The Better Country
John Kelly. Hebrews 11:15-16 And truly, if they had been mindful of that country from where they came out, they might have had opportunity to have returned.… I. A LAND OF LIFE. The glorious company of the redeemed who inhabit that country shall never be broken up. The fear of death shall never cast a shade upon their happiness to all eternity. The life that is the portion of all who dwell there is pure, perfect, unmingled with a single taint of evil. II. A LAND OF REST. What your fireside is to you after a long and busy day, when every bone is aching; what home is to a soldier, soiled, and worn out after a long campaign; or to a sailor, after a long, a perilous voyage — all this, and infinitely more, is " the rest that remaineth " to the child of God at the close of his pilgrimage. The better country, where this rest will be enjoyed, is not, however, a land of idleness. It will be, I believe, a land of manifold and ceaseless activity. Every power will find full scope and constant employment, but, without any hindrance, opposition, or drawback from within or without, without any weakness or imperfection, will find rest in activity. III. A LAND OF PLENTY. How much of our time and strength here is consumed in procuring the means to buy food and raiment! Most men need the stimulus of want to make them work; and this stimulus it is which swells the ceaseless tide of emigrants from our own to distant climes. Is it not a blessed thought, that in the better country we shall be freed from these earthly cares? IV. THE LAND OF EVERLASTING REUNIONS. (John Kelly.) Parallel Verses KJV: And truly, if they had been mindful of that country from whence they came out, they might have had opportunity to have returned. WEB: If indeed they had been thinking of that country from which they went out, they would have had enough time to return.