The Life of Duty, volume II | Page 2

when I make up My jewels."
MUTUAL HELP (Female Friendly Society) S. MARK iii. 35.
"Whosoever shall do the Will of God, the same is My brother, and My
sister, and My Mother."

SERMON XXXV.
THE OPEN DOOR.
(Trinity Sunday.)
REV. iv. 1.
"A door was opened in Heaven."
When Dante had written his immortal poems on Hell and Purgatory,

the people of Italy used to shrink back from him with awe, and whisper,
"see the man who has looked upon Hell." To-day we can in fancy look
on the face of the beloved Apostle, who saw Heaven opened, and the
things which shall be hereafter. We have summed up the great story of
the Gospel, and have trodden the path of salvation from Bethlehem to
Calvary. We have seen Jesus, the only Son of God, dying for our sins,
and rising again for our justification, and ascending into Heaven to
plead for us as our eternal great High Priest. We have heard of the
coming of God the Holy Ghost, the gift of the Father, sent in the name
of the Son. To-day, the Festival of the Blessed Trinity, Three Persons,
yet one God, we are permitted to gaze for a moment through the open
door, on the Home of God, yes, and the Home of God's people, who are
redeemed with the Precious Blood of Christ.
Now, there are many people who never think of Heaven at all, and
many who think of it in a wrong way. When we were baptised, the door
was opened for us in Heaven, and Jesus said to us, "Behold, I set before
you an open door." From that day we were permitted to look with the
eye of faith upon those good things which pass man's understanding.
But some of us would not look up. We were like travellers going along
a muddy road on a starlight night, and who look down on the foul, dirty
path, and never upwards to the bright sky above. My brother, turn your
eyes from this world's dirty ways, look away from your selfish work,
and your selfish pleasure, look up from the things which are seen and
are temporal, from the fashion of this world which passeth away, and
gaze through the open door of Revelation at the things which shall be
hereafter. I said that many people never think of Heaven at all. These
are they who love this world too well to think of the world to come,
they are of the earth, earthy. "As is the earthy, such are they that are
earthy, and as is the Heavenly, such also are they that are Heavenly."
I said, too, that many think of Heaven in a wrong way, as did the lady
of fashion, who fancied Heaven would be like the London season, only
better, as there would be no disagreeable people. Now, if we are to
think rightly of Heaven, we must do as S. John did. He heard a voice
saying, "Come up hither, and I will show the things which shall be
hereafter. And immediately he was in the Spirit." We must ask for the

Holy Spirit to lift our hearts and minds to Heaven; we must try to go up
higher in our thoughts, words, and works; we must try to get above the
world, above ourselves, so shall we be able to look, though with bowed
head and shaded eyes, through the open door. Let us reverently do so
now, and see what we can learn of the things which shall be hereafter.
First, I think we learn that Heaven and earth are not, as some people
fancy, two very different places, very far apart. The Church of Christ is
one family, bound together by one faith, one Baptism, one hope,
acknowledging one God and Father of us all. This family has one
Home; here in earth it dwells in a lower chamber, after death it passes
into a higher room of God's great House. The Apostle, speaking of the
Church, says, "Ye are come, (not ye will come,) unto Mount Sion, and
unto the city of the living God, the Heavenly Jerusalem, and to an
innumerable company of angels, to the general assembly and Church of
the firstborn which are written in Heaven, and to God the Judge of all,
and to the spirits of just men made perfect, and to Jesus the Mediator of
the New Covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling, that speaketh better
things than that of Abel."
In a word, our Heavenly life should commence when we are baptised,
day by day ought we to grow in grace, and when we have grown
sufficiently, God takes us to the upper Room above. It is this mistake of
separating Heaven and earth which