Religion Considered as a Preparation for Superintending a Home of Your Own upon Earth, and for Going to an Eternal Home in Heaven

You are preparing, in four present situation, to act the part to which Providence may have destined you upon earth; and it is every way probable, according to the natural course of events, that in a few years you will be found at the head of a household of your own. This opens to you not only an interesting seine, but also an important and very responsible o le. From the nature and constitution of society, the destiny of one generation is powerfully affected by the conduct of that which precedes it. The husband influences the wife, the father the ch Id, and the master the servant; consequently, of how much moment is the character of the head of a family! How many households are scenes of discord and wretchedness, and are at length reduced to poverty and ruin, by a drunken, or pleasure-loving, or idle father! How many who enter life with the fairest prospects of comfort and success, thro’ v all away by sin! They draw some lovely and vir uous young woman into the companionship of life with them, see a familyrising around, and are bouu4 by every tie of justice and honour to provide foj the crmfort of their wife, and the prosperity of their children; but habits of indolence and extravagance had been acquired in youth, and all goes wrong till ruin drives them from that home, which industry and sobriety would have enabled them to maintain; at length the wife dies of a broken heart, and the children become vagrants in the world. Religion would have prevented all this, and preserved that home to be a scene of order, peace, plenty, and respectability.

But even where things do not reach this point, and there is neither vice nor want, but sober morals and success, still, think of a family without religion — an atheistic household, in which there is no worship, no instruction, no regard to eternity — a mere temporal confederation, though still followed with eternal consequences. For the souls of their children and servants, every father and mother is answerable to God; and oh what an account will irreligious ones have to render to him at the day of judgment! What an eternity will such parents have to spend in the bottomless pit, with those children whose souls sank thither through their guilty neglect!

Religion will fit you to preside with dignity over your household: it will add the sanctity of the Christian to the authority of the parent and the master, and render obedience, on the part of your children and servants, more pleasant and easy, as given to one who has such high claims to it. How will your family prayers tend to keep up in all other respects family order! Piety Will strengthen and soften every domestic tie, as well as consecrate every domestic occupation. It will lighten the cares of business, brighten the scenes of prosperity, and yield consolation in the dark season of family sorrow. If called to leave your wife and family, it will mitigate the pang of separation by the prospect of eternal union in a world where death has no power: or if required to surrender a pious wife or children, it will prevent the sting of that sorrow which has no hope. What a bliss then to a family, what a benign and heavenly inmate, is sincere, consistent eminent religion, as it shines forth in the form and character of a godly father and master.

And now, young man, let me entreat you to consider what is the true character of your present life, viewed in relation to Ik* life that is to come. Are you now at home, 01 ape you away from home? Let the poet answer.

“Strangers into life tve come,
And dying is but going home.”

This world is not our home, and unhappy is the man who makes it such. HEAVEN is THE HOME OF IMMORTAL MAN. During t; e whole time we are upon earth, we are away from home; and away from it, that we may prepare, like a child at school or a youth in his apprenticeship, to go at length finally and fully, to possess and enjoy it. This is not your rest. How short and uncertain is your continuance upon earth! You cannot remain many years, you may not remain one; for what is your life but “a vapour, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away?” At a moment’s notice you may depart. A flash of lightning, a stroke of apoplexy, a ruptured blood vessel, the overturn of a boat or a carriage, may plunge you suddenly into eternity. You are suspended over that vast gulf by the brittle thread of human life. Instead of living to old age, you may not live to be of age; instead of living to be a master, you may die before your apprenticeship is finished. Place your finger on your pulse, and say, “If this stop but a second, and any second it may stop, I am instantly in heaven or hell.” Can you call this home? Ought you to feel at home here? Should you wish to consider this your home? For what a home is it, but such a one as he had whose dwelling was among the tombs? Home! What! would you desire it to be such, where there is so much to disturb, distress, and annoy? No. God has provided some better thing for us: heaven, I repeat, is the home of immortal man.

Think what heaven is, and how long it lasts. Heaven is the habitation of Jehovah, the dwelling-place of God, the palace of the King eternal, immortal, invisible. Heaven is the residence of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, where he displays the glory which he had with the Father before the world was. Heaven is the house of many mansions, inhabited by cherubim and seraphim, the innumerable company of angels, and the spirits of just men made perfect. Heaven is the world without sin, curse, death, or sorrow. Heaven is the state of perfect knowledge, holiness, love, and happiness. And it is everlasting. Our Lord calls it, eternal life. The apostle describes it as a house not made with hands, eternal in the h eavens. What a home! This for man! Can it be? Is it a splendid vision only? No. It is a glorious reality. It is this, which Christ died to obtain for his people. It is this, which the Scriptures were written to reveal. It is this, to which the hope of the pious in every age has aspired; and the prospect of which has cheered them amidst all the sorrows of life. “Two more stiles,” said the martyr, as he walked across the fields to the place of execution, “and I shall be at home, at my Father’s house.” “I am going home,” is the common and joyful exclamation of many dying Christians. And what a home! The home, of saints, of martyrs, of angels, of Christ, of God!

What is the preparation for such a home? Religion: nothing but religion. This home is a holy one. Heaven is in fact the home of religion itself: for here it is only in a wayfaring, pilgrimage state. Religion is a heavenly visitant upon earth, travelling back to her native skies, and will never be al rest till she finds herself in the presence of God her Divine Parent. Nothing, therefore, but religion, can prepare a soul for heaven. You maj have a good knowledge of the arts; you may have a competent, or even profound acquaintance with learning and science; you may have talents of a public order, that fit you for action and for influence among your fellow men; but what have these things to do with preparation for heaven? What reference have they to the eternal state? Nothing but holiness will prepare us for a holy heaven. Would a knowledge of trade, agriculture, or science, prepare any one, without the knowledge and manners of a courtier, to dwell at court? How much less in heaven! No, it is sincere, experimental piety alone, that can prepare us to enter into the presence of God. The heavenly character must be acquired on earth, or it can never be acquired at -all. Begin then at once. It is a preparation for eternity, and who can commence such a work too early? You may have but little time allotted for this transcendently momentous affair, “Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might; for there is no work, nor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom, in the grave, whither thou goest.” Live for eternity; live for heaven: and the only way to do this, is to live by faith. Once in heaven, you will never leave it. There will be no going out for ever. You will quit your Father’s house no more. The celestial family will never break up. Once at home there, you will be at home for ever.

But neglect religion, and you can never be admitted to the regions of immortality. Your parents may be there, but you will be excluded and shut up -in outer darkness. I can imagine you m the day of judgment, pressing to lay hold upon the hand of your father, but he turns from you as from an object of disgust, exclaiming, “Your father no longer.” You then direct an imploring eye to the mother that bore you, and laying hold on her robe piteously exclaim, “My mother, do you not know me?” Gathering up her garment of light, she shakes you off, with the dreadful disownment, “I know not the enemies of my Lord.” They pass to the right hand of the Judge, while you, by a power you cannot resist, are sent to the left — and what remains? You will present from that day, the melancholy spectacle of an outcast from heaven, a homeless immortal, a vagrant in the universe, a wretched wanderer through eternity.