watchful eyes to see them everywhere, so it is in the Father's house. Even the beauty and the glory and the bliss will be free from monotony. He who enamels the fields with flowers and scatters pearls in the deep sea, He who paints His bow upon the clouds and weaves a halo round the sun and moon, will not let the home of the happy lack any novelty for the children of His love.

But stability as well as variety and room will characterise that home. Familiar as we are with cities on fire, with homes entombed by earthquakes, or overthrown by the ploughshare of war; dwelling as we do meantime in tents of clay, it is something to be assured of a place in a home whose builder and maker is God. There are many things yet to be shaken in the universe, but there is a rest that remaineth for true men. It is not here, however, that that rest may be enjoyed in fullest measure. There are too many things that are daily shaken to admit of that. Even Jesus, in His temporary stay on earth, felt it to be so, and hence He was glad to go home to the Father's house. For only there is there true stability. But He would share that gladness with all who love and follow Him. And so it is that He directs thought away from the

changeful on earth to the unchanging in heaven.

Hence it is the family life that is the prominent and crowning feature of that home. All the other features exist for this. The play of parental and filial feeling; the presence of the Saviour raising into sublimity all thought, all feeling, all choice; the Man, Christ Jesus, wearing our humanity and not ashamed to wear it, and in it coming into contact with all the glorified—this it is that crowns with glory the conception of the Father's house. "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."

Out on a holiday excursion one sees many a fine house, many a pretty garden, and many a pleasant park; and though Christianly content with what falls to one's portion, can yet say, "How pleasant it would be to live in one of these fine houses." But one never sees a dwelling-house into which death does not enter, nor a garden where the flowers do not wither, nor a park over which no storm sweeps. In the light of such a thought how significant are the Saviour's words, "My Father's House."

Imagine the Prince of Wales describing to a

number of country children his father's house at Windsor Castle or Balmoral Castle, and, after telling all about the history of the building, its structure, beauty, situation, and attractions, with all the wealth and adornments within and without, he were to add, "but my father is dead." In the light of such a thought think of the Saviour's words-"My Father's House."

Think of the Crown Prince of Prussia sitting in the midst of a circle of foreigners, and relating to them all about his aged and royal father's house, and then adding with a heavy heart, that in the last week or two his father had been twice shot at, and the last time all but killed. The uncertainties of both house and inhabitant are startling. No such startling uncertainties, however, are suggested when Jesus says, "My Father's House." The "living Father's" eternal house will be a rare home for men. No wonder that John should think that such a hope had power in it to purify.

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CHAPTER XIV.

THE FATHER'S SUNBRIGHT CHILDREN.

THROUGH the door that was opened to John much of the inner glory was seen. Among its attractive features are the attitudes and acts of triumphant men. To those who

"Recognise

A grandeur in the beatings of the heart,”

life becomes sublimed as it rises into the future glory. As suns are only "sunflowers of a higher light," so wise men, like the stainless stars, shine on forever in the Divine Father's smile. The fierce light of the eternal throne has nothing in it to blister the eyeballs of men who, in Christ, have seen God. For God is Father as well as King. He has a family as well as a kingdom. His family is the Royal Family, whose thoughts and ways have all become kingly. Princeliness characterises all desire and all expectation. Thus the family is commensurate with the kingdom. All life is loyal to the royal will. The sceptre of power is held

in the hand of love, so that to obey is joy and rapture.

When the Saviour tells us that the righteous shall "shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father," He gives us in a striking figure a vivid glimpse of their place and power, their beauty and glory, the honour they receive, and the influence they exert. The manifestation of the sons of God is to be a very grand thing. Counted worthy of the kingdom of God, every veil of obscurity is to be lifted off their life. Called to the "obtaining of the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ," their character and circumstances are to be such as to secure that Jesus shall "be admired in them." Sunbright in soul and surroundings, no cloud shall pass upon the disk of their destiny. Jesus knew how to use figures; He knew how much truth to put into them, so as never to excite a hope that could not be realised. The privileges and pursuits of a saved family, exalted to the dignity of a kingdom, with the Great Kingly Father in their midst, are held up by Jesus as a sunbright future, whose attraction should be mighty enough upon men. The sovereign's pleasure in a subject's dignity had never been so expressed before. Such an attainable ideal, were it only