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e neighborhood; but there is enough even in the
tamest prospect, to excite the wonder and admiration of the beholder,
and to inspire them with emotions of love and gratitude towards the
great Creator.
Yet, grand and beautiful and sublime as this world is, God has only
fitted it up as a temporary abode for man; he does not consider it a
fit dwelling place for his children to inhabit through all eternity.
We are told that when the "spirits of the just made perfect" leave
this world, they will go to a better world: a more costly and
magnificent abode, that God has prepared for them. Yes, costly indeed,
since a title to an inheritance in that better world is purchased by
the blood of his only Son; and we are told that it is not in the heart
of man to concieve of the glory and magnificence of that place, that
is to be the home of those who accept of the terms by which it is
to be secured; and what are those terms? why, merely to repent and
believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and to seek forgivness for our sins
through his blood.
To put our trust in God, to love him supremely, and to seek to do his
will; and are not these conditions very easy? Can we help loving such
a God, so great, so good, and who has been at such infinite pains, and
given such a costly sacrifice to secure the happiness of his subjects?
And can we help loving the Saviour who was willing to be made a
sacrifice to secure the eternal happiness of a lost and ruined race;
and who left a home of glory, of bliss, and joy inexpressible, to come
to a world where he must suffer persecution, contempt, and mockery;
where he would be reviled, and spit upon, and taunted, and finally die
a cruel and ignominous death upon the cross?
All this he suffered, that sinners through his sufferings might
receive a title to the joys of that better world that God has prepared
for those that love him. Oh how cold, how hard, how utterly lost to
all grateful emotions, must that heart be that could treat with scorn
or indifference that dear Saviour who has done so much for them, and
prepared for all who will accept, a happy entrance into a world of
ineffable light and glory.
Where the sun does not emit its golden beams, nor the moon shed
her paler rays, and no golden star spangles the canopy, but God's
countenance lights the place, and the Lamb is in the midst; He who was
offered for the remission of sin. Who would not enter this world, of
happiness, where sin enters not, pain or
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