The Russellville Democrat., 1889-07-18
THE FATHERS HOUSE.
Discourse by Dr. Talmage on the
 Heaven of the Bible.
"Our House on the Hn1s" Described-Its Beauties and Comforts for All who Accept tho Divine Invitation
 to Mako It Their Abode.

[ l Y. The text was:
 l In my Fathers house are many rooms.-John ] XIV,
 ] Here is bottle of medicine that is l cure all The disciples were sad, and ] Christ offered Heaven as an alternative, i a stimulant and a tonic. He shows them that their sorrows are only dark back 1 ground of Q bright picture of coming | felicity. He lets them know that, though
 now they live on the lowlands, they shall l yet have house on the uplands. Nearly ! all the Bible descriptions of Heaven may be figuratiye. 1 am not positive that in | all Heaven there is a literal crown, or 1 Earp or pearly gate, or throne, or i chariot. They snay be only used % illus ] trate the glories of the place, but how l well they do itl The fayorite symbol by | which the Bible presents celestial hap l piness is house. Paul, who never | owned house, although hs hired one for | two years in Italy, speaks of Heaven as 1 a mouse not made with hands," and | Christ in our text the translation of which is little changed, so as to give l the more accurate meaning, says: ''In my Fathers house are many rooms" l The diviuely authorized comparison of l Heaven to a great homestead of large ac- 1 commodations l propose to carry out. In | some healthy aeighborhood man builds l a very commodious habitation. He must l have room for all his children. Tine 1 rooms come to be called after the differ 1 cut members of the family. That is l mothers room. That is Georges room. 1 That is Henry's room. That is Flora's room. That is Mary's room. And the i house is all occupied. But time goes by, l and the sons go out into the world and build their own homes, and the dangh- [ ters are married or have talents enough singly to go out and do good work in l the world. After awhile the father and
 mother are almost alone in the big house, and, seated by the evening stand, they say: Well, our family is no larger ] now than when we started to- 1 gether forty years ago." But time ! goes still further by and some of the i children are unfortunate and return to 1 the old homestead to live. and the grand l children come with them, and perhaps 1 great grandchildren and again the house | Is fun. Many millenia ago God built on l the hills of Heaven a great homestead for a family innumerable, yet to be. At first 1 He lived alone in that great house, but after awhile it was occupied by very i large family, cheruhic seraphic, angelic 1 The eternities passed on, and many of the inhabitants became wayward and 1 left never to return. And many of the i apartments were vacated l refer to the 1 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 will be no unoccupied room in all l the house.
 As you and 1 expect to enter it and
 make there eternal residence, l thought 1 you would like to get some more particu- | lars about that many-roomed homestead. ''In my Fathers 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 di- vergent temperament We would like to
 meet with them on the golden streets, and
 worship with them in the temple, and walk with them on the river banks, but I am glad to say that We shall live in dif- | ferent apartments. 'In my Fathers house are many rooms." You see, Heav- en will be so large that if one wants an entire room 10 himself or herself it can be afforded. An ingenious statistcian, taking the statement made in Revelation, l twenty first chapter, that the Heavenly Jerusalem was measured and found to be i twelve thousand furlongs, and that the | length and breadth and height Of it are equal, says that would make Heaven in size nine hundred and forty eight sex tillion nine hundred and eighty eight ! auintillion cubic feet. and then reserving a certain portion for the court of Heaven ! tI,. r1 aafi inn at fu a world may last one hundred thousand years. he ciphers out that there are over 1 five trillion rooms, each room seventeen l feet long, sixteen feet wide, fifteen feet high.
 But I have no faith in the accuracy of that calculation. He makes the rooms 1 too small. From all that I can read, the rooms will 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 prai- rie or in mountain district people may ! have more room than they want, in most 1 cases it is house built close to house, and the streets are crowded and the cradle is crowded by other cradles, and the graves crowded in the cemetery by other graves, and one of the richest luxuries of many people in getting out of this world will be 1 the gaining of unhindered and un- cramped room. And I should not won- l der if instead of the room that the statis- tician ciphered out as only IT feet by 16, 1 it should be larger than any Of the impe- rial rooms at Berlin, St. James or Winter Palace. "ln my Fathers house arc
 many rooms." Carrying out still further | the symbolism of the text let us join l hands and go up to this majestic home- stead and see for ourselves.
 l As we ascend the golden steps, an in- visible guardsman swings open the front l door and we are ushered to the right into ] the reception room or the old homestead. l That is the place where we first meet the
 welcome of Heaven. There must be a place where the departed spirit enters and a place in which it confronts the in- habitants celestial. The reception room of the newly arrived from this world l what scenes 1t must have witnessed since the first guest arrived, the victim Of the l first fratricide, pious Abel In that room l Christ lovingly greeted all new corners. He redeemed them and He has the right l 10 the first embrace on their arrival What a minute when the ascsnded spirit 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 1ur earthly hfe- i time will it be, just for one second to see l Him. The most rapturous idea we ever had of Him on sacramental days or at the height of some great revival, or under the uplifted baton of an oratorio, are a bankruptcy of thought compared with the first flash of His appearance in that re- coption room. At that moment, when you confront each other, Christ looking upon you and you looking upon Christ, there will be an eestatic thrill and surg ing ot emotion that beggars all descrip- lion. Look! They need no introduction. Long ago Christ chose that repentant sinner, and that repentant sinner chose Christ. Mightiest moment of an immor- tai history-the first kiss of Heaven!