Ties in Heaven – Charles Spurgeon

IT is a glorious thing to become indifferent to the visible, and only earnest about the invisible. We are like a balloon while it is tied to the earth, it cannot mount; even so our ascent to Heaven is delayed by a thousand detaining cords and bands, and the process of setting us free is cutting the ropes one by one. Some of you are conscious of getting older and weaker, God is evidently loosening the ties of earth. You have already more relatives in Heaven than on earth; if you count over the names of dear companions on earth, they make but a slender list; but count over the names of dear saints which have gone before, and with whom you have had fellowship, and then the roll is long. Be thankful that you have so many ties upward and so few bonds to earth. Prepare to mount to the majority. The wheat may well rejoice for the sharp cuts of the sickle, because it is the sign of going home to the garner. After the wheat is cut it stands in shocks, shocks of corn fully ripe, not growing out of the earth, but merely standing on it. The shock is quite disconnected from the soil. How happy is the state of a Christian when he is in the world but is not linked to it! His ripeness drops here and there a grain into the soil, for he is still ready to do good, but he has no longer any vital connection with anything below, he is waiting to be in Heaven. Here comes the wain; the corn is put into it, and with shoutings it is carried home. Soon will our heavenly Father send his chariot, and we who have been ripened by the latter rain, and separated from earth by his Spirit’s sickle, shall be borne in the chariot of triumph, amidst the shoutings of the angels, and the songs of thrice blessed spirits, up to the eternal garner.