Post by Admin on Jan 22, 2024 15:52:33 GMT -5
Our Home
"Lord, you have been our dwelling place throughout all
generations." [Psalm 90:1]
There are two reasons why the text which heads this paper should
ring in our hearts with special power. It is the first verse of a deeply
solemn Psalm—the first bar of a wondrous piece of spiritual music. I
cannot tell how others feel when they read the ninetieth Psalm. It
always makes me lean back in my chair and think.
For one thing, this ninetieth Psalm is the only Psalm composed by
"Moses, the man of God." It expresses that holy man's feelings, as he
saw the whole generation whom he had led out of Egypt, dying in the
wilderness. Year after year he saw that fearful judgment being
fulfilled, which Israel brought on itself by unbelief : "In this desert
your bodies will fall--every one of you twenty years old or more who
was counted in the census and who has grumbled against Me. Not
one of you will enter the land." [Numbers 14:29-30]
One after another he saw, laying in the desert, the bones of the heads
of the families whom he had led out of Egypt. For forty long years he
saw the strong, the swift, the wise, the tender, the beautiful, who had
crossed the Red Sea with him in triumph, cut down and withering
like grass. For forty years he saw his companions continually
changing, becoming weaker and passing away. Who can wonder that
he should say, "Lord, You have been our dwelling place." We are all
pilgrims and strangers on the earth, and we have no place to dwell.
"Lord, You are our home."
For another thing, the ninetieth Psalm forms part of the Burial
Service of the Church of England. Whatever fault men may find with
the Prayer-book, I think no one can deny the singular beauty of the
Burial Service. Beautiful are the texts which it puts into the
minister's mouth as he meets the coffin at the churchyard gate, and
leads the mourners into the church. Beautiful is the chapter from the
first Epistle to the Corinthians about the resurrection of the body.
Beautiful are the sentences and prayers appointed to be read as the
body is laid in its home beneath the earth. But especially beautiful, to
my mind, are the Psalms which are selected for reading when the
mourners have just taken their places in church. I know of nothing
which sounds so soothing, honoring, heart-touching, and moving to
man's spirit, at that trying moment, as the wondrous utterance of the
old inspired law-giver: "Lord, You have been our dwelling place."
"Lord, You are our home."
I want to draw from these words two thoughts that may do the
readers of this paper some good. An English home is famous all over
the world for its happiness and comfort. It is a little bit of heaven left
upon the earth. But even an English home is not forever. The family
nest is sure to taken down, and its residents are sure to be scattered.
Bear with me for a few short minutes, while I try to set before you the
best, truest, and happiest home.
I. The first thought that I will offer to you is this: I will
show you what the world is.
I freely admit that it is a beautiful world in many respects. Its seas
and rivers, its sunrises and sunsets, its mountains and valleys, its
harvests and its forests, its fruits and its flowers, its days and its
nights, all, all are beautiful in their way. Cold and unfeeling must be
the heart which never finds a day in the year when it can admire
anything in nature! But beautiful as the world is, there are many
things in it to remind us that it is not home. It is an inn, a tent, a
tabernacle, a lodging, a training school. But it is not home.
(a) It is a changing world.
Everything around us is continually moving, altering, and passing
away. Families, properties, landlords, tenants, farmers, laborers,
tradesmen, all are continually on the move. To find the same name in
the same dwelling, for three generations running is so uncommon,
that it is the exception and not the rule. A world so full of change
cannot be called home.
(b) It is a trying and disappointing world.
Whoever lives to be fifty years old has paid the cost and knows it to
be true. Trials in married life and trials in single life—trials with
children and trials with brothers and sisters--trials in money matters
and trials in health--how many they are! Their name is legion. And
not one-tenth of them ever comes to light. Indeed, there are few
families which do not have "a skeleton in the closet." A world so full
of trial and disappointment cannot be called home.
(c) It is a dying world.
Death is continually around us and near us, and meets us at every
turn. Few are the family gatherings, when Christmas comes around,
in which there are not some empty chairs and vacant places. Few are
the men and women, nearing middle age, who could not number a
long list of names, deeply cut forever in their hearts--names of
beloved ones now dead and gone. Where are our fathers and
mothers? Where are our ministers and teachers? Where are our
brothers and sisters? Where are our husbands and wives? Where are
our neighbors and friends? Where are the old grey-headed
worshipers, whose reverent faces we remember so well when we first
came to church? Where are the boys and girls we played with when
we went to school? How many must reply, "Dead, dead, dead! The
daisies are growing over their graves, and we are left alone." Surely a
world so full of death can never be called a home.
(d) It is a scattering and dividing world.
Families are continually breaking up, and going in different
directions. How rarely do the members of a family ever meet
together again, after the surviving parent is laid in the grave! The
band of union seems snapped, and nothing welds it again. The
cement seems withdrawn from the parts of the building, and the
whole principle of cohesion is lost. How often some miserable
squabble about trinkets, or some wretched wrangle about money,
makes a breach that is never healed, and, like a crack in china,
though riveted can never be cured! Indeed, rarely do those who
played in the same nursery lie down in graves in the same
churchyard, or keep peace with one another till they die. A world so
full of division can never be home.
These are ancient things. It is useless to be surprised at them. They
are the bitter fruit of sin, and the sorrowful consequence of the fall.
Change, trial, death, and division, all entered into the world when
Adam and Eve sinned. We must not murmur. We must not fret. We
must not complain. We must accept the situation in which we find
ourselves. We must each do our best to lighten the sorrows, and
increase the comforts of our position. We must steadily resolve to
make the best of everybody and everything around us. But we must
never, never, never, forget that the world is not home.
Are you young? Does everything around and before you seem bright,
and cheerful, and happy? Do you secretly think in your own mind
that I take too gloomy a view of the world? Be careful. You will not
say that as time goes by. Be wise. Learn to moderate your
expectations. Depend on it, the less you expect from people and
things here below the happier you will be.
Are you prosperous in the world? Have death, and sickness, and
disappointment, and poverty, and family troubles, passed over your
door up to this time, and not come in? Are you secretly saying to
yourself, "Nothing can hurt me much. I will die quietly in my bed,
and see no sorrow." Be careful. You are not yet in the harbor. A
sudden storm of unexpected trouble may make you change your
tune. Do not set your affection on things below. Hold them with a
very loose hand, and be ready to surrender them at a moment's
notice. Use your prosperity well while you have it; but do not lean all
your weight on it, lest it break suddenly and pierce your hand.
Have you a happy home? Are you going to spend Christmas around a
family fireplace, where sickness, and death, and poverty, and
partings, and quarrellings, have never yet been seen? Be thankful for
it: oh, be thankful for it! A really happy Christian home is the nearest
thing to heaven on earth. But be careful. This state of things will not
last forever. It must have an end; and if you are wise, you will never
forget that! "What I mean, brothers, is that the time is short. From
now on those who have wives should live as if they had none; those
who mourn, as if they did not; those who are happy, as if they were
not; those who buy something, as if it were not theirs to keep; those
who use the things of the world, as if not engrossed in them. For this
world in its present form is passing away." [1 Corinthians 7:29-31]
II. The second thought that I offer to you is this: I will show
you what Christ is, even in this life, to true Christians.
Heaven, beyond a doubt, is the last home in which a true Christian
will finally live. Towards that end he is daily travelling: each day he is
coming nearer to that place. "Now we know that if the earthly tent we
live in is destroyed, we have a building from God, an eternal house in
heaven, not built by human hands." [2 Corinthians 5:1] Body and
soul united once more, renewed, glorified, and perfected, will live,
forever in the Father's great house in heaven. To that home we have
not yet come. We are not yet in heaven.
But is there in the meantime no home for our souls? Is there no
spiritual dwelling place to which we may continually go to in this
desolate world, and, going there, find rest and peace? Thank God,
there is no difficulty in finding an answer to that question. There is a
home provided for all laboring and heavy-laden souls, and that home
is Christ. To know Christ by faith, to live the life of faith in Him, to
abide in Him daily by faith, to flee to Him in every storm of
conscience, to use Him as our refuge in every day of trouble, to
employ Him as our Priest, Confessor, Absolver, and spiritual
Director, every morning and evening in our lives—this is to be at
home spiritually, even before we die. To all sinners of mankind who
by faith use Christ in this fashion, Christ is in the highest sense a
dwelling place. They can say with truth, "We are all pilgrims and
strangers on earth, and yet we have a home."
Of all the emblems and figures under which Christ is set before man,
I know few more cheering, and comforting than the one set before
us. Home is one of the sweetest, tenderest words in the English
language. Home is the place with which our most pleasant thoughts
are closely tied to. All that the best and happiest home is to its
residents, what Christ is to the soul that believes in Him. In the midst
of a dying, changing, disappointing world, a true Christian always
has something which no power on earth can take away. Morning,
noon, and night, he has near him a living Refuge--a living home for
his soul. You may rob him of life, and liberty, and money; you may
take from him health, and lands, and house, and friends; but, do
what you will, you cannot rob him of his home. Like those humblest
of God’s creatures which carry their shells on their backs, wherever
they are, so the Christian, wherever he goes, carries his home. No
wonder that holy preacher Baxter sings,
"What if in prison I must dwell,
May I not then converse with Thee?
Save me from sin, Thy wrath, and hell,--
Call me Thy child, and I am free!"
(a) No home like Christ! In Him there is room for all, and
room for all sorts.
None are unwelcome guests and visitors, and none are refused
admission. The door is always open, and never locked. The best robe,
the fatted calf, the ring, and the shoes are always ready for all
comers. What though in time past you have been the vilest of the vile,
a servant of sin, an enemy of all righteousness, a Pharisee of
Pharisees, a Sadducee of Sadducees, a tax collector of tax collectors?
It matters nothing: there is yet hope. All sins may be pardoned,
forgiven, and forgotten. There is a home and refuge where your soul
may be admitted this very day. That home is Christ. "Come to Me,"
He cries: "Knock and the door will be opened to you." [Matthew
11:28; 7:7]
(b) No home like Christ! In Him there is boundless and
unwearied mercy for all, even after admission.
None are rejected and cast out again after probation, because they
are too weak and bad to stay. Oh no! Whom He receives, those He
always keeps. Where He begins, there He brings to a good end.
Whom He admits, them He at once fully justifies. Whom He justifies,
them He also sanctifies. Whom He sanctifies, them He also glorifies.
No hopeless characters are ever sent away from His house. No men
or women are ever found to be too bad to heal and renew. Nothing is
to hard for Him to do who made the world out of nothing. He who is
Himself the Home, has said it, and will guarantee it: "Whoever
comes to me I will never drive away." [John 6:37]
(c) No home like Christ! In Him there is unchanging
kindness, patience, and gentle dealing for all.
He is not "a harsh man," but "gentle and humble in heart." [Matthew
11:29] None who applys to Him are ever treated roughly, or made to
feel that their company is not welcome. A feast of the best foods is
always provided for them. The Holy Spirit is placed in their hearts,
and dwells in them as in a temple. Leading, guiding, and instruction
are daily provided for them. If they sin, they are brought back into
the right way, if they fall, they are raised again; if they sin willfully,
they are disciplined to make them better. For the rule of the whole
house is love.
(d) No home like Christ! In Him there is no change.
From the youngest to the eldest He loves all who come to Him, and is
never tired of doing good to them. Earthly homes, I am sorry to say,
are full of fickleness and uncertainty. Favor is deceitful. Courtesy and
civility are often on men's lips, while inwardly they are weary of your
company and wish you were you gone. You seldom know how long
your presence is welcome, to what extent your friends really care to
see you. But it is not so with Christ. "He is the same yesterday and
today and forever." [Hebrews 13:8]
(e) No home like Christ! Communion once begun with Him
will never be broken off.
Once joined to the Lord by faith, you are joined to Him for an endless
eternity. Earthly homes always come to an end sooner or later: the
precious old furniture is sold and dispersed; the dear old heads of the
family are gathered to their fathers; the dear old nest is pulled to
pieces. But it is not so with Christ. Faith will in time be swallowed up
in sight: hope will at last be changed into certainty. We will one day
see with our eyes, and no longer need to believe. We will be moved
from the lower chamber to the upper, and from the outer court to the
Holy of Holies. But once in Christ, we will never be out of Christ.
Once let our name be placed in the Lamb's book of life, and we
belong to a home which will continue forevermore.
(1) And now, before I conclude, let me ask every reader of
this paper a simple question. Have you got a home for your soul?
Is it safe? Is it pardoned? Is it justified? Is it prepared to meet God?
With all my heart I wish you a happy home. But remember my
question. Amidst the greetings and salutations of home, amidst the
meetings and partings, amidst the laughter and merriment, amidst
the joys and sympathies and affections, think, think of my question--
Have you got a home for your soul?
Our earthly homes will soon be closed forever. Time moves on with
giant strides. Old age and death will be upon us before many years
have passed away. Oh, seek an abiding home for the better part of
you--the part that never dies! Before it is too late seek a home for
your soul.
Seek Christ, that you may be safe. Woe to the man who is found
outside the ark when the flood of God's wrath finally bursts upon a
sinful world! Seek Christ, that you may be happy. No one has a real
right to be cheerful, merry, light-hearted, and at ease, except those
who have got a home for their souls. Once more I say, Seek Christ without delay.
(2) If Christ is the home of your soul, accept a friendly
caution. Beware of being ashamed of your home in any place or company.
The man who is ashamed of the home where he was born, ashamed
of the parents that brought him up when he was but a baby, ashamed
of the brothers and sisters that played with him—that man, as a
general rule, may be considered a mean and despicable person. But
what will we say of the man who is ashamed of Him who died for him
on the cross? What will we say of the man who is ashamed of his
religion, ashamed of his Master, ashamed of his home?
Be careful that you are not that man. Whatever others around you
think, don’t you ever be ashamed of being a Christian. Let them
laugh, and mock, and jest, and scoff, if they will. They will not scoff
in the hour of death and in the day of judgment. Hoist your flag;
show your colors; nail them to the mast. You may certainly be
ashamed of drinking, gambling, lying, swearing, idleness, pride, and
failing to go to church on the Lord’s Day. But of reading the Bible,
praying, and belonging to Christ, you have no cause to be ashamed at
all. Let those laugh that will. A good soldier is never ashamed of the
colors of his nation’s flag, and his uniform. Be careful that you are
never ashamed of your Master. Never be ashamed of your home.
(3) If Christ is the home of your soul, accept a piece of
friendly advice. Let nothing tempt you to stray away from home.
The world and the devil will often try hard to make you drop your
religion for a little while, and walk with them. Your own flesh will
whisper that there is no danger in going a little way with them, and
that it can do you no real harm. Be careful, I say: be careful when you
are tempted in this fashion. Be careful of looking back, like Lot's
wife. Do not forsake your home.
No doubt there are pleasures in sin, but they are not real and
satisfying. There is an excitement and short-lived enjoyment in the
world's ways, beyond all question, but it is joy that leaves a bitter
taste in the end. Oh, no! only wisdom's ways are ways of
pleasantness, and only wisdom's paths are paths of peace. Cleave to
them strictly and do not turn aside. Follow the Lamb wherever He
goes. Stick close to Christ and His rule, even if people say all kinds of
evil about you. The longer you live the happier you will find His
service: the more ready will you be to sing, in the highest sense,
"There is no place like home,"
(4) If Christ is the home of your soul, accept a hint about your duty.
Be sure that you take every opportunity of telling others about your
happiness. Tell them THAT, wherever you are. Tell them that you
have a happy home.
Tell them, if they will listen to you, that you find Christ a good
Master, and Christ's service a happy service. Tell them that His yoke
is easy, and His burden is light. Tell them that, whatever the devil
may say, the rules of your home are not harsh, and that your Master
pays far better wages than the world does! Try to do a little good
wherever you are. Try to enlist more residents for your happy home.
Say to your friends and relatives, if they will listen, as one did
centuries ago, "Come with us and we will treat you well, for the
LORD has promised good things to Israel." [Numbers 10:29]
"Lord, you have been our dwelling place throughout all
generations." [Psalm 90:1]
There are two reasons why the text which heads this paper should
ring in our hearts with special power. It is the first verse of a deeply
solemn Psalm—the first bar of a wondrous piece of spiritual music. I
cannot tell how others feel when they read the ninetieth Psalm. It
always makes me lean back in my chair and think.
For one thing, this ninetieth Psalm is the only Psalm composed by
"Moses, the man of God." It expresses that holy man's feelings, as he
saw the whole generation whom he had led out of Egypt, dying in the
wilderness. Year after year he saw that fearful judgment being
fulfilled, which Israel brought on itself by unbelief : "In this desert
your bodies will fall--every one of you twenty years old or more who
was counted in the census and who has grumbled against Me. Not
one of you will enter the land." [Numbers 14:29-30]
One after another he saw, laying in the desert, the bones of the heads
of the families whom he had led out of Egypt. For forty long years he
saw the strong, the swift, the wise, the tender, the beautiful, who had
crossed the Red Sea with him in triumph, cut down and withering
like grass. For forty years he saw his companions continually
changing, becoming weaker and passing away. Who can wonder that
he should say, "Lord, You have been our dwelling place." We are all
pilgrims and strangers on the earth, and we have no place to dwell.
"Lord, You are our home."
For another thing, the ninetieth Psalm forms part of the Burial
Service of the Church of England. Whatever fault men may find with
the Prayer-book, I think no one can deny the singular beauty of the
Burial Service. Beautiful are the texts which it puts into the
minister's mouth as he meets the coffin at the churchyard gate, and
leads the mourners into the church. Beautiful is the chapter from the
first Epistle to the Corinthians about the resurrection of the body.
Beautiful are the sentences and prayers appointed to be read as the
body is laid in its home beneath the earth. But especially beautiful, to
my mind, are the Psalms which are selected for reading when the
mourners have just taken their places in church. I know of nothing
which sounds so soothing, honoring, heart-touching, and moving to
man's spirit, at that trying moment, as the wondrous utterance of the
old inspired law-giver: "Lord, You have been our dwelling place."
"Lord, You are our home."
I want to draw from these words two thoughts that may do the
readers of this paper some good. An English home is famous all over
the world for its happiness and comfort. It is a little bit of heaven left
upon the earth. But even an English home is not forever. The family
nest is sure to taken down, and its residents are sure to be scattered.
Bear with me for a few short minutes, while I try to set before you the
best, truest, and happiest home.
I. The first thought that I will offer to you is this: I will
show you what the world is.
I freely admit that it is a beautiful world in many respects. Its seas
and rivers, its sunrises and sunsets, its mountains and valleys, its
harvests and its forests, its fruits and its flowers, its days and its
nights, all, all are beautiful in their way. Cold and unfeeling must be
the heart which never finds a day in the year when it can admire
anything in nature! But beautiful as the world is, there are many
things in it to remind us that it is not home. It is an inn, a tent, a
tabernacle, a lodging, a training school. But it is not home.
(a) It is a changing world.
Everything around us is continually moving, altering, and passing
away. Families, properties, landlords, tenants, farmers, laborers,
tradesmen, all are continually on the move. To find the same name in
the same dwelling, for three generations running is so uncommon,
that it is the exception and not the rule. A world so full of change
cannot be called home.
(b) It is a trying and disappointing world.
Whoever lives to be fifty years old has paid the cost and knows it to
be true. Trials in married life and trials in single life—trials with
children and trials with brothers and sisters--trials in money matters
and trials in health--how many they are! Their name is legion. And
not one-tenth of them ever comes to light. Indeed, there are few
families which do not have "a skeleton in the closet." A world so full
of trial and disappointment cannot be called home.
(c) It is a dying world.
Death is continually around us and near us, and meets us at every
turn. Few are the family gatherings, when Christmas comes around,
in which there are not some empty chairs and vacant places. Few are
the men and women, nearing middle age, who could not number a
long list of names, deeply cut forever in their hearts--names of
beloved ones now dead and gone. Where are our fathers and
mothers? Where are our ministers and teachers? Where are our
brothers and sisters? Where are our husbands and wives? Where are
our neighbors and friends? Where are the old grey-headed
worshipers, whose reverent faces we remember so well when we first
came to church? Where are the boys and girls we played with when
we went to school? How many must reply, "Dead, dead, dead! The
daisies are growing over their graves, and we are left alone." Surely a
world so full of death can never be called a home.
(d) It is a scattering and dividing world.
Families are continually breaking up, and going in different
directions. How rarely do the members of a family ever meet
together again, after the surviving parent is laid in the grave! The
band of union seems snapped, and nothing welds it again. The
cement seems withdrawn from the parts of the building, and the
whole principle of cohesion is lost. How often some miserable
squabble about trinkets, or some wretched wrangle about money,
makes a breach that is never healed, and, like a crack in china,
though riveted can never be cured! Indeed, rarely do those who
played in the same nursery lie down in graves in the same
churchyard, or keep peace with one another till they die. A world so
full of division can never be home.
These are ancient things. It is useless to be surprised at them. They
are the bitter fruit of sin, and the sorrowful consequence of the fall.
Change, trial, death, and division, all entered into the world when
Adam and Eve sinned. We must not murmur. We must not fret. We
must not complain. We must accept the situation in which we find
ourselves. We must each do our best to lighten the sorrows, and
increase the comforts of our position. We must steadily resolve to
make the best of everybody and everything around us. But we must
never, never, never, forget that the world is not home.
Are you young? Does everything around and before you seem bright,
and cheerful, and happy? Do you secretly think in your own mind
that I take too gloomy a view of the world? Be careful. You will not
say that as time goes by. Be wise. Learn to moderate your
expectations. Depend on it, the less you expect from people and
things here below the happier you will be.
Are you prosperous in the world? Have death, and sickness, and
disappointment, and poverty, and family troubles, passed over your
door up to this time, and not come in? Are you secretly saying to
yourself, "Nothing can hurt me much. I will die quietly in my bed,
and see no sorrow." Be careful. You are not yet in the harbor. A
sudden storm of unexpected trouble may make you change your
tune. Do not set your affection on things below. Hold them with a
very loose hand, and be ready to surrender them at a moment's
notice. Use your prosperity well while you have it; but do not lean all
your weight on it, lest it break suddenly and pierce your hand.
Have you a happy home? Are you going to spend Christmas around a
family fireplace, where sickness, and death, and poverty, and
partings, and quarrellings, have never yet been seen? Be thankful for
it: oh, be thankful for it! A really happy Christian home is the nearest
thing to heaven on earth. But be careful. This state of things will not
last forever. It must have an end; and if you are wise, you will never
forget that! "What I mean, brothers, is that the time is short. From
now on those who have wives should live as if they had none; those
who mourn, as if they did not; those who are happy, as if they were
not; those who buy something, as if it were not theirs to keep; those
who use the things of the world, as if not engrossed in them. For this
world in its present form is passing away." [1 Corinthians 7:29-31]
II. The second thought that I offer to you is this: I will show
you what Christ is, even in this life, to true Christians.
Heaven, beyond a doubt, is the last home in which a true Christian
will finally live. Towards that end he is daily travelling: each day he is
coming nearer to that place. "Now we know that if the earthly tent we
live in is destroyed, we have a building from God, an eternal house in
heaven, not built by human hands." [2 Corinthians 5:1] Body and
soul united once more, renewed, glorified, and perfected, will live,
forever in the Father's great house in heaven. To that home we have
not yet come. We are not yet in heaven.
But is there in the meantime no home for our souls? Is there no
spiritual dwelling place to which we may continually go to in this
desolate world, and, going there, find rest and peace? Thank God,
there is no difficulty in finding an answer to that question. There is a
home provided for all laboring and heavy-laden souls, and that home
is Christ. To know Christ by faith, to live the life of faith in Him, to
abide in Him daily by faith, to flee to Him in every storm of
conscience, to use Him as our refuge in every day of trouble, to
employ Him as our Priest, Confessor, Absolver, and spiritual
Director, every morning and evening in our lives—this is to be at
home spiritually, even before we die. To all sinners of mankind who
by faith use Christ in this fashion, Christ is in the highest sense a
dwelling place. They can say with truth, "We are all pilgrims and
strangers on earth, and yet we have a home."
Of all the emblems and figures under which Christ is set before man,
I know few more cheering, and comforting than the one set before
us. Home is one of the sweetest, tenderest words in the English
language. Home is the place with which our most pleasant thoughts
are closely tied to. All that the best and happiest home is to its
residents, what Christ is to the soul that believes in Him. In the midst
of a dying, changing, disappointing world, a true Christian always
has something which no power on earth can take away. Morning,
noon, and night, he has near him a living Refuge--a living home for
his soul. You may rob him of life, and liberty, and money; you may
take from him health, and lands, and house, and friends; but, do
what you will, you cannot rob him of his home. Like those humblest
of God’s creatures which carry their shells on their backs, wherever
they are, so the Christian, wherever he goes, carries his home. No
wonder that holy preacher Baxter sings,
"What if in prison I must dwell,
May I not then converse with Thee?
Save me from sin, Thy wrath, and hell,--
Call me Thy child, and I am free!"
(a) No home like Christ! In Him there is room for all, and
room for all sorts.
None are unwelcome guests and visitors, and none are refused
admission. The door is always open, and never locked. The best robe,
the fatted calf, the ring, and the shoes are always ready for all
comers. What though in time past you have been the vilest of the vile,
a servant of sin, an enemy of all righteousness, a Pharisee of
Pharisees, a Sadducee of Sadducees, a tax collector of tax collectors?
It matters nothing: there is yet hope. All sins may be pardoned,
forgiven, and forgotten. There is a home and refuge where your soul
may be admitted this very day. That home is Christ. "Come to Me,"
He cries: "Knock and the door will be opened to you." [Matthew
11:28; 7:7]
(b) No home like Christ! In Him there is boundless and
unwearied mercy for all, even after admission.
None are rejected and cast out again after probation, because they
are too weak and bad to stay. Oh no! Whom He receives, those He
always keeps. Where He begins, there He brings to a good end.
Whom He admits, them He at once fully justifies. Whom He justifies,
them He also sanctifies. Whom He sanctifies, them He also glorifies.
No hopeless characters are ever sent away from His house. No men
or women are ever found to be too bad to heal and renew. Nothing is
to hard for Him to do who made the world out of nothing. He who is
Himself the Home, has said it, and will guarantee it: "Whoever
comes to me I will never drive away." [John 6:37]
(c) No home like Christ! In Him there is unchanging
kindness, patience, and gentle dealing for all.
He is not "a harsh man," but "gentle and humble in heart." [Matthew
11:29] None who applys to Him are ever treated roughly, or made to
feel that their company is not welcome. A feast of the best foods is
always provided for them. The Holy Spirit is placed in their hearts,
and dwells in them as in a temple. Leading, guiding, and instruction
are daily provided for them. If they sin, they are brought back into
the right way, if they fall, they are raised again; if they sin willfully,
they are disciplined to make them better. For the rule of the whole
house is love.
(d) No home like Christ! In Him there is no change.
From the youngest to the eldest He loves all who come to Him, and is
never tired of doing good to them. Earthly homes, I am sorry to say,
are full of fickleness and uncertainty. Favor is deceitful. Courtesy and
civility are often on men's lips, while inwardly they are weary of your
company and wish you were you gone. You seldom know how long
your presence is welcome, to what extent your friends really care to
see you. But it is not so with Christ. "He is the same yesterday and
today and forever." [Hebrews 13:8]
(e) No home like Christ! Communion once begun with Him
will never be broken off.
Once joined to the Lord by faith, you are joined to Him for an endless
eternity. Earthly homes always come to an end sooner or later: the
precious old furniture is sold and dispersed; the dear old heads of the
family are gathered to their fathers; the dear old nest is pulled to
pieces. But it is not so with Christ. Faith will in time be swallowed up
in sight: hope will at last be changed into certainty. We will one day
see with our eyes, and no longer need to believe. We will be moved
from the lower chamber to the upper, and from the outer court to the
Holy of Holies. But once in Christ, we will never be out of Christ.
Once let our name be placed in the Lamb's book of life, and we
belong to a home which will continue forevermore.
(1) And now, before I conclude, let me ask every reader of
this paper a simple question. Have you got a home for your soul?
Is it safe? Is it pardoned? Is it justified? Is it prepared to meet God?
With all my heart I wish you a happy home. But remember my
question. Amidst the greetings and salutations of home, amidst the
meetings and partings, amidst the laughter and merriment, amidst
the joys and sympathies and affections, think, think of my question--
Have you got a home for your soul?
Our earthly homes will soon be closed forever. Time moves on with
giant strides. Old age and death will be upon us before many years
have passed away. Oh, seek an abiding home for the better part of
you--the part that never dies! Before it is too late seek a home for
your soul.
Seek Christ, that you may be safe. Woe to the man who is found
outside the ark when the flood of God's wrath finally bursts upon a
sinful world! Seek Christ, that you may be happy. No one has a real
right to be cheerful, merry, light-hearted, and at ease, except those
who have got a home for their souls. Once more I say, Seek Christ without delay.
(2) If Christ is the home of your soul, accept a friendly
caution. Beware of being ashamed of your home in any place or company.
The man who is ashamed of the home where he was born, ashamed
of the parents that brought him up when he was but a baby, ashamed
of the brothers and sisters that played with him—that man, as a
general rule, may be considered a mean and despicable person. But
what will we say of the man who is ashamed of Him who died for him
on the cross? What will we say of the man who is ashamed of his
religion, ashamed of his Master, ashamed of his home?
Be careful that you are not that man. Whatever others around you
think, don’t you ever be ashamed of being a Christian. Let them
laugh, and mock, and jest, and scoff, if they will. They will not scoff
in the hour of death and in the day of judgment. Hoist your flag;
show your colors; nail them to the mast. You may certainly be
ashamed of drinking, gambling, lying, swearing, idleness, pride, and
failing to go to church on the Lord’s Day. But of reading the Bible,
praying, and belonging to Christ, you have no cause to be ashamed at
all. Let those laugh that will. A good soldier is never ashamed of the
colors of his nation’s flag, and his uniform. Be careful that you are
never ashamed of your Master. Never be ashamed of your home.
(3) If Christ is the home of your soul, accept a piece of
friendly advice. Let nothing tempt you to stray away from home.
The world and the devil will often try hard to make you drop your
religion for a little while, and walk with them. Your own flesh will
whisper that there is no danger in going a little way with them, and
that it can do you no real harm. Be careful, I say: be careful when you
are tempted in this fashion. Be careful of looking back, like Lot's
wife. Do not forsake your home.
No doubt there are pleasures in sin, but they are not real and
satisfying. There is an excitement and short-lived enjoyment in the
world's ways, beyond all question, but it is joy that leaves a bitter
taste in the end. Oh, no! only wisdom's ways are ways of
pleasantness, and only wisdom's paths are paths of peace. Cleave to
them strictly and do not turn aside. Follow the Lamb wherever He
goes. Stick close to Christ and His rule, even if people say all kinds of
evil about you. The longer you live the happier you will find His
service: the more ready will you be to sing, in the highest sense,
"There is no place like home,"
(4) If Christ is the home of your soul, accept a hint about your duty.
Be sure that you take every opportunity of telling others about your
happiness. Tell them THAT, wherever you are. Tell them that you
have a happy home.
Tell them, if they will listen to you, that you find Christ a good
Master, and Christ's service a happy service. Tell them that His yoke
is easy, and His burden is light. Tell them that, whatever the devil
may say, the rules of your home are not harsh, and that your Master
pays far better wages than the world does! Try to do a little good
wherever you are. Try to enlist more residents for your happy home.
Say to your friends and relatives, if they will listen, as one did
centuries ago, "Come with us and we will treat you well, for the
LORD has promised good things to Israel." [Numbers 10:29]