Ecclesiastes 5:20

REFLECTIONS

MY soul! are all things here below empty and unsatisfying: and is there a rest that remaineth for the people of God? And wilt thou not, then, after such repeated convictions as these scriptures afford of human vanity and human disappointment, be prompted, like the Patriarchs to seek a City that hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God. Enquire, my soul, in the history of these holy men gone before, from what cause it was that their lives were so peaceful, and honourable; and their deaths so triumphant and glorious. And the reason is assigned, in all that is said of them, They walked by faith, and not by sight. They did, as Abraham the great father of the faithful did, they believed God, and it was accounted to them for righteousness. They went out, when called upon to go forth into a place which they should afterwards receive for an inheritance, not knowing whither they went. God had promised, and that was enough. They took God at his word. And they were not afraid, but depended upon his faithfulness.

Do thou, my soul, the same. God's promise in Christ is the same now as it was then: or rather, it is now confirmed beyond the possibility of failure in that all the promised undertaking of Christ hath been accomplished. Look forward, look upward then, my soul, and contemplate the glories which shortly shall be revealed. And when, at any time, some renewed instance of vanity, arising from the things here below, shall occur, turn away thine eyes, and behold with faith that upper brighter world. There neither sin, nor Satan; care, nor anxiety; fightings without, nor fears within; can arise to break in upon thy everlasting enjoyments. There dwells Jehovah, manifesting himself in Christ to all his redeemed. There the Lamb, that is in the midst of the throne, is leading the church to fountains of living waters, and all tears are forever wiped away from off all faces. Say, my soul! art thou indeed to dwell there - to go out no more. Are these vanities here below no longer to distress; neither these eyes of thine to behold sin? And shall not even the prospect of such felicity, fill thee with a joy unspeakable, and full of glory? Oh! for the holy longing of the church; Make haste, my beloved, and be thou like to a roe, or to a young hart, upon the mountains of spices.