which they are capable of affording, and were indeed intended to afford.
He surveys, in passing, the works and beauties of nature and art,
meadows covered with flocks, valleys waving with corn, verdant woods,
blooming gardens, and stately buildings. He surveys and enjoys them,
perhaps, much more than their owners do, but leaves them without a sigh,
reflecting on the far greater and sincerer joys that are waiting for him
at home. Such exactly is the temper and disposition with which the
Christian traveller should pass through the world. His religion does not
require him to be gloomy and sullen, to shut his eyes, or to stop his
ears; it debars him of no pleasure, of which a thinking and reasonable
man would wish to partake. It directs him not to shut himself up in a
cloister, alone, there to mope and moan away his life; but to walk
abroad, to behold the things which are in heaven and earth, and to give
glory to him who made them; reflecting, at the same time that if, in
this fallen world, which is soon to be consumed by fire, there are so
many objects to entertain and delight him, what must be the pleasures of
that world which is to endure for ever, and to be his eternal home;
Flocks feeding in green meadows, by rivers of water, remind him of the
future happy condition of the righteous, when 'they shall hunger no
more, neither thirst any more, for the lamb which is in the midst of the
throne shall feed them, and shall lead them unto living fountains of
water.' From fading plantations he carries his thoughts to the paradise
of God, where, in immortal youth and beauty, grows the tree of life,
whose tree never withers, and which bears its fruit through the
unnumbered ages of eternity. Earthly cities and palaces cause him to
remember thee, O thou holy city, heavenly Jerusalem, whose walls are
salvation, and thy gates praise, and the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb
are the temple in the midst of thee! He who sees the world in this light
will draw its sting, and disarm it of its power to hurt; he will so use
it as not to abuse it, because the fashion of it passes away; he will so