Losses and gains!(William Nicholson, "HEAVEN!" 1855) LISTEN to audio! Download audio
(You will find it helpful to listen to the audio above, as you read the text below.)
"You have made known to me the path of life; You will fill me with joy in Your presence, with eternal pleasures at Your right hand!" Psalm 16:11
Paul might well say, "To die is gain!"
Most men are desirous of gain. Some make it the great object of their life, and will barter away their precious souls, for the perishable riches of the world.
Gain is the believer's great object; but remember, his gain is durable riches and righteousness.
He loses nothing by his espousal of true religion, but that which is evil and afflicting.
He loses sin, his greatest plague, his vilest incendiary, which has robbed him in every duty, and marred every pleasure.
He loses Satan.
Grace puts a child of God out of Satan's possession.
Glory puts a child of God out of Satan's temptation.
He loses his fears, which have armed him against himself, and seated deep melancholy on his brow.
He loses his tears, the effect of those clouds of sorrow which have gathered in his heart, and dropped from his eyes.
He loses his crosses, the weight of which has so pressed him down, that he has not been able to look up.
He loses his poverty, which was his dishonor among men, and deprived him of many comforts.
He loses his sicknesses, which incapacitated him for duty.
He loses his cares, which wasted his spirits, and broke his rest. He loses his spiritual desertions, which were his heaviest mental sorrows, that his God for a moment should forsake him.
And he loses the weariness of lie pilgrimage, occasioned by the clouds and darkness, and storms, and enemies, which encompassed his path.
Oh yes! he loses them all! He shall see them no more, forever.
But his gains—who can reckon them? Paul was caught up into the third Heaven; but he informs us that the glories, the joys, the beauties, the society, the employments—are all unspeakable! Yet this we know, that the presence of Christ is the handkerchief which wipes away all tears. Yes, Christ's presence shall turn his sinful deformity into spotless purity, and his doleful lamentations into everlasting hallelujahs. Then he shall exchange . . .
his pilgrim's staff, for a palm of victory,
his helmet of salvation, for a crown of glory,
his perishing tabernacle, for an incorruptible inheritance,
and the day of his dissolution, for the day of his coronation!
~ ~ ~ ~
N.B. We have just published two more books by William Nicholson: