Private Thoughts About Heaven
We shall never know any degree of happiness in this life, till we are settled in a clear conviction of judgment, that it is chiefly hereafter, and that we are in the way to it. God forbid I should ever think myself at home till I am in heaven!
My heaven upon earth is communion with God; and therefore nothing else would be my heaven in heaven.
Ten thousand years in this world would not complete my happiness; I should never be wise and good, have an absolute command of my will, passions, and affections, without one irregular thought, vain wish, or spot of sin. If we are really aiming at and longing for this perfection, how desirable is death, which alone can put us in possession of it! By death we do not go out of life, but into life.
We shall never know the thousandth part of our mercies, deliverances, and protections, temporal and spiritual, till we come to another world.
God’s house is a hospital at one end, and a palace at the other. In the hospital end are Christ’s members upon earth, conflicting with various diseases, and confined to a strict regimen of His appointing. What sort of a patient must he be, who would be sorry to be told that the hour is come for his dismission from the hospital, and to see the doors thrown wide open for his admission into the King’s presence?
Nothing can be our happiness in this life, but what is to be the foundation of it in the next. If I cannot serve God and my Savior with delight, and make a kind of heaven of it here, they have no other heaven for me hereafter.
This world is the reign of darkness, pain, and sorrow; and we must not expect fully to find God here as a present portion. The Christian believes that he shall know Him better, and enjoy Him fully hereafter. O my soul, hold fast, and be very thankful for this sweet hope!
The highest state of the greatest saint upon earth, is only a small taste or glimpse of heaven, in the first-fruits and earnest of the Spirit. The full harvest is beyond the grave, and is not to be expected in this world.
What is the reason that we do not keep our eyes steadily fixed upon the light of Scripture, and follow it as our guide to heaven, but because we do not really think of heaven as the country we are bound to; have yet other designs in the world than to get thither, and, whatever we pretend, do not desire to be there?
In heaven, sin known and pardoned is the song of praise; sin known and unpardoned is hell.
Rev. Thomas Adam (1701–1784) was a godly divine and student of John Newton, who pastored a congregation in Lincolnshire for 58 years. Like John Newton, he remained within the Anglican Church all his life.
This concludes our series of abstracts from Rev. Adam’s precious “Private Thoughts.” May God add His blessing.
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Bekijk de hele uitgave van dinsdag 1 december 1987
The Banner of Truth | 28 Pagina's
Bekijk de hele uitgave van dinsdag 1 december 1987
The Banner of Truth | 28 Pagina's