t be so, if morality, that is right and
goodness, is of the eternal and immutable essence of God. And therefore,
mark this well again, there is but one true, real, and right life for
rational beings, one only life worth living, and worth living in this
world or in any other life, past, present, or to come. And that is the
eternal life which was before all worlds, and will be after all are
passed away--and that is neither more nor less than a good life; a life
of good feelings, good thoughts, good words, good deeds, the life of
Christ and of God.

It is needful, I say, to bear this in mind just now. People are, as I
told you, too apt to say that the Old Testament saints got their rewards
in this life, while we shall get them in the next. Do they find that in
Scripture? If they will read their Bible they will find that the Old
Testament saints were men whom God was training and educating, as He does
us, by experience and by suffering. That David, so far from having his
reward at once in this life, had his bitter sorrows and trials; that
Moses, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Job, all, indeed, of the old prophets, had to be
made perfect by suffering, and (as St. Paul says) died in faith NOT
having received the promises. So that if they had their reward in this
life, it must have been a spiritual reward, the reward of a good
conscience, and of the favour of Almighty God. And that is no transitory
or passing reward, but enduring as immortality itself. But people do not
usually care for that spiritual reward. Their notion of reward and
happiness is that they are to have all sorts of pleasures, they know not
what, and know not really why. And because they cannot get pleasant
things enough to satisfy them in this life, they look forward greedily to
getting them in the next life; and meanwhile are discontented with God's
Providence, and talk of God's good world as if some fiend and not the
Lord Jesus Christ was the maker and ruler thereof. Do not misunderstand
me. I am no optimist. I know well that things happen in this world
which must, which ought to make us sad--so sad that at moments we envy
the dead, who are gone home to their rest; real tragedies, real griefs,
divine and Christlike griefs, which only loving hearts know--the
suffering of those we love, the loss of those we love, and, last and
worst, the sin of those we love. Ah! if any of those swords have pierced
the heart of any soul here