Wesley Corpus

12. But how do you relish the company that surrounds you Your old companions are gone; a great part of them probably separated from you never to return. Are your present companions angels of light -- ministering spirits, that but now whispered, "Sister spirit, come away! We are sent to conduct thee over that gulf into Abraham's bosom." And what are those Some of the souls of the righteous, whom thou didst formerly relieve with "the mammon of unrighteousness;" and who are now commissioned by your common Lord to receive, to welcome you "into the everlasting habitations." Then the angels of darkness will quickly discern they have no part in you. So they must either hover at a distance, or flee away in despair. Are some of these happy spirits that take acquaintance with you, the same that travelled with you below, and bore a part in your temptations; that, together with you, fought the good fight of faith, and laid hold on eternal life As you then wept together, you may rejoice together, you and your guardian angels perhaps, in order to increase your thankfulness for being "delivered from so great a death." They may give you a view of the realms below; those Regions of sorrow, doleful shades, where peace And rest can never dwell. See, on the other hand, the mansions which were "prepared for you from the foundation of the world!" O what a difference between the dream that is past, and the real scene that is now present with thee! Look up! See! No need of the sun in that day, Which never is follow'd by night; Where Jesus's beauties display A pure and a permanent light! Look down! What a prison is there! "'Twixt upper, nether, and surrounding fire!" And what inhabitants! What horrid, fearful shapes, emblems of the rage against God and man, the envy, fury, despair, fixed within, -- causing them to gnash their teeth at Him they so long despised! Meanwhile, does it comfort them to see, across the great gulf, the righteous in Abraham's bosom What a place is that! What a "house of God, eternal in the heavens!" Earth is only His footstool; yea, The spacious firmament on high, And all the blue, ethereal sky. Well then may we say to its inhabitants,