Abilene weekly reflector. [volume] (Abilene, Kan.) 1888-1935, 1889-07-18
THE HEAVENLY HOME.
The Joy of the Redeemed Pictured
By DR.. Talmage.
The Eternal Mansion in Which There is
Room For AIl-The SpIendors of the
Great Homestead Where the Re
deemed Will Meet.


Here is & bottle of medicine that is a
cure-an The disciples were sad and
Christ offered Heaven as an alternative. a
stimuIant and a tonic He shows them
that their sorrows are only a dark back
ground of bright picture of coming fell
city. He lets them know that though now
they live on the Iowlands they shall vet
have house on the uplands. Nearly all
of the Bible descriptions of Heaven NAV
be fgurative. i am not positive that in
all Heaven there is a 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 it! The
faVorite symbol by which the Bible pre-
sents celestial happiness is a house. Paul,
who never owned a 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 trans
latiOn Of which is a little changed so as to
give the more accurate meaning, says:
"In my Fathers house are many rooms"
This divinely authorized comparison of
Heaven to a great homestead of large ac-
cOmmOdations l propose to carry out. In
some healthy neighborhood a man builds
very commodious habitation. He must
have room for all his children. The rooms
must come to be called after different
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. Aud the house is
all occupied. But time goes bv and the
sons 90 out into the world and In Id their
own homes and the daughters are married
or have talents enough 20 20 ont and do
good work in the world. Alter awhile the
father and mother are almost alone in the
big house, and seated bv the evening
stand they say: "'Weil, our family is no
larger now than when we started together
forty years ago" BIT time goes still
7riher fy anc som OF the Oh lGren are
nforlunGte and return to the old home
tead 10 live, and the grandchildren, and
.rhaps The great and :hildren, and
Jain the house Is full.
Many millenia ago God built on the hills
Of Heaven great homestead for a family
innumerable yet TO be. At first He lived
alone In that great house but after a
while it was occupied by very large
smily, cherubic, seraphic angelic. The
EeA.iities passed on and many of the in
nabitants became wayward and left never
70 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 dav,
and the day will come when there will be
10 unoccupied room in all the house As
YOU aud l expect to enter it and make
there eternal residence, / thought yoy
would like to get some more particulars
bout that many roOmed homestead. "In
Ay Fathers house are many rooms" You
L
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 NAV
be better than we are, but they are
Of a divergent temperament We would
ike to meet them on the golden streets !
and worship with them in the temple and |
walk with them on the river banks, but |
am glad 10 say that we shall live in differ |
ent apartments. Gin my Fathers house |
are many rooms"
You see Heaven will be so large |
hat if one wants an entire room |
TO himself or herself it can be af- |
forded. An ingenious Statisticiau, taking |
the statement made in Revelation twenty |
first chapter, that the heavenly Jerusalem |
was measured and found to be l., 900 fur |
longs and that the length and height and |
breadth of ii are equal, saws that would |
make Heaven in size as sextillion SIS quin-
tiliion cubic feet, and then. reserving a
certain portion for the Court of Heaven |
and the streets, and estimating that the |
world may last 100, 900 years. he ciphers
out that there are over five trillion rooms |
each room i feet long. Is feet wide, Is |
feet high. But l have no faith in the ac-
curacy of that calculation He makes the
rooms too small. From all 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 people in this world are
crowded, and, though cut on a vast prai-
RE or in a mountain district, people NAV
have more room than they want. in most
cases il 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 uncramped
room. And l should not wonder if in
stead of the room that the statistician
out only seventeen feet by
sixteen, it should be larger than any of
the imperial rooms at Berlin, ST. James or
Winter palace. lin my Fathers house
are many rooms"
Carrying out still further the symbolism
of The text let us join hands aud go up TO
this ma estic homestead and see for our
selves. As we ascend the golden steps an
invisible guardSman swings open the
front door and we are ushered 10 the right
into the reception room of the old home
stead. That is the place where we first
meet the welcome OF Heaven. There must
be place where the departed spirit enters
and place in which it confrouts the in
habitants celestial The reception room
Of the newly 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 TO the first embrace on their ar
rival. What a minute when the assembled
spirit first sees the Lord. Better than ali
we ever read about Him or talked about
Him or sang about Him in all the churches
and through all our earthly lifetime, will
it be- Just for one second to see 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 oratorion bankruptcy OF thoughts
compared with the first fash of His ap-
pearance in that reception room. At that
when you confront each other,
Christ looking upon you and you looking
upon Christ there will be an ecstatic thrill
and surging of emotion that beggars all
description. Look, They need no intro
duction. Long ago Christ chose that re-
pentant sinner. and that repentant sinner
chose Christ. Mighuest moment of an i'm
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