“But then, dear grandmamma, will there be no other joys in heaven?”
|Positive.| “Yes, yes, my child,” replied the aged lady; “I have only spoken to you of what is not in heaven. I have yet to tell you what is there. Can little Emma answer this question too, as well as the last?”
“I shall meet all my dear friends there,” said Emma—“my father and mother, who were both taken from me when I was so young, and little Robert, and you too, grandmamma, who have so kindly led me on in the way to that happy place, and told me often how I am to get there.”
“My dear child,” said her grandmother, “all that you have said about meeting departed friends there is true. All who are the friends of Jesus will meet in that happy home. I believe it to be true,” she repeated, the tear filling her eye as she spoke. “Parents will know their children, and children their parents; and brothers and sisters will meet never to part any more. But this is but a very small portion of the joy of heaven. Can you not think of a far greater joy in that bright world than even the meeting of the dearest earthly friends?”
“Oh yes,” replied Emma, “we shall meet God!—we shall see Jesus face to face! |Vision of God.| This will be the greatest, surely, of all the glories of heaven—to dwell for ever with God, and discover more of His grace and love!”
“Yes, truly, my child,” said the other; “this is to heaven what the sun is to the universe. All the other glories we can speak of are only, by comparison, like the light of the stars to that sun, or like little streams to the great ocean. We shall ‘see God;’ and what, perhaps, is more wondrous still, we shall be like God. Along with the holy angels, we shall have no higher delight than doing His will. We shall feel that in His presence ‘there is fulness of joy.’”
“But shall we indeed see God?” inquired Emma; “the thought seems so wondrous. How can this be?”
|How God will be Manifested.| “Here again, dear child,” replied her grandmother, “we must not try to be wise beyond what the Bible has told us; for it is there said, that ‘He dwells in light that is inaccessible and full of glory, whom no eye hath seen, neither can see.’ That there will be some bright and glorious manifestation of His presence I cannot doubt; but what the |The Presence of Jesus in the midst of the Redeemed.| nature of this will be I cannot tell. This we know, however, with certainty, that Jesus, our blessed Redeemer, in His glorified human nature, will be seen and adored by the countless multitudes of His ransomed people.”
“I saw,” said Emma, “a verse immediately following the words I a little ago read, which speaks of this. Here it is: ‘And they shall see His face, and His name shall be in their foreheads.’”
“Yes, my child; and you may perhaps remember some other passages which tell the same blessed truth. Do you remember what made John so happy in the prospect of heaven?”