for us to know that you are the same vision, the same love, tbe same joy with which the infinitely happy God sees, loves, and enjoys Himself!
Until we possess it in heaven. When we shall one clay possess you in the city of God it shall be with us as it was with the queen of Saba when she saw Solomon seated on his throne of glory, and heard the words of wisdom he uttered. “And when the queen of Saba,” says the Scripture, “saw all the wisdom of Solomon, and the house which he had built, and the meat of his table, and the apartments of his servants, and their apparel,…she had no longer any spirit in her,” and almost fainted through wonder. At last, when she somewhat recovered herself, she said to the king: “The report is true which I heard in my own country concerning thy words and concerning thy wisdom. And I did not believe them that told me, till I came myself and saw with my own eyes, and have found that the half hath not been told me: thy wisdom and thy works exceed the fame which I heard. Blessed are thy men, and blessed are thy servants who stand before thee always and hear thy wisdom.”[1] With much greater wonder, O Lord! and if Thou didst not strengthen me with the help of the supernatural light of glory, with a far greater faintness of spirit, even to annihilation, should I think and say when I see Thee for the first time in the kingdom of heaven: “Thy wisdom and Thy works exceed the fame which I heard.” O God of glory! I have been told on earth great and wonderful things of the joys and delights of Thy palace; much have I heard of the wealth of Thy court, of the glory of Thy eternal kingdom; but, O God of majesty! all that I have heard is nothing compared to what I now see with my own eyes and experience in the vision of Thyself! “Blessed are Thy men who stand before Thee always!” More than blessed are they who rule and rejoice with Thee forever! More than blessed am I, too, who am now in the number of those who possess this infinite joy in and with Thee for eternity!
Hence the servants of God were When I consider all this, my dear brethren, I am not surprised that holy servants of God here on earth long so ardently and
- ↑ Videns autem regina Saba omnem sapientiam Solomonis, et domum quam ædificaverat, et cibos mensæ ejus, et habitacula servorum, et ordines ministrantium, vestesque eorum…non habebat ultra spiritum. Dixitque ad regem: Verus est sermo quem audivi in terra mea super sermonibus tuis, et super sapientia tua; et non credebam narrantibus mihi, donec ipsa veni, et vidi oculis meis, et probavi quod media pars mihi nuntiata non fuerit: major est sapientia et opera tua, quam rumor quem audivi. Beati viri tui, et beati servi tui qui stant coram te semper, et audiunt sapientiam tuam.—III. Kings x. 4–8.
