Eternity

From this morning's Grace Gems Puritan devotional:

"It is this eternality and perpetuity, which completes the happiness of the inhabitants of heaven; the least suspicion of an end--would intermingle itself with all their enjoyments, and embitter them; for the greater the happiness, the greater the anxiety at the expectation of losing it. But oh, how transporting for the saints on high, to look forward through the succession of eternal ages, with an assurance that they shall be happy through them all, and that they shall feel no change--but from glory unto glory!

"On the other hand, this is the bitterest ingredient in the 'cup of divine displeasure' in the future state--that the misery is eternal! Oh, with what horror does that despairing cry, "Forever! Forever! Forever!" echo through the vaults of hell!

"And now, need I offer anything further to convince you of the superior importance of invisible and eternal things--to visible and temporary things? Can you need any arguments to convince you that an eternity of the most perfect happiness--is rather to be chosen than a few years of sordid, unsatisfying sinful pleasures?"
- Samuel Davies