I. No natural night there. The large portion of our existence that sleep now consumes will be added to our peaceful, our blissful occupations.
II. No night of sin there.
III. No night of suffering there.
IV. No night of ignorance there.
V. No night of infirmities there.
VI. No night of mysterious providences there.
VII. No night of hindered prayers there.
VIII. No night of disappointed expectations there.
IX. No night of separation there.
X. No night of temptation there. (T. Nunns, M. A.)
No night there
In looking at the emblems employed in the Word of God, you cannot fail to be impressed with their simplicity as well as their beauty. Night is one of these.
1. It is the season of repose.
2. It is the time of evil--the season chosen for the performance of deeds of darkness and of sin.
3. And it is the time of fear. Yet notwithstanding all this I praise God for the night.
4. Night is suggestive of sorrow. This is the inevitable lot of the good on earth. But “there shall be no night” of sorrow “there!” No tears shall be shed, no hopes shall be frustrated, no disappointments felt, no friends removed, no graves opened. Night, as we have seen, is associated with deeds of darkness. And hence, when it is affirmed of the heavenly state that “there shall be no night there,” we are reminded of the perfect purity of our eternal home. Further, night is associated with weariness and fatigue. To affirm, therefore, of the heavenly world that there shall be no night there, is to declare that weariness and fatigue shall be unknown. One of the most difficult questions is that of the exact nature of the glorified body the redeemed will possess. And then, night is associated with obscurity. Its shades conceal much from our vision, and hence it has ever been regarded as an appropriate emblem of mental obscurity. Mystery surrounds us on every hand. Questions are continually arising to which we can return no complete answer. Now it is night with us. The unclouded day is yonder. (S. D. Hillman, B. A.)
No night there
I. The absence of night in the glorified church implies that there will be no sin there.
II. The absence of night implies there shall be no ignorance there
III. The absence of night implies there shall be no weariness there. Here God’s people are wearied with labours.
IV. The absence of night implies that there shall be no change there.
V. The absence of night implies that there shall be no death there. (B. W. Bucke, M. A.)
The happiness of heaven
I. The import of the representation by which this state is here distinguished.
1. Among the mansions of the blessed, there shall be no fatigue, no tendency to lassitude, and no reason for repose.
2. There shall be no hostile intrusion there; there is no reason for precaution.
3. There is no impurity and no sin.
4. But night is a season of privation; and when we are told of heaven as a state where no privation shall be, we are well reminded that no night shall be there. Do you speak of privation of society? In heaven you will have delightful and hallowed fellowship. Do you speak of privation of knowledge? In heaven, illumination will be poured upon our faculties to the utmost extent which those faculties can, by possibility, bear. Do you speak of privation of happiness? In heaven, perturbation and pain, and fear, and distress, will be removed for ever.
5. “No more death”--“no more death” to our persons: “for this corruptible shall put on incorruption.” “No more death” to our happiness; “no more death” to our attainments; “no more death” to our joy. All unchangeable, and all imperishable, and all for ever!
II. The conclusions which our contemplations of the heavenly state under this representation ought forcibly to impress upon our minds.
1. Our contemplations ought to induce preparation.
2. Our contemplations of the heavenly state ought to induce gratitude. You were the slave led captive by the devil at his will, and now have been brought into the glorious liberty of the sons of God--a liberty which is to be consummated in the skies.
3. These contemplations of the heavenly state should induce desire. And truly there is nothing--if we are preparing for such scenes as those which have now been laid before you--there is nothing which should keep your desires from heaven.(J. Parsons.)
Heaven without night
1. We are wont to associate with night the idea of weariness. Sweet to themyriad toilers in the world’s vast workshop is the coming of the still evening hour, when the tasks of day are laid aside, and tired limbs and overwrought brains draw refreshment from slumber. So benign is this provision that Scripture has included it among the special acts of Divine goodness, in the beautiful saying, “He giveth His beloved sleep.” Now, as this arrangement is not found in heaven, the inference is obvious that the denizens of that bright realm do notrequire its operation, and are so constituted as to be inaccessible to fatigue from any intensity or duration of employment.
2. Night is the symbol of ignorance. How often do the Sacred Writers represent the intellectual and moral blindness of men under the figure of darkness! Thus Job, describing the errors and follies of the devotees of human wisdom, says, “They meet with darkness in the daytime, and grope at noonday as in the night.” And the fearful ignorance of God and of truth, which overspread the world at the period of the Redeemer’s advent, is pourtrayed by the graphic declaration, “Darkness covered the earth, and gross darkness the people.” In this emblematic sense, a deep and cloudy night stretches over the sphere which we now inhabit. How imperfect are our faculties! How narrow the limits of our knowledge! How obscure and uncertain our researches! What barriers of gloom and mystery meet us on whatever side we attempt to push our investigations! But in heaven there will be no intellectual night. All the errors that now shade and darken our minds--all the obstacles which here impede and limit our acquisitions-shall there be for ever removed. The faculties of the soul which, amid the fogs and illusions of sense, are so restricted in their range, and so distorted in their vision, will, in that radiant world, expand into seraphic strength, and under the beams of eternal day receive a new impulse, and a right direction. The veil also, which now hangs over so many departments of Truth, will then be lifted, and we shall enter her inmost temple, and worship at her most secret shrine.
3. Night is the symbol of sin. The time which God has ordained for rest, man has appropriated to crime. All classes of the depraved and lawless look upon night as their chosen patron and protector. “The way of the wicked is as darkness.” “Men love darkness rather than light, because their deeds are evil.” When, therefore, we read of heaven as being without night, the expression evidently implies that into those holy realms no impurity can ever be admitted. “There shall in no ease enter into it anything that defileth, neither whatsoever worketh abomination, or maketh a lie, but they that are written in the Lamb’s book of life.”
4. Night is the symbol of danger. The hours in which darkness broods over the earth arepeculiar for their insecurity. It is then that the robber, the housebreaker, the incendiary, and the whole tribe of depredators on property and life, steal from their lurking places, and roam abroad on their work of mischief. And then it is that perils easily avoided by day deepen and multiply their terrors. The exclusion of night from heaven may, therefore, be interpreted as a pledge that, in that secure asylum, no adversary shall assail us, and no possibility of evil ever menace our peace. The seductions of the world, and the treachery of our own hearts, will not follow us there, nor can Satan cross “the great gulf fixed” between hell and heaven to vex us with his assaults.
5. Night is the symbol of want. Sleep is the sister of death. During its reign over us, we retire within ourselves; the senses close their portals, and the soul is shut in from all its wonted delights. Communion with man and with Nature has ceased. Perception is suspended. Reason is in abeyance. Gone are consciousness, memory, hope. And even should slumber be interrupted, what a dreary blank does the eye behold! Hidden is the rich land-scape--stream, and forest, and mountain--all the grand things and the lovely on which the daylight looks. Above us may glimmer the watching stars and the silvery moon, but they only awaken regret for the nobler luminary departed. So is it that night typifies want; and the fact that heaven knows no night is a most expressive sign that it also knows no privation. Want, in one or another of its forms, is inseparable from our earthly condition. Pilgrims in the desert, we must expect to sigh in vain for much that is essential to perfect felicity. But when we reach the land of Divine fulness above, every need will be supplied. Everything around us, every scene, every object, every employment, will be adapted to exclude disquietude, and to minister delight. Every faculty, every passion, will be absorbed in adoration, and overflowing with ecstasy. And He that sitteth on the throne will bring out His treasures to augment our bliss, showering down upon our spirits all the raptures which Almighty Goodness can bestow.
6. Night is the symbol of death. There are few analogies in the whole range of sacred imagery more suited to represent death than the season of night. And thus we find it very frequently employed by the inspired writers. The Psalmist, in speaking of the removal of his friends by death, says, “Mine acquaintance hast Thou put into darkness.” Job calls death “the day of darkness,” and the grave “the bed of darkness,” “a land of darkness, as darkness itself; and of the shadow of death, without any order, and where the light is as darkness.” “Our Divine Teacher has also given us a very striking description of death under the figure of night. “I must work the works of Him that sent Me while it is day; the night cometh in which no man can work.” To beings situated as we are, it is hardly possible to form an idea of a state of existence in which death is unknown. Yet this is true of heaven. “There shall be no more death.” Oh, what a soul-ravishing announcement is this! No more death! Then hope has dawned on the midnight of the tomb; the King of Terrors is despoiled of his power, and the all-conqueror is himself conquered! No more death to our persons--no more death to our attainments--no more death to our usefulness--no more death to our joys! All are changeless and perfect. God is our portion, holiness our vesture, happiness our allotment, eternity our home. Oh, what a boon is Immortality when it thus stamps its own endless duration on all that awaits us in “the Better Land!” (Dr. Ide.)
The vision of the truth
I. Now here is seen the value of Christian principle. The Man of Sorrows is on His march for the morning; for the principles of the passion place you on the track of the dawn.
II. These principles are powers of guidance in three important--nay, momentous--questions of conduct.
1. What is seriously necessary for any soul in order, in its mortal journey, to be useful and happy? The answer is--Not to live at random, but to have an object in life.
2. What is to be my view of the world? What is the attitude of the soul of the Christian towards the mass of mankind? The optimist views it all through the medium of a rose-coloured dream. All is going onward as merry as a marriage-bell. The only objection is--theories do not alter human suffering, and to this theory facts do not square. It is impossible here reasonably to deny the darkness. It is true it is blessed to remember “there shall be no night there.”
3. There is here a revelation of the future. The eternal city is in fact the working out of the twofold Divine benediction. It is the completion and beatified result of purified characters. “Blessed are the undefiled in the way,” and “Blessed is he whose unrighteousness is forgiven and whose sin is covered.” This is the glorious end of innocence and penitence. The breaking of the dawn! It is coming, there is a land of brightness after darkness; amid all sorrow hope will yet have its triumph: “there shall be no night there”!
III. Night here, however. Why? From the absence of the sun: from the accumulation of the clouds.
1. There is sin. Wills opposed to the will of changeless goodness: wills almost fixed in evil--eyes from which all vision of brightness seems gone: hearts which seem to keep no trace of pity. Ah me!--aruined soul, or a soul on the road to ruin, how terrible! To be growing worse instead of better: to be losing foothold, not climbing boldly on. Soul of a sinner! Pause, think twice. It is hard to imagine deliverance: hard to believe at times that God’s grace, that fresh breezes from the heavenly courts, can disperse such clouds, but it is true. Look up, march eastward; repent, cry for help, take heart; though the path be rough it is the path of the Holy Passion. The city of the saints is the land of the sunlight. “There shall be no night there.”
2. There issorrow. Ah! who has ever read, who can ever read, the mystery of tears? But there it is. There is a home where no sorrow enters--there dwelleth no evil, “there is no night there.”
3. There is death. However it be lightened by the faith of a Christian, what thinking mind can fail to acknowledge there is the solemnity of night about the grave? Well, the dawn of eternity shall break, and death itself shall die.
IV. There are many difficulties, many sorrows; yet are there not some alleviations? Life is never altogether darkness When it is illuminated by hope. Look upward, take courage, never allow the cowardice of permanent despondency, or theblasphemy of final despair. Trust God. Surely even here are streaks in the darkness. There are quiet hours of rest and blessing; such a converse with a dear friend; such a happy day of pleasure; such evidence that the sun is there, though veiled by the vapour; such approaches of the daylight; such streaks of the dawn. To repent, heartily, manfully, thoroughly, when you have sinned; to receive trial and sorrow with loving submission, and willingly to taste the sweet “uses of adversity”; to love goodness, truth, duty, God in Christ, and by the power, the moral power of love, to help and make men better--this, this, surely, whatever happens, is to plant your feet firmly onthe track of the dawn.
V. What about the future? Well, John assures us that there lies before us something beyond all words happy, which he can only convey to us by speaking of it as “a city.” Remember that in that city you will find the result of your toil and the end of your journey. (Canon Knox Little.)
