Difference between revisions of "Meditation CVI."
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Latest revision as of 12:34, 7 January 2020
Meditation CVI.
ON GOING BEYOND THE LINE.
Plymouth Sound, March 14, 1761.
Commanded by our Sovereign, with cheerfulness we leave our native land, and pursue our course through raging and extensive oceans, to unknown climates abroad, though we may meet with enemies, be overtaken with diseases, and must pant beneath a scorching sun. Why then, O my soul! afraid, at your heavenly Sovereign's command, to pass the line of time into the wide ocean of eternity, and unknown worlds above; seeing you have his divine promise for your protection in the hour of death, and the sure hope of a divine friend with you, who is Lord of all the unknown regions of glory?
The saint should even rejoice in the prospect of death, which turns out to his immense, his everlasting gain. For here in this present world, he may have little or nothing—but there is his infinite inheritance. Here be may be an exile—but there he is at home. Here he is a stranger—there he is among his friends. Here he is often mourning without the sun—but there he is eternally with God.
One, from the large quantity of stores and provisions of all kinds which is brought aboard, might well conclude we were destined for some distant part of the world. O! then, seeing I have such a long voyage before me, and must live in worlds to come, how is my soul provided? what have I in hand, what have I in hope? have I the promise, and Christ in the promise in hand? and its full accomplishment in the full enjoyment of him in hope? Were I only to land on the shores of time, die like the beasts, and be no more—to be unprovided would not be a crime. But to launch into eternity without the provisions proper for an immortal soul, is more desperate madness than for ships to sail to the farthest Indies without bread and water.
It concerns me to go abroad, and not know if ever I shall return to my native land, or see a friend I have in life. But faith's enlarged view shall dissipate the gloom, for the sun shines as brightly on the other side of the line as this; the stars twinkle alike richly in all quarters; and heaven, surrounding the whole globe, is alike near to all places.
Yes, God being everywhere present—he that lives in God cannot be separated from him, or die outside of him, by distance from his country and his friends. But at the hour of dissolution, he shall go to be forever with the Lord, where he shall be allowed the nearest approaches, and most intimate communion with him who dwells in inaccessible light and glory!
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