The Wedding Ring: A Series of Discourses for Husbands and Wives and Those Contemplating MatrimonyTalmage, T. De Witt (Thomas De Witt)
Religion
The Wedding Ring: A Series of Discourses for Husbands and Wives and Those Contemplating Matrimony
Talmage, T. De Witt (Thomas De Witt)
Marriage
of the departure of his wife from earth to Heaven: "The black day
arrives. I had never seen so black a day in all the time of my
pilgrimage. The desire of my eyes is this day to be taken from me at
a stroke. Her death is lingering and painful. All the forenoon of this
day she was in the pangs of death, and sensible until the last minute
or two before her final expiration. I cannot remember the discourse
that passed between us, only her devout soul was full of satisfaction
about her going to a state of blessedness with the Lord Jesus Christ.
As far as my distress would permit, I studied to confirm her
satisfaction and consolation.
"When I saw to what a point of resignation I was called of the Lord, I
resolved, with His help, to glorify Him. So, two hours before she
expired, I knelt by her bedside and took into my hands that dear hand,
the dearest in the world, and solemnly and sincerely gave her up to
the Lord. I gently put her out of my hands and laid away her hand,
resolved that I would not touch it again. She afterward told me that
she signed and sealed my act of resignation, and though before that
she had called for me continually, after it she never asked for me any
more. She conversed much until near two in the afternoon. The last
sensible word she spoke was to her weeping father: 'Heaven, Heaven
will make amends for all!'"
Now let us be faithful in this relation of which I have been speaking.
Do you want to know
WHAT THE LORD THINKS OF IT?
Read the sixty-second chapter of Isaiah, where he says: "As the
bridegroom rejoiceth over the bride, so shall thy God rejoice over
thee." There is a wedding coming which will eclipse all the princely
and imperial weddings the world ever saw. It was a great day when
Napoleon took Josephine; it was a great day when Henry VIII. led Anne
Boleyn over the cloth of gold on the street, the cloth of gold
reaching up to the palace; it was a great day when the King of Spain
took Mercedes; but there will be a greater time when the Lord shall
take His bride, the Church, to Himself.
Long time ago they were affianced, but she has been down in the
wilderness. He has written her again and again, and the day of
marriage is fixed. She has sent word to Him. He has sent word to her.
But, oh! was there ever such a difference in estate? The King on the
one side, the bride of the wilderness, poor and persecuted, on the
other. The wealth of the universe on the one side, the obscurity of
the ages on the other. The pomp of heaven on the one side, the poverty
of earth on the other. But He will endow her with all His wealth, and
raise her to sit with Him on a throne forever.
Come, thou bridal morn of the ages! Come! and there shall be the
rumbling of great wheels, great chariot wheels down the sky, and there
shall be riders ahead and mounted cavalry behind, the conquerors of
heaven on white horses. Clear the way! A thousand trumpets blare.
"Behold! the bridegroom cometh: go ye out to meet Him."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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