Ripeness for Heaven, Sign of – Charles Spurgeon

RIPE fruit soon parts from the bough. You shake the tree and the ripest apples fall. If you wish to eat fresh fruit you put out your hand to pluck it, and if it comes off with great difficulty you feel you had better leave it alone a little longer; but when it drops into your hand, quite ready to be withdrawn from the branch, you know it to be in good condition. When, like Paul, we can say, “I am ready to depart,” when we set loose by all earthly things, oh, then it is that we are ripe for Heaven. You should measure your state of heart by your adhesiveness or your resignation in reference to the things of this world. You have some comforts here, some of you have money, and you look upon them, and you feel, “it were hard to part with these”—this is green fruit; when your grace is mature, you will feel that though God should give you even greater abundance of this world, you are still an exile longing for the better land. “Whom have I in Heaven but you? There is none upon earth that I desire beside you.”