Excerpted from A Sermon
In My Father’s house are many mansions.
by Jonathan Edwards
Given on the The Sabbath day after the seating of the New Meeting House, Dec 25, 1737
JOHN 14:2
‘Tis
very little worth the while for us to pursue after honor in this world,
where the greatest honor is but a bubble and will soon vanish away, and
death will level all. Some have more stately houses than others, and
some are in higher office than others, and some are richer than others
and have higher seats in the meeting-house than others; but all graves
are upon a level. One rotting, putrefying corpse is as ignoble as
another; the worms are as bold with one carcass as another.
But
the mansions in God’s house above are everlasting mansions. Those that
have seats allotted ’em there, whether of greater or lesser dignity,
whether nearer or further from the throne, will hold ’em to all
eternity. This is promised, Revelation 3:12 :”Him that overcometh I will
make him a pillar in the temple [of my God, and he shall go no more
out].” If it be worth the while to desire and seek high seats in the
meeting-house, where you are one day in a week, and where you shall
never come but few days in all; if it be worth the while much to prize
one seat above another in the house of worship only because it is the
pew or seat that is ranked first in number, and to be seen here for a
few days, how will it be worth the while to seek an high mansion in
God’s temple and in that glorious place that is the everlasting
habitation of God and all his children! You that are pleased with your
seats in this house because you are seated high or in a place that is
looked upon honorable by those that sit round about, and because many
can behold you, consider how short a time you will enjoy this pleasure.
And if there be any that are not suited in their seats because they are
too low for them, let them consider that it is but a very little while
before it will [be] all one to you whether you have sat high or low
here. But it will be of infinite and everlasting concern to you where
your seat is in another world. Let your great concern be while in this
world so to improve your opportunities in God’s house in this world,
whether you sit high or low, as that you may have a distinguished and
glorious mansion in God’s house in heaven, where you may be fixed in
your place in that glorious assembly in an everlasting rest.
Let
the main thing that we prize in God’s house be, not the outward
ornaments of it, or a high seat in it, but the word of God and his
ordinances in it. And spend your time here in seeking Christ, that he
may prepare a place for you in his Father’s house, that when he comes
again to this world, he may take you to himself, that where he is, there
you may be also.