38. The Hope of Glory
38
The Hope of Glory1
Christ in you, the hope of glory.
—Colossians 1:27
I would but desire to stand at the outer side of the gates of the New Jerusalem and look through a hole of the door and see Christ’s face. A borrowed vision in this life would be my borrowed and begun heaven, until the long, long-looked-for-day dawn. It is not for nothing that it is said, “Christ in you, the hope of glory” (Col. 1:27). I will be content of no pawn2 of heaven but Christ Himself; for Christ, possessed by faith here, is young heaven and glory in the bud. If I had that pawn, I would endure horning3 and hell both, ere I gave it again. All that we have here is scarce the picture of glory. Should not we young bairns4 long and look for the expiring of our minority? It were good to be daily begging propines5 and love-gifts and the Bridegroom’s favors, and, if we can do no more, to seek crumbs and hungry dinners of Christ’s love, to keep the taste of heaven in our mouth until suppertime. I know it is far after noon, and the marriage-supper of the Lamb will be soon; the table is covered already. O Well-beloved, run—run fast! O fair day, when will you dawn! O shadows, flee away!
I think hope and love, woven through other,6 make our absence from Christ spiritual torment. It is a pain to wait; but hope that “maketh not ashamed” swallows up that pain (Rom. 5:5). It is not unkindness that keeps Christ and us so long apart. What can I say to Christ’s love? I think more than I can say. To consider that my Lord Jesus may take the air7 (if I may so speak) and go abroad, yet He will be confined and keep the prison with me! But in all this sweet communion with Him, what am I to be thanked for? I am but a sufferer. Whether I will or not, He will be kind to me. He so bears His love in on me that it is as if He had defied my guiltiness that would make Him unkind. Here I die with wondering that justice does not hinder love; for there are none in hell, nor out of hell, more unworthy of Christ’s love.
1. Letters, no. 130, 256.
2. pawn: pledge
3. horning: A legal demand for payment of a debt under threat of imprisonment and being proclaimed rebels. It used to be proclaimed by the sound of a horn in the marketplace.
4. bairns: children
5. propines: presents
6. woven through other: blended into each other so that they cannot be separated
7. take the air: take a walk