Job 14:14
A
little stay on earth will make heaven more heavenly. Nothing makes rest
so sweet as toil; nothing renders security so pleasant as exposure to
alarms. The bitter quassia cups of earth will give a relish to the new
wine which sparkles in the golden bowls of glory. Our battered armour
and scarred countenances will render more illustrious our victory above,
when we are welcomed to the seats of those who have overcome the world.
We should not have full fellowship with Christ if we did not for awhile
sojourn below, for he was baptized with a baptism of suffering among
men, and we must be baptized with the same if we would share his
kingdom. Fellowship with Christ is so honourable that the sorest sorrow
is a light price by which to procure it. Another reason for our
lingering here is for the good of others. We would not wish to enter
heaven till our work is done, and it may be that we are yet ordained to
minister light to souls benighted in the wilderness of sin. Our
prolonged stay here is doubtless for God's glory. A tried saint, like a
well-cut diamond, glitters much in the King's crown. Nothing reflects so
much honour on a workman as a protracted and severe trial of his work,
and its triumphant endurance of the ordeal without giving way in any
part. We are God's workmanship, in whom he will be glorified by our
afflictions. It is for the honour of Jesus that we endure the trial of
our faith with sacred joy. Let each man surrender his own longings to
the glory of Jesus, and feel, "If my lying in the dust would elevate my
Lord by so much as an inch, let me still lie among the pots of earth. If
to live on earth forever would make my Lord more glorious, it should be
my heaven to be shut out of heaven." Our time is fixed and settled by
eternal decree. Let us not be anxious about it, but wait with patience
till the gates of pearl shall open.Charles Spurgeon
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