Nay, even the most pious at times are tempted to
say, I will think of heaven and not of earth. I will lift up my heart,
and try to behold the glory and the goodness of God, and not the disgrace
and sin of man.
But only for a time may they thus think and speak. Happy if they can, at
moments, lift up their hearts unto the Lord, and catch one glimpse of Him
enthroned in perfect serenity and perfect order, governing the worlds
with that all-embracing justice, which is at the same time all-embracing
love, and so, giving Him thanks for His great glory, gain heart and hope
to--what? To descend again, even were it from the beatific vision
itself, to this disordered earth, to work a little--and, alas how little-
-at lessening the sum of human ignorance, human vice, human misery--even
as their Lord and Saviour stooped from the throne of the universe, and
from the bosom of the Father, to toil and die for such as curse about the
streets outside.
SERMON XXXVII. THE SURPRISE OF THE RIGHTEOUS
Preached at Southsea for the Mission of the Good Shepherd.
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