“Forever With The Lord”

A SERMON DELIVERED ON LORD'S-DAY MORNING, OCTOBER 12, 1873,

BY C. H. SPURGEON,

AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON.

"To be with Christ, which is far better." Philippians 1:23.

THE Apostle was confined in the guardroom of the Praetorian. It is very
probable that he had a soldier chained to his right hand and another to
his left. And it is very possible that this position suggested to him
the expression, "I am in a strait betwixt two." He was literally held
by two forces and he was mentally in the same condition–exercised with
two strong desires–influenced by two master passions, and he did not
know to which he should yield. He says, "Between the two I am in
perplexity," or, as some render it, "I am straitened by the pressure of
the two things." Picture yourself sitting in a gloomy dungeon, a
captive in the hands of the cruel tyrant, Nero, and under the
supervision of the infamous prefect, Tigellinus, the most detestable of
all Nero's satellites.

Conceive yourself as expecting soon to be taken out to death–perhaps
to such a horrible death as the refined cruelty of the monster had
often devised–as, for instance, to be smeared over with bituminous
matter and burned in the despot's garden to adorn a holiday. What would
be your feelings? If you were not a Christian I should expect you to
tremble with the fear of death. And even if you were a Believer, I
should not marvel if the flesh shrunk from the prospect. Paul was an
utter stranger to any feeling of the kind. He had not the slightest
dread of martyrdom. He calls his expected death a departure, a loosing
of the cable which holds his ship to the shore and a putting forth upon
the main ocean.

So far from being afraid to die, he stands fully prepared. He waits
patiently and even anticipates joyfully the hour when his change shall
come. On the other hand, I can readily imagine that amidst the miseries
of a wretched prison, subject to frequent insults from rude soldiers,
you might be seized with a desire to escape from life. Good men have
felt the power of that feeling. Elijah said, "Let me die: I am no
better than my fathers." Job sighed to be hidden in the grave and
oftentimes under far less afflictions than those which vexed the
Apostle, good men have said, "Would God this life were at an end and
these miseries over. I am weary, I am weary–when will Death release
me?"

I see nothing of that feeling in the Apostle. He is not restive under
the chain. There is not a trace of impatience about him. He admits, and
joyfully admits, that to be with Christ is far better. But upon
consideration he sees reasons for his remaining here and, therefore, he
cheerfully submits to whatever may be the Lord's will. He does not
choose. His mind is so wrapped up with God and free from self, that he
cannot choose. What a blessed state of heart to be in! One might be
willing to wear Paul's chain on the wrist to enjoy Paul's liberty of
mind! He is a free man whom the Lord makes free and such a man, Nero,
himself cannot enslave. He may confine him in the military prison, but
his soul walks at liberty through the earth, yes, and climbs among the
stars.

Paul, instead of being either weary of life or afraid of death, sits
down and coolly considers his own case as calmly, indeed, as if it had
been the case of someone else. Do you observe how he weighs it? He says
to depart and to be with Christ is, in itself considered, far
better–he therefore desires it. But looking round upon the numerous
churches which he had formed, which in their feebleness and exposure to
many perils needed his care, he says, on the other hand, "To abide in
the flesh is more necessary for you." He holds the balance with
unquivering hands and the scales quietly vibrate in equilibrium–one
rises and then the other–gently swaying his heart by turns. He is in a
strait, a blessed strait betwixt two, and he does not say that he knew
not which of two things to avoid, or which to deprecate, but his mind
was in such a condition that either to live or to die seemed equally
desirable, and he says, "What I shall choose I know not."

It is a poor choice, to choose to live in a dungeon, and an equally
poor business, as men judge it, to choose to die, but the Apostle
regards both of them as choice things, so choice that he does not know
which to select! He deliberates as coolly and calmly as if he were not
at all concerned about it, and, indeed, it is fair to say he was not at
all concerned about it. He was moved by a higher concern than any which
had to do with himself, for his main object was the Glory of

God. He desired the Glory of God when he wished to be with Christ. He
desired the same when he was willing to remain with Christ's people and
to labor on.

His mind, as we have seen, hung in an equilibrium between two things,
but he is clear enough upon one matter, namely, that considering his
own interests, only, it would greatly increase his happiness to depart
and to be with Christ! He had said the same before, when he declared
that, "To die is gain." He had no doubt that to be loosed from the body
and allowed to fly away to Jesus would be a great blessing to him. Of
that assurance we will now speak.

I. The first thing to which I shall call your attention is THE
APOSTLE'S CERTAINTY CONCERNING THE DISEMBODIED STATE–"Having a desire
to depart and to be with Christ, which is far better." Now, the Apostle
was an eminently conscientious man. At the time when he was a Jewish
teacher, whatever else he might not be, he was very conscientious–he
verily thought that he did God service in persecuting the Christians.
And throughout the whole of his subsequent career, in every incident of
his history we mark him as pre-eminently a man guided by conscience. If
he believed a thing to be right, he attended to it. And if anything
struck him as being wrong, he could not be persuaded to countenance it.
He would not do or say that which he did not fully believe to be right
and true.

It is a grand thing to meet with a witness of this order, for his
testimony can be relied on. What such a man affirms we may be quite
certain is correct, so far as he knows. And also, the Apostle was
eminently cool. He was a man of well-balanced reason. I should think
that logic greatly preponderated among his faculties. John has a warm
and glowing heart and one does not wonder that he is rather a warm
lover of Jesus than a systematic unfolder of doctrine. Peter is
impulsive and when he writes he writes with force, but it is not the
force of reasoning. Paul is calm, collected. You never find him excited
beyond the bounds of reason. He is as orderly, correct and
argumentative as a Grecian sage. He is enthusiastic to a white heat,
but regardless, he still holds himself well in hand.

The coursers of his imagination can outstrip the wind, but he always
holds the reins with a strong hand and knows how to turn them, or to
make them stand still at his pleasure. It is a great thing to receive
the testimony of a man who is both conscientious to tell what he
believes to be true and calm and logical to form a clear judgment as to
what is really fact. Now this man, Paul, was convinced that there is a
future state for Believers. He was quite sure about it and he believed
it to be a future conscious state which commenced the moment one died,
and was beyond measure full of blessedness. He did not believe in
purgatorial fires through which Believers' souls must pass–much less
did he believe the modern and detestable heresy which some have
endorsed that, like the body, the soul of the saint dies until the
Resurrection.

No, but he was known to speak of being "absent from the body and
present with the Lord," and here he speaks about departing not to sleep
or to lie in the cold shade of oblivion till the trumpet should awaken
him, but to depart and immediately to be with Christ, which is far
better. What had made this very conscientious and very collected man
come to this conclusion? I suppose he would have replied, first, that
he had been converted by a sight of the Lord Jesus Christ. On the road
to Damascus, while desperately set against the religion of Jesus, the
Lord Himself had appeared to him, so that he had seen Jesus with his
own eyes and had heard Him speak.

About that sight and sound he had no question. He was sure that he had
seen the Lord Jesus and heard His voice. He was so certain of this that
he was led to give up his position in society, which was a very
elevated one; to lose his reputation, which he greatly valued; to be
rejected by his countrymen whom he loved with more than ordinary
patriotism and to run continual risk of death for the sake of the Truth
to which he was a witness. He was content to be made the offscouring of
all things for the love of that once-despised Savior who, out of the
windows of Heaven, had looked down upon Him in mercy.

Now, he was quite sure that Jesus Christ came from somewhere and went
back to some place or other. He felt sure that there must be a place
where the Man, Jesus Christ, dwelt, and he felt quite certain that
wherever that might be it would be a place of happiness and glory.
Recollecting the prayer of the Lord Jesus, which John had recorded,
"Father, I will that they, also, whom You have given Me be with Me
where I am, that they may behold My glory," he was quite certain that
as soon as saints died they would be where their glorious Lord Jesus
was and would share His honors. Remember, also, that this judicious and
truthful witness tells us that he had, on other occasions, distinct
evidence of the disembodied state. He informs us that he was caught up
into the third Heaven and there heard things which it was not lawful
for a man to utter.

He observes that he does not understand how he went there, but of the
fact, he is quite sure. His body was here on earth still alive and yet
his spirit was caught away into Heaven. The question with him was
whether he was in the body or out of the body, and I dare say his
metaphysical mind often tried to untie that knot. His soul must have
remained in the body to keep the body alive, and if so, how could it go
up to Heaven? And yet into Heaven he was quite clear that he had
entered. At last the Apostle came to the conclusion that whether in the
body or out of the body he could not tell, but God knew. This, however,
he was sure of–that he had been caught up into Paradise, or the third
Heaven–and therefore there was a Paradise! He had heard words which it
was not possible for him to utter, therefore there was a place where
glorious words were to be heard and glorious words to be said! And he
was quite sure, not merely as a matter of belief, but as a matter of
observation, that there was a place into which disembodied spirits
go–where they are with Jesus, their Lord–which is far better.

It is clear that it would not be far better for a saint to die and
sleep till the Resurrection than it would be to work on here. It would
be evidently, by far, a better thing for saints to continue in life
till Christ came, than to lie dormant in oblivion. Yet he says it is
far better for them to depart–and the ground of his judgment lies in
the fact that there is a place of real happiness–of intense joy–where
it is far better for the disembodied spirit to be than for it to remain
here in the body! About this Paul expressed no sort of doubt. There was
such a state. It was a state of great joy, so that even to him who was
one of the greatest Apostles, the most useful of the saints and the
most honored with his Master's blessing–even to him to depart and to
be with Christ would be far better!

I want you to notice, also that he does not express any sort of doubt
about his own entrance into a state of felicity so soon as he should
depart. He does not say, as I am afraid many here would have done, "It
would be far better, certainly, for me to die if I were sure I should
be with Christ." Oh, no! He had risen above such hesitation. Dear
Brothers and Sisters, it is a wretched state to be in to be saying, "It
would be sweet for me to depart if, indeed, these glories were for me."
He had got beyond all doubt as to whether eternal bliss would be his!
He was sure of that, and why are we not sure, too? Why do we hesitate
where he spoke so confidently? Had Paul something to ground his
confidence upon which we have not?

Do you suppose that Paul reckoned he should be saved because of his
abundant labors, his earnest ministry and his great successes? Far from
it! Don't you know that he, himself, said, "God forbid that I should
glory save in the Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ"? As for anything that
he had ever done, he declared that he trusted to be found in Christ,
not having his own righteousness, which was of the Law, but the
righteousness which is of God by faith. Now, where Paul built we build,
if we build aright. Our hope is founded upon the righteousness of
Christ, upon the Grace of God, upon the promise of our heavenly Father.
Well, I dare to say it–he, the chief of the Apostles, had not a
solitary grain of advantage over any one of us as to the basis and
essence of his hope! Mercy, Grace, atoning blood, the precious
promise–these, alone, he built on–for other foundation can no man
lay.

If Paul was sure of eternal bliss, I should be sure of it, too. No, I
am! Are you, Beloved? Are you equally as sure of being with Christ as
Paul was? You should be, for you have the same reason for certainty as
the Apostle had, if, indeed, you are believing in the Lord Jesus. God
is not a God of perhapses, and ifs, and buts–He is a God of shalls and
wills, of faithful Truth and everlasting verities. "He that believes on
Him is not condemned." "There is, therefore, now no condemnation to
them that are in Christ Jesus." "He that believes and is baptized,
shall be saved." "Who shall lay anything to the charge
of"–whom?–Paul, the Apostle? No, but "of God's elect"?

Of all of them, of any one of them whom you shall please to select,
however humble, however obscure–they are ALL safe in Jesus! He was
made sin for us that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him,
and we may, each one of us, cry, "I know whom I have believed, and am
persuaded that He is able to keep that which I have committed to Him
until that day." So much, then, concerning the Apostle's certainty as
to the disembodied state, its happiness and his own possession of it
before long.

II. It is very interesting to notice THE APOSTLE'S IDEA OF THAT STATE.
He says, "To be with Christ." It is a one-sided idea and it is almost a
one-worded description of it. "To be with Christ." I have no doubt Paul
had as enlarged ideas as to what the state of disembodied spirits would
be as the most intelligent and best-read Christian that ever lived. I
have no doubt he would have said, "Yes, there is fellowship among the
saints–we shall sit down with Abraham, Isaac

and Jacob in the kingdom of Heaven. It will certainly be as true in
Heaven as it is on earth that we have fellowship one with another."

I have no doubt he believed that Heaven was a place of a far clearer
knowledge than any we possess below. He said so once–"Here I know in
part, but there shall I know even as I am known." Some Christians have
entertained the idea that they shall gaze upon the various works of God
in distant parts of His universe and enjoy infinite happiness in
beholding the manifold wisdom of God–very possible, and if it will
conduce to their happiness–very probable. Perhaps Paul believed all
that, but we do not know whether he did or not. Here it is plain that
he gives us only one idea. He was a man of great mind and much
information, but here he gives us only one idea–for my part, one that
perfectly satisfies me and I think one which charms and fills to
overflowing the heart of every Believer.

He describes the disembodied state as "to be with Christ." A very
exclusive idea! No, a very inclusive idea–for it takes in all the
Heaven which the largest mind can conceive! It does seem to omit a
great many things, but I dare say Paul felt that they were such trifles
that it did not matter about forgetting them. Being with Christ is so
great a thing that he mentioned only it. I think he did this, first,
because his love was so concentrated upon Christ that he could think of
nothing else in connection with going away to Heaven.

There is a wife here, perhaps, and her husband has accepted an
appointment in India. He has been gone a long time and the years of his
forced absence have been weary to her. She has had loving messages from
him and kind letters, but often she has sighed and her heart has looked
out of the windows towards the east, yearning for his return. But now
she has received a letter entreating her to go to her husband and,
without hesitation, she has resolved to go. Now, if you ask her what
she is going to India for, the reply will be, "I am going to my
husband." But she has a brother there. Yes, she will see him, but she
does not tell you that–her great thought is that she is going to her
husband! She has many old friends and companions there, but she is not
drawn to the far-off land by desire for their company–she crosses the
sea for the sake of her beloved.

But her husband has a handsome estate there and he is wealthy. He has a
well-furnished house and many servants. Yes, but she never says, "I am
going to see my husband's home," or anything of that kind. She is going
to her husband. That is the all-absorbing object. There may be other
inducements to make the voyage, but to be with her beloved is the
master reason of her journey. She is going to the man she loves with
all her soul and she is longing for the country, whatever that country
may be, because he is there. It is so with the Christian, only enhanced
in a tenfold degree! He does not say, "I am going to the songs of
angels and to the everlasting chorales of the sanctified," but, "I am
going to be with Jesus!" It would argue unchastity to Christ if that
were not the first and highest thought.

To come back to the figure–and it is one which Christ, Himself, would
approve of, far He continually uses the metaphor of marriage in
relation to Himself and the soul–if that woman did regard as the first
thing in that journey out to the East, the sight of some other person,
or the mere enjoyment of wealth and possessions–it would argue that
she had little love to her husband. It would mean that she was not such
a wife as she ought to be. And if it could be so that the Christian
should have some higher thought than being with Christ, or some other
desire worth mentioning in the same day with it, it would look as if he
had not presented himself as a chaste virgin to Christ, to be His and
His alone.

I see, therefore, why Paul calls the disembodied state a being with
Christ, because his love was all with his Lord. And, no doubt, there
was this further reason among others–he was persuaded that Heaven
could not be Heaven if Christ was not there. Oh, to think of Heaven
without Christ! It is the same thing as thinking of Hell. Heaven
without Christ? It is day without the sun! Existing without life,
feasting without food, seeing without light. It involves a
contradiction in terms. Heaven without Christ? Absurd! It is the sea
without water, the earth without its fields, the heavens without their
stars. There cannot be Heaven without Christ! He is the sum total of
bliss! He is the fountain from which Heaven flows, the element of which
Heaven is composed! Christ is Heaven and Heaven is Christ!

You shall change the words and make no difference in the sense. To be
where Jesus is is the highest imaginable bliss and bliss away from
Jesus is inconceivable to the child of God. If you were invited to a
marriage feast and you were, yourself, to be the bride, and yet the
bridegroom were not there–do not tell me about feasting. In vain they
ring the bells till the Church tower rocks and reels. In vain the
dishes smoke and the red wine sparkles. In vain the guests shout and
make merry. If the bride looks around her and sees no bridegroom, the
dainties mock her sorrow and the merriment

insults her misery. Such would a Christless Heaven be to the saints. If
you could gather together all conceivable joys and Christ were absent,
there would be no Heaven to His beloved ones. Therefore it is that
Heaven is to be where Christ is–

"To dwell with Christ, to feel His love,

Is the full Heaven enjoyed abo ve.

And the sweet expectation now,

Is the young dawn of Heaven below." And, Beloved, just to be with
Christ is Heaven–that bare thing. Excuse my using such words, I only
want to make the sense stronger. That bare thing–just to be with
Christ is all the Heaven a Believer needs! The angels may be there or
not, as they will. And the golden crowns and harps present or absent as
may be. But if I am to be where Jesus is, I will find angels in His
eyes and crowns in every lock of His hair. To me the golden streets
shall be my fellowship with Him and the music of the harpers shall be
the sound of His voice. Only to be near Him, to be with Him–this is
all we need. The Apostle does not say, "to be in Heaven, which is far
better." No, but, "to be with Christ, which is far better," and he adds
no description–he leaves the thoughts just as they are–in all their
majestic simplicity. "To be with Christ, which is far

better."

But what is it to be with Christ, Beloved? In some sense we are with
Christ now, for He comes to us. We are no strangers to Him. Even while
we are in this body we have communion with Jesus and yet it must be
true that a higher fellowship is to come, for the Apostle says that
while we are present in the body we are absent from the Lord. There is
a sense in which, so long as we are here, we are absent from the Lord.
One great saint used to say upon his birthday that he had been so many
years in banishment from the Lord. To abide in this lowland country, so
far from the ivory palaces, is a banishment at the very best. All that
we can see of Christ here is through a glass darkly. Face to face is
true nearness to Him and that we have not reached as of yet.

What will it be, then, to be with Christ? Excuse me if I say it will
be, first of all, exactly what it says, namely, to be with Him. I must
repeat that word–it is Heaven only to be with Him! It is not merely
what comes out of being with Him–His company is Heaven. Why, even to
have seen Jesus in his flesh was a privilege–

"I think when I read that sweet story of old, When Jesus was here among
men, How He took little children like lambs to His fold I should like
to have been with Him then. I wish that His hands had been placed on my
head, That His arms had been thrown around me, And that I might have
seen His kind look when He said, 'Let the little ones come unto Me.'" I
think I should have found a little Heaven in gazing on that blessed
form!

But our text speaks of a different sort of being with Him, for there
were people near Him here in body who were a long way off from Him in
spirit. The text speaks of being with Him in the spirit when the soul
shall have shaken itself loose of the flesh and blood–and left all its
slough behind it–and gone right away to bask in the Glory of Jesus, to
participate in the Nature of Jesus and, best of all, to abide near His
Person, with the God-Man Mediator, who is Lord of all! Still, there
will flow out of that nearness the following things among many others.
We shall enjoy, first of all, a clearer vision of Him. Oh, we have not
seen Him yet! Our views of Him are too dim to be worth calling sights.
The eyes of faith have looked through a telescope and seen Him at a
distance and it has been a ravishing vision. But when the eyes of the
soul shall really see Him–Him, and not another–Him for ourselves, and
not another for us, oh, the sight!

Is not the thought of it a burning coal of joy? The sight of His very
flesh will charm us. His wounds, still fresh, the dear memorials of His
passion, still apparent. The perception of His soul will also delight
us, for our soul will commune with His soul and this is the soul of
communion! The sight of His Godhead, so far as created spirit can see
it, will also ravish us with joy. And then we shall have a brighter
knowledge of Him. Here we know in part–we know the names of His
offices, we know what He has worked, we know what He is working for
us–but there those offices will shine in their splendor and we shall
see all that He did for us in its real weight and value! We shall
comprehend, then, the height and depth and know the love of Christ
which passes knowledge, as we do not know it at this hour.

And with that will come a more intimate communion. Our soul will lean
her head on Jesus' bosom, our heart will get into His heart and hide
herself in His wounds. What must it be to speak to Him, as our soul
will speak to Him, as our spirit nature will commune with His inmost
Nature–His spirit speaking to our spirits without a veil between? We
shall not see Him looking down from the windows, but we shall rest in
His arms, in a far more intimate communion than any we can enjoy this
side the grave. Today I see Him through the grating of my prison
windows and my heart is ready to leap out of my body! What will it be
when His left hand shall be under my head and His right hand shall
embrace me?

And then, Beloved, when we shall be with Him it will be unbroken
fellowship. There will be no sin to blind our eyes to His charms, or to
entice us away from His love. Blessed be God, there will be no Monday
mornings to call us back to the world, but our sacred Sunday will last
on forever! Doubts, backslidings and spiritual chills will then be gone
forever. No more shall we cry, "Have you seen Him whom my soul loves?"
but we shall hold Him and never let Him go. There will be no need,
ever, for the spirit to fall asleep and so suspend its joy–it will
find its true rest in constant communion with Jesus! It is possible to
live in fellowship with Jesus here always–possible, but, oh, how few
ever reach it! But there we shall all have reached it! The very lowest
among us–we shall be with the Lord forever!

And then we shall have a sight of His Glory and though I put this after
a sight of Himself, yet, remember, our Lord thinks much of it. He
prayed, "Father, I will that they, also, whom You have given Me be with
Me where I am, that they may behold My Glory." We have seen something
of His shame and have been partakers in the reproach that is poured
upon His Gospel. But we shall see Him, then, with silver sandals on the
feet that once were mired by the clay of earth and a crown of gold upon
the once thorn-pierced brow! We shall see Him when His hands shall
gleam as with gold rings set with beryl, and look no more like a
malefactor's hand nailed to the cruel wood–

"Then shall we see His body like bright ivory With sapphires overlaid,
His limbs like marble pillars In golden sockets stayed."

Then, looking on His face we shall understand Solomon's Song, when he
said, "His countenance is as Lebanon, excellent as the cedars; His
voice is most sweet, yes, He is altogether lovely." One would wish to
leap right away out of this body to behold Him in His Glory!

And then, Beloved, we shall share in the Glory, too, for His joy will
be our joy. His honor will be our honor. Our spirits which wrestled
hard here below and had to strive against a thousand outward enemies
and inward doubts and fears, will then be all light, joy, gladness,
full of the life of God and beaming with ecstatic bliss! The Lord grant
us to know this in due season, and so we shall, if, indeed, we are
Believers in Jesus! So you see Paul's one idea was that he should be
with Jesus. That was all. He cared little for anything else.

III. Very briefly, let us consider THE APOSTLE'S ESTIMATE OF THIS
DISEMBODIED STATE. He says, "To be

with Christ, which is far better." Now, the Greek has a triple
comparative. We could not say, "far more better," in our language, but
that would be a fair translation. We will therefore read, "It is far
rather preferable," or it is much better to be with Christ away from
the body, than it would be to abide here. Now, you must remember that
Paul does not claim that the disembodied state is the highest condition
of a Believer, or the ultimate crown of his hopes. It is a state of
perfection so far as it goes–the spirit is perfect–but the entire
manhood is not perfect while the body is left to mold in the tomb.

One half of the saint is left behind in the grave. Corruption, earth
and worms have seized upon it, and the grand concluding day of our
manifestation can only come when the redemption of the body is fully
achieved. The fullness of our Glory is the Resurrection, for then the
body will be united to our spirit and perfected with it. At present the
saints who are with Jesus are without their bodies and are pure
spirits. Their humanity is in that respect maimed–only half their
manhood is with Jesus–yet even for that, half of their manhood to be
with Christ is far better than for the whole of their being to be here
in the best possible condition!

Now, the Apostle does not say that to be with Christ is far better than
to be here and to be rich, young, healthy, strong, famous, great, or
learned–Paul never thinks of putting those petty things into contrast
with being with Christ! He had got above all that. There he was sitting
chained in the dungeon, the poorest man in the emperor's dominions, and
often, I have no doubt–for he was getting on to be, "such an one as
Paul the aged," and wrote particularly about an old cloak he had left
at Troas–often he felt rheumatic pains shooting through him. And he
did not find this life to have

many attractions of wealth or ease, though he might have had them if he
had chosen them as his portion. He had given them all up and counted
them as insignificant trifles, not to be mentioned at all, for Jesus'
sake.

He is not speaking of the low joys of this world–he is far above such
considerations. He means that to be with Christ is infinitely superior
to all the joys of Christians. Anything that the most of Christians
know about Christ and heavenly joys and heavenly things is very poor
compared with being with Christ. But he meant more than that. He meant
that the highest joys which the best taught Believer can here possess
are inferior to being with Christ. For, let me say, Paul was no obscure
Believer. He was a leader among the followers of Christ. Could he not
say. "Thanks be unto God, who always makes us to triumph in every
place"?

He knew the graces of the Holy Spirit, he had them abundantly. He was
head and shoulders above the most brilliant Christian here. He had the
highest experience of any man out of Heaven and it was that which he
contrasted with being with Christ. And he said that the most that we
could get here of heavenly things was not to be compared with being
with Christ. That was far, far, far better. And truly, Brothers and
Sisters, so it is. Thanks be to God for all the mercies of the
pilgrimage, for all the dropping manna and the following stream, but
oh, the wilderness with all its manna, is nothing compared with the
land that flows with milk and honey! Let the road be paved with
mercy–it is not so sweet as the Father's house of the many mansions to
which it leads.

It is true that in the battle our head is covered, the wings of angels
often protect us, and the Spirit of God, Himself, nerves our arm to use
the sword. But who shall say that the victory is not better than the
battle? The warrior who has won the most of victory will tell you that
the best day will be when the sword rattles back into the scabbard and
the victory is won forever. Oh, the wooing of Christ and the soul, this
is very sweet–the rapturous joys we have had in the love-making
between Christ and us, we would not exchange with emperors and
kings–even if they offered us their crowns! But the marriage day will
be better by far–the glorious consummation of our soul's highest
desire when we shall be with our Well-Beloved where He is.

Far better, said the Apostle, and he meant it. Far better it is. He did
not say–and I want you to notice this again– though he might have
said it, "We shall be better in condition. No poverty there, no
sickness there." He did not say, "We shall be better in character." He
might have said it–there will be no sin, no depravity, no infirmity,
no temptation there. He did not say, "We shall be better in
employment," though surely it will be better to wait on the Master,
close at His hand, than to be here among sinners and often among
cold-hearted saints. He did not say, "We shall have better society
there." Though, truth to tell, it will be better to be with the perfect
than with the imperfect. Neither did he say we should see fairer sights
there, though we shall see the city that has foundations of jasper,
whose light is the light of the Lamb's own Presence! But he did say,
"To be with Christ." He summed it up there. The bare being with Christ
would be far better. And so it will be. Our spirit longs for it!

Yet mark you, for all that, he said he felt a pull the other way. He
had a twitch towards staying on earth, as well as a pull towards going
to Heaven, for he said, "To abide in the flesh is more necessary for
you." How I love Paul for thinking of the churches here when he had
Heaven before him! Anthony Farindon says it is like a poor beggar woman
outside the door and she carries a squalling child, and someone says,
"You may come in and feast, but you must leave the babe outside." She
is very hungry and she needs the feast. But she does not like to leave
the baby and so she is in a strait betwixt two.

Or, he says again, it is like a wife who has children at home, five or
six little ones, and her husband is on a journey. And suddenly there
comes a letter which says that he needs her and she must go to him, but
she may do as she thinks best. She desires to go to her husband, but
who will take care of the last little baby and who is to see to all the
rest? And so she is in a strait betwixt two. She loves him and she
loves them. So stood the Apostle, and oh, it is blessed to think of a
man having such a love for Christ that for Christ's sake he loves poor
souls well enough to be willing to stay out of Heaven awhile! "Oh," he
says, "it is all gain for me to go to Heaven. For me to die is far
better. Yet there are some poor sinners who need to be called, some
poor trembling saints to be comforted and I do not know which is the
best." And the Apostle stands puzzled. He does not know which it shall
be. There we leave him.

May we get into the same blessed predicament ourselves! The last word
shall be this. Concerning our beloved friends gone from us, we do not
sorrow as those who are without hope. What is more, we do not sorrow at
all. If we chance to sorrow, it is for ourselves, that we have lost
their present company. But as for them it is far better with them and
if the

lifting of our little finger could bring them back again, dear as they
are to us, we would not be so cruel as to subject them, again, to the
troubles of this stormy sea of life. They are safe! We will go to them.
We would not have them return to us.

Then, with regard to ourselves, if we have believed in Jesus we are on
our journey Home and all fear of death is now annihilated. You notice
the Apostle does not say anything at all about death. He did not think
it worth mentioning. In fact, there is no such thing to a Christian! I
have heard of people being afraid of the pains of death. There are no
pains of death–the pain is in life! Death is the end of pain. It is
all over. Put the saddle on the right horse. Do not blame Death for
what he does not do. It is Life that brings pain! Death to the Believer
ends all evil. Death is the gate of endless joy and shall we dread to
enter there? No, blessed be God, we will not!

And this points us to the Fountain of bliss while we are here, for if
Heaven is to be with Christ, then the nearer we get to Christ, here,
the more we shall participate in that which makes the joy of Heaven! If
we want to taste Heaven's blessed dainties while here below, let us
walk in unbroken fellowship with Him–so we shall get two heavens, a
little Heaven below, and a boundless Heaven above when our turn shall
come to go Home! Oh, I wish you were all on the way to being with
Christ! If you do not go to be with Christ, where can you go? Answer
that question and go to Jesus, now, by humble faith, that afterwards He
may say, "Come, you did come on earth, now come again, you blessed of
My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from before the
foundation of the world."

PORTION OF SCRIPTURE READ BEFORE SERMON–Philippians 1
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To Sunday School Teachers And Other Soul-winners