In the 14th chap, of John, the Lord Jesus, says: "Let not your heart be troubled; ye believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father's house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you.. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also."
I think we see here just one great leading thought on the mind of Jesus, and that thought HIS ABSENCE. And when we look abroad over this earth from end to end, from north to south, from east to west, and see its glory, and its pomp, and its power, and its dominion, and its multitudes-but oh, see nowhere Jesus, this chapter becomes very precious to us. It speaks of this time of Christ's absence from His people. He was with them then, face to face; He spoke with them; eye to eye He looked upon them. Now He looks forward to the time not long distant when He would no more be with them in His bodily presence, but be far away; and reckoning upon their love to Him, He feels that the thought of His absence was the one thing that would grieve their hearts to their very depths, and so speaks these words for their comfort -" Because I have said these things unto you, sorrow hath filled your hearts." But, says He, "Let not your heart be troubled." How Ile counts upon our love I Oh, that we had hearts more to mourn over the absence of Jesus!
He is far away in bodily presence. Oh, 'tis sorrow to Him to be away from us; and if we loved Him as we ought, it would be our greatest sorrow that we are not with Jesus yet. He counts upon its being so, and says, "Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God "ye do not see God, ye walk by faith as regards God; henceforth ye shall walk by faith also as regards believe also in Me." And then begins a wondrous tale-it is a tale told by the lips of Jesus, and it is a tale of love. In every word that fell from His gracious lips, He is giving them something to fill their empty hearts when they have lost Himself. Sonic comfort He tries to give them that their tears may be dried in His absence, and their souls sustained. And it seems to me that Jesus here speaks to his disciples even as we would speak to those we dearly loved if we were leaving them. For Christ's heart is a man's heart, a human heart. The love that is in our hearts is, in its nature, the same love as in His; but oh, how different in its measure! And therefore He says the same sort of things to them as we would say, if we could, to those we love when about to leave them. The first thing is just the thing we say-" I will come again." Is there anything more soothing, more cheering to drooping hearts, than the words, "I will come again." And that the words may be more sweet, He says, " I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also." I will no longer cone to be a visitor among you, to spend three years or a thousand years in your midst, " but I will come again, and receive you unto myself." And oh, how happy is the home where.Jesus is I Very unlike the poor world -He wits leaving. I can imagine these disciples. by one act of faith, overleaping the whole interval between His going and coming again, so joyous must have been the hope He created in them when He said, " I will come again, and receive you unto myself." Oh, may the Lord give us to realize that this promise is as true today as it was eighteen hundred years ago, and, if possible, niece true than then, for it is nearer its fulfillment.
And what more does He say for their comfort? All the time that I am away from you, my heart shall he filled with you; the whole time I am away, my heart's affections shall be centered on you; my mind's attention shall be riveted on you; and all that love can devise, all that wisdom can plan, all that almighty power can accomplish, to this will My heart be set, to make ready a place worthy of you. And I am sure His love is devising a plan ever since to make glory more glorious, to make heaven more heavenly for the reception of those poor sinners whom He has loved, And,-oh, we wonder as we think of it,-what can Jesus be doing? Oh, what can He be doing to prepare a place for us? I Is not glory lofty enough? Is not heaven bright enough? Is riot His own presence sweet enough? No, all inestimable as His own presence is, all lofty as heaven's glory is, that heart can find something else to add to make a place fit for us. But oh, let us think alone of HIM.
" I will not gaze on glory,
But on my King of Grace;
Not on the crown He giveth,
But on my Bridegroom's face."
G. F. T.