The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1889-07-24

live forever! We touch the forgiving
scepter and prostrate ourselves OF Thy feet!
The crowns Of the royal families of this
world are tossed about from generation to
generation and from family to family.
There arc children four years old in Berlin
who have seen the crown on three Emperors
But wherever the coronets of this world rise
or fall, they are destined to meet in one place.
And look and see them coming from north
and south and enst and west, the Spanish
crown, the italian crown, the English crown,
tho Turkish crown, the Russian crown, the
Persian crown, aye, all the crowns from un-
der the great archivolt Of heaven; and while
l watch and wonder they are all flung in rain
OF diamonds around the pierced feet.
Jesus shall reign wher'er the sun
Does his successive journeys run,
HIS kingdom stretch from shore to shore
TIL sun SHALL rise and set no more
Oh, that throne room Of Christi 'In my
Fathers house are many rooms"
Another room in our Fathers house is the
music room. st. John and other Bible
writer's talk 50 much about the music of
heaven that there must be music there,
perhaps not such as on earth was thrummed
from trembling string or evoked by
touch Of ivory key, but if not that, then
something better. There arc so many
Christian harpists and Christian COM
poSers and Christian organists and Christian
choriSters and Christian hymnologiSts that
have gone up from earth, there must be for
them some place Of especial delectation.
Shall we have music in this world of discords
and no music in the land of complete har-
mony? I cannot give you the notes Of the
first bar Of tho new song that is sung in
heaven. cannotimagine either the solo or
the doxology. But heaven means music, and
no nlcn 1lry% hat
music has escaped the gate. DR.. Fuller
not hear?" 'Hear WHAT" exclaimed
the bystanders. ''The musicl Lift me
up! Open the windowsp In that music-room
Of our Fathers house. you will some day
meet the old Christian masters, Mozart and
Handel and Mendelssohn and Beethoven and
Doddridge, whose sacred poetry was as re-
markable as his sacred prose- and James
Montgomery and William Cowper, at last
got rid of his spiritual melancholy, and
Bishop Heber, who sang of "Greenland's icy
mountains and Indias coral strand" and
realms Of light" and Isaac Watts,
who went to visit Sir Thomas Abnev
aud wife for week but proved himself so
agreeable guest that they made him stay
thirty-six years; and sido by side Augustus
Toplady, who hos got over his dislike for
Methodists, and Charles Wesley freed from
his dislike for Calvinists; and George W.
Bethune, as sweet as song maker as he was
great as preacher and tho author Of ''The
Village Hymns" and many who wrote in
verse or song, in church or by eventide
cradle, and many who wero passionately
fond Of music but could mako none them
any earthly prima donna, and the
any earthly Gottschalk. Oh that music
room, the headquarters Of cadence and
rhythm, symphony and chant, psalm and
antiphon! May we be there some hour when
Haydn sits at the keys of one of his own Or
atoTios, and David the psalmist fngars the
harp, and Miriam OF the Red sea banks claps
the cymbals and Gabriel puts his lips to the
trumpet and the four-and-twenty soldiers
chant, and Lind and Parepa render match
less duet in the music loom Of the old heav-
only homestead. "In my Fathers house are
many rooms"
Another room in our Fathers house will be
tho family room. 1t may correspond some
what with the family room on earth. At
morning and evening you know, that is the
place we now meet. Though every member
Of the household have a separate room
in tho family room they all gath
er and joys and sorrows and expert
ences Of all styles are there rehearsed. Sa-
cred room in oil our dwellings! Whether it
be luxurious with ottomans and divans and
books in Russian 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 kinsfolk Assem-.
BILE and talk over the family experiences Of
earth, the weddings, the births, the bqrials,
the festal days Of Christmas and Thanksgiv-
ing reunion. Will the children departed re-
main children there9 Will the aged remain
aged there? Oh, no; everything is perfect
there. The child will 60 ahead to glorifed
maturity and the aged will go back to glo-
rified maturity. The rising sun Of the one
will rise to meridian and tho descending sun
of tho 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 glorious
ly matured; while our parents who were
aged anG inflrm here, we shall be glad to find
restored to the most agile and vigorous i'm
ty years be the apex of physical and mental
life on the earth, then the heavenly child
hood 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 SEQ us in this or that
or tho 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 anywhere around when
Did you know Of our backsliding? Did
you know of that moral victory2 Were
you pleased when we started for heaven? Did
you celebrate the hour Of our conversion?
And then, whether they lnowit or not, we
will toll them all. But they will have moro
to tell us than we to tell them. Ten years on
earth may bo very eventful, but what must
be the biography of ten years in heaven?
They will have to tell us the story
Of coronations, story of news from all
immensity, story of conquerors and
hieraIchs story OF wrecked or ran.
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 Jehovat's ma
jestic 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 arous-
ing that which they have TO tell us Of what
they have passed through since we parted.
Surely that family room will be one of themost
favored rooms in all our Fathers house.
What long lingering there, for we
shall never again be in hurry.
LET me open window" said an
humble Christian servant to Lady Raffles,
who, because of the death Of her child,
had shut herself up in dark room
and refused to see any one; ''you have
been many days in this dark room.