The San Saba news. [volume] (San Saba, Tex.) 1873-1966, 1889-09-20
REV. DIR. TALMAGE.
EHE BROOKLYN DIvINE's SUM-
DAY SERMON.
Subject: "Our House on the Hills
preached at the Hamptons.
Long Island.l

TEXT: ',Llnly Fathers house are mann
roOnls."-John xiv, 2.
Here is a bottle Of medicine that is cure
all. The disciples were sad and Christ Of
fered heaven as an alternative, a stimulant
and tonic. He shows them that their sor-
rows are only dark background of bright
picture of coming felicity. He lets
them know that though now they live
on the lowlands they shall yet have a
house On the uplands. Nearly all the Bible
descriptions of heaven may be lgTative.
l am not positive that in all heaven there is
q literal crown or harp or pearly gate or
throne or chariot They may be only used
to Illustrate the glories of the place, but how
well they do i'll The favorite symbol by
which the Bible presents celestial happiness
Is house. Paul. who never owned house,
although he hired one for two years In Italy,
speaks of heaven as q house not made with
hands, and Christ in our text, the tTansln-
ton of which is a little changed so as to give
the more accurate meaning, says: I'm my
Fathers house are many rooms
This divinely authorized comparison OF
heaven to a great homestead of large accom-
modations propose to carry out. In some
healthy neighb0rhood a man builds a
very commodious habitation. He must
have room for al his children. The
rooms come to be called after the
different members of the family. That is
mothers room. That is Georges ROOM
That is Henry's room. That is FiOra's
room. That's Mary's room. And the house
is all occupied. But time goes by and the
sons 90 out into the world and build
their own homes and daughters are married
or have talents enough singly to go out and
do good work in the world. After 4 while
the father and mother are almost hlnne in
the big house and, seated by the evening
stand, they say. "Well, our family is no
larger now than when we started together
forty years ago." But time goes still further
by and some Of the children are unfortunate
and return to the old homestead to live
and the grandchildren come with them, and
perhaps great-grandclnldren and again
the house is full. Many millennia ago
God built on the hills Of heslv-
en- great homestead for family inDumer-
able, yet to be- At first He lived alol.o in
that great house, but after a while it was
occupied by very large family, cherubic,
seraphic, angelic. The eternities passed on
and many Of the inhabitants became way
ward and left never to return. And many
Of the apartments were vacated. I refer to
the fallen angels. Now these apartments
are filling up again. There are arrivals at
the Old homestead of Gods children every
day, and the day will come when there VIII
be no unoccupied room in all tho house.
As you and expect TO enter it and make
there eternal residence, I thought you would
ike to get some more particulars about that
u
house are many rooms You see the place
| Is TO be apportioned of into apartments. We
shall love all who are in heaven, but there
are some very good people whom we would
not want to live with in the same room. They
may be better than We are, but they are
Of divergent temperament. We would
ike TO meet with them on the golden
streets and worship with them in
the temple and walk with them on the river
banks, but am glad to say that we shall
live in different apartments. in my Fathers
house are many rooms.n You see heaven will
be so large that if one wantan entire room to
himself or herself it can be afforded. An in
geDious statistician taking the statement
made in Revelation twenty-first chapter that
the heavenly Jerusalem was measured and
found 70 be twelve thousand fUrlongs and
that the length and height and breadth
of it are equal says that would make
heaven III size 9lS sextillion 9S5
quintillion cubic feet and then reserying a
certain portion for the court Of heaven and
the streets and estimating that the world
may last hundred thousand years, he ciphers
out that there arc over five trillion rooms
each room seventeen feet long, sixteen feet
wide, fifteen feet high. But have no faith
in the accuracy OF that calculation. He makes
! the rooms two small. From all | can read, the
rooms viii be palatial. and those who have
not had enough room in this world will
have plenty Of room at the last. The fact is
that most people in this world are crowded,
and though out on vast prairie or III q
mountain district people may have more room
than they want, in most casss It is house built
close to houso. and the streets are crowded
and the cradle is crowded by other cradles,
and tie graves crowded in the cemetery by
ota eE--ea4eS- end La - -+t.a-i4----
Iu1ules Of many people in getting
ont of this world will be tho
gaining of unhindered aud uncramped room.
And l should not wonder If instead Of the
room that the statistician ciphered out as
only seventeen feet by sixteen, it should be
larger than any of the imperial rooms at Ber-
In, st James or Winter Palace. ''In my
Fathers house are many rooms. Carrying
out still further the symbolism of the text let
us Join hands and 60 up to this majestic
homestead and see for ourselves
as we ascend the golden steps, an invisible
4 II adsman swings open the front door and
- zlshered to the right into the recep-
7 Worh u Of the old homestead. That is the
idOm COe we first meet the welcome of
no on ,,-fre must be place where the
~ OAiS " T enters and place in which it
tioa+ion sof the newly arrived from this
dSatlon scenes it must have witnessed
IN luStlDst guest arrived, the victim Of
10 he ;natricide, pious Abel. In that room
lovingly greeted all new COM
the dc redeemed them and He has the
NJ to the first embrace on their arrival
What a minute when the assembled sDirit first
sees the Lord Better than all we ever read
/ about Him or talked about Him or sang
about Him in all the churches and through
all our earthly lifetime, viii it be. lust for
one second to see Elm The most rapt7lrous
idea we ever had of Him on sacramentaI
lays or at the height Of some great revival
or under the uplifted baton Of an oratorio
are bankruptcy of thought compared with
the first Hash of HE =
reception room At that moment when YOU
confront each other, Christ looking upon Won
and you looking upon Christ, there win be an
ecstatlc thrill and surging Of emotion that
besgars all description. Look They need
no Introduction. Long ago Christ chose that
repentant sinner and that repentant sinner
chose Christ. Alightiest moment Of an i'm
mortal history-the first kiss of heayenl
Jesus and the soul. The soul end Jesus.
But now into that reception room pour
the glorified linsfol1 Enough of
earthly retention to let you know them,
nesses or their troubles See what heaven
has done for them. So radiant, so
gleeful, SO transportingly lovely. They call
you by name. They greet you with an
nrdor proportional to the anguish of
Yon' parting and the length of your separa-
ton. Fatheri Motherl There is your child.
Sisters Brothers. Friends! I wish YOU ioy.
I'll y Al1bllAtE Ile IEceU-
ton room of the old homestead. You see
they viii know you are coming. There are
so many imInortals filing all the spaces be-
tween here and heaven that news like that flies
like lightning. They will be there in an in
slant; though they were in some other world
on Grand from God signal would be
thrown that would fetch them. Though YOU
might at first feel dazed and overawed at
their superBal splendor, all that feeling
VIII be gone at their first touch of heavenly
salutation, and we viii say: 30 my lost boyr
70 my lost companion, NO my lost friend, are
we here together What scenes have been
witnessed in the reception room of the old
homestead There met Joseph and Jacob, /
finding i a brighter room than anything they /
saw in Pharooh's palace; David and the little /
.hild for whom he once tasted and wept; 4
Mary and Lazarus after tho heartbreak of I
bethany; Timothy and grandmother Lois;
isabella Graham and her sailor son,
Alfred and George Goldman, the I
mystery Of the sea at last made manifest;
Luther and Aagdalene, the daughter he be-
moaned; John Howard and the prisoners
whom he gospelized; and multitudes without
number who, once 50 weary and so sad,
parted on earth but gloriously met in heaven.
Among all the rooms Of that house there is
no one that moro enraptUres ~ soul then
that reeeptionrooLL. ''I--iy a,hers LoL5e
are many rooms.n
Another room in our Fathers house is the