Against Nothingness

I read sermons regularly. I enjoy it and I fancy that it improves my own preaching, though I suppose I must leave that verdict with my congregants. Regardless, I have oft been instructed well by pastors past and wish, on this occasion, to pass on one such worthwhile specimen.  Here, then, I humbly present to thee, most esteemed reader of mine, a sermon. A sermon which comes at the conclusion of a series on heaven.  The Justice and the Joy of Heaven by John Donne Justice : As it is said of old cosmographers, that when they had said all that they knew of a country and yet much more was to be said, they said that the rest of those countries were possessed with giants or witches or spirits or wild beasts, so that they could pierce no farther into that country; so when we have traveled as far as we can with safety, that is, as far as ancient or modern expositors lead us in the discovery of these new heavens and new earth, yet we must say at last that it is a country inhabited

The First Psalm      The man in life wherever placed,           Hath happiness in store,      Who walks not in the wicked's way,           Nor learns their guilty lore.       Nor from the seat of scornful pride           Casts forth his eyes abroad,      But with humility and awe           Still walks before his God.       That man shall flourish like the trees,           Which by the streamlets grow;      The fruitful top is spread on high,           And firm the root below.      Be he who blossoms buds in guilt,           Shall to the ground be cast,      And, like the rootless stubble, tost           before the sweeping blast.      For why? that God the good adore           Hath given them peace and rest,      But hath decreed that wicked men           Shall never be truly blest.