p. 119 | CLUSTERS OF ESCHOL

Publishing Committee · Rochester, N. Y. · Nov 21, 1854

CLUSTERS OF ESCHOL.

[Concluded.]

Men are not, however, thus unfitted for common occupations, and are rendered anything but indifferent to the smaller duties and mercies of life. Angels, probably, minister with no less alacrity to them who are the humblest heirs of salvation, than to Him who is their Lord and ours. The command of God dignifies any service; it equalizes all obligations. Growth in the grace now under consideration only infuses a more genial and holy warmth into the Christian’s ordinary duties, and renders him more devoutly sensitive to the least as well as the greatest of all God’s benefits. The spiritually-minded man is no gymnosophist, gazing vacantly at the heavens; he is a Copernicus, installing the sun as centre of the system, and reducing our earth to its proper subordination.

No one who wisely contemplates the starry firmament which God has ordained, will make it revolve round the insignificant planet we occupy; nor can any one who has surveyed the land flowing with milk and honey, any longer so over-value the wilderness through which he journeys. More just estimates will be thus formed, and higher aspirations awakened. Anaxagoras was so enamored with astronomical studies that he thought himself born to contemplate the heavens; and, when reproved for not seeking the public honors and offices of his country, he replied, “My first care is for my country.”

So the heavenly-minded believer regards himself as having less to do with earth than with the skies. Present distinctions, possessions and amusements, cannot fill his eye. He is only a stranger. He brought nothing into the world, he can carry nothing out. His citizenship, his treasures, his heart, are in heaven, and his hope is to be there himself, personally, wholly and forever.

When the rude northern people had once drunk of the sweet wines of Italy, they could not rest satisfied till they were themselves quartered in that pleasant land. So, when the true Israel of God have but tasted of the clusters of Eschol, they are fired with new desires to go up and possess that land which the Lord hath promised them. A holy ardor is kindled.

When, notwithstanding the report of Caleb and Joshua, the timid host were fain to return to the house of bondage, those assured champions “spake unto all the company of the children of Israel, saying, The land which we passed through to search it, is an exceeding good land. If the Lord delight in us, then will he bring us into this land, and give it us; a land flowing with milk and honey. Only rebel ye not against the Lord. “But all the congregation bade stone them with stones.” Of all then living only those two entered Canaan,—the carcasses of the rest falling in the wilderness; for God swore in his wrath that they should not enter into his rest.

Every true believer has a faith that works by love and impels effort. In proportion as this heavenly temper takes possession of the soul, it urges to energetic, self-sacrificing enterprise. You may know the men who have become familiar with the land of promise by their humble and earnest bearing; by their disinterested readiness to do good unto all men as they have opportunity, but especially unto the household of faith; by their lovely and noble combination of amiable and commanding qualities. Their whole walk is fragrant of Paradise. “All their garments smell of myrrh, and aloes, and cassia.”

“When one that holds communion with the skies, Has filled his urn where these pure waters rise. And once more mingles with us meaner things, ’Tis e’en as if an angel shook his wings. Immortal fragrance fills the circuit wide That tells us whence his treasures are supplied. So when a ship, well freighted with the stores The sun matures on India’s spicy shores, Has dropped her anchor and her canvas furled In some fair haven of our western world. ’Twere vain inquiry to what port she went, The gale informs us, laden with the scent.”

How does love glow towards their fellow-travellers, their future fellow-citizens in the Better Land! Is it the heavenly minded who slight or slander those with whom we are to dwell under the same roof, with whom they are to serve and to sing forever?

What foretastes do they often have, as they approach the confines of Canaan! Land-birds, of beautiful plumage, greeted Columbus days before his eye caught a glimpse of the New World. A more southern voyager found himself in the fresh waters of the Amazon before discovering the continent whence they came.

So, at the close of life’s voyage, do birds of Paradise come hitherward, careering on bright wings, and the river of life sends its refreshing current far out into the briny sea of this world. “The celestial city,” said Payson, “is now full in my view. Its glories beam upon me,—its sounds strike upon my ears, and its spirit is breathed into my heart.”

In observing the transit of Venus across the sun’s disc, Rittenhouse was so filled with rapture that he fainted. And as the glories of the upper world, the unutterable splendor of the Sun of Righteousness, attract the eye of the beholder, is it strange he should be wrapt and overwhelmed? Such holy anticipations turn earth into Paradise.

“Thoughts of heaven! they come when low The Summer evening breeze doth faintly blow: When the mighty sea shines clear, unstirred By the wavering tide or the dipping bird: They come in the rush of the raging storm, When the blackening waves rear their giant form, When o’er the dark rocks curl the breakers white, And the terrible lightnings rend the night; When the noble ship hath vainly striven With the tempest’s might—come thoughts of heaven

In the stillness of the grey rocks’ height, Where the lonely eagle takes its flight; On peaks where lie the eternal snow; In the heathy glen; by the dark, clear lake; When the fair swan sails from her silent brake; Where nature reigns in her deepest rest, Pure thoughts of heaven come unrepressed.”