GOD will wipe away
every tear from their eyes!
(Maria Sandberg, "Glimpses of Heaven!" 1880)
from their eyes!" Revelation 7:17
Although it is true that
chastens, and scourges every son
whom HE receives"--(Hebrews 12:6)
still we are not all called upon
to suffer great tribulation. GOD
appoints for each, the discipline
needed to prepare him for glory.
With some HE deals gently, for
"HE knows how much the weak
can bear." HE sees the tenderness
of their spirits, the gentleness
of their nature.
With others HE may appear
to deal more harshly--
HE alone knows how hard
and stubborn is their will,
how great their back slidings,
how needful all this seeming severity.
HE also permits great tribulation
to fall upon some, that they may be
examples to HIS Church; examples
of love, of patience, of long-suffering--
and is not this an honor? Shall we not
count it all joy to be thus tried?
And has not GOD promised
to proportion HIS consolations
to the sufferings of HIS people?
With what powerful comfort will
such a passage as that which
we are meditating upon, come
home to the deeply-tried Christian--
to him whose tears are wrung from
him by pain of body, loss of friends,
one bitter affliction after another:
tear from their eyes!"
The anticipation of suffering
is often a cause of greater
anguish than suffering itself;
for though we are told not
to worry about anything--
still, the anxious mind will often
distress itself with gloomy forebodings
while in this valley of tears.
But in Heaven,
we shall have no fear of evil--
no cause for fears. GOD shall wipe
away all tears from our eyes:
the tear of sympathy,
the tear of pity,
the tear of separation,
the tear of pain,
the tear of godly sorrow for sin,
the tear of disappointed hope,
the tear of wounded affection--
shall flow no more!
tear from their eyes!"
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
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