Going Home–A Christmas Sermon
A Sermon
(No. 109)
Delivered on Sabbath Morning, December 21, 1856, by the
REV. C.H. SPURGEON
at the Music Hall, Royal Surrey Gardens.
"Go home to thy friends, and tell them how great things the Lord hath
done for thee, and hath had compassion on thee."–Mark 5:19.
THE CASE of the man here referred to is a very extraordinary one: it
occupies a place among the memorabilia of Christ's life, perhaps as
high as anything which is recorded by either of the evangelists. This
poor wretch being possessed with a legion of evil spirits had been
driven to something worse than madness. He fixed his home among the
tombs, where he dwelt by night and day, and was the terror of all those
who passed by. The authorities had attempted to curb him; he had been
bound with fetters and chains, but in the paroxysms of his madness he
had torn the chains in sunder, and broken the fetters in pieces.
Attempts had been made to reclaim him; but no man could tame him. He
was worse than the wild beasts, for they might be tamed; but his fierce
nature would not yield. He was a misery to himself, for he would run
upon the mountains by night and day, crying and howling fearfully,
cutting himself with the sharp flints, and torturing his poor body in
the most frightful manner. Jesus Christ passed by; he said to the
devils, "Come out of him." The man was healed in a moment; he fell down
at Jesus' feet; he became a rational being–an intelligent man, yea,
what is more, a convert to the Saviour. Out of gratitude to his
deliverer, he said, "Lord, I will follow thee whithersoever thou goest;
I will be thy constant companion and thy servant; permit me so to be."
"No," said Christ, "I esteem your motive; it is one of gratitude to me;
but if you would show your gratitude, go home to thy friends and tell
them how great things the Lord hath done for thee, and hath had
compassion on thee.'"
Now, this teaches us a very important fact, namely, this, that true
religion does not break in sunder the bonds of family relationship.
True religion seldom encroaches upon that sacred, I had almost said
divine institution called home; it does not separate men from their
families, and make them aliens to their flesh and blood. Superstition
has done that; an awful superstition, which calls itself Christianity,
has sundered men from their kind; but true religion has never done so.
Why, if I might be allowed to do such a thing, I would seek out the
hermit in his lonely cavern, and I would go to him and say, "Friend, if
thou art what thou dost profess to be, a true servant of the living
God, and not a hypocrite, as I guess thou art–if thou art a true
believer in Christ, and would show forth what he has done for thee,
upset that pitcher, eat the last piece of thy bread, leave this dreary
cave, wash thy face, untie thy hempen girdle; and if thou wouldst show
thy gratitude, go home to thy friends, and tell them what great things
the Lord hath done for thee. Canst thou edify the sere leaves of the
forest? Can the beasts learn to adore that God whom thy gratitude
should strive to honor? Dost thou hope to convert these rocks, and wake
the echoes into songs? Nay, go back; dwell with thy friends, reclaim
thy kinship with men, and unite again with thy fellows, for this is
Christ's approved way of showing gratitude." And I would go to every
monastery and every nunnery, and say to the monks, Come out brethren,
come out! If you are what you say you are, servants of God, go home to
your friends. No more of this absurd discipline; it is not Christ's
rule; you are acting differently from what he would have you; go home
to your friends!" And to the sisters of mercy we would say, "Be sisters
of mercy to your own sisters; go home to your friends; take care of
your aged parents; turn your own houses into convents; do not sit here
nursing your pride by a disobedience to Christ's rule, which says, "go
home to thy friends." "Go home to thy friends, and tell them how great
things the Lord hath done for thee, and hath had compassion on thee."
The love of a solitary and ascetic life, which is by some considered to
be a divine virtue, is neither more nor less than a disease of the
mind. In the ages when there was but little benevolence, and
consequently few hands to build lunatic asylums, superstition supplied
the lack of charity, and silly men and women were allowed the
indulgence of their fancies in secluded haunts or in easy laziness.
Young has most truly said,–
"The first sure symptoms of a mind in health
Are rest of heart and pleasure found at home."
Avoid, my friends, above all things, those romantic and absurd
conceptions of virtue which are the offspring of superstition and the
enemies of righteousness. Be not without natural affection, but love
those who are knit to you by time of nature.
True religion cannot be inconsistent with nature. It never can demand
that I should abstain from weeping when my friend is dead. "Jesus
wept." It cannot deny me the privilege of a smile, when providence
looks favorably upon me; for once "Jesus rejoiced in the spirit, and
said, Father, I thank thee." It does not make a man say to his father
and mother, "I am no longer your son." That is not Christianity, but
something worse than what beasts would do, which would lead us to be
entirely sundered from our fellows, to walk among them as if we had no
kinship with them. To all who think a solitary life must be a life of
piety, I would say, "It is the greatest delusion." To all who think
that those must be good people who snap the ties of relationship, let
us say, "Those are the best who maintain them." Christianity makes a
husband a better husband, it makes a wife a better wife than she was
before. It does not free me from my duties as a son; it makes me a
better son, and my parents better parents. Instead of weakening my
love, it gives me fresh reason for my affection; and he whom I loved
before as my father, I now love as my brother and co-worker in Christ
Jesus; and she whom I reverenced as my mother, I now love as my sister
in the covenant of grace, to be mine for ever in the state that is to
come. Oh! suppose not, any of you, that Christianity was ever meant to
interfere with households; it is intended to cement them, and to make
them households which death itself shall never sever, for it binds them
up in the bundle of life with the Lord their God, and re-unites the
several individuals on the other side of the flood.
Now, I will just tell you the reason why I selected my text. I thought
within myself, there are a large number of young men who always come to
hear me preach; they always crowd the aisles of my chapel, and many of
them have been converted to God. Now, here is Christmas-day come round
again, and they are going home to see their friends. When they get home
they will want a Christmas Carol in the evening; I think I will suggest
one to them–more especially to such of them as have been lately
converted. I will give them a theme for their discourse on Christmas
evening; it may not be quite so amusing as "The Wreck of the Golden
Mary," but it will be quite as interesting to Christian people. It
shall be this: "Go home and tell your friends what the Lord hath done
for your souls, and how he hath had compassion on you." For my part, I
wish there were twenty Christmas days in the year. It is seldom that
young men can meet with their friends; it is rarely they can all be
united as happy families; and though I have no respect to the religious
observance of the day, yet I love it as a family institution, as one of
England's brightest days, the great Sabbath of the year, when the
plough rests in its furrow, when the din of business is hushed, when
the mechanic and the working man go out to refresh themselves upon the
green award of the glad earth. If any of you are masters you will
pardon me for the digression, when I most respectfully beg you to pay
your servants the same wages on Christmas-day as if they were at work.
I am sure it will make their houses glad if you will do so. It is
unfair for you to make them feast or fast, unless you give them
wherewithal to feast and make themselves glad on that day of joy.
But now to come to the subject. We are going home to see our friends,
and here is the story some of us have to tell. "Go home to thy friends,
and tell them how great things the Lord hath done for them, and hath
had compassion on thee." First, here is what they are to tell;
secondly, why they are to tell it; and then thirdly, how they ought to
tell it.
I. First, then, HERE IS WHAT THEY ARE TO TELL. It is to be a story of
personal experience. "Go home to thy friends, and tell them how great
things the Lord hath done for thee, and hath had compassion on thee."
You are not to repair to your houses and forthwith begin to preach.
That you are not commanded to do. You are not to begin to take up
doctrinal subjects and expatiate on them, and endeavour to bring
persons to your peculiar views and sentiments. You are not to go home
with sundry doctrines you have lately learned, and try to teach these.
At least you are not commanded so to do; you may, if you please, and
none shall hinder you; but you are to go home and tell not what you
have believed, but what you have felt–what you really know to be your
own; not what great things you have read, but what great things the
Lord hath done for you; not alone what you have seen done in the great
congregation, and how great sinners have turned to God, but what the
Lord has done for you. And mark this: there is never a more interesting
story than that which a man tells about himself. The Rhyme of the
Ancient Mariner derives much of its interest because the man who told
it was himself the mariner. He sat down, that man whose finger was
skinny, like the finger of death, and began to tell that dismal story
of the ship at sea in the great calm, when slimy things did crawl with
legs over the shiny sea. The Wedding guest sat still to listen, for the
old man was himself a story. There is always a great deal of interest
excited by a personal narrative. Virgil, the poet, knew this, and
therefore he wisely makes Aeneas tell his own story, and makes him
begin it by saying, "In which I also had a great part myself." So if
you would interest your friends, tell them what you felt yourself. Tell
them how you were once a lost abandoned sinner, how the Lord met with
you, how you bowed your knees, and poured out your soul before God, and
how at last you leaped with joy, for you thought you heard him say
within you, "I, even I, am he that blotteth out thy transgressions for
my name's sake." Tell your friends a story of your own personal
experience.
Note, next, it must be a story of free grace. It is not, "Tell thy
friends how great things thou hast done thyself," but "how great things
the Lord hath done for thee." The man who always dwells upon free will
and the power of the creature, and denies the doctrines of grace,
invariably mixes up a great deal of what he has done himself in telling
his experience; but the believer in free grace, who holds the great
cardinal truths of the gospel, ignores this, and declares, "I will tell
what the Lord hath done for me. It is true I must tell how I was first
made to pray; but I will tell it thus–
'Grace taught my soul to pray,
Grace made my eyes o'erflow.'
It is true, I must tell in how many troubles and trials God has been
with me; but I will tell it thus:–
"Twas grace which kept me to this day,
And will not let me go.'"
He says nothing about his own doings, or willings, or prayings, or
seekings, but he ascribes it all to the love and grace of the great God
who looks on sinners in love, and makes them his children, heirs of
everlasting life. Go home, you man, and tell the poor sinner's story;
go home, young woman, and open your diary, and give your friends
stories of grace. Tell them of the mighty works of God's hand which he
hath wrought in you from his own free, sovereign, undeserved love. Make
it a free grace story around your family fire.
In the next place, this poor man's tale was a grateful story. I know it
was grateful, because the man said, "I will tell thee how great things
the Lord hath done for me;" and (not meaning a pun in the least degree)
I may observe, that a man who is grateful is always full of the
greatness of the mercy which God has shown him; he always thinks that
what God has done for him is immensely good and supremely great.
Perhaps when you are telling the story one of your friends will say,
"And what of that?" And your answer will be, "It may not be a great
thing to you, but it is to me. You say it is little to repent, but I
have not found it so; it is a great and precious thing to be brought to
know myself to be a sinner, and to confess it; do you say it is a
little thing to have found a Saviour." Look them in the face and say,
"If you had found him too you would not think it little. You think it
little I have lost the burden from my back; but if you had suffered
with it, and felt its weight as I have for many a long year, you would
think it no little thing to be emancipated and free, through a sight of
the cross." Tell them it is a great story, and if they cannot see its
greatness shed great tears, and tell it to them with great earnestness,
and I hope they may be brought to believe that you at least are
grateful, if they are not. May God grant that you may tell a grateful
story. No story is more worth hearing than a tale of gratitude.
And lastly, upon this point: it must be a tale told by a poor sinner
who feels himself not to have deserved what he has received. "How he
hath had compassion on thee." It was not a mere act of kindness, but
and act of free compassion towards one who was in misery. Oh! I have
heard men tell the story of their conversion and of their spiritual
life in such a way that my heart hath loathed them and their story too,
for they have told of their sins as if they did boast in the greatness
of their crime, and they have mentioned the love of God not with a tear
of gratitude, not with the simple thanksgiving of the really humble
heart, but as if they as much exalted themselves as they exalted God.
Oh! when we tell the story of our own conversion, I would have it done
with deep sorrow, remembering what we used to be, and with great joy
and gratitude, remembering how little we deserve these things, I was
once preaching upon conversion and salvation, and I felt within myself,
as preachers often do, that it was but dry work to tell this story, and
a dull, dull tale it was to me; but on a sudden the thought crossed my
mind, "Why, you are a poor lost ruined sinner yourself; tell it, tell
it, as you received it; begin to tell of the grace of God as you trust
you feel it yourself." Why, then, my eyes began to be fountains of
tears; those hearers who had nodded their heads began to brighten up,
and they listened, because they were hearing something which the man
felt himself, and which they recognised as being true to him, if it was
not true in them. Tell your story, my hearers, as lost sinners. Do not
go to your home, and walk into your house with a supercilious air, as
much as to say, "Here's a saint come home to the poor sinners, to tell
them a story;" but go home like a poor sinner yourself; and when you go
in, your mother remembers what you used to be, you need not tell her
there is a change–she will notice it, if it is only one day you are
with her; and perhaps she will say, "John, what is this change that is
in you?" and if she is a pious mother, you will begin to tell her the
story, and I know, man though you are, you will not blush when I say
it, she will put her arms round your neck, and kiss you as she never
did before, for you are her twice-born son, hers from whom she shall
never part, even though death itself shall divide you for a brief
moment. "Go home, then, and tell your friends what great things the
Lord hath done for you, and how he hath had compassion on you."
II. But now, in the second place, WHY SHOULD WE TELL THIS STORY? For I
hear many of my congregation say, "Sir, I could relate that story to
any one sooner than I could to my own friends; I could come to your
vestry, and tell you something of what I have tasted and handled of the
Word of God; but I could not tell my father, nor my mother, nor my
brethren, nor my sisters." Come, then; I will try and argue with you,
to induce you to do so, that I may send you home this Christmas-day, to
be missionaries in the localities to which you belong, and to be real
preachers, though you are not so by name. Dear friends, do tell this
story when you go home.
First, for your Master's sake. Oh! I know you love him; I am sure you
do, if you have proof that he loved you. You can never think of
Gethsemane and of its bloody sweat, of Gabbatha and of the mangled back
of Christ, flayed by the whip: you can never think of Calvary and his
pierced hands and feet, without loving him; and it is a strong argument
when I say to you, for his dear sake who loved you so much, go home and
tell it. What! do you think we can have so much done for us, and yet
not tell it? Our children, if anything should be done for them, do not
stay many minutes before they are telling all the company, "such an one
hath give me such a present, and bestowed on me such-and-such a favor."
And should the children of God be backward in declaring how they were
saved when their feet made haste to hell, and how redeeming mercy
snatched them as brands from the burning? You love Jesus, young man! I
put it to you, then, will you refuse to tell the tale of his love to
you? Shall your lips be dumb, when his honor is concerned? Will you
not, wherever you go, tell of the God who loved you and died for you?
This poor man, we are told, "Departed and began to publish in Decapolis
how great things Jesus had done for him, and all men did marvel." So
with you. If Christ has done much for you, you cannot help it–you must
tell it. My esteemed friend, Mr. Oncken, a minister in Germany told us
last Monday evening, that so soon as he was converted himself, the
first impulse of his new-born soul was to do good to others. And where
should he do that good? Well, he thought he would go to Germany. It was
his own native land, and he thought the command was, "Go home to thy
friends and tell them." Well, there was not a single Baptist in all
Germany, nor any with whom he could sympathise, for the Lutherans had
swerved from the faith of Luther, and gone aside from the truth of God.
But he went there and preached, and he has now seventy or eighty
churches established on the continent. What made him do it? Nothing but
love for his Master, who had done so much for him, could have forced
him to go and tell his kinsmen the marvellous tale of Divine goodness.
But, in the next place, are your friends pious? Then go home and tell
them, in order to make their hearts glad. I received last night a short
epistle written with a trembling hand by one who is past the natural
age of man, living in the country of Essex. His son, under God, had
been converted by hearing the Word preached, and the good man could not
help writing to the minister, thanking him, and blessing most of all,
his God, that his son had been regenerated. "Sir," he begins, "an old
rebel writes to thank you, and above all to thank his God, that his
dear son has been converted." I shall treasure up that epistle. It goes
on to say, "Go on! and the Lord bless you." And there was another case
I heard some time ago, where a young woman went home to her parents,
and when her mother saw her, she said, "There! if the minister had made
me a present of all London, I should not have thought so much of it as
I do of this–to think that you have really become a changed character,
and are living in the fear of God." Oh! if you want to make your
mother's heart leap within her, and to make your father glad–if you
would make that sister happy who sent you so many letters, which
sometimes you read against a lamp-post, with your pipe in your
mouth–go home and tell your mother that her wishes are all
accomplished, that her prayers are heard, that you will no longer chaff
her about her Sunday-school class, and no longer laugh at her because
she loves the Lord, but that you will go with her to the house of God,
for you love God, and you have said, "Your people shall be my people,
and your God shall be my God, for I have a hope that your heaven shall
be my heaven for ever." Oh! what a happy thing it would be if some here
who had gone astray, should thus go home! It was my privilege a little
while ago to preach for a noble institution for the reception of women
who had led abandoned lives–and before I preached the sermon I prayed
to God to bless it, and in the printed sermon you will notice that at
the end of it there is an account of two persons who were blessed by
that sermon and restored. Now, let me tell you a story of what happened
to Mr. Vanderkist, a city missionary, who toils all night long to do
good in that great work. There had been a drunken broil in the street;
he stepped between the men to part them, and said something to a woman
who stood there concerning how dreadful a thing it was that men should
thus be intemperate. She walked with him a little way, and he with her,
and she began to tell him such a tale of woe and sin too–how she had
been lured away from her parents' home in Somersetshire, and have been
brought up here to her soul's eternal hurt. He took her home with him,
and taught her the fear and love of Christ; and what was the first
thing she did, when she returned to the paths of godliness, and found
Christ to be the sinner's Saviour? She said, "Now, I must go home to my
friends." Her friends were written to; they came to meet her at the
station at Bristol, and you can hardly conceive what a happy meeting it
was. The father and mother had lost their daughter, they had never
heard from her; and there she was, brought back by the agency of this
institution, and restored to the bosom of her family. Ah! if such an
one be here! I know not; among such a multitude there may be such an
one. Woman! hast thou strayed from thy family? Hast thou left them
long? "Go home to thy friends," I beseech thee, ere thy father totters
to his grave, and ere thy mother's grey hairs sleep on the snow-white
pillow of her coffin. Go back. I beseech thee! Tell her thou art
penitent; tell her that God hath met with thee–that the young minister
said, "Go back to thy friends." And if so, I shall not blush to have
said these things, though you may think I ought not to have mentioned
them; for if I may but win one such soul, I will bless God to all
eternity. "Go home to thy friends. Go home and tell them how great
things the Lord hath done for thee." Cannot you imagine the scene, when
the poor demoniac mentioned in my text went home? He had been a raving
madman; and when he came and knocked at the door, don't you think you
see his friends calling to one another in affright, "Oh! there he is
again," and the mother running up stairs and locking all the doors,
because her son had come back that was raving mad; and the little ones
crying because they knew what he had been before–how he cut himself
with stones, because he was possessed with devils. And can you picture
their joy, when the man said, "Mother! Jesus Christ has healed me; let
me in; I am no lunatic now!" And when the father opened the door, he
said, "Father! I am not what I was; all the evil spirits are gone; I
shall live in the tombs no longer. I want to tell you how the glorious
man who wrought my deliverance accomplished the miracle–how he said to
the devils, Get ye hence,' and they ran down a steep place into the
sea, an I am come home healed and saved." Oh! if such an one, possessed
with sin, were here this morning, and would go home to his friends, to
tell them of his release, methinks this scene would be somewhat
similar.
Once more, dear friends. I hear one of you say. "Ah! Sir, would to God
I could go home to pious friends! But when I go home I go into the
worst of places; for my home is amongst those who never knew God
themselves, and consequently never prayed for me, and never taught me
anything concerning heaven." Well, young man, go home to your friends.
If they are ever so bad they are your friends. I sometimes meet with
young men wishing to join the church, who say, when I ask them about
their father, "Oh, sir, I am parted from my father." Then I say, "Young
man, you may just go and see your father before I have anything to do
with you; if you are at ill-will with your father and mother I will not
receive you into the church; if they are ever so bad they are your
parents." Go home to them, and tell them, not to make them glad, for
they will very likely be angry with you; but tell them for their soul's
salvation. I hope, when you are telling the story of what God did for
you, that they will be led by the Spirit to desire the same mercy
themselves. But I will give you a piece of advice. Do not tell this
story to your ungodly friends when they are all together, for they will
laugh at you. Take them one by one, when you can get them alone, and
begin to tell it to them, and they will hear you seriously. There was
once a very pious lady who kept a lodging-house for young men. All the
young men were very gay and giddy, and she wanted to say something to
them concerning religion. She introduced the subject, and it was passed
off immediately with a laugh. She thought within herself, "I have made
a mistake." The next morning, after breakfast, when they were all
going, she said to one of them, "Sir, I should like to speak with you a
moment or two," and taking him aside into another room she talked with
him. The next morning she took another, and the next morning another,
and it pleased God to bless her simple statement, when it was given
individually: but, without doubt, if she had spoken to them altogether,
they would have backed each other up in laughing her to scorn. Reprove
a man alone. A verse may hit him whom a sermon flies. You may be the
means of bringing a man to Christ who has often heard the Word and only
laughed at it, but who cannot resist a gentle admonition. In one of the
states of America, there was an infidel who was a great despiser of
God, a hater of the Sabbath and all religious institutions. What to do
with him the ministers did not know. They met together and prayed for
him. But among the rest, one Elder B_____ resolved to spend a long time
in prayer for the man; after that he got on horseback, and rode down to
the man's forge, for he was a blacksmith. He left his horse outside,
and said, "Neighbour, I am under very great concern about your soul's
salvation; I tell you I pray day and night for your soul's salvation."
He left him, and rode home on his horse. The man went inside to his
house after a minute or two, and said to one of his faithful friends,
"Here's a new argument; here's Elder B_____ been down here, he did not
dispute, and never said a word to me except this, I say, I am under
great concern about your soul; I cannot bear that you should be lost.'
Oh! that fellow," he said, "I cannot answer him;" and the tears began
to roll down his cheeks. He went to his wife, and said, "I can't make
this out; I never cared about my soul, but here's an elder, that has no
connection with me, but I have always laughed at him, and he has come
five miles this morning on horseback just to tell me he is under
concern about my salvation. After a little while he thought it was time
he should be under concern about his salvation too. He went in, shut
the door, began to pray, and the next day he was at the deacon's house,
telling him that he too was under concern about his salvation, and
asking him to tell him what he must do to be saved. Oh! that the
everlasting God might make use of some of those now present in the same
way, that they might be induced to
"Tell to others round
What a dear Saviour they have found;
To point to his redeeming blood,
And say, Behold the way to God!"
III. I shall not detain you much longer; but there is a third point,
upon which we must be very brief. HOW IS THIS STORY TO BE TOLD?
First, tell it truthfully. Do not tell more than you know; do not tell
John Bunyan's experience, when you ought to tell your own. Do not tell
your mother you have felt what only Rutherford felt. Tell her no more
than the truth. Tell your experience truthfully; for mayhap one single
fly in the pot of ointment will spoil it, and one statement you may
make which is not true may ruin it all. Tell the story truthfully.
In the next place, tell it very humbly. I have said that before. Do not
intrude yourselves upon those who are older, and know more; but tell
your story humbly; not as a preacher, not ex-cathedra, but as a friend
and as a son.
Next, tell it very earnestly. Let them see you mean it. Do not talk
about religion flippantly; you will do not good if you do. Do not make
puns on texts; do not quote Scripture by way of joke: if you do, you
may talk till you are dumb, you will do no good, if you in the least
degree give them occasion to laugh by laughing at holy things yourself.
Tell it very earnestly.
And then, tell it very devoutly. Do not try to tell your tale to man
till you have told it first to God. When you are at home on
Christmas-day, let no one see your face till God has seen it. Be up in
the morning, wrestle with God; and if you friends are not converted,
wrestle with God for them; and then you will find it easy work to
wrestle with them for God. Seek, if you can, to get them one by one,
and tell them the story. Do not be afraid; only think of the good you
may possibly do. Remember, he that saves a soul from death hath
covereth a multitude of sins, and he shall have stars in his crown for
ever and ever. Seek to be under God–Saviours in your family, to be the
means of leading your own beloved brethren and sisters to seek and to
find the Lord Jesus Christ, and then one day, when you shall meet in
Paradise, it will be a joy and blessedness to think that you are there,
and that your friends are there too, whom God will have made you the
instrument of saving. Let your reliance in the Holy Spirit be entire
and honest. Trust not yourself, but fear not to trust him. He can give
you words. He can apply those words to their heart, and so enable you
to "minister grace to the hearers."
To close up, by a short, and I think, a pleasant turning of the text,
to suggest another meaning to it. Soon, dear friends, very soon with
some of us, the Master will say, "Go home to thy friends." You know
where the home is. It is up above the stars.
"Where our best friends, our kindred dwell,
Where God our Saviour reigns."
Yon grey-headed man has buried all his friends; he has said, "I shall
go to them, but they will not return to me." Soon his Master will say,
"Thou hast had enough tarrying here in this vale of tears: goo home to
thy friends!" Oh! happy hour! Oh! blessed moment, when that shall be
the word–"Go home to thy friends!" And when we go home to our friends
in Paradise, what shall we do? Why, first we will repair to that blest
seat where Jesus sits, take off our crown and cast it at his feet, and
crown him Lord of all. And when we have done that, what shall be our
next employ? Why, we will tell the blessed ones in heaven what the Lord
hath done for us, and how he hath had compassion on us. And shall such
a tale be told in heaven? Shall that be the Christmas Carol of the
angels? Yes, it shall be; it has been published there before–blush not
to tell it yet again–for Jesus has told it before, "When he cometh
home, he calleth together his friends and neighbours, saying unto them,
Rejoice with me; for I have found my sheep which was lost." And thou,
poor sheep, when thou shall be gathered in, wilt thou not tell how thy
Shepherd sought thee, and how he found thee? Will thou not sit in the
grassy meads of heaven, and tell the story of thine own redemption?
Wilt thou not talk with thy brethren and thy sisters, and tell them how
God loved thee and hath brought thee there? Perhaps thou sayest, "It
will be a very short story." Ah! it would be if you could write now. A
little book might be the whole of your biography; but up there when
your memory shall be enlarged, when your passion shall be purified and
your understanding clear, you will find that what was but a tract on
earth will be a huge tome in heaven. You will tell a long story there
of God's sustaining, restraining, constraining grace, and I think that
when you pause to let another tell his tale, and then another, and then
another, you will at last, when you have been in heaven a thousand
years, break out and exclaim, "O saints, I have something else to say."
Again they will tell their tales, and again you will interrupt them
with "Oh, beloved, I have thought of another case of God's delivering
mercy." And so you will go on, giving them themes for songs, finding
them the material for the warp and woof of heavenly sonnets. "Go home,"
he will soon say, "go home to thy friends, and tell them how great
things the Lord hath done for thee, and hath had compassion on thee."
Wait awhile; tarry his leisure, and ye shall soon be gathered to the
land of the hereafter, to the home of the blessed, where endless
felicity shall be thy portion. God grant a blessing for his name's
sake!
The London Female Dormitory.