Drsc.,PI1.3 NO NIGHT IN HEAVEN. ` 1 world,,there is nodark hour; there isnothing that can en, courage such mischievous designs; nor are anyofthe sons of violence, or the malicious powers of darkness suffer- ed to have an abode or refuge in that country.o sur- :prize nor fear belongs to the inhabitants of those regions. Happy souls, who spend all their life in the light of the countenance of God, -and are for ever secure from the plots and mischievous devices of the .wicked! While we dwell here below amongst the changing sea- sons of light and darkness what daily care is taken to shut the doors of our. dwellings against the Alen of mis- chief? 'What solicitude in a time of war to .keep the gates of our towns and cities,well secured against all in- vasion of enemies ? ("attic iii. b: " Every man with .his sword ,upon his. thigh, because of fear in the night." But, in that blessedworld, there is no need of such de- fences.; no,s.uch guardian cares to secure the inhabitants. " Thegatesof that city shall not he shut by day, and there is no night there. There shines perpetual day light, and the gates are ever open'to..receive new-comers ,from our world, or for the conveyance Of, orders and messages to and fro from the throne, through all the dominions. of :God, and of the Lamb. Blessed are the inhabitants ofthat country, where. there are no dangers arising from any of the wicked powers of darkness, nor any daik minute to favour their plots of mischief. 6. " The time of night and darkness is the time of the concealment ofsecret sins." Shameful iniquities are then . practised amongst men; because the darkness is a cover to thern. " The eye of the adulterer' watches for the twilight, saying, no eye shall see me," Job xxiv. 15. " In the black and dark night he hopes for concealment as Well as the thief and the murderer, and, they that are drunken, are drunken in the night," 1 Mess. v. 7. The hours of darkness are .a temptation to these iniquities, and the shadows of the evening are a veil; to cover them from the sight Of men: They find a screen behind the curtains of the night, and a refuge in thick darkness. But, in the heavenly ,world, there is .no temptation to such iniquities, no defilement can gain an entrance there, nor could it find any veil qr covering. The 're- gions of light, and peace, and holy love, are never vio- lated with such scenes of villainy and guilt. No secret 2 G 2
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