’My friends, my dear friends, where are you going?  What does the Master say?  He calls to every one of His servants, and He says, “If any man serve Me, let him follow Me, and where I am there shall also My servant be.”

’Servant of Christ, where are you going?  The Master answers you, WHERE I AM.

’And where is that?  A little group of men are standing on the Mount of Olives; above them is the deep blue sky, and they are gazing earnestly upward, for their Master is rising far above them, and even as they watch a cloud receives Him out of their sight.  Yet still He ascends higher and yet higher, and as He rises countless angels attend Him.  He is joined by company after company of the heavenly host, who have come out to meet their King.  At length heaven’s gates are reached, and the cry goes forth, “Lift up your heads, O ye gates, even lift them up, ye everlasting doors, and the King of Glory shall come in.”  Amidst heaven’s most joyful music the Master passes within to the Heavenly Jerusalem, the glad, glorious Home.  Every care, every sin, every sorrow is left outside; within all is sunshine, all is joy.  And as heaven’s gates are closing, we hear the Master’s voice.  He leaves us a word of hope, “Where I am, there shall also My servant be.”

’Oh, fishermen, oh, friends, think of that!  If you are His servants, those gates will open for you.  Your life may be hard now:  some of you have large families, and heavy work, and long, cold, comfortless nights tossing on the stormy sea; but never mind, home is coming, heaven is coming, for “Where I am, there shall also My servant be.”

’But that is not all.  There is something more wonderful still.  For where is the Master now?  He is not only inside the gates of the city, He is not only walking through the golden streets; but He is in the midst of the glory of God, He has sat down on the right hand of the throne of God.  Will you and I, dear friends, ever dare to go near that throne?  Will not the glory be too dazzling?  Will not the place be holy ground, too holy for us to approach?  Will He allow us to draw near to His footstool, and even there, close to His glory, to lie low before Him?

’Listen, O servant of Christ, again the Master says, “Where I am, there shall also My servant be.”

’What, on the throne of God!  Yes, even there He bids you come; for what does He say?  “To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with Me in My throne, even as I also overcame, and am set down with My Father in His throne.”  Oh, what a wonderful promise!  We could never have thought of it; we could never have believed it; we could never even have dreamt of such a thing, if the Master had not told us Himself.’

And then he concluded by asking us to remember our glorious future.  ‘Sometimes,’ he said, ’you get downhearted, full of sorrow and fear, and you say, “I shall never hold on to the end.”  Oh, dear friends, it is worth an effort, for at the end lies home, at the end stands the throne of God, with a place waiting for you upon it.  “Where I am, there shall also My servant be.”