ventide Light.
How inspiring the thought of coming glory! How would we rise above our
sins, and sorrows, and sufferings, if we could live under the power of
"a world to come!" Were faith to take at all times its giant leap beyond
a soul-trammelling earth, and remember its brighter destiny. If it could
stand on its Pisgah Mount, and look above and beyond the mists and
vapours of this land of shadows, and rest on the "better country." But,
alas! in spite of ourselves, the wings ofttimes refuse to soar--the
spirit droops--guilty fears depress--sin dims and darkens--God's
providences seem to frown--God's ways are misinterpreted--the Christian
belies his name and his destiny. But, "At eventide it shall be
light."--The material sun, which wades through clouds and a troubled
sky, sets often in a couch of lustrous gold? So, when the sun of life is
setting, many a ray of light will shoot athwart memory's darkened sky,
and many mysterious dealings of the wilderness will then elicit an "All
is well!" How frequently is the presence and upholding grace of Jesus
especially felt and acknowledged at that hour, and griefs and misgivings
hushed with His own gentle accents, "Fear not! it is I; be not afraid."
A triumphant death-bed! It is no unmeaning word; the eye is lighted with
holy lustre, the tongue with holy rapture, as if the harps of heaven
were stealing on it. My soul! may such a life's evening-tide be thine!
"REMEMBER _THIS_ WORD UNTO THY SERVANT, UPON
WHICH THOU HAST CAUSED ME TO HOPE!"
25TH DAY.
"He is Faithful that Promised."
"What I do thou knowest not now; but thou shalt know
hereafter."--JOHN xiii. 7.
Heavenly Illumination.
As the natural sun sometimes sinks in clouds, so, occasionally, the
Christian who has a bright rising, and a brighter meridian, sets in
gloom. It is not _always_ "light" at his evening-time; but this we know,
that when the day of immortality breaks, the last vestige of earth's
shadows will for ever flee away. To the closing hour of time, Providence
may be to him a baffling enigma: but ere the first hour has struck on
heaven's chronometer, all will be clear. My soul! "in God's light thou
shalt see light;" the Book of His decrees is a sealed book now,--"A
great deep" is all the explanation thou canst often give to His
judgments; the _why_ and the _wherefore_ He seems to keep from us, to
test our faith, to discipline us in trustful submission, and lead us to
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