All happiness, all satisfaction is comprehended in this!

  ~  ~  ~  ~  ~


(Maria Sandberg, "Glimpses of Heaven!" 1880)

"They will see His face!" Revelation 22:4

What a promise is this! We shall see the face of God and the Lamb who was slain for us! We shall see the face of God in Christ! We shall see Jesus, whom having not seen, we love! All happiness, all satisfaction is comprehended in this! Long have we believed, though we have not seen; long have we desired the glorious vision of Him whom our souls love--then shall it be realized! We shall see His face!

If it has been our great delight here below to hear of His loveliness and beauty, and to have a spiritual sense of His presence--what will it be to see the substance of our hope! Yet this happiness will most assuredly be ours--we shall see His face!

While we meditate on this hope, may it exercise its transforming power upon us, and conform us now to the image of Christ! "But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord--are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory!" 2 Corinthians 3:18

If we hope hereafter to see His face, we must now be, in some measure, changed into the same image. The same holy character must be formed in us, which was in Christ Jesus. He has set us an example, that we should walk in His steps--in His steps . . .
  of humility,
  of self-denial,
  of devotion,
  of love to God and men, and
  of zeal for the glory of God.

Are we treading in these steps? Do we bear His image now?

In one sense, all, both just and unjust, will see the face of Christ; but if we would see His face with joy, and continue in the everlasting vision of it--we must bear the image of Christ now. Let us come down from the mount of heavenly meditation, retaining this truth in our memories, and resolved henceforth to seek more earnestly the grace and help of the Holy Spirit, by whom we shall be conformed to the likeness of our Savior!

"Jesus, my Savior, let me be,
 More perfectly conformed to Thee.
 Implant each grace--each sin dethrone,
 And form my temper like Thy own!"

     ~  ~  ~  ~  ~