SERMON XIII. THE MANSION PREPARED FOR THE TRUE JOHN xiv. 2, 3. In my Father's house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you unto myself, that where I am, there ye may be also. THE disciples, at the moment, when the words of the text fell from the lips of the compassionate Saviour of the world, were in a state of the deepest dejection. He had just declared, that "one of them should betray him." He had warned another, of the highest pretensions among them, that "before the cock crew, he should deny him thrice." And he had addedto these warnings the melancholy declaration that, weak as these predicted offences proved them to be, they were about to lose him, who had been so long their Guide, their Strength, and never-failing Comforter: "Behold, the hour cometh, yea, is now come, that ye shall be scattered every man to his own." Were not the hearts of these lowly and affectionate men likely to sink under such intelligence? But the Son of God "knoweth the adversity of his people ;" and, reading either in their countenances or their hearts the sorrows 6 by which they were disquieted, he addresses them in the affectionate words with which the chapter opens: "Let not your hearts be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in me." In other words, "Let not your hearts be troubled: ye believe already in God, the holy Judge of the world; believe also in me, its Saviour and its Redeemer. If, conscious of the infirmities and corruptions of your nature, you shrink from the contemplation of a Being of infinite purity and justice, regard him also as the God of love,' as a God softening the severer attributes of his character by the tenderest affection, as God in Christ reconciling the world unto himself;' and, thus regarding him, cast away your fears." But, not satisfied with thus calling upon them, in general terms, to believe on himself, he goes on to suggest to them the other topics of encouragement noticed in the text.-In a world like this, my Christian brethren, where almost every man finds the difficulty of " well-doing," and needs encouragement to pursue the path of his pilgrimage with constancy and joy, we cannot err by endeavouring to search out the full meaning, and to cheer our minds by the tenderness, of this address of our Lord. Let us, then, proceed to examine the words of the text in the order in which they occur. And may He who thus speaks to us be pleased to bless our endeavour to avail ourselves of his compassion and love! 1. The first assurance by which our Lord in the text encourages his true servants, is conveyed in these words: "In my Father's house are many mansions." He was speaking to men who had abandoned their interests and their homes for his sake;who had attached themselves to the fortunes of One who, "though the foxes have holes, and the birds of the air have nests, had not where to lay his head;"-who were, perhaps, often spurned, on account of their profession of the Gospel, even from the humble doors of the friends who had once loved and welcomed them. And to these destitute, fearful, and despised men, he says, "In my Father's house are many mansions." Consider the force of this declaration. In the first place, heaven is here described, not as the mere slight and shifting tent of the desert, set up at night, and taken down in the morning; but as a "house," a substantial and enduring dwelling; or, as it is elsewhere described, "a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens." This house is said to be his "Father's." In other words, it is the abode, not of a stranger, but of "his Father," and therefore of "our Father." And in this house are said to be "mansions ;" or, as the original word indicates, "quiet and enduring chambers," which no invader can penetrate, and no lapse of time destroy. And these mansions are farther stated to be "many." It is as though he had said to them, "Your present poverty, your destitution of all the outward comforts and privileges of life, supplies no ground of alarm as to the future: in my Father's house are many mansions'-there is space for all." The city which has "no need of the sun, neither of the moon," but of which "God is the light," is wide as the wants of the redeemed. "Nations shall walk in the light of it." Every happy spirit of the "multitude which no man can number," shall find there his appropriate throne, -a seat of uninterrupted serenity and joy. How numerous, my brethren, are the topics of encouragement involved in such a declaration! The sincere Christian, still labouring under the pressure of his infirmity, and of his remaining corruptions, is sometimes tempted to think, that, however a place in the region of joy may be granted to those who have made high attainments in religion, none will be found for so poor a creature as himself. But he now catches the blessed intelligence, "In my Father's house are many mansions ;" and ventures, in the hope that in so ample a dwelling some obscure place at least may be discovered even for himself, to "lift up his head with joy." Again; the servant of God, although released from fear as to his own circumstances, may have his sympathy painfully excited by the condition of others. When he contemplates the multitude spread over the face of the world, and remembers the declaration, "Few there be who enter in," his heart is shocked at the prospect of the small number of which the kingdom of glory shall consist. But he also is saluted with the happy intelligence," in my Father's house are many mansions." Although, my brethren, the number of devout Christians, at any given time or place, may be small, yet the number, of all ages and all countries, who shall arise to glory from this fallen and guilty world, will not be small. Is there not much to establish the conviction, that this constitutes only one out of innumerable worlds? And is it not possible, that, of all the orbs which roll through the regions of infinite space, this alone may be guilty, this the only prodigal of the great family of God; and that, therefore, from this alone, any offender will sink into the gulf of perdition? Who, in this view of the subject, shall attempt to say what may be the number of happy spirits who from hour to hour are winging their flight from the various regions of temporal existence to the unchanging world of glory? This we know, that "in our Father's house are many mansions ;" and there shall doubtless be holy and triumphant spirits to fill them all. How delightful is the contemplation! Here, as it has been finely observed, "numbers imply difficulty and distress," because they soon begin to press upon the means of subsistence and supply. And numbers, it may be added, in like manner, assist in the propagation of disease, increase the danger of tumult, and strengthen the contagion of vice. But, in that blessed world, there is neither sorrow nor sin; and the effect of numbers will be only to quicken the devotion and strengthen the hallelujahs of the blessed. There shall be "ten thousand times ten thousand" voices; but one heart shall animate, and one song employ them all: "Worthy art Thou, to take the book, and open the seals thereof; for thou wast slain, and hast redeemed us to God by Thy blood, out of every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation." But, I come to consider the next clause of the text. II. It is said, secondly, in the text, "If it were not so, I would have told you." In other words, "If you, my disciples, were deceiving yourselves in your conceptions of the world of spirits; if you had erred in imagining that the heavenly house |