together before His dread bar, and patiently pass judgment on each through the Man whom He has appointed.

3. But a final thought is brought out in gem-like clearness by these last heart-to-heart utterances of Jesus. It is that He personally will come again. His coming through that other Comforter would not dispense with another entrance into this world of time and space: If I will that he tarry till I come, what is that to thee?1 He asked, though that one did not tarry more than a century, and now eighteen centuries more have passed, and still Jesus has not come again.

Yes, of all the words He uttered, none carry a more unmistakable stamp of His personality, or ring with a more genuine music of conviction, than those in which He declared: In my Father's house are many mansions; if it were not so I would have told you; for I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I come again and will receive you unto myself; that where I am there ye may be also.2 Father, that which Thou hast given me, I will that where I am they also may be with me, that they may behold my glory which Thou hast given me.3 With our imperfect apprehensions of our present heavenly possession we could hardly, for all the joy and peace of the Christian life, repress some tearful sighs of disappointment if this were all, if the best were not to be. But here is a high and sufficient assurance. The heaven we have is a pledge of the heaven which is to be. Believing in Him, whose teaching has 1 John xxi. 22. 3 John xvii. 24.

2

John xiv. 2-4.

been occupying our minds and stirring our hearts, we assuredly enter into a rest—but a rest remaineth for the people of God. We have tasted a manna sent down from heaven; but the land flowing with milk and honey is yet in reserve. Certain mansions of our Father's house which lie along the line of pilgrimage have been open to us, and we have repeatedly in them been entertained with banquet and with song. But, we surmise, sitting at the feet of Jesus, that the starry heavens, "that wide and shining house of God," are not more vastly removed above the poor littleness of " this dim spot that men call earth," than the range of mansions in the Father's house excels even those fair habitations in which we have sojourned.