So Shall We Ever Be With The LORD!

1Th 4:17  Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord.

Even the sweetest visits from Christ, how short they are-and how transitory! 

One moment our eyes see Him, and we rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory...

But again a little time and we do not see Him, for our beloved withdraws Himself from us; like a roe or a young hart He leaps over the mountains of division...

He is gone to the land of spices, and feeds no more among the lilies.

If today He deigns to bless us With a sense of pardoned sin... 

He tomorrow may distress us, Make us feel the plague within.

Oh, how sweet the prospect of the time when we shall not behold Him at a distance, but see Him face to face...

When He shall not be as a wayfaring man tarrying but for a night, but shall eternally enfold us in the bosom of His glory. 

We shall not see Him for a little season, but... 

Millions of years our wondering eyes, Shall o'er our Saviour's beauties rove...

And myriad ages we'll adore, The wonders of His love.

In heaven there shall be no interruptions from care or sin...

No weeping shall dim our eyes...

No earthly business shall distract our happy thoughts...

We shall have nothing to hinder us from gazing for ever on the Sun of Righteousness with unwearied eyes. 

Oh, if it be so sweet to see Him now and then, how sweet to gaze on that blessed face, and never have a cloud rolling between...

And never have to turn one's eyes away to look on a world of weariness and woe! 

Blest day, when wilt thou dawn? 

Rise, O unsetting sun! 

The joys of sense may leave us as soon as they will, for this shall make glorious amends. 

If to die is but to enter into uninterrupted communion with Jesus...

Then death is indeed gain...

And the black drop is swallowed up in a sea of victory.

~Charles Spurgeon

He Went Up To A Mountain Apart

Mat 14:23  And when he had sent the multitudes away, he went up into a mountain apart to pray: and when the evening was come, he was there alone.

One of the blessings of the old-time Sabbath was its calm, its restfulness, its holy peace. 

There is a strange strength conceived in solitude. 

Crows go in flocks and wolves in packs, but the lion and the eagle are solitaires.

Strength is not in bluster and noise. 

Strength is in quietness. 

The lake must be calm if the heavens are to be reflected on its surface.

Our Lord loved the people, but how often we read of His going away from them for a brief season. 

He tried every little while to withdraw from the crowd. 

He was always stealing away at evening to the hills. 

Most of His ministry was carried on in the towns and cities by the seashore, but He loved the hills the best, and oftentimes when night fell He would plunge into their peaceful depths.

The one thing needed above all others today is that we shall go apart with our Lord, and sit at His feet in the sacred privacy of His blessed presence. 

Oh, for the lost art of meditation! 

Oh, for the culture of the secret place! 

Oh, for the tonic of waiting upon God!   

~Selected

It is well to live in the valley sweet, Where the work of the world is done, Where the reapers sing in the fields of wheat, As they toil till the set of sun.

But beyond the meadows, the hills I see Where the noises of traffic cease, And I follow a Voice that calleth to me From the hilltop regions of peace.

Aye, to live is sweet in the valley fair, And to toil till the set of sun; But my spirit yearns for the hilltop's air When the day and its work are done.

For a Presence breathes o'er the silent hills, And its sweetness is living yet; The same deep calm all the hillside fills, As breathed over Olivet.

Every life that would be strong must have its Holy of Holies into which only God enters.