Look once more upon that brilliant orb, whose light, without, may be one of the lamps of eternal day. Look but for one second of time only; for, as we have told you, a steady gaze into its fiery flame of brightness for one minute alone is fatal to the blinding of the unprotected eye. May not within be the place of which the poet's spiritual eye caught a glimpse, when alone in silent meditation he penned those sublime and beautiful lines:
"There, on those wide extended plains, shines one eternal day,
There God, the Son, forever reigns, and scatters night away.
No chilling winds, nor poisonous breath, can reach that healthful shore,
Sickness and sorrow, pain and death, are felt and feared no more."
May not that be the Heavenly world wherein stands the "City of God, whose foundations are eternal," and whose maker and builder is the great Architect of the Universe? Its walls are Jasper, and are ever glittering in the glory-light of eternal day. Its apartments are gorgeously furnished in brilliant array. "I go" said the Saviour, "to prepare a place for you." There "the gold-paved streets," there the "Great white Throne" and "Christ the Lord" who sits thereon as the judge and ruler of His own native Empire—for it is He that shall judge the nations of this Earth, and in the "great day" of "final judgment" he will recount, in evidence, some of the scenes through which he passed on this Earth, to justify his final and unalterable decision.
May not there gush forth the crystal "fountains of life" from which to drink will quench all thirst; and there the "rivers of life" ever flowing, in whose waters to bathe will renew eternal youth, and immortality, to dwell on and on with eternity itself? May not Moses, and Elijah, and the Prophets, and Martyrs be there? May not many of us, who are still on this Earth, contemplate the theme that there (in that bright world at whose boundary surface we cannot, while dwelling in mortality, gaze for even one minute of time without being blinded) we have a father, a mother, sister, brother, husband, wife, a child, or some loved friends, who have left the shores of Time, and are safe with their blessed Saviour, to dwell in his sun-light throughout "eternal day?"
May we not contemplate the possibility of these things, when we remember that it is said of Heaven, "the Righteous shall dwell therein," and that "God" in His eternal manifestations "dwells in light unapproachable" to us in our mortality, and is only manifest to us here by His invisible Spirit veiled in fire?
Startle not when we come to lay before you the well-defined elements surrounding that vast globe. The timid mind might naturally recoil, and stand aghast at the thought of approaching such volume of intense heat and "devouring flames." Remember that you are still in the body, subject to all the pains and penalties of fallen humanity. Remember that God has created no element incompatible with his own nature; remember that He is the Almighty power who hath created all things, and in the infinity of His power, can control any element for our happiness, and also the same for our misery. Thus it will appear that "every man's work shall be tried as by fire;" the righteous to be saved as by fire, and yet the wicked to be destroyed or tormented by fire. In this we can see the Infinity of the power of God in the salvation and happiness of His children—who are "the children of light," as also in the torments of the "children of darkness."
But we shall be able to show that "God's Spirit is fire" and that He does so control this element, or change our nature, that whatever these may be, they are properly adapted to constitute ineffable happiness to the immortal state of the righteous. This, we trust, will appear plain to you before you have finished the perusal of these pages.