The Brookhaven leader., 1889-07-18
TALMAGE'S SERMON.
hOur House on the Hills and Its
Appointments.
The Heaven of the Bible and Some orig
inal Thoughts In Relation TO what
Is TO be Found There by
the Faithful.

SUBJECT "Our House on the HIS MS
text was:
In my Fathers house arc many rooms.--John
xiv, 2. ssaS
Here is a bottle OF medicine that is a
cure-all. The disciples were sad, and
Christ offered Heaven as an alternative,
a stimulant and a tonic. He shows them
that their sorrows are only dark back
ground of a 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 fgurative. i am not positive that in
all Heaven there is literal crown, or
harp, or pearly gate, or throne, or
chariot. They may be only used to illus
trate the glorics of the place. but how
well they do it! The favOrite symbol by
which the Bible presents celestial hap
piness is house. Paul, who never
owned house, although he hired one for
two years in Italy, speaks of Heaven as
a "hOuse not made with hands," and
Christ in our text the translation Of
which is a little changed, so as TO give
the more accurate meaning, says: "ln
my Fathers house are many rooms"
The divinely authorized comparison of
Heaven to great homestead Of large ac-
cOmmodations propose to carry out. In
some healthy neighborhood a man builds
very commodious habitation. He must
have room for all his children. The
rooms come to be called after the differ
eut members of the family. That is
Mothers room. That is Georges room.
That is Henry's room. That is Flora's
room. That is Mary's room. And the
house is all occupied. But time goes by,
and the sons go out into the world and
build their own homes, and the daugh-
tiers are married or have talents enough
singly to go out and do good work in
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-
gether 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 grand
children come with them, and perhaps
great grandchildren, and again the house
is full. Many millenia ago God built on
the hills of Heaven a great homestead for
a family innumerable, yet 10 be. At first
He lived alone in that great house, but
after awhile it was occupied by very
30 lollllgs NLCl hJiN, SVi q ~ tlI 5IlAt'
The eternities passed on, and many of
the inhabitants became hayward aud
left, never to return. And many of the
apartments were vacated. l 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 will be no unocCupied room in all
the house.
AS you and I expect to enter it and
make there eterna al residence, l thought
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 off
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, bat they are of a d.
yergent 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 |
am glad to say that we shall live in diff
ferent apartments. SIN my Fathers
house are many rooms" You see, HeaV-
en- will be so large that if one wants an
entire room to himself or herself it can
be afforded. An ingenious statistician,
taking the statement made in Revelation,
twenty first chapter, that the Heavenly
Jerusalem was measured and found to he
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 light SEX
tillion nine hundred and eighty eight
uuintillion cubic feet. and then reserving
a certain portion for the court Of Heaven
and the streets, and estimating that the
world may last one hundred thousand
years, he ciphers out that there are 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
too small. From all that l 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 arc
crowded, and though out on vast prai-
RE or in a mountain district people may
have more room than they want, .iu most
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
the gaining of unhindered and I'M
cramped room. And | should not Won
der if instead of the room that the statis-
tician ciphered out as only Il feet by 49,
it should be larger than any Of the impe-
rial rooms at Berlin, ST. James or Winter
Palace 'ln my Fathers house are
many rooms" Carrying out still further
the symbolism of the text let us join
hands and go up to this majestic home
stead and see for ourselves.
As we ascend the golden steps, an in
visible guardsman swings open the front
door and we are ushered to the right into
the reception room OF the old homestead.
That is the place where we first meet the
welcome of Heaven. There must be q
place where the departed spirit enters
and place in which it confronts the in
habitants celestial. The reception room
of the tnewly arrived from this world
what scenes it must have witnessed since
the first guest arrived, the victim of the
first fratricide, pious Abel. In that room
Christ lovingly greeted all new corners.
He redeemed them and He has the right
10 the S:st embrace on their arrival
What minute when the assembled 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 our earthly life
time will it be, just for one second to see
Him. The most rapturous idea we ever
had OF Him on sacramento days or at the