r mourning, the garment of praise
for the spirit of heaviness."(1129) They are no longer feeble, afflicted,
scattered, and oppressed. Henceforth they are to be ever with the Lord.
They stand before the throne clad in richer robes than the most honored of
the earth have ever worn. They are crowned with diadems more glorious than
were ever placed upon the brow of earthly monarchs. The days of pain and
weeping are forever ended. The King of glory has wiped the tears from all
faces; every cause of grief has been removed. Amid the waving of
palm-branches they pour forth a song of praise, clear, sweet, and
harmonious; every voice takes up the strain, until the anthem swells
through the vaults of heaven, "Salvation to our God which sitteth upon the
throne, and unto the Lamb." And all the inhabitants of heaven respond in
the ascription, "Amen: Blessing, and glory, and wisdom, and thanksgiving,
and honor, and power, and might, be unto our God forever and ever."(1130)

In this life we can only begin to understand the wonderful theme of
redemption. With our finite comprehension we may consider most earnestly
the shame and the glory, the life and the death, the justice and the
mercy, that meet in the cross; yet with the utmost stretch of our mental
powers we fail to grasp its full significance. The length and the breadth,
the depth and the height, of redeeming love are but dimly comprehended.
The plan of redemption will not be fully understood, even when the
ransomed see as they are seen and know as they are known; but through the
eternal ages, new truth will continually unfold to the wondering and
delighted mind. Though the griefs and pains and temptations of earth are
ended, and the cause removed, the people of God will ever have a distinct,
intelligent knowledge of what their salvation has cost.

The cross of Christ will be the science and the song of the redeemed
through all eternity. In Christ glorified they will behold Christ
crucified. Never will it be forgotten that He whose power created and
upheld the unnumbered worlds through the vast realms of space, the Beloved
of God, the Majesty of heaven, He whom cherub and shining seraph delighted
to adore,--humbled Himself to uplift fallen man; that He bore the guilt and
shame of sin, and the hiding of His Father's face, till the woes of a lost
world broke His heart, and crushed out His life on Calvary's cross. That
the Maker of all worlds, the Arbiter of all destinies, should lay