Staunton spectator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1896, 1889-07-17
Jesus shall rsign where'er the sun
DOES his successive journeys run,
His kingdom stretch from shore to shore

atnerS 9 mouse are many rooms"
Another room in our Fathers house il
the music room. st. John and other Biblt
writers talk SO much about the music OF
heaven that there must be music there, per
haas not sach as on earth was thrummec
from trembling string or evoked by touch
of ivory key, but if not that, then some
thing better. There are SO many Christian
harpists and Christian composers and
Christian organists and Christian choristers
and Christian hymnologists that have goni
up from earth, there must be for then
some place of especial delectation. Shall
we have music in this world of discords
and no music in the land of complete har
mony, l cannot give you the notes of the
first bar of the new song that is sung ir
heaven. Icannot imagine either the sole
or the doxology. But heaven means music
and can mean nothing else. Occasionally
that music has escaped the gate. DR.. Full
er, dying al. Bsaufort,S. c., said: "Do you
not hear?" e'Hear WHAT" exclaimed the
bystanders. 1.-THE musicl Lift me up
Open the window!' In that music-room o.
our Fathers house you will some day meet
the old Christian masters, Mozart and
dandel and Mendelssohn and Beethoven
and Doddridge, whose sacred poetry was az
remarkable as his sacred prose, and James
Montgomery and William Cowper, at last
got rid of his spiritual melancholy, and Bis
hop Heber, who sang of "Greenland's icy
mountains and India's coral strand" snd
DIR. Raffles, who wrote of ''High in yonder
realms of light" and Isaac Watts, who
went to visit Sir Thomas Abney and wife
for week, but proved himself so agreeable
a guest that they made him stay thirty. six
years; and side by side, Augustus Toplady,
who has got over his dislike for Methodists.
and Charles Wesley freed from his dislike
for Calvinists; and George W. Bethune, as
sweet as a song maker as he was great as a
preacher and the author of "The Village
Hymns" and many who wrote in verse or
song, in church or by eventide cradle, aud
many who were pass.onately fond of music,
but could make none themselves. The
poorest singer there more than any earthly
prima donna and the poorest players there
more than any earthly Gottschalk. Oh
that music-room, The head. quarters of cad
ence and rhythm; symphony and chant,
psalm and antiphon! May we be there
soma hour when Haydn sits at the keys of
one of his own oratorios, aud David, the
psalmist, fingers 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 matchless duet in
the music room of the old heavenly home
stead. SIN my Fathers house are many
rooms"
Another room in our Fathers house will
be the family room. 1t may correspond
with the family room on earth. At morn
ing and evening, you know, that is the
place we now meet. Though every mem-
hor of ba bouvahaJd b.vo coporoE rooy,,
in the family room they all gather, and joys
and SORROWS and experiences of all styles
are there rehearsed. Sacred room in all our
dwellings! Whether it be luxurious with
ottomans and divans aud books in Russian
lids standing in mahogany case, or there be
only few plain chairs and cradle. Sc
the family room on high will be the place
where the kinsfolk assemble and talk over
the family experiences OF earth, the wed.
dings, the births, the burials, the festal
days of Christmas and Thanksgiving re-
union. Will the children departed remain
children there? Will the aged remain aged
t,ere7 Oh, no; everything is perfect there,
The child will go ahead to glorifed matur.
ity, and the aged will go back to glorified
maturity. The rising sun of the one will
rise to meridian and the descending sun oi
the other will return to meridian. How.
ever much we love our children on earth
we would consider it domestic disaster il
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
gloriously matured; while our parents who
were aged and infirm here, We shall be glad
to find restored to the most agile and vigor.
GUS Immortality there. If forty or forty.
five or fifty years be the apex of physical
and mental life on earth, then the heavenly
childhood will advance to that and the hea.
venly old age will retreat to that.
When we join them in that family room
we shall have much to tell them. We shal
want to know of them right away such
things as these: Did you see US in this Oh
that or the other struggle? Did you know
when we lost or property and sympathizs
with us? Did you know we had that awfu
sickness9 Were you lowering anywhere
around when we plunged into memorable
accidents Did you know of our back-slid
ing? Did you know Of that moral victory
were you pleased when we STATED for hea
ven? Did you celebrate the hour of oul
conversion? And then, whether they know
it or not, we will tell them all. But they
will have more to tell US than we to tel
them. Ten years on earth may be very
eventful, but what must be the biography
of ten years in heavens They will have tc
tell US the story of coronations, story oi
news from all immensity, story of conquer.
ors and hierarehs, story of wrecked or ran.
somed planets, story of angelic victory over
diabolic rsvolts, of extinguished suns, OF
obliterated consultations, Of new galaxics
kindled and swung, of stranded comets, o
worlds on fire, and story of Jehovah's ma
jestic reign. If in that family room of oul
Fathers house we have so much to tel
them of what we have passed through since
we parted, how much more thrilling ant
arousing that which they have to tell us o.
what they have passed through since WI
parted. Surely that family room will b.
one of the most favored rooms in all ou
Fathers house. What long lingering
there, for we shall naver again be in hur
ry. "Let me open q window" said al
humble Christian servant to Lady Ratfles
who, because of the death of her child, hat
| shut herself up in dark room and refused
to see any one; s'you have been many day
in this dark room. Are you not ashamed
to grieve in this manner, when you ought t,
be thanking God for having given you tn
most beautiful child that ever was seen, ant
instead of leaving him in this world till h
should be worn with trouble, has not Coz
taken him to heaven in all his beauty
Leave off weeping and let me open win
dow" So to-day am trying to open up
on tho darkness of earthly separation th
windows and doors and rooms of the heav
enly homestead. ''ln my Fathers hous
are many rooms"
How would it do for my sermon to leav
you in that family room to-day? l am sur
there is no room in which you would raths
stay than in the enraptured circle of you
assembled and glorifed kinsfolk.,, We nigh
visit other rooms in our Fathers house
There may be picture gallaries penciled no
with earthly art but by some process IN
known in this world, preserving for the mex
world this brightest and most stupendou
scenes of human history. And there ma.
be lines and forms of earthly beauty preser
we'd for heavenly inspection in something
whittier and chaster and richer than Veneti
en- sculpture ever wrought. Rooms besid
rooms. Rooms over rooms. Large rooms
Majestic rooms, opalescent rooms, amethy