Chapter XIV
"The age of every man shall be acknowledged before him in Heaven, and every man shall be rewarded for his willing service and for his time."
AFTER this our good Lord said: I thank you for your travail, and especially for your youth.
And in this Shewing my understanding was lifted up into Heaven where I saw our Lord as a lord in his own house, which has called all his precious servants and friends to a stately feast. Then I saw the Lord take no place in His own house, but I saw Him royally reign in His house, fulfilling it with joy and mirth, Himself endlessly to gladden and to solace His precious friends, homely and courteously, with marvellous melody of endless love, in His own fair blessed Face. Which glorious Face of the Godhead fulfils the Heavens with joy and bliss.
God shewed three degrees of bliss that every soul shall have in Heaven that willingly has served God in any degree in earth. The first is the worshipful thanks of our Lord God that he shall receive when he is delivered of pain. This thanking is so high and so worshipful that the soul thinks it fills him though there were no more. For I thought that all the pain and travail that might be suffered by all living men might not deserve the worshipful thanks that one man shall have that willingly has served God. The second is that all the blessed creatures that are in Heaven shall see that worshipful thanking, and He makes his service known to all that are in Heaven. And here this example was shewed. - A king, if he thank his servants, it is a great worship to them, and if he makes it known to all the realm, then is the worship greatly increased. - The third is, that as new and as gladdening as it is received in that time, right so shall it last without end.
And I saw that homely and sweetly was this shewed, and that the age of every man shall be made known in Heaven, and he shall be rewarded for his willing service and for his time. And specially the age of them that willingly and freely offer their youth to God, passingly is rewarded and wonderfully is thanked.
For I saw that whenever a man or woman is truly turned to God, for one day's service and for his endless will he shall have all these three decrees of bliss. And the more the loving soul sees this courtesy of God, the rather he is to serve him all the days of his life.
Throughout this MS. the soul is referred to generally with the masculine pronoun; the feminine pronoun is never used, in any of its cases; the neuter sometimes occurs.
THE SEVENTH REVELATION