| Garden of the Heart |
Chapter 7 |
Page 3 |
If our devotional life is sincere, we are ever looking upon heavenly visions. What is prayer? It is coming into the very presence of Christ. John was not nearer when he lay upon his Lord’s bosom, nor Mary when she sat at His feet and listened to His words, than we are when we pray or read the Scriptures, or when we sit at the communion table. There rises before us in such sacred moments a vision of what we ought to be, of what Christ would have us become, of what we may attain through grace. In such experiences all that is best in us struggles to become real in our life and character. In the holy light we see the faults and flaws in our character and are ashamed of them. We have a glimpse of ideal spiritual beauty and long to reach it. We should not allow such visions of the true life to rise before us, and then be just the same faulty persons afterward as we were before – we should go away to grow toward the beauty of our visions.
Every time we worship reverently in our Father’s house our hearts are lifted up. We look into God’s face, and have new visions of life and of duty. What kind of persons ought we to be after such experiences? How much influence do our Sundays have on our Mondays? How much better are we after seeing Christ? Are we obedient to the heavenly visions?
Christina Rossetti in one of her poems tells how once, in a dream, she saw the lovely flowers that bloom in Paradise, more fair than waking eyes ever saw on earth, and how she saw the Beautiful Gate, and had a glimpse of the supernal splendours of the home of the blessed, and then adds:
“I hope to see these things again,
But not as once in dreams by night;
To see them with my very sight,
And touch and handle and attain;
To have all heaven beneath my feet
For narrow way that once they trod;
To have my part with all the saints,
And with my God.”
That is very beautiful. But we need not wait to get to heaven to realize our heavenly visions. We should seek to make them real, in some measure at least, in this world.
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