FORTY-EIGHTH SERMON.
ON THE JOY OF THE ELECT IN THE BEATIFIC VISION.
Subject.
The souls of the elect in heaven shall be filled with joy in the sight, love, and possession of God.—Preached on the feast of the Ascension.
Text.
Videntibus illis elevatus est.—Acts i. 9.
“While they looked on He was raised up.”
Introduction.
My dear disciples, said the Lord, I am leaving yon; I go on before you, and return to Him who sent Me into the world to you: “I go to Him that sent Me.”[1] A sad and unwelcome news this, and to sweeten it somewhat He had to add: “I go to prepare a place for you,”[2] and to await you there. These words Our Lord spoke a good while before His ascension, just as a good friend who has a long journey before him takes leave of his relatives and acquaintances betimes. But what consolation, delight, and joy, mingled indeed with sorrow, did not the apostles experience when they afterwards saw their beloved Master on Mount Olivet, and beheld Him rising gradually from the earth, soaring in the air for a time, then standing still, and again slowly mounting towards heaven! There is no doubt that they were pained at the thought of losing Him and being separated from Him; and the sight of His departure from them must have been a sorrowful one; yet they must have rejoiced at the same time because they saw that the way to heaven was opened for them, and that they should one day enter on it. Oh, truly a joyful hope! I go from you; but it is to prepare a place for you; it is for your good, your advantage that I go to heaven before you. You shall indeed see Me no longer in this mortal life; but in that place to which I am now ascending, and to which you shall come also, you shall see Me for all eternity. And that it
