the splendor of the outside but emphasizes the corrup tion of the inner chambers. Home shortage: that is the core; and only Christ can remedy that. Once, upon a bright autumn afternoon, I rode with a friend through the countryside of one of the richest residential counties of the Eastern seaboard. Wealth and splendor could hardly be missed for it ran riot to the sight. As we rounded a graceful sweeping curve, we came directly opposite the grilled entrance to one of the most beautiful estates that either of us had ever seen. The burnished colors of the slanting autumnal sun seemed but to add to the loveliness of the well- cared-for, sloping grounds, and to gild with autumn gold the spacious dwelling which rested in serene maj esty upon a rising knoll. My companion drew a long breath of genuine appre ciation. “Isn’t that a magnificent home!” he exclaimed. “You are wrong, Burt; it’s not a home at all. I know it is one of the most beautiful estates in the county. But for all of that, there is only a house on the top of that hill. Nothing more.” He was quite puzzled, so I explained: “Burt, if you were to go into the east wing bedroom of that house, you would find a deep stain in the polished floor, a stain that cannot be washed away. That stain marks the spot where the wife of the millionaire who owns the place fell when he shot her dead in a fit of jealous rage, after he had come home in a maddened, drunken stupor.” It was only a house then, was it not? Upon another occasion, I went with a friend to the lower East Side of one of the large Eastern metropoli tan cities. We walked along crowded, dirty streets, glutted with poverty, depression and bitterness staring upon us on every hand. We turned abruptly into a narrow alleyway, tripping over ash cans-, and ascend ed a flight of outside stairs which long ago should have been condemned by an alert fire department. At the top, we plunged into a murky, odorous hallway, and found ourselves before an old, cracked door. At our knock it opened, and we found ourselves in a ves tibule of Heaven! Yes, the room was small and seared with poverty, but one did not notice that. It was the face of the person who answered our knock that engaged our attention. It was a kindly face, radiant with the peace that only comes from long seasons of communion with a Lord more real than life itself. It was a face that had looked by faith, into His face, and had found there the answer of rest and peace and glory. And as we sat about an old table, we saw the Bible, “torn by long wearings of love and washed with the tears of holy rejoicing,” lift ed up and opened. The squalor of the surroundings, the jarring noise from the street below, were forgotten. For here was a home. I see these two pictures, and I see them as the cause of much that troubles our national life: a beautifully furnished bedroom with an ugly stain in the floor . . . a dim, shabby room, lost in the throbbing quietness of the conscious reality of God’s presence. We do face a housing shortage, but more than that, we have a home shortage. This text keeps recurring to me: “Jesus . . . saith unto him, Go home.” Beloved, here is the blueprint of the work required for such a situation; here is our message: to speak of Jesus, of Jesus and His cross, of Jesus who by His cross trans forms houses into homes. For those who live only in houses go out into eternity, condemned and lost; but those who live in homes where Christ is accepted and honored and adored and served, go out from those homes, however drab their outward appearance, into the blessedness of the Heavenly Home—the Father’s
Why the Second Coming?
(Continued, from Page 10) (Isa. 11:6). But all of this deliverance awaits the Sec ond Coming of Christ, when He shall come, and we, His saints, shall be manifested with Him: “For the earnest expectation of the creature [creation] waiteth for the manifestation of the sons of God” (Rom. 8:19). Satan will be dethroned when Christ returns. We do not forget that Christ conquered Satan eternally at the Cross. There the prince of this world was cast out (John 12:31). Believers can have victory over him now. God has told us: “Resist the devil, and he will flee from you” (Jas. 4:7). Nevertheless, he is allowed to con tinue as the god of this world (2 Cor. 4:4). But his ban ishment will be accomplished when Christ returns, for it is of the period following His return that these words are spoken: “And I saw an angel come down from heav en, having the key of the bottomless pit and a great chain in his hand. And he laid hold on the dragon, that old serpent, which is the Devil, and Satan, and bound him a thousand years, And cast him into the bottom less pit, and shut him up, and set a seal upon him, that he should deceive the nations no more, till the thousand years should be fulfilled: and after that he must be loosed a little season” (Rev. 20:1-3). Then universal peace shall come, and not before, for it cannot come as long as Satan is here to deceive the nations. “And he [Jehovah] shall judge among the na tions, and shall rebuke many people: and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruninghooks: nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more” (Isa. 2:4). Only at His Second Coming will Christ receive His full inheritance. Nineteen hundred years ago, He prayed: “Father, I will that they also, whom thou hast given me, be with me where I am; that they may behold my glory, which thou hast given me: for thou lovedstme before the foundation of the world” (John 17:24). That prayer has not yet been answered, nor will it be until all His own are with Him in the Father’s House, at His Coming. O that we might realize how much we mean to Him: that we might know “the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints” (Eph. 1:18). And when He comes again, He shall have His rightful throne, for, “When the Son of man shall come in- his glory, and all the holy angels with him, then shall he sit upon the throne of his glory” (Matt. 25:31). So we see a little of the importance of the Second Coming of Christ. All the saints, whether in Heaven or on the earth, are waiting for redeemed bodies and re wards. The Church awaits her glory. Israel, the Gen tiles, and the creation itself are all waiting. Satan is awaiting his doom; Christ is waiting for His Bride and His inheritance. Soon He shall come for us, His blood-bought people. Perhaps today! The Bridegroom will take His Bride into the Father’s House. In the little while that is left, may we truly know what it is “to serve the living and true God; And to wait for his Son from heaven” (1 Thess. 1:9, 10). “Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is. And every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself, even as he is pure” (1 John 3:2,3). TH E K I N G ' S B U S I N E S S
many mansions. PAGE FOURTEEN
Made with FlippingBook - Online magazine maker