443
NO
PAIN
AMONG
THE BLESSED.
DISC. IX.
away
so much
of
the
ease
and pleasure
of
life, while
any
of
us
lie
under the acute
sensations of
them.
Pain
will
make
us
confess
that
we
are
flesh
and
blood,
and force
us
sometimes
to cry
out
and groan. Even a stoic
in
spite
of
all
the
pride
of
his
philosophy,
will
sometimes
be
forced,
by
a
sigh
or a
groan, to confess himself
a man.
What
are
the
greatest
part of
the
groans
and outcries,
that
are
heard all
round
this
our
globe
of
earth, but
the
effects
of
pain,
either felt or
feared
?
But
in
heaven, where
there
is
no
pain,' there
shall be
no
sighing
or
groaning,
nor
any
more
crying,
as my
text
expresses. There
shall be
nothing
to make the
flesh
or
the spirit
uneasy,
and
to
break the
eternal thread of
peace
and pleasure
that
runs through the whole
duration
of
the
saints
:
Not
one painful moment to
interrupt
the
ever-
lasting
felicity
of
that
state.
When
we
have
done
with
earth
and mortality,
we
have
done
also with
sickness
and
anguish of nature, and
with
all
sorrow
and vexation for
ever.
There
are
no
groans
in
the
heavenly world
to
break
in
upon
the harmony
of
the
harps
and the
songs
of
the
blessed
;
no
sighs,
no
outcries, no anguish
there
to
disturb
the
music
and the joy
of
the
inhabitants. And
though
the
soul
shall be
united
to
the
body
new
-
raised
from
the dead to
dwell
for ever
in
union,
yet
that
new-
raised
body shall have
neither
any springs
of
pain
in
it,
nor
be
capable
of
giving
anguish
or
uneasiness to the
indwelling
spirit
for
ever.
Another
evil which
attends
on
pain
is
this,
that
"it
so
indisposes
our nature
as
often
to
unfit
us
for
the
busi-
nesses
and duties
of
the present state." With
how
much
coldness
and
indifferency do
we go
about our
daily
work, and perform
it
too
with
many
interruptions,
when
nature
is
burdened
with
continual
pain, and the vital
springs
of action
are overborne
with
perpetual uneasi-
ness
?
What
a listlessness do
we
find to
many
of
the
du-
ties
of
religion
at
such
a season, unless
it
be
to
run
more
frequently
to the
throne
of
God, and pour out our
groan
-
ings
and
our
complaints there?
Groanings and
cries
are
the language of
nature, and the children
of God
address
themselves in
this
language
to
their heavenly
Father
:
Blessed be
the name
of
our
gracious
God,
who
hears
every
secret
sigh,
who
is
acquainted
with
the sense
of
every groan,
while
we
mourn
before
him,
and
make
our
4