Beulah Land

Towards the end of Pilgrim's Progress the protagonist, Christian, spends time in the Land of Beulah. After slogging through the Slough of Despond, struggling through temptations of Vanity Fair, and doing time in a cage owned and maintained by the giant Despair, he and his friends are granted earthly rest and celestial fellowship before having to cross the River of Death.
They found all tastes and sounds pleasant ["only when they tasted of the Water of the River over which they were to go, they thought that tasted a little bitterish to the Palate but it proved sweeter when 'twas down" :-)] The paradox of religion is that while you can't boast you've "arrived," you do reach a point where you are "there" (here!).

Beulah Land represents Christian maturity, the end of certain strivings. I think often of my friend Helen, who would exclaim, "I'm listening to you girls fret over things that I resolved years ago!" We younger women had to work through our dry spells, our vocational disappointments, and our doubts. Like Christian in John Bunyan's classic allegory, we found no short cuts. Helen, although she had more than her share of pain and struggle, was witnessing to us her experience of Beulah Land.

Those who grow old in the Lord continue to bloom:

They shall continue to grow in old age
They shall be juicy and leafy (Ps 92:13)

As St. Paul says, while the outward form is passing away, the spirit within grows in the Lord. Or: should the spirit within grow tumultuous, fearful, depressed, or any of what C.S. Lewis names as "the law of human undulation," these states are committed to the Lord also. Because Christ is with us in all; that realization makes this land "Beulah."

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Here is the refrain from the hymn "Beulah Land" by Edgar P. Stites
(Based on Isaiah 6:2)

O Beulah Land, sweet Beulah Land,
As on thy highest mount I stand,
I look away across the sea,
Where mansions are prepared for me,
And view the shining glory shore,
My Heav’n, my home forever more!

The composer said after he wrote the first two stanzas he fell on his face, overcome with awe.