Foretastes of the Heavenly Life
‘■And they took of the fruit of the land in their hands, and oronghtit down onto us, and brought us word again, and said. It is a good land which the Lord our God dolh give us.” — Deut., L 25.
You remember the occasion concerning which these words were wiitten. The children of Israel sent twelve men as spies into the land of Canaan, who brought back with them the fruit of the land, amongst the rest a bunch of grapes from Eshco. too heavy to be borne by one man, and which, therefore, two of them carried on a staif between them. But I shall not remark upon the figure, but only say that as they learned of Canaan by the fruit of the land brought to them by the spies, so you and I, even while we are on earth, if we be the Lord’s beloved, may learn something of what heaven is — a state to which we are to attain hereafter — by certain blesshigs which are brought to us on earth.
They were sin-e that the land of Israel was a fertile laml when they saw the fruits which it produced, brought by their Ijrethi-en, and when they ate thereof. Perhaps there was but little for so many, and yet those who did eat were made at once to understand that it must have been a goodly soil that produced such fruit. Now, then, beloved, we who love the Lord Jesus Christ have .had clusters of the grapes of Eshcol. We have had some fruits of heaven even since we have been on earth, and by them wo are able to judge of the ‘ichness of the soil of Paradise which bringeth forth such rare and choice fruits.
I shall, therefore, present to you some views of heaven in Drder to give you some idea how it is that the Christian oe earth enjoys a foretaste of them.
FORKTASTEb OK THfi, IIxCAVENLY LIFE. 139
Possiljly”, there are scaice iwo Christians who have the same news of heaven; though they all expect the same heaven, yet the most prominent feature in it is difierent to each dift’erent mind according to its constitution. Now, I will confess what is to me the most prominent feature of heaven, judging at the present moment. At another time I may love lieaveu better for another thing: but lately I have learned to love heaven as a place of security. We have seen high professors turning from their profession, ay, and we have seen some of the Lord’s own beloved committing grievous faults and slips, which have brought disgrace upon their character, and injury to their souls. Now I have learned to look to heaven lately as a place where we shall never, never sin — where our feet shall be iixed firmly upon a rock — where there is neither tripping nor sliding — where faults shall be unknown — where we shall have no need to keep watch against an indefatigable enemy, because there is no foe that shall annoy us — where we shall not be on our guard day and night watching against the incursion of foes, for there “the wicked cease from troubling and the weary are at rest,” I have looked upon it as the land of complete security, where the garment shall be always white, where the face shall be always anointed with fresh oil, where there is no fear of slipiDing or turning away, but where we shall stand fast for ever. And I ask you, if that be a true view of heaven — and I am sure it is one feature of it — do not the saints even on earth enjoy some fruits of Pivadise, even in this sense? Do we not even in these huts and villages below sometimes taste the joys of blissful security? The doctrine of God’s word is, that all who are in union with the Lamb are safe, that all believers must hold on their way, that those who have committed their souls to the keeping of Christ s’lall find him a faithful and immutable keeper. On such a doctrine we can enjoy security even on earth; not that high and glorious secui’ity winch riendors us free from every slip and trip, but neveitlieless a security well nigh as great, because it secures ua against nltimate ruin, and renders us certain that we shall attain to eternal felicity. And, beloved, have you never sat ilown and reflected on the doctrine of the perseverance of the aaints? I trow you have. God has broigbt home to you a eense ot your security in the person of Christ. He has t(pld you that your iinme is graven on his hand; he has “whispered in your ear the promise, “Fear not, I am with thee.” You have been led to look upon him, the great surety of the covenant, as faithful and true, and, therefore, bound and engaged to present you, the weakest of the family, with all the chosen race, before the throne of God; and in such sweet contemplation I am sure you have been drinking some of the juice of his spiced pomegranates; you have had some of the dainiy fruits of Paradise; you have had some of the enjoyments which the perfect saints have above in a sense of security,
O how I love that doctrine of the pei’severance of the saints I renounce the pulpit when I can not preach it, for the gospe seems to be a blank desert and a howling wilderness — a gospe as unworthy of God as it would be beneath even my acceptance, frail worm as I am — a gospel which saves me to-day and rejects me to-mori-ow — a gospel which puts me in Christ’s family one hour, and makes me a child of the devil the next — a gospel which justifies and then condemns me — a gospel which pardons me, and afterward casts me to hell. Such a gospel is abhorrent to reason itself, much more to the God of the whole earth. But on the other ground of faith, that
*’ He to the end must endure
As sure as the earnest is given,”
we do enjoy a sense of perfect security even as we dwell in tills land of wars and fightings. As the spies brought their brethren bunches of the grapes, so in the security we enjoy, we have a foretaste and earnest of the joy of Paradise.
In the next place, most probably the greater part of you love to thhik of heaven under another aspect: as a place of perfect rest. You sons of toil, you love the sanctuary because St is there you sit to hear God’s word, and rest your wearied limbs. When you have wiped the hot sweat from your burning brow, you have often thought of heaven Avhcre your labors shall be over; you have sung with sweet emphasis,
“There shall I bathe my weary sOul
In seas of heavenly rest.”
Rest, rest, rest, — this is what you want. And to me this idea rOllETASTES OF THE UEAVENLY LIFE. 1^1
.)f heaven is exceeclhigly beautiful. Rest I know I never shall have beneath this sky, while Christ’s church is as barbarous as it is; for the most barbarous of masters is the church of Christ, I have served it, and am well-nigh hounded to my grave by Christian ministers perpetually requiring me to do impossibilities that they know no mortal strength can accojnplish. Willing I am to labor till I drop, but more I can net do; yet I am perpetually assailed on this side and the other, till, go where I may, there seems no rest for me till I slumber in my grave; and I do look forward to heaven with some degree of happiness. There I shall rest from labors constant and perpetual, though much loved. And you, too, who have been toiling long to gain an object you have sought after — you have said if you could get it you would lie down and rest; you have toiled after a certain amount of riches, you have said if you could once gain a competence you would then make yourself at ease. Or, you have been laboring long to gain a certain point of character, and then you have said you would lay down your arms and rest. Ay, but you have not reached it yet; and you love heaven because heaven is the goal to the racer, the target of the arrow of existence; you love heaven because it will be the couch of time, ay, an eternal rest for the ])Oor weary struggler upon earth. You love it as a place of rest; and do we never enjoy a foretaste of heaven upon earth in that sense? O, yes, beloved! blessed be God, “we who have believed do enter into rest.” Our peace is like a river, and our righteousness like the waves of the sea. God niay give to his people rest: even the rest that remaineth for the people of God. We have stormy trials and bitter troubles in the world; but we have learned to say, “Return unto thy rest, O my soul! for the Lord hath dealt bountifully with thee.” Did you never, in times of great distress, climb up to your closet-, and there on your knees ponr out your heart before God? Did you never feel after you had so done that you had bathed yourself in rest, so that
“Let cares like a wHi deluge como,
And storms of sorrow falJ,”
you cared n 3t one whit for them? For you had found a
Bhlteld in Christ; you had looked upon the face of God’i anointed. Ah, Christian, that rest without a billow of disturbance, lliat rest so placid and serene, which in your deepest troubles you have been enabled to enjoy in the bosom of Christ, is to you a bunch of the mighty vintage of heaven, one grape of the heavenly cluster which you shall soon partake of in the land of the hereafter. Here, again, you see we can have a foretaste of heaven, and realize what it is even while here upon earth.
But that idea of rest will suit some indolent professors, and, therefore, let me just give the very opposite of it. I do think that one of the worst sins a man can be guilty of in this world is to be idle. I can almost forgive a drunkard, but a lazy man I do think there is very little pardon for. I think a man Y;ho is idle has as good a reason to be a penitent before God as David had when he was an adulterei-, for the most abominable thing in the world is for a man to let the grass grow up to hia ankles and do nothing. God never sent a man into the world to be idle. And there are some who make a tolerably foir profession, but who do nothing, from one year’s end to the other.
The next idea of heaven is, that it is a place of uninterrupted service. It is a place where they sei-ve God day and night in his temple, and never know weariness, and never vqquire to slumber. Do you icnow what is the deliciousness of work? For although we must complain when people expect itnpossibilities of us, it is the highest enjoyment of life to be busily engaged for Christ. Tell me the day I do not preach, I will tell you the day in which I am not happy; but the day in which it is my privilege to preach the gospel, and labor for God, is generally the day of my peaceful and quiet enjoyment after all. Service is delight. Praising God is pleasure. Laboring for him is the highest delight a mortal can know.,, O, how sweet it must be to sing his praises, and never feel that the throat is dry! O, how blessed to flap the wing for ever and never feel it flag! O, what sweet enjoyment to run upor his errands, evermore to circle round the throne of God in heaven while eternity shall last, and never once lay the head on the pillow, never once feel the throbbings of fi^Iguc, neves
FORETASTES OF TilE HEAVENLY LIFE. 143
once the pangs that aJmonis]i us that we need to cease, but to keep on for evei- like eternity’s own self — a broad river tolling on with perpetual Hoods of labor! O, that must be enjoyment! That must be, indeed, a heaven, to serve God day and night in his temple! But you have served God on earth, and have had foretastes of that. I wish some of you knew the sweets of labor a little more, for although labor breedeth sweat, it breedeth sweets too — more especially labor fur Christ. There is a satisfaction befoi-e the work; there is a satisfaction in the work; thci-e is a satisfaction after the work, and there is a satisfaction in looking for the fruits of the work; and a great satisfaction when we get the fruits. Labor for Christ is, indeed, the robing-room of heaven; if it be i.ct heaven itself, it is one of the iuost bhssful foretastes of it. Thank God, Christian, if you can do any thing for your Master. Thank him if it is your privilege to do the least tlung foi him, for remember in so doing he is giving you a taste of the grapes of Eshcol. But you indolent people, you do not get the grapes of Eshcol, because you are too lazy to carry that big bunch.. You would like it to come into your mouths without the trouble of gathering it; but you do not care to go forth and serve God. You sit still and look after yourselves, but what do you do for other people? You go to your place of worship; you talk about your Sunday-school and sick society, and so on. You never teach in the Sunday-school, and you never visit a sick person, and yet you take a great deal of credit to yourself while you do nothing at all. You will never know much of the enjoyments of heavenly glory until you know a little of the work of the kingdom of heaven on earth.
Now, let us proceed to some other points. Another view of heaven is, that it is a place of coinplete victory and glorious triumph. This is the battle-field; there is the triumphal procession. This is the land of the sword and the spear; that ia the land of the wreath and the crown. This is the land of the garment rolled in blood and of the dust of the light; thac i;3 the land of the trumpet’s joyful sound — that is the place of the T/hite robe and of the shout of conquest. O, what a thrill of joy shall shoot through the hearts of all the blessed whec their conquests shall be ccnplete in heaven, when death it self, the last of Ibes, shall be slain — when Satan shall be dragged captive at the chariot wheels of Christ — when he shall have overthrown sin and trampled corruption as the mire of the streets — when the great shout of universal victory shall rise from the hearts of all the redeemed! What a moment of pleasure shall that Im3! O, dear brethren, you and I have foretastes of even i) A. We know what conquests, what souls’ battles we have even here. Did you never struggle against an evil heart, and at last overcome it? O, with what joy did you lift your eyes to heaven, the tears flowing down your cheeks, and say, “Lord, I bless thee that I have been able to overcome that sin.” Did you ever have a strong temptation, and did you wrestle hard with it, and know what it was to sing with great joy, “My feet slipped; but thy mercy held me up?” Have you, like Bunyan’s Christian, fought with old Apollyon, and have you seen him flap his dragon-wings and fly away? There you had a foretaste of heaven; you had just a guess of what the ultimate victory will be. In the deat,h of that one Philistine you had the destruction of the whole army. That Goliath who fell beneath your sling and stone was but one out of the multitude who must yield their bodies to the fowls of heaven. God gives you partial triumphs that they may be the earnest of idtimate and complete victory. Go on and conquer, and let each conquest, though a harder one and more strenuously contested, be to you as a grape of Eshcol, a foretaste of the joys of heaven.
Furthermore, without doubt one of the best views we can ever give of heaven is, that it is a state of complete acceptance with God recognized and felt in the conscience. I suppose that a great part of the joy of the blessed saints consists in a knowledge that there is nothing in them to which God is hostile; that their peace with God has not any thmg to mar it; that they are so completely in union with the principles and thoughts of the Most High; that his love is set on them; that their love is set on him; that they are one with God in every respect. Well, beloved, and have we not enjoyed a sense of acceptance here below,? Blotted and blurred by many doubts and fears, yet there have been moments when we have known ourselves as vsll accepted as we shall know ourselves to be even wlieu we stand before the throne. There have been bright days with some of ns, when we could “set to our seal” that God was true; and, when afterward, feeling that the Lord knoweth them that are his, we could say, “And I know that I am his too.” There have been moments when, with an urfaltsring lip we could say,
“ISTow, I can call my Jesus mine;
iSTow-, I can all my joys resign;
Can tread the world beneath my feet,
And sdl that earth calls good and great;”
when we had such a view of the perfection of Christ’s righteousness that we felt that God had accepted us, and could not do otherwise; we had such a sense of the efficacy of the blood of Christ, we felt sure that our sins were all pardoned, and that they never could be mentioned unto us in mercy for ever. And, beloved, though I have spoken of other joys, let me say, this is the cream of all of them, to know ourselves accepted in God’s sight. O! to feel that I, a guilty worm, am now received in my Father’s bosom; that I, a lost prodigal, am now feasting at his table with delight; that I, who once heard the voice of his anger, now listen to the notes of his love. This is joy — this is joy worth worlds. What more can they know up there than that? And were it not that our sense of it were so imperfect, we might bring heaven down to earth, and might at least dwell in the suburbs of the celestial city, if we could not be privileged to go within the gates. So you see, agaui, we can have bunches of the grapes of Eshcol in that sense. Seeing that heaven is a state of acceptance, we, too, can know and feel that acceptance, and rejoice in it.
And, again, heaven is a stale of great and glorious tnanifes tatlons. You look forward to heaven as the place where you
shall
“See, and hear, and know
All you desire and wish below.’’
Yon are now looking at it darkly through a glass: there you ‘i.i’.all see face to face Christ looks down on the Bible, and the
146 FORETASTES OF TilE HEAVENLY l^XFE.
Bible is his lookiug-glass. You look into it, and see the fax;« of Christ as in a mirror darkly; but soon you shall look upon himself, and see him face to face. You expect heaven as a place of peculiar manifestations. You believe that there ha will uuvail his face to you; that
“ilillions of years your -wondering eyes
Shall o’er your Saviour’s beauties rove.”
You aie expecting to see his face, and never, never sin. You are lonuing to know the secrets of his heart. You believe that in that day you shall see him as he is, and shall be like hi’n in the world of spirits. Well, beloved, though Christ does not manifest himself to lis as he does to the bright ones there, have not you and I had manifestations even while we have been in this vale of tears? Speak, beloved; let your heart speak; hast thou not had visions of Calvary; has not thy Master sometimes touched thy eyes with eye-salve, and let thee see him on his cross? Hast thou not said
“Here I’d sit for ever viewing
Mercy stream in streams of blood I
Precious drops my soul bedewing,
Plead and claim my peace with God.”
Have you not wept for joy and grief when you saw him bleeding out his life from his heart for you, and beheld him nailed to the tree for your sakes! O yes I I know you have had such manifestations of him. And have you not seen him in his risen glories? Have you not beheld him there exalted or his throne? Have you not by faith beheld him as the Judge of the quick and the dead, and as the Prince of the kings of the earth? Have you not looked through the dim future, and seen him with the crown of all the kingdoms on his head, with the diadems of all monarchies beneath his feet, and the sceptere of all thrones in his hand? Have you not anticipated tie moment of his most glorious triumphs, when he
“Shall reign from pole to pole with illimitable sway?”
Yes, yon have, and therein you have had foretastes of heaven. When Christ has thus revealed himself to you, you have .V okfci mihm tliG vail, and, therefore, you have seen what is there, you have had some glimpses of Jesus while here; those glimpses of Jesus are but the beginning of what shall never end. Those joyous melodies of praise and thanksgiving are but the preludes of the notes of Paradise.
And now, lastly, the highest idea of heaven, perhaps, is the idea of most halloioed and blissful communion. I have not given you near half that I might have given you of the various characteristics of heaven, as described in God’s word, but communion is the best. Communion! that word so little spoken o so seldom understood. That word, communion! Dearly beloved, you hear us say, “And the communion of the Holy Ghost be with you all:” but there are many of you that do not know the meaning of that sweet heaven in a word. Communion! It is the llower of language; it is the honeycomb of words. Communion! You like to talk of corruption ];est do you not? Well, if you like that filthy word, you are very willing to meditate upon it. I do so when I am forced to do it; but communion seems to me to bo a sweeter word than that. You like to talk a great deal about affliction, don’t you? Well, if you love the black word — ah! you have reason to love it; but if you love to be happy upon it, you may do so; but give me for my constant text and for my constant joy, communion. And I will not choose which kind of communion it shall be. Sweet Master, if thou givest me communion with thee in thy sufferings, if I have to bear reproach and shame for thy name’s sake, I will thank thee; if I may have fellowship with thee in it, and if thou wilt give me to suffer for thy sake, I will call it honor, that so I can be a partaker of thy sufferings; and if thou givest me sweet enjoyments, if thou dost raise me up and make me to sit in heavenly places in Christ, I will bless thee. I will bless thee for ascension comiiuuiion — communion with Christ in his glories. Do you not say the same? And for communion with Christ in death. Have you died unto the world, as Christ did die unto himself? And then have you had communion with him in resurrection? Have you felt that you .are raised to newness of life, even as was he? And have you had communion with ‘aim in ascension, so that you could know yourself to be au 14^ FORETASTES OF THE HEAVENLY UFE.
heir to a throne in Paradise? If so, you have had the best earnest you can receive of the joys of Paradise, To be in heav’?n is to lean one’s head upon the breast of Jesus. You have done it on earth? Then you know what heaven is. To bo in heaven is to talk with Jesus, to sit at his feet, to lot our heart beat against his heart. If you have had that on earth, y3u have had some of the grapes of heaven.
Cherish, then, these foretastes, of whatever kind they may have been in your individual case. Dilierently constituted, you “.vill all look at heaven in a dilferent light. Keep your foretaste just as God has given it to you. He has given each of yoa some one; if you love it, it is most suitable to your own condition. Treasure it up; think much of it. Think more of your i>Iaster. For, remember, it is “Christ in you the hops of calory,” after all, that is your only foretaste of heaven; and the more fully prepared shall you be for the bliss of the joyous ones in the land of the happy.