Would any person be cast down for an affliction, enduring
but for a day—if assured, that his whole after-life should be felicity and
peace? Though for this short time he were hungry, thirsty, naked,
imprisoned, reproached, reviled, envied, hated, despised, ridiculed by
flatterers, abandoned by friends, insulted by foes, and made the
gazing-stock of all; yet, would not the certain knowledge of so sudden a
change in his favor take off the edge of all? Would not the forethought of
the sumptuous table at which he should forever sit, and the generous wine
that should go around, abate his hunger, and allay his thirst? Would not the
thought of his expensive clothing, take a way the shame of his rags? Would
not the thought of his unconfined liberty render supportable his few hours
confinement? Would not the thought that renown, love, and respect, which he
would possess in a little while—take away the anguish that might arise from
the opposite insults?
Now, O Christian! your case at the worst can be no worse
than this—to suffer, through the short day of your life, much tribulation,
and many afflictions; much distress, and many troubles. Yes, though some
singular distress—as war, persecution, or pestilence, should bring your
death along with it, yet your eternal state is secured, and your exit is
into eternal glory!
What! should poverty make any impression on your
mind—you who are an heir of God, and joint-heir with Christ—who shall walk
on streets of gold? Should imprisonment trouble you, who shall walk
at liberty in the paradise of God through eternal day? Should shame
produce a blush in your countenance—who shall be confessed by your divine
Master before his heavenly Father, and all his holy angels? Should need of
any kind affect you—who are complete in Him in whom the fullness of the
Godhead dwells? Should disappointments, repeated, aggravated
disappointments, deject you—whose assured friend governs the universe, and
never will forget, and never will forsake you? In a word, should any cross
events in time distract you—who have an eternity of felicity before you,
where your happiness shall stretch beyond your most extensive thoughts?
Take the scales and balances, then, and sit down and
weigh the lightness of your troubles, the transitoriness of your
afflictions—even allowing them to harass you through your whole life, which
is not one day, one minute, or one moment—compared to eternity, and that
boundless, ineffable bliss, which awaits your better life, your immortal
state in the invisible world. And say, if that happiness, which should be
inseparable from an expectant of glory, is in you. And say, whether fits of
despondency for anything that can befall you in this world—or songs of
praise for that nameless immense ALL that is reserved for you in the world
to come—be most proper to your present state?