countenance, though it may be mean and plain, is already beautiful
with the beauty which comes down from heaven.

But how are such souls recompensed in the earth? Oh! my friends, is not
a man recompensed in the earth whenever he can lift up his heart above
the earth?--whenever he can lift up his heart unto the Lord, and behold
His glory above all the earth? Does not this earth look brighter to him
then? The world of man looks brighter to him, in spite of all its sins
and sorrows, for he sees the Lord ruling it, the Lord forgiving it, the
Lord saving it. He sees, by the eye of faith, the Lord fulfilling His
own promise--"where two or three are gathered together in my name, there
am I in the midst of them"; and he takes heart and hope for the poor
earth, and says, The earth is not deserted; mankind is not without a
Father, a Saviour, a Teacher, a King. Bad men and bad spirits are not
the masters of the world; and men are not as creeping things, as the
fishes of the sea, which have no ruler over them. For Christ has not
left His church. He reigns, and will reign, till He has put all enemies
under His feet, and cast out of His kingdom all that offend, and
whatsoever loveth and maketh a lie; and then the heavenly treasure will
be the only treasure; for whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things
are true, pure, lovely, and of good report, if there be any valour, and
if there be any praise, those things, and they alone, will be left in the
kingdom of Christ and of God. Is not that man recompensed in the earth?
Must he not rise each morning to go about his daily work with a more
cheerful heart, saying, with Jeremiah, in like case, "Upon this I awaked,
and beheld, and my sleep was sweet to me?"

Yes, I see in experience that the righteous man is recompensed in the
earth, every day, and all day long. In proportion as a man's mind is
heavenly, just so much will he enjoy this beautiful earth, and all that
is therein. I believe that if a man walks with God, then he can walk
nowhither without seeing and hearing what the ungodly and bad man will
never see and hear, because his eyes are blinded, and his heart hardened
from thinking of himself, his own selfish wants, his own selfish sins.
Which, for instance, was the happier man--which the man who was the more
recompensed in the earth this very day--the poor man who went for his
Sunday walk into the country, thinking of little but the sins