Think of who
Christ is, and what Christ is--and then think what His personal influence
must be--quite infinite, boundless, miraculous. So that the very
blessedness of heaven will not be merely the sight of our Lord; it will
be the being made holy, and kept holy, by that sight. If only we be fit
for it. For let us ask ourselves the question,--If St John's words come
true of us, if we should see Him as He is, would the sight of His all-
glorious countenance warm us into such life, love, longing for virtue and
usefulness, as we never felt before? Or would it crush us into the very
earth with utter shame and humiliation, full and awful knowledge of how
weak and foolish, sinful and unworthy we were?--as it does to Gerontius
in the poem, when he dreams that, after death, he demanded, rashly and
ambitiously, to see our Lord, and had his wish.
That is the question which every one must try to answer for himself in
fear and trembling, for, he that hath this hope in Him purifieth himself,
even as He is pure. The common sense of men--which is often their
conscience and highest reason--has taught them this, more or less
clearly, in all countries and all ages.
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