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NO
NIGHT
IN
HEAVEN.
[DISC.
VII.
do others,
but
let
us
watch and
be sober
;putting
on
the
breast-plate of
faith and
love,
and for an helmet
the hope
of
salvation, for
God bath not appointed
us
to
wrath,
but
to
obtain salvation
by
our Lord
Jesus
Christ,"
1
Thess
v.
5
-9.
To
animate
every christian to this
holy
care and watch-
fulness,
let
us
think what a terrible disappointment
it
will be,
after
we
have made
a
bright profession
of
chris-
tianity
in
our
lives,
to
lie down
in death, in
a
state
of
sin
and
guilt,
and
to
awake in the world
of
spirits, in
the
midst
of
the groans and agonies
of
hell,
surrounded and
covered
with everlasting darkness.
Let our
public
pro-
fession be as
illustrious and bright as
it
will,
yet
if
we
in-
dulge works
of
darkness in secret,
night and darkness
will be
our eternal portion,
with
the
anguish
of
consci-
ence,
and
the
terrors
of
the
Almighty,
without
one
glimpse
of
hope or
relief.
It
is
only those who walk in
the
light
of
holiness here,
who
can
be fit
to
dwell
in
the
presence
of a
God of
holiness
hereafter.
"
Light
is
sown only
for the righteous, and
joy
for the
upright in
heart,' Ps.
xcvii. 11.
and
it
shall
break
out, one day,
from amongst the
clods,
a glorious harvest;
but
only
the
sons and
the daughters
of
light shall taste
of the
blessed fruits
of
it.
Think
again with yourselves when
you
are tempted
to
sin
and
folly,
what
if
I
should be
cut
off,
on a sudden,
practising the works
of
darkness,
and
my
soul be sum-
moned
into the eternal
world, covered with
guilt and
de-
filement
?
Shall
I
then
be fit
for
the
world
of
light
?
Will the God
of
light
ever
receive
me
to
his dwelling
?
Do
I
not
hereby
render
myself unfit company
for the an-
gels
of
light? And
what
if
I
should be
sent
down,
to
dwell
among the spirits
of
darkness, since
I
have
imitated
their
sinful
manners and
obeyed
their
cursed influences?
O may such thoughts
as
these
dwell
upon
our
spirits
with an
awful solemnity,
and
be
a
perpetual
guard
against
defiling
our garments
with any iniquity,
lest
our
Lord
should
come
and
find
us thus polluted.
Let
us
walk
onwards in the
paths
of
light
which
are
discovered
to
us
in
the
word
of
God, and
which
are illustrated
by
his holy
ordinances,
to
guide
us
through
the
clouds and
shades,
which
attend
us in
this wilderness, till
our
Lord
Jesus
.shall
come,
with
all
his
surrounding
glories, and
take us
to the
full possession
of the inheritance
in
light.