200 A better country desired: Elder John R. Daily The human race, in peopling the different parts of this earth, have displayed an inherent longing for a “better country.” In the great exploring enterprises of the world, this desire has been the leading impulse. It seems to be a principle interwoven in our nature to desire a better allotment than we now enjoy. Many fancies have been indulged of the existence of a still-undiscovered blissful land where the flowers never fade, where the fabled fountain of life, deep, clear and perennial, sleeps on its pure bed of pearls, and where man, freed from the wants and woes of his previous condition, may bask in the luxuriance of immortal youth. It is needless to remark that within the precincts of this little world, stamped with the curse of apostasy from its Maker and stained by the depravity of its inhabitants, there are to be found no such Elysian fields.
Not to fancy, but to faith, has God been pleased to reveal a bright, a blissful world, far excelling in its glory the most brilliant creations of poetic genius – a realm of light and beauty, of love and repose, of fadeless existence and undying joy, sufficiently grand to gratify the highest aspiration of the soul after an immortal habitation.
O, the transporting, rapturous scene
That rises to my sight!
Sweet fields arrayed in living green,
And rivers of delight!
God has given us a natural taste for food and drink, a hungering and thirsting for these essentials, and has so constituted us that these supplies are necessary to the perpetuation of our vital existence. What a mercy is displayed by him in furnishing a bountiful supply of these essentials! Vegetables, grains, fruits, fowls, fishes, beasts, honey, milk, water, all abound to allay the hunger and quench the thirst of sinful man. This is illustrative of the longings of the regenerated soul for spiritual supplies.
“Blessed are they that do hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they shall be filled,” is the sweet promise of the precious Jesus.
Such food is furnished here in a limited supply, a sufficiency for our present needs, but in that better country celestial fruits are found in inexhaustible supply, and the water of life forever flows. The rivers of pleasure at God’s right hand are sufficient to supply the expanding capacities of all the happy inhabitants of that better country, and the prospects of drinking from those sweet rivers of delight during an endless duration is a prospect of bliss sufficient to satisfy the fullest desires of those immortal beings.
There generous fruits that never fail
On trees immortal grow;
There rocks and hills, and brooks and vales
With milk and honey flow.
To cultivated minds there is a source of enjoyment found in the view and contemplation of the beauty and sublimity of visible objects of nature. The extended plain, variegated with its rivers and lakes, its alternating forests and fields; the massive ranges of cloud-capped mountains with their towering rocks and marvelous precipices, rippling streams and dashing waterfalls; the sublime ocean with its heaving tides and rolling billows; the glorious sun, rising, culminating in its highest exaltation at noontide, and setting amidst an endless variety of gorgeous hues; the nocturnal heavens, studded, when cloudless, with myriads of far off light and glory: these all appeal to the senses and address the soul, conveying a faint idea of what God can prepare and of what “he has prepared for them that love him” in the organization and arrangement of the glorious scenery of that “better country.”
All o’er those wide extended plains
Shines one eternal day;
There God the Son forever reigns,
And scatters night away”
We are greatly influenced by our locality. This causes us to have a preference for places and to regard a particular locality “better” than others. No spot can be found on this earth that is perfectly free from objections, however. All was well enough till sin entered, but since this awful blight has come, it is to the pilgrims and strangers of Zion but a “wilderness of woe.” Sorrow is mingled with joy, the bitter with the sweet – everywhere. The “better country” which God has prepared as the final abode of the saints is far removed from these fluctuations and changes to which matter is subjected here. There will be no setting suns or waning moons to gather the shades of evening and gloom of night. There will be no wintry clouds and snows to desolate its sunny landscapes. There will be no vernal frosts to wither its rich foliage or blight its fruits and flowers. There will be no lightnings to scathe its towering cedars or shatter the spires of its celestial city. There will be no floods to leave devastation in their wake. There will be no raging fires to envelope its forests and dwellings in frightful conflagration. There will be no tornadoes to agitate its peaceful, balmy air. There will be no poisonous vapors to spread death abroad and bring wailing to the hearts of its happy inhabitants.
No chilling winds or poisonous breath
Can reach that healthful shore;
Sickness and sorrow, pain and death,
Are felt and feared no more.
In our estimate of different parts of the country, we are greatly influenced by the state of society found in each. Our happiness is very closely connected with the spirit and character of those with whom we are in close association. The highest social enjoyment which can be attained on earth results from contact with those whom we love and who can enter into full sympathy with us, especially if they possess the characteristics of intelligence, elevated moral sentiments, benevolent affections and congeniality of taste. But the very best community of mortals associated anywhere on this globe contains a remnant of the sinful and selfish passions which mar their social happiness. So no community on earth, however good, however refined and virtuous, furnishes a perfectly satisfactory model or even a remote analogy to assist our conceptions of the society of that “better country” above. That great celestial fraternity will forever remain undisturbed by any unfriendly secret thought, by any unkind word, by any feeling of suspicion or jealousy, by any act of revenge or hatred. No rivalry or heated emulation, no envy or strife, no alienation or enmity can ever appear to weaken the unity or sever the bond which binds them together in their high and holy fellowship. Love reigns perfect and supreme there. Millions upon millions of perfect beings are all harmonized in one blissful family, all in sweet and absolute control of the law of love, all happy in the exercise of the highest and holiest affection to the utmost of their capacity, without intermission and forever. The crowning glory of this celestial society is that each one, in addition to the sweet intercourse he has with all the others, is permitted to have free and full communion with God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit! In that Triune God they forever rest, bathed in the boundless ocean of peace.
There shall I bathe my weary soul
In seas of heavenly rest;
And not a wave of trouble roll
Across my peaceful breast.
Referring to the ancient patriarchs as illustrations of that faith which existed before a word of the Bible had been written, Paul says, “These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off, and were persuaded of them, and embraced them, and confessed they were strangers and pilgrims on earth. For they that say such things declare plainly that they seek a country. And truly, if they had been mindful of that country from whence they came out, they might have had opportunity to have returned. But now they desire a better county, that is, a heavenly; wherefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he hath prepared for them a city.”
When shall I reach that happy place
And be forever blest?
When shall I see my Father’s face,
And in his bosom rest?
[from Primitive Monitor, October 1928] From The Primitive Baptist/The Christian Pathway.