That is a beautiful phrase which pairs off with the one in my text, in
which another Apostle speaks of the ultimate end as 'our gathering
together in Christ.' All the scattered ones, like chips of wood in a
whirlpool, drift gradually closer and closer, until they unite in a
solid mass in the centre. So at the last the 'strangers' are to be
brought and settled in their own land, and their lonely lives are to be
filled with happy companionship, and they to be in a more blessed unity
than now. 'Fellow-citizens with the saints and of the household of God.'
If we, dwelling in this far-off land, were habitually to talk, as
Australians do of coming to England of 'going home,' though born in the
colony, it would be a glad day for us when we set out on the journey. If
Christian people lived more by faith, as they profess to do, and less by
sight, they would oftener think of the home-coming and the union; and
would be happy when they thought that they were here but for awhile, and
when they realised these two blessed elements of permanence and of
companionship, which another Apostle packs into one sentence, along with
that which is greater than them both, 'so shall we ever be with the
Lord.'