– – there shall be no night there.–-Revelation 21:25
Here in this fallen, sin-darkened world, we are troubled by a great many things. But “there” all shall be light and perfection. And the more we dwell on the glories to come the better we are able to cope with the difficulties here. I happened to be reading a message by Rufus Wheelwright Clark, delivered in 1853, when I ran across these encouraging words:
No night of crime, deceit, treachery or temptation!
No night of sorrow or affliction!
No night of pain, sickness or death!
Oh, tell it to the weary believer, who is struggling against the evil habits and depraved inclinations of a wicked heart; who, on life’s fierce battlefield, is striving to win an immortal crown!
Oh, tell it to the dying Christian, who, restless upon his bed, through long, wearisome nights, is trying to learn the lessons of submission, and faith, and moral discipline, which his sufferings are teaching–who longs for light to break through the dark clouds that are gathering about him.
Oh, hasten with the tidings to the bereaved family, and assure them that there is a world where these griefs shall be lifted from their oppressed spirits, and their present afflictions, if rightly improved, shall work out of them “a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory!”
For where God is–there can be no night.
Where bright, holy angels throng–there can be no sorrow.
Where celestial music rolls through the galleries and arches of temples filled with the effulgence of the Deity–there can be no sighing.
Where Jesus reigns in His majesty and glory, “all tears shall be wiped away!”
No night in Heaven! Then . . .
no sad partings are experienced there,
no funeral processions move,
no death-knell is heard,
no graves are opened,
no mysterious providences will there perplex us,
no dark calamities will shake our faith.
But we shall walk the golden streets of the eternal city, surrounded with perpetual brightness, breathing an atmosphere of heavenly purity and love, and free to enter the palaces of our Savior-King, or climb to heights over which no shadow ever passes!
