "sorrow and sighing will forever flee away," (Isa. 35:10.) Joy will there be undiluted. The angel of death no longer crosses that threshold. Every shaft is expended. The last night of earth will be the last night of weeping. Not one shadow will flit across that bright sky—not one scalding tear will dim the eyes of the crowned and glorified. As the verse in Psalm 30 may be beautifully and literally rendered, "Sorrow" (like a wayfaring man, a sojourner) "lodges for a night," (the night of earth) "BUT, joy comes in the morning!" Happy time! when, as I reach the gates of glory, the last burden of sorrow will roll from my back, and I shall pursue my heavenly way rejoicing!

There shall be no night of sin there.
It is sin that bound its death-bands over the world's fevered brow. "What is soul-rest," says Richard Baxter, "but our freedom from sin?" Give me all that the world can bestow, so long as this nature of mine remains at the best only partially sanctified—continuing to drag about with it a body of SIN, I cannot be perfectly happy. What a blessed world would the present be, were sin expunged from it! What a joyful world that SHALL be, where we know that sin is to be forever expelled—the trail of the serpent never polluting its blessed soil! Here, Satan approached with his foul assaults even the holy Son of God. "Cast yourself down," was his blasphemous appeal, as he took him to the Temple summit, (Matt. 4:6.) But the Prince of this world will in vain plant his footsteps on the pinnacle of the New Jerusalem Temple—into it nothing that is unholy shall ever enter. "The spirits of the just" will then be "made perfect!" Here, there is sin in the best and holiest. There are decayed branches in the stateliest Lebanon cedars—flaws in the purest cisterns—ripples of corruption in the clearest fountains; but there, all will be presented "without fault" before the throne—not a trace or lineament of sin adhering—nothing to be feared—no dark contingencies—no real or imagined evils.

Night here on earth, is a shadowy-time—full of spectral images, types of uncertainty, mutability, change. But looking forward to Heaven, we have "the hope of eternal life, who God that cannot lie, promised before the world began," (Tit. 1:2). Oh! thrice blessed moment, when the stormy night-watch will be over—when we shall feel the shallows underneath us—see the haven in sight—the morning light breaking over the towers of the Heavenly city—angels pointing to them as they crowd the shore, and exclaiming, in contrast with what we have left behind us—"THERE SHALL BE NO NIGHT THERE!"

"I journey forth rejoicing,
From this dark vale of tears,
To heavenly joy and freedom,
From earthly bonds and fears.
When Christ, our Lord, shall gather
All His redeemed again,
His kingdom to inherit—
GOOD-NIGHT, until then!

"I go to see His glory
Whom we have loved below—
I go—the blessed angels—
The holy saints—to know.
Our lovely one departed,
I go to find again,
And wait for you to join us—
GOOD-NIGHT, until then!

"I hear the Savior calling—
The joyful hour has come,
The angel guards are ready
To guide me to our home;
Where Christ, our Lord, shall gather
All His redeemed again,
His kingdom to inherit—
GOOD-NIGHT, until then!"

By John MacDuff


_________________
CHRISTIAN

 2007/9/3 13:50Profile









 Re: THE NIGHTLESS WORLD

This is a precious Keeper. Such encouragement - one could feel the spirit's excitement to see this Day.
Our struggles and battles seem like nothing in comparison.
Such a Glorious presentation this is of the Eternal Home in and with Him. Amazing and
"Unbelievable" as they say and yet it is True, every word of it is true.

These verses - 1Pe 4:11-19 - were speaking to me as I was reading it.
All of This that he's described, in return just for our love for the Most Lovely. What a small price to pay for all of This. How could we think our service is anything ? We're not worthy of such repayment for so little and yet there it is.
Incredible encouragement to press on - Phil 3:7-14 - no matter what. Thank you brother.

 2007/9/3 23:45





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