The Maryville times. (Maryville, Tenn.) 1884-1944, 1889-07-24

No iipS W tuo fulAPct anu Iuc louI-ouu
twenty soldiers chant, and Lind and Parepa
render matchless duet in the music room Of
the old heavenly homestead. ain my
Fathers house are many rooms"
Another room in our Fathers house will
be the family room. 1t may correspond
somewhat with the family room on earth.
AT morning and evening, you know that is
the place we now meet. Though every men,
Der OF the household have separate room,
in the family room they all gather, and Joys
and sorrows and experiences Of all styles
are there rehearsed. Sacred room in all our
dwellings! Whether it be luxurious with
ottOmans and divans and books in Russian
lids standing in mahogany case, or there be
only few plain chairs and cradle. So
the family room ON high will be the place
where the kinsfolk assemble and talk over
the family experiences Of earth, the we'd
dings, the births, the burisls, the festal
days Of Christmas and Thanksgiving re-
union. Will the children departed remain
children therel Will the aged remain aged
therel o, no; everything is perfect there.
The child will go ahead to glorified maturity
and the aged will go back to glorified ma
turity. The rising sun Of the one will
IlS0 " uCIluldA duu UAC uCoCHulllk
sun of the other will return to meridian.
However much we love our children on
earth we would consider it domestic dis
aster if they stayed children, and so we re-
joice at their growth here. And when we
meet in the family room of our Fathers
house, we will be glad that they have grand
ly and gloriously matured; while our
parents who were aged and infirm here we
shall be glad to find restored to the most
agile and vigorous Immortality there. If
forty or forty five of fifty years be the apex
of physical and mental life on earth, then
the heavenly childhood will advance to that
and the heavenly old age will retreat 70
that. l.l..I.
When we join them in that family room
we shall have much to tell them. We shall
want to know Of them right away such
things as these: Did you see us in this or
that or the other STRUGGLED Did you know
when we lost our property and sympathiza
with us9 Did you know we had that
awful sickness! Were you lowering any
where around when we plunged into that
memorable accidenta Did you know of our
backslidingl Did you know Of that moral
victaryi Were you pleased when we started
for Heaven9 Did you celebrate the. hour Of
our conversion? And then, whether they
know it or not, we will tell them all But
they will have more to tell us than we to
tell them. Ten years on. earth may be
very eventful, but what must be the biogra-
ply Of ten years in Heavenl They will have
to tell us the story Of coronations, story Of
news from all immensely. story of conquer
ors and hierarchs, story of wrecked or ram
somed planets, story of angelic victory over
diabolical revolts, of extinguished suns, Of
obliterated consultations, of new galaxies
kindled and swung, of stranded comets, Of
worlds on fire, and story of Jehovah's ma
iestic reign. If in that family room of our
Father'shouse we have so much to tell them
of what we have passed through since we
parted, how much more thrilling and
arousing that which they have to tell us
of what they have passed through since
we parted. Surely that family room will
be one of the most favored rooms in all
our Fathers house What long lingering
there, for we shall mover again be in
hurry. "Let me open window"
said an humble Christian servant to
Lady Rafles, who, because Of the death Of
her child, had shut herself up in adark room
and refused to see any one; 'you have boon
many days in this dark room. Are you not
ashamed to grieve in this manner, when you
ought to be thanking God for having given
you the most beautiful child that was ever
seen, and instead of leaving him in this
world till he should be worn with trouble,
has not God taken him to Heaven with all
his beauty! Leave off weeping and let me
open window" So to-day am trying to
open upon the darkness of earthly separa-
ton the windows and doors and rooms of
the heavenly homestead. I'm my Fathers
house are many rooms"
How would it do for my sermon to leave
you in that family room to day? am sure
there is no room in which you would rather
stay than in the enraptured circle of your
assembled and glorihed kinsfolk. We might
visit other rooms in our Fathers house.
There may be picture galleries penciled not
with earthly art but by some process un.
known in this world, preserving for the
next world the brightest and most stipend
GUS scenes of human history. And there
may be lines and forms of earthly beauty
preserved for heavenly inspection in some
thing whittier and chaster and richer than
Vene tan sculpture ever wrought. Rooms
beside rooms Rooms over rooms. Large
rooms, majestic rooms, opalescent rooms,
amethystine rooms SIN my Fathers house
are many rooms.n
I hope none Of US will be disappointed
about getting there. There is room for us
If we will go and take it, but in order to
reach it it is absolutely necessary that we
take the right way, and Christ is the way;
and we must enter at the right door, and
Christ is the door, and we must start IN
time, and the only hour you are sure of is
the hour the clock now strikes and the only
second to one your watch is now ticking.
hold in my hand roll of letters inviting
you all to make that your home forever.
The New Testament is only a roll of letters
inviting you, as the spirit of them
practically says: "My dying yet i'm
mortal child in earthly neighborhood, l
have built for you great residence. 1t is
full of rooms. have furnished them
as no palace was ever furnished. Pearls
are nothing, emeralds are nothing,
chrysophrasus is nothing; illumined panels
of sunrise and sunset, nothing; the
aurora of the Northern heavens, moth
!ng-compared with the splendor with
which have garnitured them. But you
must be clean before you can enter there,
and so have opened a fountain where you
may wash all your sins away. Come now!
Put your weary but cleansed feet on the
upward pathway. Do you not see amid the
thick foliage on the heavenly hill tops the
old family homestead" SIN my Father
house are many rooms"
As friend after friend leaves this world
by death, and passes into the eternal state,
till all or nearly all Of ones dearest earthly
friends have gone to the other side the