The great and crowning bliss of Heaven!

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(William Bacon Stevens, "The Loveliness of Christ")

"Yes, He is altogether lovely! This is my Beloved, and this is my Friend!" Song of Songs 5:16

The character of Christ is not enough studied by His redeemed people. It is looked at with too much of a passing glance, so that we get only hasty and superficial views, which consequently have but a faint and passing influence upon our heart and lives. We must study it--gazing upon it, pondering over it, tracing out its developing lines and beauties--until our soul becomes fired by His excellencies, and is changed into His image.

Angels who see Christ in His heavenly glory, and who know something of His divine excellencies--must wonder at the lack of enthusiasm in professing Christians concerning the loveliness of Christ. They are amazed that we . . .
look upon Him with so cold an eye;
speak of Him with so tame a tongue;
love Him with such a lukewarm heart; and
labor for Him with such a drudging heavy spirit.
It is our privilege to love this altogether lovely One--and we lose a rich and precious employment, when we fail to do it.

There is no higher pleasure for a redeemed soul--than contemplating the glories of Jesus!

There is no surer evidence of a gracious state--than a thirsting after deeper knowledge of Jesus, and a more thorough conformity to His likeness!

The great and crowning bliss of Heaven consists . . .
not in its seraphic melodies;
not in its gorgeous displays of almighty power;
not in its exemption from sorrow and and sighing;
not in its ceaseless round of high intellectual joys--but . . .
in seeing the unveiled Christ with undimmed eyes;
in studying the loveliness of the ever present Redeemer with unfettered mind;
in daily discovering and admiring new points of His beauty;
and in having our souls, through all eternity, made the receptacles of the light, the joy, the peace, the holiness, the love, and the wisdom of Him, who is "the chief among ten thousand, and the one altogether lovely One!"

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