A HOME IN HEAVEN.

Our pilgrimage on earth is one of unrest, is one of toil, sorrow, and affliction. Here we have no abiding place, "no continuing city." Our "days on earth are few, and are full of trouble." There is no permanency here. From the time of the first infant breath and short unconscious slumber on a mother's bosom to the latest hour and moment of life, we are ever restless and moving onward, and endure all the disquietude and sufferings of mind and body incident to our mortal existence. The original sin of our first parents, blighted all hope of permanence or enduring happiness on this earth. At the time of their fall, God pronounced as to our existence here, saying: "Cursed is the ground for thy sake; in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life; thorns and thistles shall it bring forth to thee. In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread till thou return to the ground; for out of it wast thou taken: dust thou art and unto dust shalt thou return." "And the spirit shall return to God who gave it."

Yet to the true and faithful followers of the blessed Redeemer—who ransomed the world by the pouring out of His own blood, and opened up a way whereby we may escape the further penalties of a violated law—rest will come by-and-by. "There is rest for the weary," and mansions prepared for them in the "City of God," in that better world. Remember, the Saviour said:

"I go to prepare a place for you, that where I am there ye may also be. To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the tree of life, which is in the midst of the Paradise of God. The same shall be clothed in white raiment; and I will not blot out his name out of the book of life, but I will confess his name before my Father and before his angels. He that overcometh shall inherit all things, and I will be his God, and he shall be my son." "Whosoever will, let him come." "I will give unto him that is athirst of the fountain of the water of life freely." "They shall live for ever and ever."

There the redeemed of the Lord shall, with their blessed Saviour, "inherit the kingdom," where the glory of God illumines the "city," and throws its radiance over all the vast realm. O what a delightful place for a permanent "Home!" How singularly different it contrasts with our residence on earth. Here we have to endure toil, pain, and death; there, rest, happiness, and eternal life. See here the care-worn, weary husband, toiling and striving against contending billows and waves of misfortune, to earn a support for a helpless, dependent family; perhaps his strivings are the more difficult because of pain of body or anguish of mind. Disease in some form may be preying upon his vitality, even through long years of existence, and he knows that it will eventually conquer, and consign him to his grave. Or, if bodily health prevails, the mind may be tortured and distracted at witnessing the sufferings of a beloved wife, or children, as one by one they are smitten down or snatched away by death; or still more poignant the grief and anguish he endures because of the alienation of affections, or family tumults, of strifes and contentions. See that wife and mother lingering by the bedside of a devoted, yet now dying husband, or clasping to her tortured and heaving bosom the lifeless form of a beloved child, and yet powerless to save the one or call back the other. These are the heart-strugglings in the tempest of life. Soon they will be over. A few years more, at most, and then all will be still; this mortality will be silent in the grave.

But of that "home in heaven." "Glorious things are spoken of thee, O City of God." There love, peace, and joy forever reigns. There is the "full fruition" and realization of "the hope of the glory of God." There "their lines have fallen to them in pleasant places." There they realize "fulness of joy," and their heritage "pleasures for evermore." There they find "that inheritance which is incorruptible, undefiled, and that fadeth not away." There they have a home in an enduring city, whose foundations are eternal. There the palms of victory; and crowns of glory. There they walk the gold-paved streets of the city, or wander at pleasure in the 'Garden of the Lord,' or amidst forests green, or pleasant groves. There the crystal fountains play their sparkling waters in the light of eternal day, and the "river of life" flows "from beneath the throne of God," onward and onward, meandering through, and encircling the vast realm of that heavenly empire. There perennial spring, and never-fading flowers. There old age and decrepitude are never known, but all clothed upon with "garments of righteousness," will live and dwell in perpetual immortal youth, through the ever-recurring cycles of endless eternity. Angels of God are there. The Prophets, Apostles, and Martyrs are there; ministers of God are there; some of our kindred friends are there; others of them will soon be there. The redeemed of earth, who were accepted of the Lord are there, and the remainder of the "ransomed hosts," are now pressing on, or coming after, and will all be there, and form an innumerable company which no one can number, each can form pleasant associations there, never to be broken up, "For nothing shall disturb in all the holy mountains." Reader, are you striving for that HAPPY HOME?