MOVING HOUSE
By C H SpurgeonFROM SWORD & TROWEL 2005 No
2 - from Spurgeon’s Almanack
We have often been advised to rise from Nightingale Lane to higher
ground, to escape a portion of the fogs and damps which hang almost always over our
smoky city. In the good providence of God we have been led to do so, and we are now upon
the southern heights. We did not seek out the place, but it came into our hands in a very
remarkable manner, and we were bound to accept it. We have left the three-windowed room
on the right, which has been so long our study, and the delightful garden where we were
wont to walk and meditate. Not without many a regret have we transferred our nest from
our dear old home to the Hill of Beulah.
What a type of our departure out of this world is a removal from an abode in
which we have lived for years! Many thoughts have thronged our mind while we have been
on the wing from the spot where we have dwelt for more than twenty years. Our musings
have worked out the parallel between our change and ‘the last remove’, and here are the
notes
of it.
On such a day we must quit. There is no altering it; we must leave
all the dear familiar chambers, and the cosy nooks, and comfortable corners. The matter is
settled, and there is no altering it; therefore, take another look round, and prepare to say
farewell. Just thus shall it be when the inevitable decree shall go forth, ‘Arise ye and depart,
for this is not your rest.’ There will be no evasion of the order, no lingering, even for an
hour, beyond the time. We are summoned by an authority which must be obeyed.
The warning being given, the dwelling becomes a mere lodging, a place in which
we are no more inhabitants, but transient visitors. The whole character of the house is
altered, and we ourselves act a different part; the freeholder becomes a temporary tenant,
and the child at home changes into an expectant traveller. Were we fully alive to the fact of
our approaching death, our position in this body and this world would be far other than it
often is; we should no longer regard ourselves as fixtures, but as strangers and sojourners,
soon to be removed.
When the actual flitting is near, the furniture begins to be packed up, stores are
arranged in cases, and all things are set in marching order. We have scarce a table to eat at,
or a chair to sit upon, for we are on the move. So will our last hours call for a setting of the
house in order, and a preparing to depart. Small comfort will earthly gear afford us then; in
fact, there will remain nothing which we can rest upon, nothing will remain for us. Our
hearts must cherish a good hope of a new and better mansion, or they will have a wretched
time of it in the hour of departure.
We are going, and we leave the dear old house with keen regrets; it would be a
pity if we could do otherwise, for it would appear as if we had been unhappy in our abode.
It is natural that the soul should be loath to quit the body in which it has resided so long.
For who, to dumb forgetfulness a prey,
This pleasing, anxious being e’er resigned,
Left the warm precincts of this house of clay,
Nor cast one longing, lingering look behind!
The joy of the believer is that he will be no loser by his removal; he has
elsewhere a house not made with hands, eternal in the Heavens; he will not be houseless,
but will enter into his everlasting habitation. Away there, on the hill-tops of glory, stand the
mansions which Christ has prepared for them that love Him. Shall we dread the hour when
we shall take possession of our palace? No, rather let us look forward with joyful
expectancy. This, indeed, is a notable part of the removal experience, this looking forward
to the new home. Our minds are up and away in the house which we are to occupy for the
future, and this takes away regret at leaving the old abode. O to have one’s heart and mind
in Heaven! Let us already sit in the heavenly places with Christ Jesus, for this He has raised
us up together with Himself.
Reader, when you have to remove from earth, have you a dwelling place in
Heaven? You are only a tenant at will to the great Lord of all, and you may have notice to
quit at any time; if such notice came today, where would you go? Have you ever considered
this question? Or will you take a leap in the dark? If you have no mansion above, is it not
time you considered your latter end, and the dread alternative of endless joy or misery? A
little thought may save a tempest of remorse, therefore sit still a while and consider the
world to come. Remember, that both for this world and the next your best friend is Jesus,
and that if you trust Him He will surely save you. No time can ever be better for the
beginning of that trust than this very instant.
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