HOME!

Francis Bourdillon, 1873
 

Most people have a home of some kind. It may be but a poor one — an old cottage, a mud hut, or only one small room. Still it is a home. It is a place of their own to come to when work is done, a place to lie down in at night, a place where they have a right to be, and where nobody else may come without their permission. We think none so badly off, as those poor creatures who are without a home.

And people are generally very fond of their home. Not all people — for there are some men who seem to like the beer shop better, and some women who love gossiping about from house to house — more than keeping at home. But where the home is anything like a home and the people at all like what they ought to be — home is generally loved. The traveler, fond as he is of roaming in foreign lands — is glad to see the smoke of his own chimney again. The happiest moment in the day for the laboring man, is when he gets home from work, lays down his tools, throws oft his rough jacket, and takes his seat by his own fireside and feels himself at home again.

There must be something very wrong somewhere, when a man does not love his own home better than any other place in the world.

Perhaps the chief reason why home is loved, is because it is a settled place of abode. The bed at an inn may be just as soft as that at home, and the food as good or better; yet we do not love an inn as we love home — because we are there but for a night, and gone again in the morning.

But our own house, our home, is where we live always. Day after day and night after night — there we are still. Spring and summer and autumn and winter come and go, and still we are to be found in the same place, because it is our home. If we go away for a time — we come back home, as a bird to its nest. Home is home, because we stay there.

Yes, but how long? You come from your work and take your seat at your own fireside, and are well pleased to be there again. But you will not keep that home always — some day you must make a change. That home will be no home to you then. Someone else will sit in your chair — another man's supper will be spread on your table, and your house will call you master no longer. I do not mean a time when you will move merely from one house to another, as people often do; for few have the same home all their life.

I mean a greater change than that, a more distant journey, a different kind of move — a move which all must make only once. You will not be able to choose whether you will make that move or not. You will have no voice at all in the matter. When God gives the word — then you must go to your eternal home.

Then you will have a new home — a home in another world. Have you got one ready? It is well to be prepared, for you may have very short notice to leave, or no notice at all. Have you got a home ready in the world to come?

There is a home there, a very happy home — far better than the best upon earth. No palace upon earth is half so grand — and not the happiest home here is half so happy. Jesus Christ said to His disciples, when He was going to leave them, "In My Father's house are many mansions…. I go to prepare a place for you" (John 14:2). That is the home I mean — the place where Jesus Christ is, the Father's house, Heaven. In that blessed home, there will be no more change, no more moving. It will be our home forever! Our safe, happy, glorious home — a home that we shall love far more than ever we have loved our home on earth — a home that we shall love more and more, the longer we live there — and we shall live there forever.

No sickness will ever come into that home — nor sin, nor sorrow, nor death. There will be no quarrels there — nor hatred, ror ill-will. All there will be holy and happy, and all will love one another.

Best of all, God will be there — Jesus will be there. We shall live with Him. We shall see Him face to face. We shall never be away from Him forever and ever.

I say we. Am I right? Will this be your home? Are you on the road to Heaven?

You are . . .
if you love the Lord Jesus;
if your sins have been washed away in His blood;
if He is now your Savior and Lord;
if you are a true disciple, a believer, a Christian.

Then, all this is for you. Jesus has gone before to prepare it for you, and in due time He will come again and receive you unto Himself — that where He is, there you may be also.

Happy, happy home! Happy all who are on the road to it! What though the road be rough, and they poor, old, sick, and afflicted — the glorious eternal home will make up for all! All will be forgotten when once the home is reached — and it is not far off.

But if not — if you are yet in your sins, if you have never come to Christ — then what will you do for a home, when forced to leave your home on earth? True, there is another place beyond the grave — but it is a place you fear to think of, as well you may. You cannot bear the thought of your home being there. Yet look this well in the face. There are but those two places beyond the grave; and if you do not find a home in the happy place — you must go to the place of torment. Which place would be your home — if you were to die now?

Oh, lay this to heart while yet the door of Heaven is open to you. It is open now. Jesus Himself is the way, the door. He is both able and willing to save you. You are lost, if you do not seek Him — and the time is short. What if you should be taken away from your earthly home, before you have sought Christ? What if your call should come — while yet you are waiting and meaning and putting off?

Come, reader! There is no time to lose. If ever you would escape Hell and have a happy home in Heaven — then seek Christ at once, and with all your heart. And may God the Holy Spirit touch your heart and incline you so to do.