The Pulaski citizen. [volume] (Pulaski, Tenn.) 1866-current, 1889-07-11

verse or song, in church or by eventide
cradle, and many who were passionate
ly fond of music but could make none
themselves. The poorest singer there
more than any earthly prima donna,
and the poorest players there more
than any earthly Gottschalk. Oh
that music room, the headquarters of
cadence and rhythm, symphony and
chant, psalm and antiphoni May
we be there some hour when Haydn
sits at the keys of one of his own or
atorios, and David the psalmist fin
gers tho harp, and Miriam of the Red
sea banks claps the cymbals, and Ga
briel puts his lips to the trumpet and
the four-and-twenty soldiers chant,
and Lind and Parepa render match
less duet in the music room of the old
heavenly homestead. "In my Fa-
ther's house are many rooms"
ROOMS FOR THE FAMILY.
Another room in our Fathers house
will be the family room 1t may cor
respond somewhat with the family
room on earth. At morning and even
ing, you know, that is the place we
now meet. Though every member 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 1t be luxurious with otto
mans and divans and books in Rus
sian 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 kins-
folk assemble and talk over the fam
lily experiences of earth, the weddings,
the births, the burials, the festal days
of Christmas and Thanksgiving re-
union. Will the children departed
remain children there2 VIII the
aged remain aged there2 Oh, no;
everything is perfect there The
child will go ahead to glori-
fed maturity and the aged will
go back to glorified maturity. The
rising sun of the one will rise to me-
ridian and the descending sun of the
other will return to meridian. How
ever much we love our children on
earth we would consider it domestic
disaster if they stayed children and so
we rejoice at their growth here. And
when we meet in the family room of
our Fathers house, we will be glad
that they have grandly and gloriously
matured; while our parents who were
aged and infrm here, we shall be
glad to find restored to the most agile
and vigorous Immortality there. If
forty or forty-fve or fifty years be the
apox 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
struggled Did you know when we
lost our property and sympathize with
usl Did you know we had that awful
sicbness2 Were you lowering any
where around when we plunged into
that memorable accident2 Did you
know of our backsliding9 Did you
know of that moral victory2 Were
you pleased when we started for
heaven? Did you celebrate the hour
of our conversion2 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 eventfu1 but
what must be the biography of ten
years in heavenf They will have
to tell us the story of coro-
nations, story of news from all
immensity, story of conquerors and
hierarchs, story of wrecked or ran
somed planets, story of angelic victory
over diabolic 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 majestic 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 moro thrilling
and arousing that which they have to
tell us of what they have passed
through since we parted Sarely that
family room will be one of the most
favored rooms III all our Fathers
house. What long lingering there,
for we shall never again be in a
hurry. LET me open a window"
said an humble Christian servant to
Lady Raffles, who, because of the
death of her child, had shut herself
up in a dark 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 beauti-
! full child that ever was seen, and in
stead of leaving him in this world till
| he should be worn with trouble, has
not God taken him to heaven in all
his beauty2 Leave off weeping and
let me open window" So today !
am trying to open upon the darkness
of earthly separation the windows and
| doors and rooms of the heavenly
homestead. ''In my Fathers house
| are many rooms.
IN CONCLUSION.
How would it do for my sermon TO
leave you in that family room todayi
| | am sure there is no room in which
you would rather stay than in the en-
| raptured circle of your assembled and
| glorified kinsfolk. We might visit
| other rooms in our Fathers house.
There may be picture galleries pencil
cd not with earthly art but by some
| process unknown in this world, pre-
| serving for the next world the bright
est and most stupendous scenes of hu-
man history. And there may be lines
and forms of earthly beauty preserved
for heavenly inspection in something
winter and chaster and richer than
Venetian sculpture ever wrought.
Rooms beside rooms. Rooms over
rooms. Large rooms. Majestic rooms,
opalescent rooms, amethystine rooms.
I'm my Fathers house are many
rooms"
/ hope none of us will be disappoint-
ed about getting there. There is room
for us if we will go and take IL, but in
order TO reach it ii is absolutely neces-
sary that we take the right way, and
Christ is the way; and we must
enter at the right door, and Christ i,
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 the one your
watch is now ticking | hold in my
hand a roll of letters inviting you al
to make that your home forever. The
New Testament is only roll of letter:
inviting you, rs the spirit of them
practically says: my dying yet inn
mortal child in earthly neighborhood
/ have built for you a great residence
II is full Of rooms. have furnished
them as no palace was ever furnished
Pearls are nothing, emerllds are moth
ing, chrysophrasus is nothing; iuu
mined panels of sunrise and sunset
nothing; the aurora of the northern
heavens, nothing-compared with the
splendor with which ! have garni
turcd them. But you must be clear
before you can enter there, and so
have opened a fountain where yot
nay wash all your sins away. Com,
nowi Put your weary but cleanseC
feet on the upward pathway. Do yol
| -. Ca Il tI,n il,,rl- fnfinn.., 81, III,