rust, and
sends them out on an errand after the others. That fire--Himself--draws
all into the smelting-pot. Its alchemy transmutes possessions into lives,
redeemed, sweetened, Jesus-touched, Christ-renewed lives, made like
Himself. And the sweet music of their new lives comes up into _His_
gladdened ears, and a few of the strains come to cheer you. One may have
at first a strange feeling of bareness, for things that we've always clung
to as essential have gone out from us to others. But with the outgoing of
things has come an incoming of _Himself_, in greater abundance than we
dreamed possible. He, within, completely overbalances what He has sent out
from us into use. _He_--He is _everything_.

The usual word for all this is "service," a blessed word. Yet service
seems to suggest your doing something for Him among others. This is quite
different. It is _His_ doing something _with_ you for others. The thing
itself is so much more than any word. Christ is so much more than anything
you say about Him. The truth is always less than Himself. But one never
understands how much that means till he has seen Christ. Have _you_ seen
Christ? Then others shall see Him, too, in you, and through you.

This is the glory of the goal--face to face with Himself. It begins now.
It is a very real thing. This is a bit of the meaning of that mountain
beatitude, "the pure in heart ... shall _see God_." Yet only he who sees
understands what seeing means. The subtle intensity of God's presence
cannot be explained, only understood by the purified in heart. Only the
opened eyes see.

But this is only a beginning. There will be the far greater glory of the
final goal, as we come into His immediate presence, literally face to
face. That may be when we are called away from the lower road up to the
higher reaches, above the clouds and the blue, the glory-reaches, up where
He now sits. It may be by that goal coming nearer, by Himself actually
coming on the clouds in great glory, for His own and for the next chapter
in His great world-plan. Then we shall be caught up into His presence.
Then we shall be fully like Him, for we shall see Him as He is.

And we shall be sharers in His glory, in the Kingdom time of glad earth
service. But we shall be thinking only of Himself--face to face.

Footnotes

[1] John i. 1, 2, 14, 18; Colossians i. 15; II Corinthians iv. 4;
Philippians ii. 6; Hebrews i. 3.

[2] John xv. 15; Psalm xxv. 14; Isaiah xli.