Our faith in God, and in the existence of Heaven, and the possibilities of the future life, can enable us to triumph over the trials and bereavements in this vale of tears.
Dr. Guthrie asks: "Why should we not lie as calmly in the arms of God's Providence, as we lay in infancy on a mother's breast? Having an ever-living, an everlasting, an ever-loving Father in God, how may we welcome all providences, sweetly submissive to the will of God. Shall it not fare with us as with the pliant reeds that love the hollows and fringe the margin of the lake, and bending to the blast, not resisting it, raise their heads anew, unharmed by the storm that has snapped the mountain's pine and rent the hearts of oaks asunder." "All things work together for good to them that love God; them who are the called according to His purpose."
When John was in the spirit on the Lord's Day, he heard a great voice saying, "He that hath an ear, let him hear what the spirit saith unto the churches. To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the hidden manna, and will give him a white stone, and in the stone a new name written, which no man knoweth save he that receiveth it."
How can we best overcome the lusts of the flesh, the lusts of the eye, and the pride of life but by deep and continued meditation on the blessed change that takes place at the hour of death. The shadows of earth are instantly dispelled when we set our affections on things above.
"Who are these arrayed in white robes, and whence came they? These are they who have come out of great tribulation, and have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb." I remember once standing at the grave of Richard Cameron, in Ayrs Moss, and as I read the names of other martyrs engraved on the tomb-stone, I thought of the general assembly of the Church of the first-born in Heaven, and as I read God's Word there and sang a sweet Psalm of praise to Jehovah, and offered a prayer to the Father of lights, the God of Israel, I thought of the prayer of Peden, the prophet, as he sat on Cameron's grave. Lifting up his eyes steadfastly to Heaven, he prayed: "Oh, to be wi' Ritchie!"
"Often at the shades of evening,
When I sit me down to rest,
One by one, I count them over,
They who are in glory blest."
Dearly beloved, I have a Ritchie[7] ] in Heaven, for I have recently learned of the death of the spiritual guide of my youth, who, in years gone by, at the close of a cottage prayer-meeting, requested me, for the first time in my life, to speak a word for Jesus. Pulling a flower from the hill-side, he said as he held it up, "I can see God in that gowan." Taking me to his room, he said, "This is my study; these are my books, I am going to be a minister of the Gospel, and then go to China."