‘DOMUS, O QUAM DILECTA!’
‘Lord, I have loved the habitation the Thy house, and the place where Thine honour dwelleth.’
Psalms 26:8
I. ‘Lord, I have loved the habitation of Thy house,’ for there I first learned to know myself and Thee.
II. There I have learned most richly the meaning of Thy discipline, and found strength to endure.
III. There I was guided to the most noble, blessed, and fruitful labour, to the service which is absolute freedom, to the work which is perfect rest.
IV. There I and those whom I have loved best have held sweet and fruitful fellowship; and there we cemented a union which, when the family on earth breaks up, will renew itself eternally in heaven.
(SECOND OUTLINE)
‘THE PLACE WHERE THINE HONOUR DWELLETH’
I. The Chamber of Light.
II. The Chamber of Love.
Illustration
‘It is very well to meet in the Church our Christian friends, but our great aim is to meet God there: “Lord, I love the place where Thine honour dwelleth.” But we may meet God anywhere. Any home may be a shrine, and any youth may make his room a place where angels meet; or God may be met in the mountain, meadow, or public street. If we met God in the house often we could not think of the Church without thinking of Him. In a few years there will be threads from these walls going round their heart associations which would make it very undesirable that anything should intrude here that would interrupt those old associations. If it could be said this man and that man were born here, how could any man look on it without reverence? Just as our home remains for ever dear to us, so still more must the house associated with the birth and the development of our better life, and the formation in us of those hopes that over-spring time and reach forth into eternity.’