Reader, let the prospect of a dwelling in this "house of the Lord for ever," reconcile thee to any of the roughnesses or difficulties in thy present path--to thy pilgrim provision and pilgrim fare. Let the distant beacon-light, that so cheeringly speaks of a _Home_ brighter and better far than the happiest of earthly ones, lead thee to forget the intervening billows, or to think of them only as wafting thee nearer and nearer to thy desired haven! "Would," says a saint, who has now entered on his rest, "that one could read, and write, and pray, and eat and drink, and compose one's self to sleep, as with the thought,--soon to be in heaven, and that for ever and ever!" "My Father's house!" How many a departing spirit has been cheered and consoled by the sight of these glorious Mansions looming through the mists of the dark valley,--the tears of weeping friends rebuked by the gentle chiding--"If ye loved me, ye would rejoice, because I said, I go unto _my Father_!" Death truly is but the entrance to this our Father's house. We speak of the "_shadow of death_"--it is only the shadow which falls on the portico as we stand for a moment knocking at the longed-for gate--the next! a Father's voice of welcome is heard-- "SON! THOU ART EVER WITH ME, AND ALL THAT I HAVE IS THINE." 30TH DAY. "Remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how He said"-- "I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also."--John xiv. 3. The Promised Return. Another "word of promise" concerning the Church's "blessed hope." Orphaned pilgrims, dry your tears! Soon the Morning Hour will strike, and the sighs of a groaning and burdened creation be heard no more. Earth's six thousand years of toil and sorrow are waning; the Millennial Sabbath is at hand. Jesus will soon be heard to repeat concerning all his sleeping saints, what He said of old regarding one of them: "I go to awake them out of sleep!" Your beloved Lord's first coming was in humiliation and woe; His name was--the "Man of Sorrows;" He had to travel on, amid darkness and desertion, His blood-stained path; a chaplet of thorns was the only crown He bore. But soon He will come "the second time without a sin-offering unto salvation," never again to leave His Church, but to receive those who followed Him in His cross, to be everlasting partakers with Him in His crown. He may seem to tarry. External nature, in her unvarying and undeviating sequences, gives no indication of His approach. Centuries have elapsed since He uttered the promise, and still He lingers; the everlasting hills wear no streak of approaching dawn; we seem to listen in vain for the noise of His chariot wheels. "But the Lord is not slack concerning His promise;" He gives you "this word" in addition to many others as a _keepsake_--a pledge and guarantee for the certainty of His return,--"_I will come again._"