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Sermon #109 The New Park Street Pulpit 1

Volume 3

GOING HOME—A CHRISTMAS SERMON

NO. 109

A SERMON DELIVERED ON SABBATH MORNING, DECEMBER 21, 1856,

BY THE REV. C. H. SPURGEON,

AT THE MUSIC HALL, ROYAL SURREY GARDENS.

“Go home to your friends and tell them how great things the Lord has donefor you and has had compassion on you.”Mark 5:19.THE case of the man here referred to is a very extraordinary one—it occupiesa place among the memorabilia of Christ’s life, perhaps as high asanything which is recorded by either of the Evangelists. This poor wretchbeing possessed with a legion of evil spirits had been driven to somethingworse than madness. He fixed his home among the tombs where he dweltby night and day and was the terror of all those who passed by. The authoritieshad attempted to curb him. He had been bound with fetters andchains but in the paroxysms of his madness he had torn the chains insunder and broken the fetters in pieces.Attempts had been made to reclaim him but no man could tame him.He was worse than the wild beasts—for they might be tamed. But hisfierce nature would not yield. He was a misery to himself for he would runupon the mountains by night and day—crying and howling fearfully—cutting himself with the sharp flints and torturing his poor body in themost frightful manner. Jesus Christ passed by. He said to the devils,“Come out of him.” The man was healed in a moment—he fell down at Jesus’feet. He became a rational being—an intelligent man. Yes, what ismore—a convert to the Savior.Out of gratitude to his Deliverer, he said, “Lord, I will follow You whereverYou go. I will be Your constant companion and Your servant, permitme so to be.” “No,” said Christ, “I esteem your motive, it is one of gratitudeto Me but if you would show your gratitude, Go home to your friends andtell them how great things the Lord has done for you and has had compassionon you.”Now this teaches us a very important fact, namely this—that true religiondoes not break in sunder the bonds of family relationship. True religionseldom encroaches upon that sacred, I had almost said Divine institutioncalled home. It does not separate men from their families and makethem aliens to their flesh and blood. Superstition has done that. An awfulsuperstition, which calls itself Christianity, has sundered men from theirkind. But true religion has never done so.Going Home—A Christmas Sermon Sermon #109www.spurgeongems.org Volume 32

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Why, if I might be allowed to do such a thing, I would seek out thehermit in his lonely cavern and I would go to him and say, “Friend, if youare what you profess to be—a true servant of the living God and not a hypocrite,as I guess you are—if you are a true Believer in Christ and wouldshow forth what He has done for you, upset that pitcher, eat the last pieceof your bread. Leave this dreary cave, wash your face, untie your hempengirdle—and if you would show your gratitude, go home to your friends andtell them what great things the Lord has done for you. Can you edify thesere leaves of the forest? Can the beasts learn to adore that God whomyour gratitude should strive to honor? Do you hope to convert these rocksand wake the echoes into songs? No, go back—dwell with your friends,reclaim your kinship with men and unite again with your fellows—for thisis Christ’s approved way of showing gratitude.”And I would go to every monastery and every nunnery and say to themonks, “Come out Brethren, come out! If you are what you say you are,servants of God, go home to your friends. No more of this absurd discipline.It is not Christ’s rule. You are acting differently from what He wouldhave you do, go home to your friends!” And to the sisters of mercy wewould say, “Be sisters of mercy to your own sisters—go home to yourfriends—take care of your aged parents. Turn your own houses into convents—do not sit here nursing your pride by a disobedience to Christ’srule, which says, “go home to your friends.” “Go home to your friends andtell them how great things the Lord has done for you and has had compassionon you.”The love of a solitary and ascetic life—which is by some considered tobe a Divine virtue—is neither more nor less than a disease of the mind. Inthe ages when there was but little benevolence and consequently fewhands to build lunatic asylums, superstition supplied the lack of charityand silly men and women were allowed the indulgence of their fancies insecluded haunts or in easy laziness. Young has most truly said—“The first sure symptoms of a mind in healthAre rest of heart and pleasure found at home.”Avoid, my Friends, above all things, those romantic and absurd conceptionsof virtue which are the offspring of superstition and the enemies ofrighteousness. Be not without natural affection but love those who areknit to you by ties of nature.True religion cannot be inconsistent with nature. It never can demandthat I should abstain from weeping when my friend is dead. “Jesus wept.”It cannot deny me the privilege of a smile when Providence looks favorablyupon me. For once Jesus rejoiced in spirit and said, “Father, I thank you.”It does not make a man say to his father and mother, “I am no longer yourson.” That is not Christianity but something worse than what beastswould do—which would lead us to be entirely sundered from our fellows—Sermon #109 Going Home—A Christmas SermonVolume 3 www.spurgeongems.org3

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to walk among them as if we had no kinship with them. To all who thinka solitary life must be a life of piety, I would say, “It is the greatest delusion.”To all who think that those must be good people who break the ties ofrelationship, let us say, “Those are the best who maintain them.” Christianitymakes a husband a better husband. It makes a wife a better wifethan she was before. It does not free me from my duties as a son. It makesme a better son and my parents better parents. Instead of weakening mylove, it gives me fresh reason for my affection. And he whom I loved beforeas my father I now love as my Brother and co-worker in Christ Jesus. Andshe whom I reverenced as my mother I now love as my Sister in the Covenantof Grace to be mine forever in the state that is to come.Oh, suppose not any of you, that Christianity was ever meant to interferewith households. It is intended to cement them and to make themhouseholds which death itself shall never sever—for it binds them up inthe bundle of life with the Lord their God and re-unites the several individualson the other side of the flood.Now, I will tell you the reason why I selected my text. I thought withinmyself there are a large number of young men who always come to hearme preach. They always crowd the aisles of my chapel and many of themhave been converted to God. Now, here is Christmas Day come roundagain and they are going home to see their friends. When they get homethey will want a Christmas Carol in the evening. I think I will suggest oneto them—more especially to such of them as have been lately converted Iwill give them a theme for their discourse on Christmas evening.It may not be quite so amusing as “The Wreck of the Golden Mary,” butit will be quite as interesting to Christian people. It shall be this—“Gohome and tell your friends what the Lord has done for your souls and howHe has had compassion on you.” For my part, I wish there were twentyChristmas days in the year. It is seldom that young men can meet withtheir friends. It is rarely they can all be united as happy families. Andthough I have no respect to the religious observance of the day, yet I loveit as a family institution. It is one of England’s brightest days—the greatSabbath of the year—when the plow rests in its furrow. When the din ofbusiness is hushed—when the mechanic and the working man go out torefresh themselves upon the green sward of the glad earth.If any of you are masters you will pardon me for the digression, when Imost respectfully beg you to pay your servants the same wages onChristmas Day as if they were at work. I am sure it will make their housesglad if you will do so. It is unfair for you to make them feast or fast, unlessyou give them wherewithal to feast and make themselves glad on that dayof joy.Going Home—A Christmas Sermon Sermon #109www.spurgeongems.org Volume 34

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But now to come to the subject. We are going home to see our friendsand here is the story some of us have to tell. “Go home to your friends andtell them how great things the Lord has done for you and has had compassionon you.” First, here is what they are to tell. Then, secondly, whythey are to tell it. And then thirdly, how they ought to tell it.I. First, then, HERE IS WHAT THEY ARE TO TELL. It is to be a story ofpersonal experience. “Go home to your friends and tell them how greatthings the Lord has done for you and has had compassion on you.” Youare not to repair to your houses and forthwith begin to preach. That youare not commanded to do. You are not to begin to take up doctrinal subjectsand speak at length on them and endeavor to bring persons to yourpeculiar views and sentiments. You are not to go home with sundry doctrinesyou have lately learned and try to teach these. At least you are notcommanded to do so.You may, if you please and none shall hinder you. But you are to gohome and tell not what you have believed but what you have felt—whatyou really know to be your own. Not what great things you have read, butwhat great things the Lord has done for you. Not alone what you haveseen done in the great congregation and how great sinners have turned toGod but what the Lord has done for you. And mark this—there is never amore interesting story than that which a man tells about himself. TheRhyme of the Ancient Mariner derives much of its interest because theman who told it was himself the mariner.He sat down, that man whose finger was skinny, like the finger of deathand began to tell that dismal story of the ship at sea in the great calmwhen slimy things did crawl with legs over the shiny sea. The weddingguests sat still to listen, for the old man was himself a story. There is alwaysa great deal of interest excited by a personal narrative. Virgil, thepoet, knew this and therefore he wisely makes Aeneas tell his own storyand makes him begin it by saying, “In which I also had a great part myself.”So if you would interest your friends, tell them what you felt yourself.Tell them how you were once a lost abandoned sinner, how the Lord metwith you, how you bowed your knees and poured out your soul before Godand how at last you leaped with joy, for you thought you heard Him saywithin you, “I, even I, am He that blots out your transgressions for Myname’s sake.” Tell your friends a story of your own personal experience.Note, next, it must be a story of free grace. It is not, “Tell your friendshow great things you have done yourself,” but “how great things the Lordhas done for you.” The man who always dwells upon free will and thepower of the creature and denies the doctrines of grace invariably mixesup a great deal of what he has done himself in telling his experience. Butthe Believer in free grace, who holds the great cardinal truths of the GosSermon#109 Going Home—A Christmas SermonVolume 3 www.spurgeongems.org5

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pel, ignores this and declares, “I will tell what the Lord has done for me.It is true I must tell how I was first made to pray. But I will tell it thus—“Grace taught my soul to prayGrace made my eyes overflow.”It is true, I must tell in how many troubles and trials God has been withme. But I will tell it thus—“It was grace which kept me to this day,And will not let me go.”He says nothing about his own doings, or willings, or prayers, or seeking—but ascribes it all to the love and grace of the great God who looks onsinners in love and makes them His children—heirs of everlasting life. Gohome, young man and tell the poor sinner’s story. Go home, young womanand open your diary and give your friends stories of grace. Tell them ofthe mighty works of God’s hand which He has worked in you from Hisown free, sovereign, undeserved love. Make it a free grace story aroundyour family fire.In the next place, this poor man’s tale was a grateful story. I know itwas grateful, because the man said, “I will tell you how great things theLord has done for me.” And (not meaning a pun in the least degree) I mayobserve that a man who is grateful is always full of the greatness of themercy which God has shown him. He always thinks that what God hasdone for him is immensely good and supremely great. Perhaps when youare telling the story, one of your friends will say, “And what of that?” Andyour answer will be, “It may not be a great thing to you but it is to me.You say it is little to repent but I have not found it so. It is a great andprecious thing to be brought to know myself to be a sinner and to confessit—do you say it is a little thing to have found a Savior?”Look them in the face and say, “If you had found Him, too, you wouldnot think it little. You think it little I have lost the burden from my back?If you had suffered with it and felt its weight as I have for many a longyear, you would think it no little thing to be emancipated and free,through a sight of the Cross.” Tell them it is a great story and if they cannotsee its greatness, shed great tears and tell it to them with great earnestnessand I hope they may be brought to believe that you at least aregrateful, if they are not. May God grant that you may tell a grateful story.No story is more worth hearing than a tale of gratitude.And lastly, upon this point—it must be a tale told by a poor sinner whofeels himself not to have deserved what he has received. “How He has hadcompassion on you.” It was not a mere act of kindness but an act of freecompassion towards one who was in misery. Oh, I have heard men tell thestory of their conversion and of their spiritual life in such a way that myheart has loathed them and their story too, for they have told of their sinsas if they did boast in the greatness of their crime. And they have mentionedthe love of God not with a tear of gratitude—not with the simpleGoing Home—A Christmas Sermon Sermon #109www.spurgeongems.org Volume 36

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thanksgiving of the really humble heart—but as if they as much exaltedthemselves as they exalted God.Oh, when we tell the story of our own conversion, I would have it donewith deep sorrow, remembering what we used to be and with great joy andgratitude, remembering how little we deserve these things. I was oncepreaching upon conversion and salvation and I felt within myself aspreachers often do, that it was but dry work to tell this story and a dull,dull tale it was to me but on a sudden the thought crossed my mind,“Why, you are a poor lost ruined sinner yourself. Tell it, tell it, as you receivedit. Begin to tell of the grace of God as you trust you feel it yourself.”Why, then, my eyes began to be fountains of tears—those hearers whohad nodded their heads began to brighten up and they listened becausethey were hearing something which the man felt himself and which theyrecognized as being true to him—if it were not true to them. Tell your story,my Hearers, as lost sinners. Do not go to your home and walk intoyour house with a supercilious air, as much as to say, “Here’s a saintcome home to the poor sinners to tell them a story.” But go home like apoor sinner yourself. And when you go in, your mother remembers whatyou used to be—you need not tell her there is a change—she will noticeit—if it is only one day you are with her.And perhaps she will say, “John, what is this change that is in you?”And if she is a pious mother you will begin to tell her the story and Iknow, man though you are, you will not blush when I say it—she will puther arms round your neck and kiss you as she never did before—for youare her twice-born son. Hers from whom she shall never part, even thoughdeath itself shall divide you for a brief moment. “Go home, then, and tellyour friends what great things the Lord has done for you and how He hashad compassion on you.”II. But now, in the second place—Why SHOULD WE TELL THIS STORY?For I hear many of my congregation say, “Sir, I could relate that storyto any one sooner than I could to my own friends. I could come to yourvestry and tell you something of what I have tasted and handled of theWord of God. But I could not tell my father, nor my mother, nor my brothers,nor my sisters.” Come, then. I will try and argue with you to induceyou to do so—that I may send you home this Christmas Day to be missionariesin the localities to which you belong and to be real preachers!Dear Friends, do tell this story when you go home. First, for your Master’ssake. Oh, I know you love Him. I am sure you do—if you have proofthat He loves you. You can never think of Gethsemane and of its bloodysweat, of Gabbatha and of the mangled back of Christ, flayed by thewhip—you can never think of Calvary and His pierced hands and feetwithout loving Him. And it is a strong argument when I say to you, for Hisdear sake who loved you so much, go home and tell it. What? Do youSermon #109 Going Home—A Christmas SermonVolume 3 www.spurgeongems.org7

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think we can have so much done for us and yet not tell it? Our children,if anything should be done for them, do not stay many minutes beforethey are telling all the company, “such an one has given me such apresent and bestowed on me such-and-such a favor.”And should the children of God be backward in declaring how theywere saved when their feet made haste to Hell and how redeeming mercysnatched them as brands from the burning? You love Jesus, young man! Iput it to you, then, will you refuse to tell the tale of His love to you? Shallyour lips be dumb when His honor is concerned? Will you not, whereveryou go, tell of the God who loved you and died for you? This poor man, weare told, “departed and began to publish in Decapolis how great thingsJesus had done for him and all men did marvel.” So with you. If Christhas done much for you, you cannot help it—you must tell it.My esteemed friend, Mr. Oneken, a minister in Germany told us lastMonday evening that so soon as he was converted himself the first impulseof his new-born soul was to do good to others. And where should hedo that good? Well, he thought he would go to Germany. It was his ownnative land and he thought the command was, “Go home to your friendsand tell them.” Well, there was not a single Baptist in all Germany, norany with whom he could sympathize, for the Lutherans had swerved fromthe faith of Luther and gone aside from the Truth of God. But he wentthere and preached and he has now seventy or eighty churches establishedon the continent. What made him do it? Nothing but love for hisMaster who had done so much for him, could have forced him to go andtell his kinsmen the marvelous tale of Divine goodness.But, in the next place, are your friends pious? Then go home and tellthem, in order to make their hearts glad. I received last night a short Epistlewritten with a trembling hand by one who is past the natural age ofman living in the county of Essex. His son, under God, had been convertedby hearing the Word preached and the good man could not helprising to the minister, thanking him and blessing most of all, his God, thathis son had been regenerated. “Sir,” he begins, “an old rebel writes tothank you and above all to thank his God, that his dear son has beenconverted.” I shall treasure up that Epistle. It goes on to say, “Go on! Andthe Lord bless you.”And there was another case I heard some time ago where a youngwoman went home to her parents and when her mother saw her, she said,“There! If the minister had made me a present of all London, I should nothave thought so much of it as I do of this—to think that you have reallybecome a changed character and are living in the fear of God.” Oh, if youwant to make your mother’s heart leap within her and to make your fatherglad—if you would make that sister happy who sent you so many letterswhich sometimes you read against a lamp-post, with your pipe in yourGoing Home—A Christmas Sermon Sermon #109www.spurgeongems.org Volume 38

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mouth—go home and tell your mother that her wishes are all accomplished.That her prayers are heard, that you will no longer tease herabout her Sunday-School class and no longer laugh at her because sheloves the Lord. Tell her that you will go with her to the house of God, foryou love God and you have said, “Your people shall be my people and yourGod shall be my God, for I have a hope that your Heaven shall be my Heavenforever.”Oh, what a happy thing it would be if some here who had gone astrayshould thus go home! It was my privilege a little while ago to preach for anoble institution for the reception of women who had led abandoned lives.Before I preached the sermon I prayed to God to bless it and in theprinted sermon you will notice that at the end of it there is an account oftwo persons who were blessed by that sermon and restored. Now, let metell you a story of what once happened to Mr. Vanderkist, a city missionary,who toils all night long to do good in that great work.There had been a drunken broil in the street. He stepped between themen to part them and said something to a woman who stood there concerninghow dreadful a thing it was that men should thus be intemperate.She walked with him a little way and he with her and she began to tellhim such a tale of woe, and sin, too—how she had been lured away fromher parents’ home in Somersetshire and had been brought up here to hersoul’s eternal hurt. He took her home with him and taught her the fearand love of Christ. And what was the first thing she did, when she returnedto the paths of godliness and found Christ to be the sinner’s Savior?She said, “Now, I must go home to my friends.” Her friends were writtento—they came to meet her at the station at Bristol and you can hardlyconceive what a happy meeting it was. The father and mother had losttheir daughter—they had never heard from her. And there she was,brought back by the agency of this institution [The London Female Dormitory]and restored to the bosom of her family. Ah, if such an one is here! Iknow not, among such a multitude there may be such an one. Woman!Have you strayed from your family? Have you left them long?“Go home to your friends,” I beseech you, before your father totters tohis grave and before your mother’s gray hairs sleep on the snow-white pillowof her coffin. Go back, I beseech you! Tell her you are penitent. Tellher that God has met with you—that the young minister said, “Go back toyour friends.” And if so, I shall not blush to have said these things,though you may think I ought not to have mentioned them. For if I maybut win one such soul, I will bless God to all eternity. “Go home to yourfriends. Go home and tell them how great things the Lord has done foryou.”Sermon #109 Going Home—A Christmas SermonVolume 3 www.spurgeongems.org9

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Cannot you imagine the scene, when the poor demoniac mentioned inmy text went home? He had been a raving madman. And when he cameand knocked at the door, don’t you think you see his friends calling to oneanother in affright, “Oh, there he is again,” and the mother running upstairsand locking all the doors, because her son had come back that wasraving mad? And the little ones crying because they knew what he hadbeen before—how he cut himself with stones because he was possessedwith devils. And can you picture their joy, when the man said, “Mother!Jesus Christ has healed me, let me in. I am no lunatic now!”And when the father opened the door, he said, “Father! I am not what Iwas, all the evil spirits are gone. By God’s grace I shall live in the tombsno longer. I want to tell you how the glorious Man who worked my deliveranceaccomplished the miracle—how He said to the devils, ‘Get youhence,’ and they ran down a steep place into the sea. And I am comehome healed and saved.” Oh, if such an one, possessed with sin, werehere this morning and would go home to his friends to tell them of his release—methinks the scene would be somewhat similar.Once more, dear Friends. I hear one of you say. “Ah! Sir, would to God Icould go home to pious friends! But when I go home I go into the worst ofplaces. For my home is among those who never knew God themselves andconsequently never prayed for me and never taught me anything concerningHeaven.” Well, young man, go home to your friends. If they are ever sobad they are still your friends. I sometimes meet with young men wishingto join the Church who say when I ask them about their father, “Oh, Sir, Iam parted from my father.”Then I say, “Young man, you may just go and see your father before Ihave anything to do with you. If you are at ill-will with your father andmother I will not receive you into the Church. If they are ever so bad theystill are your parents.” Go home to them and tell them, not to make themglad, for they will very likely be angry with you—but tell them for theirsoul’s salvation. I hope, when you are telling the story of what God did foryou, that they will be led by the Spirit to desire the same mercy themselves.But I will give you a piece of advice. Do not tell this story to yourungodly friends when they are all together, for they will laugh at you.Take them one by one when you can get them alone and begin to tell itto them and they will hear you seriously. There was once a very pious ladywho kept a lodging-house for young men. All the young men were verymerry and giddy and she wanted to say something to them concerning religion.She introduced the subject and it was passed off immediately witha laugh. She thought within herself, “I have made a mistake.” The nextmorning, after breakfast, when they were all leaving, she said to one ofthem, “Sir, I should like to speak with you a moment or two,” and takinghim aside into another room she talked with him.Going Home—A Christmas Sermon Sermon #109www.spurgeongems.org Volume 31010The next morning she took another and the next morning another andit pleased God to bless her simple statement—when it was given individually.But without doubt, if she had spoken to them all together, theywould have backed each other up in laughing her to scorn. Reprove a manalone. A verse may hit him while a sermon flies right by him. You may bethe means of bringing a man to Christ who has often heard the Word andonly laughed at it but who cannot resist a gentle admonition. In one of theStates of America there was an infidel who was a great despiser of God, ahater of the Sabbath and all religious institutions.What to do with him the ministers did not know. They met together andprayed for him. But among the rest, one Elder resolved to spend a longtime in prayer for the man. After that he got on horseback and rode downto the man’s forge, for he was a blacksmith. He left his horse outside andsaid, “Neighbor, I am under very great concern about your soul’s salvation.I tell you I pray day and night for your soul’s salvation.” He left himand rode home on his horse. The man went inside to his house after aminute or two and said to one of his faithful friends, “Here’s a new argument.Here’s Elder Bob been down here. He did not dispute and neversaid a word to me except this, ‘I say, I am under great concern about yoursoul. I cannot bear you should be lost.’“Oh, that fellow,” he said, “I cannot answer him.” And the tears beganto roll down his cheeks. He went to his wife and said, “I can’t make thisout. I never cared about my soul but here’s an Elder that has no connectionwith me but I have always laughed at him and he has come five milesthis morning on horseback just to tell me he is under concern about mysalvation.” After a little while he thought it was time he should be underconcern about his salvation, too. He went in, shut the door, began to prayand the next day he was at the Elder’s house telling him that he, too, wasunder concern about his salvation and asking him to tell him what hemust do to be saved.Oh, that the everlasting God might make use of some of those nowpresent in the same way—that they might be induced to—“Tell to others roundWhat a dear Savior they have found.To point to His redeeming blood,And say, Behold the way to God!”III. I shall not detain you much longer but there is a third point, uponwhich we must be very brief. HOW IS THIS STORY TO BE TOLD?First, tell it truthfully. Do not tell more than you know. Do not tell JohnBunyan’s experience, when you ought to tell your own. Do not tell yourmother you have felt what only Rutherford felt. Tell her no more than thetruth. Tell your experience truthfully, for maybe one single fly in the pot ofointment will spoil it and one statement you may make which is not truemay ruin it all. Tell the story truthfully.Sermon #109 Going Home—A Christmas SermonVolume 3 www.spurgeongems.org1111In the next place, tell it very humbly. I have said that before. Do notintrude yourselves upon those who are older and know more but tell yourstory humbly. Not as a preacher, not ex-cathedra but as a friend and as ason.Next, tell it very earnestly. Let them see you mean it. Do not talk aboutreligion flippantly. You will do no good if you do. Do not make puns ontexts. Do not quote Scripture by way of joke—if you do, you may talk tillyou are dumb—you will do no good if you in the least degree give them occasionto laugh by laughing at holy things yourself. Tell it very earnestly.And then, tell it very devoutly. Do not try to tell your tale to man till youhave told it first to God. When you are at home on Christmas Day let noone see your face till God has seen it. Be up in the morning. Wrestle withGod. And if your friends are not converted, wrestle with God for them andthen you will find it easy work to wrestle with them for God. Seek, if youcan, to get them one by one and tell them the story. Do not be afraid—only think of the good you may possibly do, by God’s grace. Remember, hethat saves a soul from death has covered a multitude of sins and he shallhave stars in his crown forever and ever.Seek to be under God—to be the means of leading your own belovedbrothers and sisters to seek and to find the Lord Jesus Christ. And thenone day, when you shall meet in Paradise, it will be a joy and blessednessto think that you are there and that your friends are there, too, whom Godwill have made you the instrument of saving. Let your reliance in the HolySpirit be entire and honest. Trust not yourself but fear not to trust Him.He can give you words. He can apply those words to their heart and so enableyou to “minister grace to the hearers.”To close up, by a short and I think a pleasant turning of the text, I willsuggest another meaning to it. Soon, dear Friends, very soon with some ofus, the Master will say, “Go home to your friends.” You know where thehome is. It is up above the stars.“Where our best friends, our kindred dwell,Where God our Savior reigns.”Yonder gray-headed man has buried all his friends. He has said, “I shallgo to them but they will not return to me.” Soon his Master will say, “Youhave had enough tarrying here in this vale of tears—go home to yourfriends!” Oh, happy hour! Oh, blessed moment, when that shall be theword—“Go home to your friends!”And when we go home to our friends in Paradise, what shall we do?Why first we will repair to that blessed seat where Jesus sits, take off ourcrown and cast it at His feet and crown Him Lord of all! And when wehave done that, what shall be our next employ? Why, we will tell theblessed ones in Heaven what the Lord has done for us and how He hashad compassion on us. And shall such tales be told in Heaven? Shall thatGoing Home—A Christmas Sermon Sermon #109www.spurgeongems.org Volume 31212be the Christmas Carol of the angels? Yes it shall be. It has been publishedthere before—blush not to tell it yet again—for Jesus has told it before.“When He comes home, He calls together His friends and neighbors,saying unto them, Rejoice with Me, for I have found My sheep which waslost.” And you, poor Sheep, when you shall be gathered in will you not tellhow your Shepherd sought you and how He found you? Will you not sit inthe grassy meads of Heaven and tell the story of your own redemption?Will you not talk with your Brothers and your Sisters and tell them howGod loved you and has brought you there? Perhaps, you say, “It will be avery short story.”Ah, it would be if you could write it now. A little book might be thewhole of your biography. But up there when your memory shall be enlarged,when your passion shall be purified and your understandingclear—you will find that what was but a tract on earth will be a huge volumein Heaven! You will tell a long story there of God’s sustaining, restraining,constraining grace. And I think that when you pause to letanother tell his tale and then another and then another, you will at last,when you have been in Heaven a thousand years, break out and exclaim,“O saints, I have something else to say.”Again they will tell their tales and again you will interrupt them with,“Oh, Beloved, I have thought of another case of God’s delivering mercy.”And so you will go on, giving them themes for songs, finding them the materialfor the warp and woof of Heavenly sonnets. “Go home,” He will soonsay, “go home to your friends and tell them how great things the Lord hasdone for you and has had compassion on you.”Wait awhile. Tarry His leisure and you shall soon be gathered to theland of the hereafter to the home of the blessed—where endless felicityshall be your portion. God grant a blessing for His name’s sake. Amen.

Adapted from The C.H. Spurgeon Collection,

PRAY THE HOLY SPIRIT WILL USE THIS SERMON

TO BRING MANY TO A SAVING KNOWLEDGE OF JESUS CHRIST.

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