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of our present state are ended; as we contemplate the past from our place of rest or glory, and remember the trial that met us by the way and seemed ready to devour us, from which we shrunk as so fearful and overwhelming, we may be enabled to see that there were ministrations of mercy behind it, and exclaim as one did of old, "Out of the eater came forth meat and out of the strong came forth sweetness."[1] Meat which strengthened our souls then, and that sweetness, which we taste in Jesus now!
"If we be dead with Him we shall also live with Him." Here again is the same law and the self-same hope: for to live with Christ, what can it be but to reign? "If we have been dead with Him we shall also live with Him;" and therefore live for ever as He is "alive for evermore."[2] Yes, "if we have been planted in the likeness of His death, we shall be also of His resurrection."[3] And this likeness to Him, though it be, for the most part, won by sorrow and discipline; yet has it a reward even here. For have not those souls who attain it, a peace which nothing else could give? and do they not walk amongst us with something of an angel's beauty in their mien? Do not men do them homage, and visitants from heaven watch around them, yea and even take charge of their bodies, when they have fallen asleep in Christ, as they duly watched beside their Lord's in His sealed tomb?
