The Many Mansions.
What a home aspect there is in this "word of Jesus!" He comforts His Church by telling them that soon their wilderness-wanderings will be finished,--the tented tabernacle suited to their present probation-state exchanged for the enduring "mansion!" Nor will it be any strange dwelling: a _Father"s_ home--a _Father"s_ welcome awaits them. There will be accommodation for all. Thousands have already entered its shining gates,--patriarchs, prophets, saints, martyrs, young and old, and still there is room!
The pilgrim"s motto on earth is, "Here we have no continuing city." Even "Sabbath tents" must be struck. Holy seasons of communion must terminate. "Arise, let us go hence!" is a summons which disturbs the sweetest moments of tranquillity in the Church below; but _in Heaven_, every believer becomes a pillar in the temple of G.o.d, and "he shall _go no more out_." Here it is but the lodging of a wayfarer turning aside to tarry for the brief night of earth. Here we are but "tenants at will;"
our possessions are but moveables--ours to-day, gone to-morrow. But these many "mansions" are an inheritance incorruptible and unfading.
Nothing can touch the heavenly patrimony. Once within the Father"s house, and we are in the house for ever!
Think, too, of Jesus, gone to _prepare_ these mansions,--"I go to prepare a place for you." What a wondrous thought--Jesus now busied in Heaven in His Church"s behalf! He can find no abode in all His wide dominions, befitting as a permanent dwelling for His ransomed ones. He says, "I will make new heavens and a new earth. I will found a special kingdom--I will rear eternal mansions expressly for those I have redeemed with my blood!"
Reader, let the prospect of a dwelling in this "house of the Lord for ever," reconcile thee to any of the roughnesses or difficulties in thy present path--to thy pilgrim provision and pilgrim fare. Let the distant beacon-light, that so cheeringly speaks of a _Home_ brighter and better far than the happiest of earthly ones, lead thee to forget the intervening billows, or to think of them only as wafting thee nearer and nearer to thy desired haven! "Would," says a saint, who has now entered on his rest, "that one could read, and write, and pray, and eat and drink, and compose one"s self to sleep, as with the thought,--soon to be in heaven, and that for ever and ever!"
"My Father"s house!" How many a departing spirit has been cheered and consoled by the sight of these glorious Mansions looming through the mists of the dark valley,--the tears of weeping friends rebuked by the gentle chiding--"If ye loved me, ye would rejoice, because I said, I go unto _my Father_!" Death truly is but the entrance to this our Father"s house. We speak of the "_shadow of death_"--it is only the shadow which falls on the portico as we stand for a moment knocking at the longed-for gate--the next! a Father"s voice of welcome is heard--
"SON! THOU ART EVER WITH ME, AND ALL THAT I HAVE IS THINE."
30TH DAY.
"Remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how He said"--
"I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also."--John xiv. 3.
The Promised Return.
Another "word of promise" concerning the Church"s "blessed hope."
Orphaned pilgrims, dry your tears! Soon the Morning Hour will strike, and the sighs of a groaning and burdened creation be heard no more.
Earth"s six thousand years of toil and sorrow are waning; the Millennial Sabbath is at hand. Jesus will soon be heard to repeat concerning all his sleeping saints, what He said of old regarding one of them: "I go to awake them out of sleep!" Your beloved Lord"s first coming was in humiliation and woe; His name was--the "Man of Sorrows;" He had to travel on, amid darkness and desertion, His blood-stained path; a chaplet of thorns was the only crown He bore. But soon He will come "the second time without a sin-offering unto salvation," never again to leave His Church, but to receive those who followed Him in His cross, to be everlasting partakers with Him in His crown. He may seem to tarry.
External nature, in her unvarying and undeviating sequences, gives no indication of His approach. Centuries have elapsed since He uttered the promise, and still He lingers; the everlasting hills wear no streak of approaching dawn; we seem to listen in vain for the noise of His chariot wheels. "But the Lord is not slack concerning His promise;" He gives you "this word" in addition to many others as a _keepsake_--a pledge and guarantee for the certainty of His return,--"_I will come again._"
Who can conceive all the surpa.s.sing blessedness connected with that advent? The Elder Brother arrived to fetch the younger brethren home!--the true Joseph revealing Himself in unutterable tenderness to the brethren who were once estranged from Him--"receiving them unto himself"--not satisfied with apportioning a kingdom for them, but, as if all His own joy and bliss were intermingled with theirs, "Where _I am_,"
says He, "there _you_ must be also." "Him that overcometh," says He again, "will I grant to sit with Me on My Throne."
Believer, can you _now_ say with some of the holy transport of the apostle, "Whom having not seen, we love?" What must it be when you come to see Him "face to face," and that for ever and ever! If you can tell of precious hours of communion in a sin-stricken, woe-worn world, with a treacherous heart, and an imperfect or divided love, what must it be when you come, in a sinless, sorrowless state, with purified and renewed affections, to see the King in His beauty! The letter of an absent brother, cheering and consolatory as it is, is a poor compensation for the joys of personal and visible communion. The absent Elder Brother on the Throne speaks to you _now_ only by His Word and Spirit,--soon you shall be admitted to His immediate fellowship, seeing him "as He is"--He Himself unfolding the wondrous chart of His providence and grace--leading you about from fountain to fountain among the living waters, and with his own gentle hand wiping the last lingering tear-drop from your eye. _Heaven an everlasting home with Jesus!_ "Where I am, there ye may be also."--He has appended a cheering postscript to this word, on which He has "caused us to hope:"--
"HE WHICH TESTIFIETH THESE THINGS SAITH, SURELY I COME QUICKLY."
31ST DAY.
"Remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how He said"--
"Blessed are those servants whom the Lord when He cometh shall find watching."--Luke xii. 37.
The Closing Benediction.
Child of G.o.d! is this thine att.i.tude, as the expectant of thy Lord"s appearing? Are thy loins girded, and thy lights burning? If the cry were to break upon thine ears this day, "Behold the Bridegroom cometh,"
couldst thou joyfully respond--"Lo, this is my G.o.d, I have waited for him?" WHEN He may come, we cannot tell;--ages may elapse before _then_.
It may be centuries before our graves are gilded with the beams of a Millennial sun; but while He _may_ or may _not_ come _soon_, He _must_ come at some time--ay, and the day of our death is virtually to all of us the day of His coming.
Reader! put not off the solemn preparation. Be not deceived or deluded with the mocker"s presumptuous challenge, "Where is the promise of His coming?" See to it that the calls of an engrossing world without, do not foster this procrastinating spirit within. It may be now or never with thee. Put not off thy sowing time till harvest time. Leave nothing for a dying hour, _but to die_, and calmly to resign thy spirit into the hands of Jesus. Of all times, _that_ is the least suitable to have the vessel plenished--to attend to the great business of life when life is ebbing--to trim the lamp when the oil is done and it is flickering in its socket--to begin to watch, when the summons is heard to leave the watch-tower to meet our G.o.d!
Were you never struck how often, amid the many _gentle_ words of Jesus, the summons "to watch," is over and over repeated, like a succession of alarum-bells breaking ever and anon, amid chimes of heavenly music, to rouse a sleeping Church and a slumbering world?
Let this last "word" of thy Lord"s send thee to thy knees with the question,--"Am I indeed a servant of Christ?" Have I fled to Him, and am I reposing in Him, as my only Saviour?--or am I still lingering, like Lot, when I should be escaping--sleeping, when I should be waking--neglecting and trifling, when "a long eternity is lying at my door?" He is my last and only refuge; neglect Him--_all is lost_!
Believer! thou who art standing on thy watch-tower, be more faithful than ever at thy post. Remember what is implied in watching. It is no dreamy state of inactive torpor: it is a holy jealousy over the heart--wakeful vigilance regarding sin--every avenue and loophole of the soul carefully guarded. _Holy living_ is the best, the _only_, preparative for _holy dying_. "Persuade yourself," says Rutherford, "the King is coming. Read His letter sent before Him, "Behold I come quickly;" wait with the wearied night-watch for the breaking of the Eastern sky."
Let these "_Words of Jesus_" we have now been meditating upon in this little volume, be as the Golden Bells of old, hung on the vestments of the officiating High Priest, emitting sweet sounds to His spiritual Israel--telling that the _true High Priest_ is still living and pleading in "the Holiest of all;" and that soon He will come forth to pour His blessing on His waiting Church. We have been pleasingly employed in gathering up a few "crumbs" falling from "the Master"s table." Soon we shall have, not the "_Words_" but the _presence_ of Jesus--not the crumbs falling from His table, but everlasting fellowship with the Master Himself.
"AMEN, EVEN SO, COME LORD JESUS."
"Wherefore
Comfort One Another
with
THESE WORDS."
1 THESS. iv. 18.