on a throne, but I am not on that account happier or more pleased, nor shall I ever be so until I come and appear before Thy face, O God! Then Thou wilt make my joy complete. Ah, when is that to happen? “When shall I come and appear before the face of God?”
The folly of men in having such little desire for heaven. All these sighs, longings, and desires on the part of the servants of God do not surprise me. What does excite my astonishment is our own blindness and stupidity, which can never be sufficiently deplored, inasmuch as we have such little desire for this supreme good, and squander our affections and love on trifles and baubles, on mere fancies and curious conceits, on dreams and shadows, on a momentary lust, on a breath of worldly honor, on a piece of money or land, on the perishable beauty of a mortal creature; these things we almost fall down before and worship, while we neglect the supreme, infinite, immense good, that alone can satiate our hearts and make us happy; and we think as little of it as if we wished to refuse credence to those who remind us of it and to, the divine promises!
Exhortation and resolution never to offend God. Ah, dear Christians, whatever we do in this world, let us above all see that we so live as once to possess our God in eternity! Better were it for ns never to have been born than to fail in this one object, our everlasting happiness. We all wish to go to heaven, do we not? Ah, truly, that is our hope, nor is there one who desires another fate. Courage, then; we shall all go to heaven, every one of us that is here present; so let each one imagine and believe certainly as far as he himself is concerned. But let each one say to himself: I will be happy forever; I will see my God, love my God, eternally rejoice in my God; shall I then, I ask, offend and trample under foot that God of infinite beauty, whom I believe that I shall behold, whom I know to be and to have been always worthy of being loved above all things with the whole heart? Shall I not now serve Him with all my strength, and fulfil His holy will in all things? Shall I have to say to myself, to my own shame, when I see my God in eternity: see how the good God has prepared for me, in preference to so many millions who are burning in hell, this endless joy and glory in His own house, in heaven, in His company; and during my life I have done so little for it all! I have so often offended and angered Him! No! such shall now be our resolution, that shall never be the case again. My greatest sorrow is that it has ever happened.
