But what is this compared with the joy that will be theirs in the great day of final revealing? “Now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face;” now we know in part, but then we shall know even as also we are known. 1 Corinthians 13:12. (6T 309.1) MC VC

It is the reward of Christ’s workers to enter into His joy. That joy, to which Christ Himself looks forward with eager desire, is presented in His request to His Father: “I will that they also, whom Thou hast given Me, be with Me where I am.” John 17:24. (6T 309.2) MC VC

The angels were waiting to welcome Jesus as He ascended after His resurrection. The heavenly host longed to greet again their loved Commander, returned to them from the prison house of death. Eagerly they pressed about Him as He entered the gates of heaven. But He waved them back. His heart was with the lonely, sorrowing band of disciples whom He had left upon Olivet. It is still with His struggling children on earth, who have the battle with the destroyer yet to wage. “Father,” He says, “I will that they also, whom Thou hast given Me, be with Me where I am.” John 17:24. (6T 309.3) MC VC

Christ’s redeemed ones are His jewels, His precious and peculiar treasure. “They shall be as the stones of a crown”—“the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints.”Zechariah 9:16; Ephesians 1:18. In them “He shall see of the travail of His soul, and shall be satisfied.” Isaiah 53:11. (6T 309.4) MC VC

And will not His workers rejoice when they, too, behold the fruit of their labors? The apostle Paul, writing to the Thessalonian converts, says: “What is our hope, or joy, or crown of rejoicing? Are not even ye in the presence of our Lord Jesus Christ at His coming? for ye are our glory and joy.” 1 Thessalonians 2:19, 20. And he exhorts the Philippian brethren to “be blameless and harmless,” to “shine as lights in the world; holding forth the word of life; that I may rejoice in the day of Christ, that I have not run in vain, neither labored in vain.” Philippians 2:15, 16. (6T 309.5) MC VC