A Believer's Last Day, His Best
brazen serpent which is lifted up—than the fiery serpent which bites and stings. [2 Cor. 4:16-18; Heb. 10:34, 11:24-26, 35, and 12:1-3.]
Basil speaks of some martyrs who were cast out all night naked in a frigid time, and were to be burned the next day, how they comforted themselves in this manner: "The winter is sharp—but paradise is sweet; here we shiver for cold—but the bosom of Abraham will make amends for all." Galen writes of a fish called Uranoscopos, which has but one eye—and yet looks continually up to heaven. A Christian under the cross should always have an eye looking up to heaven, so that his soul may not faint, and he may give glory to God in the day of visitation. It is recorded of Lazarus, that after his resurrection from the dead he was never seen to laugh; his thoughts and affections were so fixed in heaven, though his body was on earth, that he could not but slight temporal things, his heart being set upon eternal things. [Let heaven be a man's object—and the earth will be his abject.] "A man," says Chrysostom, "who would dwell in the contemplation of heaven, would be loath to come out of it." "Nay, says Augustine, "a man might age himself in the contemplation of heaven, and sooner grow old than weary."
3. Thirdly, Compare your mercies and your losses together, and you shall find that your mercies will wonderfully outweigh your losses. You have lost one mercy, you enjoy many mercies. What is the loss of a wife, a child, or any other temporal mercy, compared to a soul's enjoyment of the favor of God, pardon of sin, peace of