Surely no part of God's most precious Word is more so to the believer than the record of those last scenes of our Lord's life, and especially of those last words, saturated, so to speak, with the tenderest affection, the most considerate thoughtfulness, and sweetest communications;-and of these, no portion has given, through the long centuries that have wearily revolved since He left, more comfort to the mourning, more confidence to the feeble, more cheer to those who were departing this life, than those words found in the fourteenth chapter of John's gospel. They appear to be the full, sweet, musical voice itself that spoke once long before, through the prophet of old :"' Comfort ye, comfort ye My people,' saith your God."

Let us, then, dear fellow-pilgrim, ponder a single clause of them together :" I go to prepare a place for you."

Have we not often asked in what possible way did any place in that glory called His " Father's house " need preparing for such poor things as we ? Could there be any thing there that lacked " preparation " for a poor redeemed sinner? No doubt, the Lord's people have ever fed upon the precious comfort of the words, and many a tempest-tossed spirit has been stilled, like unconscious Genesareth of old, by the infinitely tender considerate love that recognized something lacking even in His Father's house ere it could be said to be prepared for the reception of His redeemed, even though it might not grasp the full bearing of the words;-nay, I feel sure that to many who read this it will be no new thought; but such will not refuse to enjoy it with me again, whilst to some it may bring, in God's mercy, a little light on these few words that shall make Him who spoke them the dearer. So may it be !

Then let us look at it:-let our eyes follow Him into His Father's house, and view the scene there. We find the vail withdrawn in the epistle to the Hebrews-the heavens are opened, and we may make count of their glories:Angels and thrones and principalities and powers :all the beauty and wealth patterned by the tabernacle of old here seen in living reality:all, too, of one heart and mind, without discordant note, all filled with joy and praise. For so it has been ever. Praise has never lacked there. Every movement of God only gave fresh cause of joyful praise, as we see when the foundations of our earth were laid, " the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy." Ah, who can tell the glories of that scene? But is that what our hearts crave for to give them rest ? No, surely. Glories in themselves may be the opposite of restful. To illustrate:you are introduced into a palace on earth; every thing about you there is rich with the glories of earth; gold glitters on every hand, and each apartment, from floor to ceiling, is filled with its evidences of the wealth and refinement of the owner. Would all that make you feel the more at home? No, surely. Sad and lonely would your heart be amidst all that grandeur. It has been made with another capacity, and if that be lost sight of, every thing is gone. It must find love. It insists on that. But introduce the same one into the lowliest cottage, and there let him pillow his head on a breast he knows, of whose love and sympathy he is well assured, and this, he says, is my home, this is my rest. Now that is just the need that our blessed Saviour recognized in His grace; and He says, as it were, "I will go, so that when you reach My Father's house, you may find there what will make you feel at home-make it "home" for you.

Let us now throw the light of that beautiful scripture we were considering in the October number of help and food (p. 270). It was of very similar bearing. God Himself there was seeking a rest, and Solomon was " preparing a place " for Him. Nor did, in that case, "glories" satisfy God's heart any more than they would ours in this. Not till He heard the sound of joyful praise, which spoke of overfilled hearts that knew Him, did He fill it with His presence. Exactly the same here :our blessed Lord is fully acquainted with man's need, and meets it as perfectly as (speaking reverently) the trumpet-sound of praise met God's requirements in the case of His earthly house. Let me hear there the sound of a divine yet human voice; let that voice be of One who, whilst God Himself, has yet tasted every sorrow of a walk as a poor man through this world;-let me find One there on whose human sympathy none ever called in vain,-whose eyes have shed human tears (just like ours) in the presence of human sorrow and death that we know so well;-nay, more, One who, in His divine love for us, has washed us in His own blood from every thing that would make us unfitted for that place. Ah, my reader, can we not feel "at home" there, even in those courts ? Is not that the place in all the universe in which we should feel at home? Does not that meet the need of our hearts? Is not the "place prepared" now by His being in it?

But what spot in heaven is thus made "homelike" for a poor redeemed sinner? Just inside its gates? as some dear souls, with low thoughts of His love, speak. No; we should not feel at rest there. Amongst the angel-ranks, or in the courts of the principalities and powers of those bright scenes ? No, not there has He chosen for us. But see where He is !-sitting at the right hand of God in the place of nearness and power. There is He, and there, after He has fulfilled His word, and come again and received His own to Himself, we see, in Rev. 4:, the crowned throned elders nearest the throne of God-nearest the center of all glories, and yet perfectly at rest, perfectly at peace, perfectly at home,-they prepared perfectly for the place, and the place prepared as perfectly for them. F. C. J.