Читать книгу Plain Parochial Sermons, preached in the Parish Church of Bolton-le-Moors онлайн

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5. And what are the privileges of Christ’s redeemed people? What their present state, what their glorious inheritance? How unsearchable both the one and the other! The humble believer, the repenting sinner, the sincere and faithful servant derives, from the fountain of mercy which is opened unto him, a perpetual stream of increasing satisfaction and delight; he finds, that “there is no end thereof;” that it is a fountain, which he never can fathom. The sense of pardon and reconciliation with God affords a comfort to his soul, which flows the more abundantly, the longer he dwells upon it; as he journies onward in the way of salvation, his hopes are more enlivened, and his fears more calmed; even when he began to walk with his God, he felt that all around him was joy, and deemed his recompence in this life amply sufficient; but, at every step he advances in communion with his God and Saviour, he perceives more and more that “His ways are ways of pleasantness and all His paths are peace;” [32] and this experience will be enlarged the longer he lives, even beyond his present anticipation. The word of God has fresh stores for him every day; of knowledge, of comfort, and of grace: the Spirit of God has fresh supplies; to succour his infirmities, to elevate him in prayer and meditation, to guide him in perplexity, to strengthen him in trial, to console him in trouble and affliction, to raise him above the world, and place his affections in heaven. Thus will his joy in the Lord increase, till he comes to the end of his pilgrimage: and, in the end, the riches of redeeming love will be infinitely enhanced: who shall number or declare them? Which of us can now understand the preciousness of a Christian’s hope, the comfort of a Christian’s peace, at that hour, when his soul is struggling for departure? Who can now enter, as the dying man does, into the vast difference between the bright hope of being saved, and the gloomy fear of being lost; between the prospect of being for ever with the Lord, and the dismal foreboding of the terrors of the evil one? We have now but a slight conception of the feelings and views, in that momentous hour; but we shall one day know: God grant that the knowledge may be peace!