How our hearts would sink within us were it not for those other words equally with these the words of truth: “He shall send His angels to gather together His elect from the four winds, from the uttermost part of the earth, to the uttermost part of heaven.”[78] From every corner of the earth will those blessed ones come trooping in--“a great multitude, which no man can number, of all nations, and tribes, and peoples, and tongues”.[79] Lord Jesus! Who would not desire with desire to be one of that great multitude, were it only to console Your Heart for the losses of that day! Let this happiness be mine, and that of as many as can be reached by the utmost stretching of Your mercy, the fullest and farthest flowing of Your precious Blood! Quaerens me sedisti lassus, Redemisti crucem passus: Tantus labor non sit cassus. Have mercy, O Lord, on all the tribes of earth, that they may not perish, nor bewail themselves because of You when You come to judgment. Have mercy, that when the day of the Lord, that dreadful day shall come, the number of the elect may be multiplied, and the thirst of Your Heart appeased. [77] Apoc. i. [78] Mark xiii. [79] Apoc. vii. XXV. OUR EARTH. _Coeli enarrant gloriam Dei._--_Psa._ xviii. 1. _The heavens declare the glory of God._ There are hours when the grandeur of the midnight skies draws from our hearts: “Coeli enarrant,” and conversely: “Quam sordet tellus!” “How vile earth appears when I look up to heaven!”[80] When we would wish to be so far away from earth, so near to God, that we could cover it with our two hands and shut it out with all its sinfulness from His sight. And there are hours when we re-echo David’s other cry: “_The earth is the Lord’s._”[81] Studded with millions of stars--its sanctuary lamps--here in grand constellations, there in solitary beauty amid the darkness, it lies outstretched before its Creator, a very heaven. Yes, speck as it is in creation, our world has a beauty all its own in the eyes of Him Who made it. “There is not found the like to it in glory.” Marred and sin-stained, it is still the dear world of the Incarnation, the world God so loved as to give to it His Son. Its highways, its fields, its waters have felt the tread of His feet; to the end of time He has made it His home. “I have chosen and have sanctified this place, and My eyes and My heart shall be there always.”[82] Always. His interest in it is as keen, as human, as when, a wayfarer here, He shared its joys and sorrows. Its every man, woman, and child to-day has a distinct place in His heart.