The Last Day to the Christian.
By Dr. Cumming
WHEN the last day of this dispensation shall arrive, the last tear that you will shed over sin will then be wiped away. You are now blessed in your mourning upon earth; then and at that day you will be comforted forever; for God will wipe away all tears from all eyes, and there shall be no more weeping, or crying, or sorrow. At that day the last doubt shall have gone from your minds like a passing cloud from the sky; the last suspicion of the love of Him whom having not seen, ye love, will be dissipated forever; the glass through which you now see darkly will be broken; and those mysterious dispensations that you cannot understand; that cross, the load and pressure of which you are unable to bear, you will then and there discover to have been messengers from God, reasoning of righteousness, and temperance, and judgment; and that there was as great a need be that you should have gone through that baptism of sorrow, as there was that Christ should have died upon the cross, or that you should have been washed in his precious blood. You will then discover that your bitterest cup was your most precious one; that your darkest and dreariest night was that in which you grew most; and that the roughest road, and the heaviest storm, and the most crooked way, which seemed to you to be leading you off from the promised Canaan, was the nearest route to the everlasting rest that remaineth for the people of God. You will find, what you feel now, that the bud had a bitter taste; but you will then discover, as you have not yet, that sweet indeed is the flower. At the last day, the last sacrament of the Lord's supper will be administered. You will need no Bible there; for all space is radiant with its texts, and texts ten thousand times more precious still. You will need no sacrament of the Lord's supper then; for you did it in remembrance of One who was not present bodily on earth, and in expectation of the advent of One who is not yet come to the earth. But then there will be no remembrance of Him, for He is present; there will be no more expectation of Him, for He is come. The sun is risen, the morning star is not wanted, the substance is present, the shadow is not needed; the temple has had its last cope-stone and corner-stone laid upon it, the scaffold must now be taken down and put away forever. In that day the last promise will be fulfilled, the last prophecy will be realized; what is now prospect to your hearts will then be possession—and what a possession! A possession exceeding all prospect, transcending all expectation; till you say, as she of Sheba said of Solomon's grandeur, "Half the glory and excellence of that blessed land was not told us by prophet, by apostle, or by evangelist." The streams are sweet; but how sweet will be the fountain! The bread of our Father's house as it is distributed in crumbs is now precious, but how precious will be bread eaten in his own presence; where "they shall hunger no more, nor thirst any more, neither shall the sun light upon them, nor shall there be any heat!" The last toil, and struggle, and labor, of which you have now the bitter and tearful experience, will have passed away. The march of duty will be finished, the journey of life will be done, your days and nights of weariness will be ended, you shall enter into rest. "You rest from your labors, and your works do follow you." When one thinks of all the tribulations, the sorrow, the trials, the distresses, the sicknesses, the pestilences, the plagues, the famines, the battles, amid which, as amid the waves of a stormy sea, thousands every day are struggling for a precarious existence, we cannot but hail the prospect, and pray for the joyous advent of that day, when the hopes of the humblest believer shall be realized, and this tangled web shall be unravelled, and these perplexing struggles, and toils, and trials shall be ended; and we shall here the words—richer, sweeter, deeper, than the sweetest strains that ever angels sung,—"Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world." And when that day comes, those we parted with on earth, to see no more amid its busy scenes, its trials, and its troubles to sympathize with us as we suffered, or to strengthen us in the battle of life, shall emerge again from the shadow of the grave. Countenances long hid shall have all the darkness rolled away; voices long silent shall be heard again; broken circles completed; once happy groups more happy than they ever were before. For at that day, when all things old shall pass away and all things new shall begin,
> "There shall be no more farewells to the dying,
> Or mournings for the dead;
> The heart of Rachel, for her children crying,
> Will then be comforted."—Dr. Cumming.