The Manning times. [volume] (Manning, Clarendon County, S.C.) 1884-current, 1889-07-31

parents who were aged and lptlrm here we
shall be glad to find restored to the most
agile amt vigorous Immortality there. II
forty or fortv-tve 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 to
that.
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 struggle? Did you know
when we lost our property and sympathize
with US? Did You know we had that
! awful sickness? Were you lowering any
where around when we plunged into that
memorable accident? Did you know OF our
backsliding? Did You know Of that moral
victorya Were you pleased when we started
for Heavens Did you celebrate the hour OF
our conversions 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 bogra-
,hy of ten years in Heavene They will have
to tell US the story Of coronations, story OF
news from all immensity. story of conquer
ors and hierarchs, story of wrecked or ran
somed planets, story of angelic victory over
diabolical revolts, of eXtinguished suns OF
obliterated consultations, of new galaXles
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
Fathers house we have so much to tell them
of what we have passed through since we
parted, how much more thrilling and
arousing that which thev 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 i'll all
our Fathers house What long lingering
there. for we shall never again he in
O hurry. ''Let me open window
said an humble Christian servant to
Lady Rallies. who, because Of the death OF
her child, had shutherselfup in adark room
and refused to see any one; ''you have been
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 of weeping and let me
open window" So to-day am trying to
open upon the darkness Of earthly septra-
tion the windows and doors and rooms OF
the heavenly homestead. '1n 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 woSld rather
stay than in the enrapturcd circle OF Your
ascended 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
NAV be lines and forms OF earthly beauty
preserved for heavenly inspection in some
thing whittier and chaster and richer than
Venetian sculpture ever wrought. Rooms
beside rooms. Rooms over rooms. Large
rooms, majestic rooms, opalescent rooms.
amethvstine rooms. ''1n ~ Fathers house
are many rooms"
! hope none of US will be disappointed
about getting there. There IS a 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, aud
CHRIST is the, door. and we must start IL
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.
7 hold in my hand a 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. It's
full Of rooms. I 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
ing--compared with the splendor with
which l have garnitured them. But you
must be clean before you can enter there,
and so have open ii 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 aE,id the
thick foliage on the heavenly hill tops the
old family bonestcad!' I'm my Fathers
house are macy rooms"
A y 4