Eternal bliss

“ Struggle, and fight, and bear the burden well.
The sun that sank below the purple hills,
Leaving the earth to darkness and to night,
Shall bring new glory to the morning sky.
Death's night of gloom shall have its morn of bliss,
And we shall find within the golden gates
Our flowers that withered, in eternal bloom!
TO "W. C. T." Oh, sad one, who wails for thy love that is slighted
Left lone and forsaken, all joy fled away;
Thy day-dream of beauty o'ershadowed and blighted,
Thy sky once so rosy now clouded and gray.
Thine idol was earthly, and earth-like must perish ”

“ To be touched by the Spirit of God, if but for a single moment, produces a million thrills of divine ecstacy, and so great is the joy that one short moment feels as if it were an eternity. In brief, when you are in that sublime state you are in real eternity; time passes no more; every moment appears to be an eternity because it is in eternity; and being in eternity it gives to you an eternity of bliss—unbounded bliss from the highest heaven. ”

“ Break into song and blossoming.
But what makes that great goodness start
Within ourselves? When leaps the heart
With gladness, only then we know
Why lovely Nature travails so,—
Why art must persevere and pray
In her incomparable way.
In all the world the only worth
Is human happiness; its dearth
The darkest ill. Let joyance be,
And there is God's sufficiency,—
Such joy as only can abound
Where the heart's comrade has been found.
That was my thought. And then the sea
Broke in upon my revery
With clamorous beauty,—the superb
Eternal noun that takes no verb
But love. ”

“ Nor does he sympathise with sorrow alone: the joy which, in the sunshine and midst the turmoil of the world, has agitated the soul even to pain, he softens into such deep calm, as to whisper of that Heaven whence alone the full bliss comes. Love, shrinking from the garish day, finds in his presence eloquence and voice. ”

“ O wonderful, various, inscrutable world, what, bliss to be alive in it, even though it be for the briefest moment! But there was a bliss beyond bliss, unspeakable, unimaginable, not to live alone, but to love as the greatest hearts have loved, and surely that was the final message of this magic hour! ”

“ The darkness gives birth to the light, and every grief blazes up a witness to a future glory. Each drop that hangs on the wet leaves twinkles into rainbow light that proclaims the sun. The garish splendours of the prosperous day hide the stars, and through the night of our sorrow there shine, thickly sown and steadfast, the constellations of eternal hopes. The darker the midnight, the surer, and perhaps the nearer, the coming of the day. Sorrow has not had its perfect work unless it has led us by the way of courage and perseverance to a stable hope. ”

“ Through bless’d eternity’s long day; yet still,
Not more remote from sorrow, than from Him,
Whose lavish hand, whose love stupendous, pours
So much of Deity on guilty dust.
There, O my Lucia! may I meet thee there,
Where not thy presence can improve my bliss!
Affects not this the sages of the world?
Can nought affect them, but what fools them too?
Eternity, depending on an hour, 1360
Makes serious thought man’s wisdom, joy, and praise,
Nor need you blush (though sometimes your designs
May shun the light) at your designs on heaven:
Sole point! where over-bashful is your blame. ”

“ The God in every human heart, above,
Unfolds, expands, and his own being sees
In those who sometimes fell upon their knees
To worship sacred grief and humble love.
Up yonder—living peace is burning bright,
And shedding on these lands, down evening's slope
A bliss that kindles, like the brands of hope,
In the air's ash the great stars of the night. ”

“ Shall o’er that glorious landscape ever come;
No tears shall fall in sadness o’er those flowers
That breathe their fragrance through celestial bowers.
2 No night shall be in heaven! no dreadful hour
Of mental darkness, of the tempter’s power—
Across these skies no envious clouds shall roll,
To dim the sunlight of the raptured soul.
3 No night shall be in heaven. Forbid to sleep,
These eyes no more their mournful vigils keep;
Their fountains dried—their tears all wiped away—
They gaze undazzled on eternal day.
4 No night shall be in heaven—no sorrow’s reign ”

“ I would gladly barter my hopes of Heaven
And all the bliss of Eternity.
For never a joy are the angels keeping,
To lay at my feet in Paradise,
Like that of into your strong arms creeping,
And looking into your love-lit eyes. ”

“ Maybe this common fate treads from out the paths between our hearts the weeds of selfishness and hate, and I had rather live and love where death is king, than have eternal life where love is not. Another life is naught, unless we know and love again the ones who love us here. ”

“ There no dark night-sides of nature cover the lovely face of paradisean realms. No cycles in the heavenly worlds ever cause the joyous life of the saints to ebb back from the waking energies of bliss into dull stupor, under the overshadowings of darkness and gloom. That world needs no repose; for life, in right relations, is rest in its own peaceful flow of bliss. ”

“ Love of Heaven—oh! brightly shining,
Gleam above our dying bed,
When the Day of life declining,
Tells us that its toil has sped.
{125} MELANCHOLY.
There comes a time for flowers to fade, and light to die in gloom,
There is a time for mortal bliss to know a certain doom.
Sometimes I feel that I have reached that hour, and I have felt,
When pondering o'er the dreary change, my spirit in me melt.
The joyful trust, the bounding hopes, that laughed at scorned defeat,
The feeling, like pure rock-born streams, as strong, as deep, and sweet ”

“ Your sun, it may be, is setting at this hour, and amid flowers and brilliance, and with tears ye sink upon your knees, and, lifting up your hands in rapturous joy, ye cry each one aloud up to the open heavens, ‘Oh Father, infinite, eternal, hear! Thou knowest me in all my littleness, even as Thou knowest all things, and Thou seest my wounds and sorrows, and Thou wilt receive me after death and soothe and heal them all.’ Alas! unhappy souls! For after death these wounds will not be healed. ”

“ From the long dim tracts of the past come strangely blended recognitions of woe and bliss, undistinguishable now to our own heart—nor knows that heart if it be a dream of imagination or of memory. Yet why should we wonder? In our happiest hours there may have been something in common with our most sorrowful—some shade of sadness cast over them by a passing cloud, that now allies them in retrospect with the sombre spirit of grief; and in our unhappiest hours there may have been gleams of gladness, that seem now to give the return the calm character of peace. ”

“ In proportion as she had learned to dwell on the insufficiency of earthly good to satiate that deep thirst for happiness which is not the least among the proofs of the soul’s immortality, she had come to look upon the void of futurity as the unexplored region of bliss; upon death as the portal through which we must pass from the desert of toil and sorrow to the Eden of hope and happiness. ”

“ But ye, in whose clasp so many a heart has grown cold, chilled by inconstancy or by the frost of death—ye should not mourn so bitterly as do those lonely souls who have never lost, because they have never found; who yearn for that immortal and eternal love of which even the mortal and transient reflex has never been vouchsafed to bless them.
Firmian carried with him into his night-quarters a tranquil, though a tender, heart, which healed itself in dreams. ”

“ To Heaven, where beauty is accomplish'd. Earth
Is but the reproduction of one form,
Whose perfectness is heaven, and thus the mind,
[Pg 40] Unblinded by the blighting mist of sin,
Sees emblems of its everlasting hope
In Nature's loveliness. This quiet hour
When the calm'd heart cries truce unto itself,
And lays the weapons of resentment down,
And bitterness and anger, yields the bliss
That in completeness is the bliss of Heaven. ”

“ The soul that loves and contemplates the eternal—shall it shake off at once the miserable clod, and in a moment glisten among the millions, pure, bright, and lovely as these? There is but one idea of hell—eternal torture! But every man has his own idea of heaven: yet, with all, its chiefest attribute is eternal happiness. ”

“ His path may stretch down valleys where eternal Sorrow reigns;
The angels, Sin and Sadness, leave upon his soul their stains;
And o'er his spirit's altars Fate may draw the veil of night,
But never is he blinded to the pure, unblemished light.
Alone, alone and desolate, far fares his soul away,
Yet on the Pinnacles of Gloom he finds the Star of Day;
And in the wildest wilderness, beside Life's bitter springs,
He hears Hope's silver laughter and the murmur of her wings.
For him there is no Eden, yet the world owes all to him,
For he beheld the Vision when the World-eye still was dim ”

“ Stars of heaven shine out above,
Telling still the ancient story—
Their Creator's changeless love.
Now, our wants and burdens leaving
To his care who cares for all,
Cease we fearing, cease we grieving;
At his touch our burdens fall.
As the darkness deepens o'er us,
Lo! eternal stars arise;
Hope and Faith and Love rise glorious,
Shining in the Spirit's skies. ”

“ We may not see its lustre, While heads are bowed in prayer, But looking just above us We find its glories there.
Our tears may dim the vision And we may question why; But some day He will answer Where souls shall never die.
Above the gathering shadows, Beyond the gloom of years, God’s star will shine forever, Undimmed by Sorrow’s tears.
Some day, when He shall lead us To our eternal rest, We’ll know life’s hidden meaning And we shall say: “’Twas best.”
[Pg 127]
RELEASE.
Fear not to die, but rather fear to live, For death is not so grave a thing as life ”

“ But thank God, their fall was not like the remediless fall of Lucifer and his angels, into eternal darkness. Thank God, in this "night of death" hope does see a star! It is the star of Bethlehem. Thank God, "listening Love" does "hear the rustle of a wing!" It is the wing of the resurrection angel.
The memories and images of paradise lost have been impressed on every human heart, and every individual of the race has his own ideal of that paradise, from the cradle to the grave. ”

“ If grief came in such unimagined wise, How may joy dawn? In what undreamed-of hour, May the light break with splendor of surprise, Disclosing all the mercy and the power? A baseless hope, yet vivid, keen, and bright, As the wild lightning in the starless night. She knows not whence it came, nor where it passed, But it revealed, in one brief flash of flame, A heaven so high, a world so rich and vast, That, full of meek contrition and mute shame, In patient silence hopefully withdrawn, She bows her head, and bides the certain dawn. ”

“ Yet seldom is our bliss unmix'd with some alloy.
It should be so—there is enough of bliss,
To make the hours of life glide swiftly on,
Yet sadness dims the brightest cup—and this
Recalls the heart from trusting what must soon
Forever vanish from our grasp, when we
Are call'd from things of time to dread eternity. ”

“ The bliss of the moment after death consisted in being with Christ: the bliss of unlimited ages can only be measured by the same. Nearness to Him that made us, union with Him who redeemed us, the everlasting and unvexed company of Him who sanctifieth us: what glory, what dignity, what happiness can be imagined for man greater than this? ”

“ Glories of which mortal never dreamed: eternal life—eternal happiness—perpetual youth—knowledge unbounded, yet ever increasing! Fly, fly, fly, days of pain and sorrow! Hail, all hail! bright morn of deliverance. It will come; and I—oh, the thought overpowers me—I, poor and wretched and sinful, shall be blessed forever, forever, FOREVER.
ALL IS WELL Dark the future yawns before me,
Bitter griefs my bosom swell ”

“ And where was anguish, grief and tears,
Now smiles and bliss and joy appears.
To be forever with the Lord,
To share the infinite reward,
To sit with him upon his throne,
To see and know as we are known.
In everlasting songs divine,
In sweetest union all will join.
Who can describe the bliss there’ll be,
When blessed with immortality?
The Vanity of Earth.
Sickness prostrates; helpless sufferer,
Who can stem the sorrowing tide?
Oh! how vain, when death approacheth,
Earthly pleasures, wealth and pride. ”

“ They know too well that when they are released heaven will be their home. Once there, no more pains, no more fire for them; but the enjoyment of an everlasting bliss, which no eye hath seen nor ear heard ”

“ That thought of eternal being, when we refer it to God, towers above us and repels us; and when we turn it to ourselves and think of our own life as unending, there come a strangeness and an awe that is almost shrinking, over the thoughtful spirit. But when we transmute it into the thought of a love whose length is unending, then over all the shoreless, misty, melancholy sea of eternity, there gleams a light, and every wavelet flashes up into glory. ”

“ A bliss spreads through our soul, as soon as our flowing tears come, like the waters of a river, sweeping away black sorrow, and disquietude, and trembling doubts. Ye are all given back to me, ye spirits that once were mine, and that a cruel destiny afterward severed from me. ”

“ While there is, on the one hand, no heavier or more consuming grief than to be tied to an uncongenial and ill-adapted mate, there is, on the other, no purer earthly bliss than that experienced by consorts whose souls are wedded each to each. It is a bliss closely allied to that of heaven. ”