ST. JOHN XIV. I 57
the Apocalypse is laid, not in some far-off sphere, some fabled Elysium, but here on earth. Heaven is witliin the good man's heart. The sea which is before the throne is smooth and clear as crystal, not because it is remote from earthly storms, but because the Spirit of God moves upon the face of the waters.
*[I I knew a man, since gone to his rest, who carried on an active service for his Master in the busiest of all cities, and who selected for himself a telegraphic address which might stand at the head of his notepaper. What do you think this busy man's address was? It was this: — " Undistuebed, London." And it always found him at home — that is to say, in God — so far as I could judge of his dwelling-place in the days when I knew him, before he had run out his leasehold in the Church militant and taken up his freehold in the Church triumphant. Such an one, living at such an address, verifies the truth of the Scripture which says of the good man that —
He shall not be afraid of evil tidings; His heart is fixed, trusting in the Lord.*
Oh ! the bells rang out for Easter, rang strong and sweet and shrill. And the organ's rolling thunder pealed through the long church aisle. And the children fluttered with flowers, and I sat mute and still, I who had clean forgotten both how to pray and to smile.
And I murmured in fierce rebellion : " There is nought that endures below, Nought but the lamentations that are rent from souls in pain " ; And the joy of the Easter music, it struck on my ears like a blow. For I knew that my day was over, I could never be glad again!
And then — how it happened I know not — there was One in my sight who stood, And lo ! on His brow was the thorn-print, in His hands were the nails' rough scars, And the shadow that lay before Him was the shade of the holy rood. But the glow in His eyes was deeper than the light of the morning stars.
* J. Rendel Harris, Aaron's Breastplate, 44.
58 SECRET OF THE UNTROUBLED HEART
" Daughter," He said, " have comfort ! Arise ! keep Easter-tide !
I, for thy sins who suffered and died on the cruel tree, I, who was dead, am living; no evil shall e'er betide
Those who, beyond or waiting, are pledged unto life with Me."
Now I wake to a holier Easter, happier than of old.
And again my voice is lifted in Te Deums sweet and strong ; I send it to join the anthem in the wonderful city of gold, Where the hymns of the ransomed for ever are timed to the Easter song.
And I can be glad with the gladness that is born of a perfect peace ; On the strength of the Strong I am resting; I know that His will is best, And who that has found that secret from darkness has won release, And even in sorrow's exile may lift up her eyes and be blessed.
The House op Many Mansions.
Literature.
Abbey (C. J.), The Divine Love, 269.
Campbell (R. J.), A Faith for To-day, 331.
Cox (S.), Expository Essays and Discourses, 106.
Dale (R. W.), Christ and the Future Life, 33.
Davies (J. LI.), Spiritual Apprehension, 348.
Ellicott (C. J.), Sermons at Glov.cester, 233.
Fairweatber (D.), Bound in the Spirit, 151.
Findlay (G. G.), The Things Above, 188.
Griflith-Jones (E.), Faith and Verification, 219.
Hall (N.), Gethsemane, 314.
Horder (W. G.), The Other- World, 99.
Ker (J.), Sermons, i. 245, ii. 247.
MacColl (M.)j ^if^ Here and Hereafter, 71.
Moi'ison (J.), Holiness in Living and Happiness in Dying, 202.
Morrison (G. H.), in Great Texts of the New Testament, 83.
New (C), Sermons in Hastings, 311.
Oosterzee (J. J. van), The Year of Salvation, i. 442.
Parkburst (C. H.), A Little Lower than the Angels, 214.
„ „ The Pattern in the Mount, 227.
Pierson (A. T.), The Hopes of the Gosioel, 121. Raleigh (A.), Quiet Besting-Places, 387. Sbedd (W. G. T.), Sermons to the Spiritual Man, 167. Sbepard (J. W.), Light and Life, 1. Smellie (A.), In the Secret Place, 377. Telford (J.), The Story of the Upper Room, 87. Tipple (S. A.), Days of Old, 123. Wilkes (H.), The Bright and Morning Star, 272. Christian World Pulpit, ix. 90 (Roberts) ; xxix. 10 (Davies) ; lviii...2]
(Aked) ; Ixv. 14 (Hale). Sunday Magazine, 1880, p. 307 (Butler),
The House of Many Mansions.
In my Father's house are many mansions. — John xiv. 2.
1. Simpler words than these it would not, be easy to find in human language. There is nothing here either in the words or in the ideas which a child cannot understand. There is a Father, and there is a house of many mansions where He dwells ; there is a Son who has been there, and can speak of what He knows and has seen. He has come to His brethren here for a time, and He is about to leave again for home. But He is not merely going home; He is going to prepare a place for His brethren, and He is coming back for them, when their place is prepared, to take them to it — to His Father's and His own home. If it were not so, He would have told us. That is simplicity itself: the words and the ideas alike strike a familiar chord in our hearts, and we need no one to explain them. What more do we need to know about the life to come than this ? If we believe in God and in His Son, it is a going to the Father. Is it not enough for life and for death, for this world and for that which is to come, to know that we are going home ?