ah, to such let me say that the Lord loveth whom He
chasteneth. God is love. Like as a father pitieth his children, so the
Lord pitieth them that fear Him.

But what is the object God has in view in thus breaking the family
circle by death? It is that our attention may be attracted to the
saints above, and that we may by faith behold the beauties of the
Celestial city.

You know, David says, "It was good for me that I was afflicted; before
I was afflicted, I went astray." We not unfrequently forget that this
is not our home. But that we are strangers and pilgrims on the earth.
God has to put us in remembrance of it. Beautiful as this world is,
there is a fairer and brighter, and infinitely more lovely world above
our heads. Lovely as human friendships and fellowships are here below,
what are they in comparison to the felicitous condition of society in
heaven?

"I would not live alway, I ask not to stay,
Where storm after storm rises dark o'er the way."

There are no estranged feelings in heaven. There are no
misunderstandings there. No sickness there. All, all is peace and joy
and love!

Our faith in God, and in the existence of Heaven, and the possibilities
of the future life, can enable us to triumph over the trials and
bereavements in this vale of tears.

Dr. Guthrie asks: "Why should we not lie as calmly in the arms of God's
Providence, as we lay in infancy on a mother's breast? Having an
ever-living, an everlasting, an ever-loving Father in God, how may we
welcome _all_ providences, sweetly submissive to the will of God. Shall
it not fare with us as with the pliant reeds that love the hollows and
fringe the margin of the lake, and bending to the blast, _not resisting
it_, raise their heads anew, unharmed by the storm that has snapped
the mountain's pine and rent the hearts of oaks asunder." "All things
work together for good to them that love God; them who are the called
according to His purpose."

When John was in the spirit on the Lord's Day, he heard a great voice
saying, "He that hath an ear, let him hear what the spirit saith unto
the churches. To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the hidden
manna, and will give him a white stone, and in the stone a new name
written, which no man knoweth save he that receiveth it."

How can we best overcome the lusts of the flesh, the lusts of the eye,
and the pride of life but by deep and continued meditation on the
blessed change that takes place