January Nineteenth.
THE VARIED JOYS OF HEAVEN.
"Lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven."—Matt. vi. 20.
THE LORD JESUS, who is Love itself and Wisdom itself, whose compassion, as the Saviour of men, knows no bounds, would not have urged us to lay up treasures for ourselves in heaven, were it not connected with our future peace and joy. If we are without earthly treasures, utterly destitute of everything this world affords, we cannot taste or enjoy the blessings of this life; and can we expect to enter into the joys and pleasures of the heavenly world while we are destitute of its treasures—while, in respect to the true riches, we are poor, and blind, and naked?
Reflect, O man! that the treasures which the Lord commands thee to lay up for thy future use, are all those principles of goodness, purity, knowledge, truth, and faith, which, for thy future use, are to be stored up in the inmost of thy being. Heaven, as a state of love and wisdom, is to be formed within; for there the true riches are safe, above the reach of the moth, the rust, the thieves, and the corruptions of the world. Lay these up in the inmost of thy soul now in this thy probationary state, while the lamp of thy natural life holds out to burn, and thou shalt be eternally blessed in the future.
Could we but draw aside the veil that hides the joys of the heavenly world from the turmoils and empty vanities of the present, we should doubtless behold a world more real and substantial than this—a world in which the sun never goes down, because
