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TRE HIDDEN LIFE
OF
A
CHRISTIAN.
[SEAM.
IX.
continuance
in
this lower visible world
!"
This
is
the
language
of
the
fearful believer
:
But
it
is
better
to have
our
christian courage wrought up
to a
divine height, and
to
say,
"
Open
ye
everlasting
gates,
and
be
ye
lift
up, O
ye
immortal
doors,
that
we
may
enter into the
place
where the
king
of
glory
is."
There
shall
we see
God,
the
great
unknown,
and
re-
joice
in
his
overflowing love.
We
shall
see
him
not
as
we do
on
earth,
darkly,
through
the
glass
of
ordinances;
but
inferior spirits
shall
converse
with
the Supreme
Spi-
rit,
as
bodies
do
with
bodies;
that
is
face to face,
1
Cor.
xiii.
12.
There
shall
we
behold.Christ our Lord
in the dignity
of
his
character
as
Mediator,
in
the
glory
of
his king-
dom,, and the
all
-
sufficiency
of
his
godhead
;
and
we
shall
be for
ever
with
hire.
There
shall
we
see millions
of
blessed spirits,
who have lived
the same
hidden
life
as
we do,
and
passed through this
vale
of
tears, with
the
same
attending
difficulties
and
sorrows,
and
by
the
same
divine assistances. They were unknown; and covered
with
dust
as we
are,
while
they dwelt
in
flesh,
but
they
appear
all-glorious
and
well
-known in
the world
of
spi-
rits,
and exult
in
open
and immortal light
:
We
shall
see
them, and
we
shall
triumph
with
them
in
that day;
we
shall learn
their
language, and taste
their
joys,: we shall
be
partakers of
the
same glory, which
Christ
our
life,
diffuses all
around
him,
on the blessed
inhabitants
of
that
intellectual
world.
III.
Inference.
How glorious
is
the difference
be-
tween the
two
parts of
the christian's
life,
viz.
the
spiri-
tual
life
on
earth, and
the
perfection
of eternal
life in
heaven
;
when all
that
is
now
hidden
shall be revealed
before
men and angels
!
Come
now,
and
let
us
take
occasion from this
dis-
course, to
let
loose
our meditations
one stage
beyond
death and
the
separate
state,
even to
the morning
of
the
resurrection, and
the
full
and
public assembly
of
all
the
saints. O what an illustrious
appearance
!
What
a
nu-
merous and noble
army
of
new
creatures
!
Creatures
that
were hidden in this world among
the
common
herd
of
mankind, and
their
bodies hidden
in
the
grave,
and
mingled with common dust, rising'
all
at
once,
at
the