Glimpses At Life's Windows # 2

Glimpses At Life's Windows # 2

The grave would not then be the end of anything - except of mortality and of the sins, weights and infirmities which belong to this earthly state. It would break up no plans. It would cut off nothing. If we see life only as a narrow stage bounded by the curtain that falls at death, ending there forever - how poor and little and limited does existence appear! We can have no plans that require more than earth's brief day for their completion. We can start no work that cannot be finished before the end comes. We may cherish no joys that will reach over into the life hereafter. We may sow no seeds that will not come to harvest this side of the grave. Our souls may be thrilled by no aspirations and hopes that have their goal beyond the shadows.

But how different if we see life - with the veil torn away! The future is as much in our vision and as real - as the little present. We may begin works here which shall require ten thousand years to complete. There is no hurry - for we shall have all eternity in which to work. We may scatter seeds which we know shall not come to harvest for long ages. We may cherish hopes and aspirations whose goals lie far away in the life to come. We may endure sacrifices, hardships and toils which cannot bring any recompense or reward in this world, knowing that in the long yearless future - we shall find glorious return.

Life may seem a failure here - crushed like a lily under the heel of wrong or sin - broken, trampled, torn. But it may yet become a glorious success. Many of the truest and best of God's children, know only defeat in this world. They are evermore beaten back and thrust down. The burdens are too heavy for them. They are overmastered by sorrows. The world's enmity treads them in the dust. They are not worldly-wise, and while others march by to great earthly success - they live obscurely, oppressed, cheated, wronged, and lie buried away in the darkness of failure!

If the vista did not reach beyond the bare and cold room in which these unsuccessful ones breathe their last - we might drop a tear of pity over their sad story of defeat. But when the curtain is lifted - and we see millions of years of existence for them on the other side - we dry our tears. There will be time enough for them to retrieve the failure of earth. Through the love and grace of Christ, the defeated Christian life that goes out in the darkness here - may be restored to beauty and power, and in the long ages beyond death may realize all the hopes that seemed utterly wrecked in this world.

Indeed, it may be that those who have failed here, as men phrase it, are the very ones who shall win the highest success in the after-life, if they have kept their garments clean amid the struggles and toils. Certainly, for the Christian, the realization of the truth of immortality takes away the bitterness of earthly defeat. There will be time enough for victory, and for the most glorious success - in the unending eternity!

Death only sweeps away the limitations, breaks down the walls, shatters the crust of mortality, washes out the stains - and then life expands into perfect freedom, fullness, joy and power. The translation of a Christian life from earth to heaven - is but like the removal of a tender plant from a cold northern garden, into a tropical garden, where it puts out most luxuriant growths!

In the highest sense - do we work for eternity. In a truer and deeper way than we know, and in remoter ages than we can count - shall we find our songs from beginning to end - in the hearts of our friends. In frescoing, when the artist lays on his colors they sink away and leave no trace - but they reappear by and by in beauty. Just so - we touch lives today and there is no impression that we can see. The very memory seems to fade out. But in eternity it will be manifest. The brightest clouds in the glowing west lose their splendor while you gaze - but work done in human souls will appear in unfading hues, brightening forever.

Thus the glimpses we get through the little dim windows in the walls of our earthly life - should give a new meaning to our existence here, and to all our multiplied relationships. With immortality glowing before us, our brief years on earth should be marked by earnestness, reverence, love and faithfulness. Soon we shall break out of our narrow circle - and traverse the boundless fields that we see now only in the far-away and momentary glimpse. But it will be a blessed thing if we can get into our hearts even here, something of the personal consciousness of our immortality, with its limitless possessions and possibilities, and feel something in our souls - of the power of an endless life! 

~J. R. Miller~

(The End)