THE GREAT SALVATION by George W. Reaser

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Mountain View, California · Feb 27, 1907

THE GREAT SALVATION

By George W. Reaser

“THE WORLD TO COME.”

(Concluded.)

READER, what will it require to fully satisfy the deepest, the most intense longings of your heart? Will a life running parallel with the existence of the eternal God, and this combined with all of the blessings and privileges that the universe can supply, and with the most delightful associations that heaven affords, suffice? The ever-blessed Father has all this “in store” for you if you love Him and cherish purity of heart. He says of those who set their love upon Him, that with long life will He satisfy them, and show them His salvation; and the psalmist, voicing the experience of all the redeemed, says, “I shall be satisfied, when I awake, with Thy likeness.”

When the children of the kingdom, now exiled from their Father’s house, are finally gathered home, it will be a source of intense delight for the Lord to anticipate and more than satisfy every legitimate longing of the heart. For He says, “Before they call I will answer them, and while they are yet speaking, I will hear.” Nothing will be omitted, in that blissful home, to make the happiness of every subject full and complete. Joy is usually of a very transitory nature here, but in the endless cycles of eternity “the ransomed of the Lord shall return, and come to Zion with

Songs and Everlasting Joy

upon their heads; they shall obtain joy and gladness, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away.”

Reader, please recall the most delightful and enjoyable associations that you have ever experienced in this life. Perhaps reflection upon some of these happy days has supplied food for your soul in the lonely hours as less blissful years have been your lot. The sum total of mortal happiness “is not worthy to be compared” with the joy ecstatic and never-ending, which will surely be the portion of those who gain the better world. Indulge your most vivid imagination of delight and happiness supreme,— “Take room; think vastly; meditate intensely; Reason profoundly; send conjecture forth;” and yet you can not comprehend the bliss that waits the child of God; for “eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love Him.” The most happy associations in this life are abruptly terminated by the cruel hand of death, or some other calamity common to this pain-racked, hope-blighting world. Associations, sweet and pure companionship over there, will know no blight, no disappointment, and will never terminate in heartaches and bitter tears.

New Heavens and Earth.

It will be fitting to invite the One who bestows the gifts of His love upon the redeemed, to describe their glorious home and blissful estate. He sends these words to us, by the hand of the beloved apostle:

“And I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away; and there was no more sea. And I John saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and He will dwell with them, and they shall be His people, and God Himself shall be with them, and be their God. And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain; for the former things are passed away. And He that sat upon the throne said, Behold, I make all things new. And He said unto me, Write; for these words are true and faithful. . . . I will give unto him that is athirst of the fountain of the water of life freely. He that overcometh shall inherit all [these] things; and I will be his God, and he shall be My son. . . .

“And there came unto me one of the seven angels which had the seven vials full of the seven last plagues, and talked with me, saying, Come hither, I will show thee the bride, the Lamb’s wife. And he carried me away in the Spirit to a great and high mountain, and showed me that great city, the holy Jerusalem, descending out of heaven from God, having the glory of God; and her light was like unto a stone most precious, even like a jasper stone, clear as crystal; and had a wall great and high, and had twelve gates, and at the gates twelve angels, and names written thereon, which are the names of the twelve tribes of the children of Israel.”

“And the building of the wall of it was of jasper; and the city was pure gold, like unto clear glass. . . . And the twelve gates were twelve pearls; every several gate was of one pearl; and the street of the city was pure gold, as it were transparent glass.”

“And he showed me a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding out of the throne of God and of the Lamb, in the midst of the street of it. And on either side of the river was there the tree of life, which bare twelve manner of fruits, and yielded her fruit every month; and the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations. And there shall be no more curse; but the throne of God and of the Lamb shall be in it; and His servants shall serve Him; and they shall see His face; and His name shall be in their foreheads.”

“Beautiful for situation,

The Joy of the Whole Earth

is Mount Zion, on the sides of the north, the city of the great King. God is known in her palaces for a refuge.” “Violence shall no more be heard in thy land, wasting nor destruction within thy borders; but thou shalt call thy walls Salvation, and thy gates Praise. The sun shall be no more thy light by day; neither for brightness shall the moon give light unto thee; but the Lord shall be unto thee an everlasting light, and thy God thy glory.”

“In that day shall this song be sung in the land of Judah: We have a strong city; salvation will God appoint for walls and bulwarks.” “And the inhabitants shall not say, I am sick; the people that dwell therein shall be forgiven their iniquity.”

“There, immortal minds will contemplate with never-failing delight the wonders of creative power, the mysteries of redeeming love. There is no cruel, deceiving foe to tempt to forgetfulness of God. Every faculty will be developed, every capacity increased. The acquirement of knowledge will not weary the mind or exhaust the energies. There the grandest enterprises may be carried forward, the loftiest aspirations reached, the highest ambitions realized; and still there will arise new heights to surmount, new wonders to admire, new truths to comprehend, fresh objects to call forth the powers of mind and soul and body. All the treasures of the universe will be open to the study of God’s redeemed.”

“No more fatigue, no more distress, No sin nor death can reach that place; No tears shall mingle with the songs That warble from immortal tongues. “No rude alarm of raging foes, No cares to break the long repose, No midnight shade, no clouded sun, But sacred, high, eternal noon. “O long-expected day, begin! Dawn on these realms of wo and sin; Fain would I leave this weary load, And go to meet my blessed Lord.”