MEDITATION VI.
MEDITATION VI.
GOOD AND BAD MEN MIXED TOGETHER IN THE WORLD.
London, April 16, 1758.
Now the world of mankind is a mingled multitude—good and bad are mixed together—wheat and tares grow in one field. Yes, they dwell now in one house, of whom at the last day one shall be taken and the other left. This is a grievance which cannot be avoided, for we must have connection with the wicked in the affairs of life, else we must go out of the world. And sometimes, as to me at present, there are certain stages of life, in which they are as it were—with the wicked, and handcuffed with the sons of vice—to whom the things of God are foolishness, and by whom the concerns of the immortal soul are never taken into consideration. They live as if they were to live forever in this present state, or as if when they die they would never go to judgment, and then to their eternal state.
What comfort, then, should it be to my soul, that he who once made all things, will again make all things new! He will, as in the old creation, divide, not only between night and day—but between the sons of night, and the children of the day. And while those are covered with shame and confusion of face, and cast into the blackness of darkness forever; the righteous shall shine as the stars, and as the sun in the kingdom of their Father. Then shall God's people speak a pure language; and to them, the Lord will manifest all of his glory. Perverse thoughts within, and profane talk without, shall no more disquiet them. Neither wicked company nor wandering cogitations shall vex the child of God any more. Then those who walk with him in white, shall talk with one another on the sublimest subjects of eternity—on the love and sufferings of the Son of God. Idle words in that state of perfection shall cease, where every speech is pure and spotless, every whisper celestial, every word divine, and all is one ravishing paean on redeeming love!