If we have shared in Jesus's shame, we will share in the radiant glory that will surround him when he returns! Are you, beloved one, truly with Christ Jesus? Does a vital union bind you to him? Then today you are with him in his shame. You have taken up his cross and followed him outside the camp, bearing his reproach. And you will surely be with him when that cross is exchanged for a crown.

But examine yourself tonight. Because if you are not with him now in the regeneration, you will not be with him when he comes in his glory. If you shrink back from the dark side of communion with Christ, you will never know its bright, its glorious fulfillment when the King returns with all his holy angels.

What! Angels are with him? Yet he did not take up angels—he took up the seed of Abraham! The holy angels will be with him? Come, my soul: if you truly are his beloved, you cannot be far away. If his friends and neighbors are called to witness his glory, what about you who are married to him? Will you be kept at a distance? Even though it is a day of judgment, you cannot be far from that heart which, having admitted angels into intimacy, has admitted you into union.

Has he not promised you, O my soul? "I will betroth you to myself in righteousness, in justice, and in lovingkindness." Have his own lips not declared, "I am married to you, and my delight is in you"?

If the angels, who are merely friends and neighbors, will be with him, then it is abundantly certain that his own beloved Hephzibah—in whom is all his delight—will be near him and sit at his right hand.

Here is a morning star of hope for you, shining with such exceeding brilliance that it can light up the darkest and most desolate experience.