八月二十三日

其中必不再聽見哭泣的聲音和哀號的聲音。（賽65：19）

得榮耀的人不再哭泣了，因爲外在的一切悲哀的原因都沒有了。在天堂上朋友不再離別，期望不再受挫；那裏沒有貧窮、饑荒、危險、逼迫和毁謗；沒有苦痛難過，不再想到死亡或喪親之悲；他們不再聽到哭泣，因爲他們已完全被分別爲聖了。“不信的噁心”不再攪擾他們，使他們離開永活的神；他們在神的寶座前面不再有過錯了，幷且他們也完全有了他的形象了；他們既然沒有罪，所以也沒有悲哀了；他們不再哭泣，因爲一切怕變動的心理都沒有了。他們知道他們必永遠安定：罪惡被關在門外，他們被關在門內；他們住在沒有風雨的城中，他們在永不落下的太陽光中行走；他們飲于永不涸幹的江河；他們摘食永不雕謝之樹的果子。那時間是永世無盡的，因此他們的生命和福樂也必永遠長存。他們永遠與主同在。他們不再哭泣，因爲一切心願都已滿足。凡他們心所願的他們都有。耳目、心手、判斷、想像、盼望、欲望、心願、一切官能，都完全滿足了；我們現在對于神爲愛他的人所預備的，來世的觀念雖不完全，但我們因聖靈的啓示確實知道，在天的聖徒是大蒙賜福的。基督無限豐滿的快樂在他們心中。他們在汪洋，深廣無限的福樂大海中沐浴自己。這種“快樂的安息已經留給了我們”，或許距我們已經不遠；不久哭泣的柳條必變成得勝的棕枝，悲哀的露珠必變成永福的珍珠。“所以你們當用這些話彼此勸勉。”

August 23

"The voice of weeping shall be no more heard." -- Isaiah 65:19

The glorified weep no more, for all outward a causes of grief are gone. There are no broken friendships, nor blighted prospects in heaven. Poverty, famine, peril, persecution, and slander, are unknown there. No pain distresses, no thought of death or bereavement saddens. They weep no more, for they are perfectly sanctified. No "evil heart of unbelief" prompts them to depart from the living God; they are without fault before His throne, and are fully conformed to His image. Well may they cease to mourn who have ceased to sin. They weep no more, because all fear of change is past. They know that they are eternally secure. Sin is shut out, and they are shut in. They dwell within a city which shall never be stormed; they bask in a sun which shall never set; they drink of a river which shall never dry; they pluck fruit from a tree which shall never wither. Countless cycles may revolve, but eternity shall not be exhausted, and while eternity endures, their immortality and blessedness shall co-exist with it. They are for ever with the Lord. They weep no more, because every desire is fulfilled. They cannot wish for anything which they have not in possession. Eye and ear, heart and hand, judgment, imagination, hope, desire, will, all the faculties, are completely satisfied; and imperfect as our present ideas are of the things which God hath prepared for them that love him, yet we know enough, by the revelation of the Spirit, that the saints above are supremely blessed. The joy of Christ, which is an infinite fulness of delight, is in them. They bathe themselves in the bottomless, shoreless sea of infinite beatitude. That same joyful rest remains for us. It may not be far distant. Ere long the weeping willow shall be exchanged for the palm-branch of victory, and sorrow's dewdrops will be transformed into the pearls of everlasting bliss. "Wherefore comfort one another with these words."