The Saints’ Reward by G. B. THOMPSON

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Sep 30, 1915

The Saints’ Reward

By G. B. THOMPSON

THE reward before the redeemed in the kingdom is indeed beyond the power of tongue or pen to portray fully. Then all the pain, tears, wretchedness, and misery of millenniums will be ended. The long, gloomy night of sin, with all its disappointments, sorrows, woe, and remorse will be finished. No more sad memories and fearful farewells! No more din of war, with all its sadness, ruin, and mutilation! No more wearisome days and sorrowful nights in which to watch a loved one suffer pain, and see the life slowly, but surely, ebb away! All gloomy forebodings, anxieties, fears, envies, jealousies, regrets, and heartaches wiped away forever! No more desponding, no more struggling and failing, no cheeks grown pale through sickness, penury, or care! No spirits crushed beneath a load of woe they are unable to endure! No ebbing tide of turbulent waters swelling and heaving about us, threatening to break our anchorage, and strand us on some rocky shore! No more tired bodies and distressed minds! No songs with which are mingled the groans of the suffering! No more aged and gray, who totter feebly on the threshold of the tomb!

Instead of all this terrible catalogue of suffering and woe, there will be pleasures and joys forevermore. There will be no more curse. On every hand will be seen the tranquillity and calm of heavenly peace. The rest in the haven from the storms and tempest of sin’s restless ocean will be ours eternally. A voice, sweeter than any that ever fell on mortal ear, will be heard saying, “Your conflicts” “are ended.” We can lay our crowns at Jesus’ feet, and lean our heads upon his bosom. The pearly gates will be opened, and the redeemed ushered into the transcendent glory that illuminates the city of God. There will be no night there. The saints, snatched as brands from the burning, will be kings and priests unto him who sits upon the throne high and lifted up. Their trials and temptations past, they will wear crowns that will flash in the everlasting light and glory of heaven, and robes white and spotless, washed in the crimson blood of him who hung on Calvary’s cross for a lost race. By faith in Christ they are triumphant, and wave on Mt. Zion palms of victory. They will stand before the throne of Jehovah, and with immortal voices sing anthems, the exceeding richness and melody of which surpass any choir on earth. In the raptures and ecstasy of divine love they will stand on the banks of the river of life and meditate on the glories which are eternally theirs.

And this glad day draws near. Soon, if faithful, we shall enter upon the reward, and receive the inheritance looked forward to by the children of God in all ages. This glorious promise should cause our hearts to throb with joy, and renew in us a firmer determination to be numbered among the blood-bought throng which no man can number, who through all the ages to come will praise and adore their Creator. G. B. THOMPSON.