HE IS FAITHFUL THAT PROMISED.
“I WILL come again, and receive you unto myself, that where I am there ye may be also.” John xiv, 3. If the meeting of a long absent friend or brother on earth be a joyous event, what, my soul, must be the joy of thy union with this Brother of brothers, this Friend of friends? “I will come again.” Oh! what an errand of love, what a promised honor and dignity is this! His saints are to share, not his Heaven only, but his immediate presence. “Where I am there ye shall be also.” “Father, I will”—it was his dying wish, a wondrous codicil in that testamentary prayer—“that those whom thou hast given me, be with me where I am.” Happy reunion! Blessed Saviour, if thy presence be so sweet on a sin-stricken earth, and when known only by the invisible eye of faith, what must be that presence in that sinless Heaven, unfolded in all its unutterable loveliness and glory? Happy reunion! It will be a meeting of the whole ransomed family: the Head, with all its members; the Vine with all its branches; the Shepherd with all his flock; the Elder Brother with all his kinsmen. Oh! the joy too, of mutual recognition among the death-divided; ties snapped asunder on earth indissolubly renewed; severed friendships reunited; the triumph of love complete; love binding brother with brother, and friend with friend, and all to the Elder Brother. My soul, what thinkest thou of this Heaven? Remember who it is that Jesus says shall sit with him upon his throne—“Him that overcometh.”