in heaven but thee?" It would not be heaven if He were absent. Its harps
would become unstrung, and its voices would lose their tune. When eternity
dawns upon our disembodied spirits, and the heavenly home appears in view,
with its golden streets, and living temples, and crowns, and thrones, and
joys, bursting on our sight; while seraphim and cherubim, and angels, and
the sainted spirits of departed friends--our parents and children, and
kindred, bend over its threshold to hail our entrance with songs and shouts
of everlasting joy,--oh, what a glorious heritage will this be! But all
this will fade into insignificance before the Lamb on the throne. He will
absorb all interest; and will be all and in all to its unfading treasures.
Oh, there is much in that celestial home to allure us there. Its "fields
arrayed in living green, and rivers of delight." Its blood-washed throng,
its crowns and peace, the angelic choir, our friends and
relations,--perhaps a father and a mother, perhaps a husband or wife,
perhaps a brother or a sister, or a child,--a lovely babe;--all these make
heaven dear, and draw us there. They beckon us to themselves; they are
waiting for us now, and on the glowing pinions of love they come thronging
as ministering spirits, to our hearts.

But what are all these attractions of that spirit-home, compared with Jesus
there as the crowning glory of them all! other things are stars and
streamlets. He is the central sun,--the source of all. Take Him away, and
all the brightness and the glory of that heavenly world would become
shrouded in darkness and desolation.

There is a living union between the Christian's home on earth, and his home
in heaven. Christ represents our nature and advocates our cause there. The
saints on earth and the inhabitants of heaven "but one communion make." The
latter minister to the former. "Are they not all ministering spirits, sent
to minister unto them who shall be the heirs of salvation?"