We should not deceive ourselves for not every one will enter. There
are many in this world who confidently expect to enter this Heavenly
Canaan, but they have no passport. If you were to take a trip through
Europe and Asia, it would be necessary for you to procure from the
proper officials of this country a passport, for without this you would
not be permitted to go through these countries. You would be looked
upon as some kind of an enemy. The passports to Heaven are goodness and
faithfulness. Not the goodness, however, which this world creates and
loves and prizes. Christ said to the young nobleman who came to Him
and wanted to know what good thing he could do to enter the kingdom of
Heaven, “Why callest thou me good, there is none good but God.” This
young man said that he had kept all the commandments from his youth up,
now if he had done that and we have no reason to doubt it, for Christ
looked on him and loved him, then this young man was really good as
this world calls goodness; but mark you he did not enter the “Kingdom
of God,” for he went away very sorrowful, for he was very rich. Oh! he
was very rich!
He had his own little heaven, he had his own little bundle of goodness,
he had his own passport, but these did not suffice, for the Kingdom of
God. These were of no value in this Kingdom.
I was born in a slave state. When I was a little boy, my mother being
very poor, sent me out on a very cold day to the river bank to gather
up a bundle of wood. I gathered up the wood and tied it into a bundle
and placed it on my head. I started home. It was a large bundle and
grew very heavy as I walked along. It was painful to my head and I
became tired. I staggered under the burden, I thought that I could not
reach the house, but I kept on. At last I got home and almost fainted.
But what a relief it was to me and what a comfort it became to my
mother. As we sat that night by the crackling fire, I thought, well it
was worth all it cost me. The pleasure it gave my mother, the family,
and satisfaction it gave me to know that I had done this and all were
now enjoying it, was my reward, my rest. But mark you, it was the
reward of goodness and faithfulness. If I had been a disobedient boy,
would I have had that reward? Would I have had that enjoyment? Would I
have had the approval and the love of my mother? Never, never! So it is
with us today. We must carry our burdens, and the burdens of others. We
have always a double load on our shoulders, this makes it doubly heavy.
Sometimes we nearly faint under it, the road seems to have no end, we
are almost tempted to throw down the load, but can we? If we really
desire to enter that beautiful city beyond the river of death, the load
which God has given us, must be carried to the very end. We can drop
that load when we come to the river, when the death angel tells us that
it is enough and that our Father wants us to come home.
You are to serve your brother-man, you are to love him, to pray for
him, and to love and pray for your enemies. This is the load, this
is the work that is to be done! Without the cross there is no crown,
without the weights there are no wings, without the prayers there will
be no praises! “Well done, good and faithful servant; thou hast been
faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things.
Enter thou into the joy of thy lord.” This is the welcome plaudit. Do
you long to hear that plaudit? Then be faithful today and tomorrow and
throughout life.