HE sanctuary of God is the house of Memory and of Hope. It is here that we are presented with the only true record of the distant past. It is here, alone, that the solemn events of the approaching future are revealed to us. It is here that the two sacred institutions, which unite to commemorate the death and the resurrection of Jesus, harmoniously blend also the extremes of human destiny, and, reconciling grief with joy, unite the darkness of the grave with the light of life.

      How sweet are the memories which are here [73] awakened! How consoling the remembrances of the divine love which are here so eloquent of hope and peace! With how much happiness may the Christian look back upon the past, which aims not, like the retreating Parthian, a single shaft to wound him! With what feelings of adoration and love may he lift his eyes to that face so "marred," and gaze upon that divine form so wounded for his transgressions and bruised for his iniquities! How he may, in that contemplation, realize the mysterious enchantment which heals the dread malady of sin and transforms the soul anew! How stilled, by the potent charm of Jesus' love, are all the bitter reproaches of conscience! How soothed the trembling fears of retribution! How calmed the hopeless agonies of despair! How vainly may the soul seek for the record of its guilt upon the sands over which the rising tide of the divine philanthropy has flowed! How unsuccessfully may it strive to reanimate the sins that were crucified with Christ! It is Christ alone that rises from the tomb of Joseph! It is our Savior, and not our guilt that comes to meet us here! It is the gentle voice [74] of our Redeemer that cries to us, amidst the memories of the past and from these memorials of his love, "weep not."

      But, ah! how different is the condition of the dwellers in the world without! That world is the abode of fear and of remorse. No grateful memories there pour the balm of consolation into the heart torn with anguish. No anodyne of pardoning love there soothes the pangs of unavailing regret. No voice of mercy there speaks peace to the soul tossed upon the dark waters of carnality and crime. Neither does the day-spring of hope arise to dissipate the gloom or gild the threatening clouds of futurity. But Fear and Horror brood over the stormy chaos of unholy passions, and there immold the hideous spectral forms which haunt the guilty conscience and goad the soul to madness. How dreadful is the condition of those who are "without hope and without God in the world!" How dark, and dreary, and desolate their pathway through the waste howling wilderness of life, who have no promise of a "pleasant land" beyond the Jordan's swelling flood! [75]

      But, oh! how sweet are the consolations which here gladden the present by the joyful assurances of the future! How bright, how cheering, and how life-giving are the beams of Hope which here dissipate the darkness of ignorance and reveal to us the wide horizon of human destiny! How lofty is that sacred Pisgah to which the angel of the divine covenant here leads us, that we may not only contemplate with delight the grateful streams, the fruitful plains, and the vine-clad hills of our inheritance, but rest in the conviction that we shall be led, under the conduct of our Joshua, to enjoy them! It is here that our Divine Leader marshals us beneath the banners of love. It is here that he guides our weary feet towards those heavenly shores. It is here, by the sacred ark of the divine faithfulness and truth, and amidst the certain assurances of a glorious triumph, that the voice of Jesus cries to us, "Fear not."

      Oh! how often, while on earth, did Jesus pronounce those words of consolation and encouragement: "Weep not!" "Fear not!" But, ah! it was he himself who wept that we might rejoice; [76] who feared that we might hope! It was he who suffered that we might enjoy, who died that we might live! And, oh! transporting thought, it is he who also revives and reigns, that we, too, may rise to behold and share his glory, and rest forever in the blissful mansions which he has prepared for our abode. So that, while in these memorials of the past we see him as he was, it is there, in the glories of the future, that we shall see him as he is; and, while the remembrance of his atoning love imparts sweet consolation, the hope of an eternal reunion inspires the soul with courage, and leads us forward to the fruition of an eternal blessedness. [77]

[CITS 73-77]