Dixmude was a quiet little town on the Yser. You can see the Yser in the picture to the right of the ruins of the town. It was always a quiet place, with its sixteenth century houses, its quiet agricultural surroundings; its people were occupied largely in dairy-farming, and they sent large quantities of butter to England. As I walked amid the ruins of this once thriving town I met a gentleman of whom we inquired the nearest way to the Yser Canal. He said he would walk with us and show us, but before starting he said, “We are standing now in the ‘grande place.’” It was only a heap of ruins. “There was the Church of St. Nicholas,” he said, pointing to an indistinguishable heap of debris; “there stood the tower. A row of large houses stood there,” he continued. Then he told us that he had lived in Dixmude all his life; he was a lawyer, and when he came back to the town after the bombardment he could not find out where his house had stood.
I thought how many are like him, homeless amid the ruin of all things down here. Thank God many, through faith in Christ, can say, “I have a home above, from sin and sorrow free, a mansion which eternal love designed and formed for me.” Jesus tells His people that in His Father’s house are many mansions, and that He has gone to prepare a place for them. Look well at the ruins of Dixmude in our picture, and then look around the world and see what a ghastly ruin sin has made of everything on earth. Can a soul seeking after truth find a home amid the ruins of spiritualism, or theosophy, or Christian science, or atheism, or modern theology? Can man build anything for God amid the ruins of the Fall? Can man find a dwelling of rest, or a home of peace, amid the scenes of death and sin in the world in which he lives? No; it is only a divine Builder who can restore the ruins of the Fall. It is only a divine Saviour who can take a sinner out of the place of death and ruin in which he lives and give him a right to a home “amid the inheritance of the saints in light.” How this can be done you will find in John 3:1616For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. (John 3:16).