AN ETERNAL VIEW

 

"I am convinced that no soul has ever been whipped into this mortal existence; that each one of us came willingly, cheerfully, and gladly; even though we might have known that we were to inherit a body that was crippled, maimed, and deformed, still we were glad to come.....

“We knew that it meant sorrow, pain, and ultimately, death, and yet we rejoiced in the prospect to come. We saw beyond the valley of the shadow of death, with all of its pain, with all of its suffering, the grand vistas of the eternities, providing for man's eternal and endless progress, on, up and up, until we should attain unto what God is. Yet we knew that we could never ascend until we had descended and had been given a mortal tabernacle, and the union of the spirit and the body had become an accomplished fact.

“So by the attraction of it all we came gladly and willingly, for our eyes were not so much centred upon the sorrows and troubles of life as upon the grandness of that which lies beyond." (Melvin J. Ballard, "Sermons and Missionary Services of Melvin J. Ballard", p. 179)

 

Teach me dear God

to till my little plot of earth

And give me strength

To overcome the imperfections

of my mortal heart.

Teach me to look upward

And hope for the glories

That will one day be mine;

Help me to rise on wings of faith;

Lift me above valleys,

Mountains and seas

That I might forsake this world

And fly with haste to Thee.

- CATHRYNE ALLEN 

(Art: Homecoming by Danny Hahlbohm)