The Old House Taken Down to Be Rebuilt

‘* If we lived in a house of our oum, and the walls became decayed, a7id the roof ready to drop dowji upon otcr heads, we would desire to remove and depart for a while, but we should 7iot therefore give up the ground, ajid the materials of the house. No, we would have it built up in a better Even thus the soul desires to leave the poor frail tenement of the body, but not that the body may be utterly destroyed: it quits it with the hope of having the house of clay rebuilt in more glorious form. “Not that we would be unclothed,” saith the apostle, “but clothed upon with our house which is from heaven;” not that we would be turned out of house and home; but that we would enter upon our better and permanent abode, which the Lord will surely provide for us.

The Lord doth not despise this house of clay: he will rebuild it, and we shall inhabit it for ever. Wherefore let us be comforted when the wind blows through the chinks, and the rain drips through the roof; it will all the sooner come down, and all the sooner will it be restored. The little while in which we shall be unhoused will cause us no inconvenience, for even then we shall be with the Lord; wherefore let us in all things be of good cheer.

O, my Lord, thou hast made me to know that this body will soon cease to be a body for me, therefore I will not pamper it. But thou promisest it a resurrection, therefore I will not defile it. Teach me how, in the body or out of the body, to dwell in thee, and honour thy holy name.