“Our last conversation, my child, if I remember well, was on the intercessory work of the Lord Jesus. I think you would like to hear me speak of the final great act of His mediatorial reign, when He will come at the |The Resurrection and Judgment.| resurrection to judge the world.”
“Oh, yes!” said Emma; “I should like much to hear of that awfully glorious day. I often tremble when I think about it.”
“It has no terrors, my child, to God’s own people. It is to them a very joyful day—the happiest of all their lives; for then they shall be brought to the full enjoyment of God for ever.”
|Souls of Believers at Death.| “But, dear grandmamma, I thought, when believers die, they go to heaven at the very moment of death; that the angels of God are waiting by their pillows to carry them into Jesus’ bosom.”
“True—most true, my child,” replied the aged lady; “the moment the saint closes his eyes on this world, he opens them in heaven. The souls of believers are at their death made perfect in holiness, and do immediately pass into glory. You perhaps remember some of the things the Apostle Paul said in the prospect of death?”
“Yes,” said Emma; “‘Having a desire to depart, and to be with Christ, which is far better;’ ‘Willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord.’ I remember, too, of Stephen, when his wicked murderers were stoning him, how he cried out, ‘Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.’”
“Quite right, my dear; and that other saying of the Saviour to the poor thief on the cross is more to the point still, when He said to him, ‘Verily I say unto thee, To‐day shalt thou be with me in paradise.’”
“But then, from all these verses,” said Emma, “is not heaven begun at the hour of death?”
“It is, my child,” replied her grandmother. “I have already told you that, at the moment of death, the soul of the saint is made perfectly holy, and happy too, beyond what we can now conceive; but its state of final and complete glorification will not take place until the day of judgment.”
“What is it,” said the little inquirer, “which will then add to its state of glory and blessedness?”