138 THE HIDDEN LIFE OF A CHRISTIAN. hidden in this world among the common herd of mankind, and their bodies _ridden in the grave, and mingled with common dust, rising all at once, atthe sound of a trumpet, into public light and glory ; the same persons, indeed, that once inhabited mortality, but in far different equipage and array. The christian, on earth, is like the rough diamond among the common pebbles of the shore ; in the resurrection-day the diamond is cut and polished, and set in a tablet of gold. All that inward worth and lustre of holiness and grace, which are now hidden, shall be then visible and public before the eyes of the whole creation. Then the saints shall be known by their shining, in the daywhen the Lordmakes up his jewels; Mal. iii. 17. When the spirits of the just made perfect in all the beauties of holiness, shall return to their former mansions, and become men again ; when their bodies are raised from the dust, in the likeness of the bodyof our blessedLord, how shall all the saints shine in the kingdomof their Father, though in the kingdoms of this world they were obscure and undistin- guished ! They shall appear, in that day, as the meridian sun breakingfrom a long anddark eclipse ; and the sun is too bright a being to be unknown; Mat. xiii. 43. What is there in a poor saint here, that discovers what he shall be hereafter ? Howmean his appearance now ! haw mag- nificentin that day ? What was there inLazaruson the dung-hill, when the dogs licked his sores, that could lead us to any thought what he should be in the bosomof Abraham ? What is there in the martyrs and confessors, describedin Lieb. xi. those holy men, with their sheep-skins, and their goat -skins upon them, wander- ing in desarts, and hidden in dens and caves of theearth? What was there in these poor and miserable spectacles that looks like a saint in glory? or that could give us any intimation what they shall be in the great risingday ? Now are we the sons of God, but it does not yet appear what we shallbe ;1 Johniii. 2. Wecan shew no patternofit here below. Shall we go to the palaces of eastern princes, and borrow their crowns and sparklingattire, to shew how the saints are drest in heaven ? Shall we take their marble pillars, their roofs of cedar, their costly furniture of purple and gold, to describe the mansions of immortality ? Shall we attend the chariot of some Roman general, with all the ensigns of victory, leading on his legions to triumph, and fetch robes of honour, and branches of palm to de- scribe that triumphant armyof christian conquerors ? The scrip- turemakes use of these resemblances, indeed, in great condes- cension, to represent the glories of,that day, because they are the brightest thingsweknow on earth. Butthey sink as farbelow the splendours of the resurrection, as earth is below heaven, or time is shorter than eternity.
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