Here, too, they will fully realize the wisdom of the Christian home and life; they will now see how wise it was for them as a family, to serve the Lord. In their earthly home, they “knew whom they believed, and were persuaded that he was able to keep that which they committed unto Him against that day.” They did this in the midst of fiery trials. They were unknown. The world, hated and despised them as she did their divine Master. But they persevered unto the end; and now they “shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father.” We shall not there, as we do here, eat the bread of care and drink the waters of bitterness. Here thunders spend their echoes and lightnings gleam in fierce wrath around our homes. There such sounds and storms never come.
“No sickness there,
No weary wasting of the frame
away;
No fearful shrinking from the midnight
air;
No dread of summer’s
bright and fervid ray.
“No hidden grief,
No wild and cheerless vision
of despair;
No vain petition for a swift relief,
No tearful eye, no broken
hearts are there
“Care has no home
Within that realm of ceaseless
praise and song;
Its tossing billows break and melt in
foam,
Far from the mansions of the
spirit-throng.
“The storm’s black wing
Is never spread athwart celestial
skies;
Its wailings blend not with the voice
of spring,
As some too tender floweret
fades and dies.”
Christ is the great center of heaven’s glory and attraction. “Whom have I in heaven but thee?” It would not be heaven if He were absent. Its harps would become unstrung, and its voices would lose their tune. When eternity dawns upon our disembodied spirits, and the heavenly home appears in view, with its golden streets, and living temples, and crowns, and thrones, and joys, bursting on our sight; while seraphim and cherubim, and angels, and the sainted spirits of departed friends—our parents and children, and kindred, bend over its threshold to hail our entrance with songs and shouts of everlasting joy,—oh, what a glorious heritage will this be! But all this will fade into insignificance before the Lamb on the throne. He will absorb all interest; and will be all and in all to its unfading treasures. Oh, there is much in that celestial home to allure us there. Its “fields arrayed in living green, and rivers of delight.” Its blood-washed throng, its crowns and peace, the angelic choir, our friends and relations,—perhaps a father and a mother, perhaps a husband or wife, perhaps a brother or a sister, or a child,—a lovely babe;—all these make heaven dear, and draw us there. They beckon us to themselves; they are waiting for us now, and on the glowing pinions of love they come thronging as ministering spirits, to our hearts.
But what are all these attractions of that spirit-home, compared with Jesus there as the crowning glory of them all! other things are stars and streamlets. He is the central sun,—the source of all. Take Him away, and all the brightness and the glory of that heavenly world would become shrouded in darkness and desolation.