Abilene weekly reflector. [volume] (Abilene, Kan.) 1888-1935, 1889-07-18

/ booss l.. -ussIa AIDS standing III mEnUg-
any case, or there be only few PLAIN
chairs and cradle. So the family room
on high will be the place where the kins.
folk assemble and talk over the family
exper fences of earth, the weddings, the
births, the burisls. the festal days Of
Christmas and Thanksgiving reunion.
Will the children departed remain chill
| dren there: o, no; every thing is perfect
there. The child will go ahead to gloriied
maturity and the aged will 30 back to
glori6ed maturity. The rising sun of one
will rise to meridian and the descending
sun OF the other will return to meridian.
! However much we love our children here
on earth we would consider it a 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 bavS
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 vigorous Immortality
there. If forty or forty-five or fifty be
the apex of physical and mental life on
earth. then the heavenly childhood will
advance to that and the heavenly old age
will retreat to that
When we Join them il that family
room we snail want to know of them right
away such things as these: Did you see
Us in this or that or the other struggle.
Did you know when we lost our property
and sympathized with us: Did you know
we had that awful sickness? Were you
lowering anywhere around when Wa
plunged into that memorable accident!
Did you know of our backsldingi Did
you know of that moral victory: Were
you pleased when we started for Heavenf
Did you celeb rate the hour of our CONVEX
sion? And then, whether they know it or
not we will tell them all. But they will
have more to tell Us than we to tell them.
Ten years on earth may be eventful.
but what must be a biography of
ten years in Heaven? They will
have TO tell US the story OF coronations,
story OF news from all immensely, story
of conquerors and hierarchs, story of
wrecked or ransomed planets, story of
angelic victory over diabolic revolts, of
extinguished suns. of obliterated constel-
lations, of new ga axies kindled and
swung, Of stranded comets. of worlds on
fire, and story Of Jehovah's majestic
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 arouspg that which they have to tell
US of what they have passed through
since we parted. Surely that family room
will be one of the most favored rooms In
all cur Fathers house. What long liuger-
ing there, for we shall never again be in
hurry.
Let me open a window" said an hum
BILE Christian servant TO Lady Rafies,
who because of the death of her child, haC
shut herself up in a dark room and re-
fused to see any one: you have been
many days in this dark room. Are you
not ashamed to grieye in this manner
when you ought TO be thanking God foI
having given you the most beautiful child
that ever was seen, and instead of leaving
him in this world till he should be worn
with trouble, has not God taken him to
Heaven in ell his beauty? Leave of
weeping and let me open a window" Sc
to-day am trying to open upon the dark
ness of earthly separation the windows
and doors and rooms of the heavenly home
stead. "In my Fathers house are many
rooms"
How woul it do for my SER
mon to leave you IN that family room to-
day. l am sure there is no room in which
you would rather stay than in the enrapt.
ured circle of your assembled and glorifeo
kinsfolk. We might visit other rooms il
our Fathers house. There may be picture
galleries penciled not with earthly art
but by some process unknown in this
world, preserving for the next world the
brightest and most stupendous scenes OF
human history. And there may be lines
and forms of earthly beauty preserved fol
heavenly inspection in something whittier
and chasJer and richer than Venetian
sculpture ever wrought. Rooms beside
rooms. Rooms over rooms. Large rooms,
majestic rooms, Opalescent rooms, anne
thystine roome. In my Fathers house
are many rooms"
hone none of US will be disappointed
about getting there. There is a room fol-
us if We Will 60 and take it, but in order
TO reach it it is absolutely necessary that
we take the right way, and we must enter
at the right door, and Christ is the right
door; and we must start in time, and the
only hour you are sure of IS the hour the
clock now strikes and the only second the
one your watch is now ticking. l hold in
my hand roll of letters inviting you all
10 make that your home forever. The
New Testament is only roll Of letters in
viting you, as the spirit of them practically
say: MY dying vet immortal child in
earthly eighborhood, have built for you
great residence. 1t is full of rooms. Ihave
furnished them as no palace was ever fur
nished. Pearls are nothing, emeralds are
chrysophrasus is nothing,
illumin ated panels of sunrise and sunset
nothing, the aurora of the northern heav-
ems nothing-compared with the splendor
with which have garnitured them. But
you must be clean before you can enter
there, and so / have opened & fountain
where you may wash all your sins away.
Come now. Put your weary but cleansed
feet on the upward pathway. Do you not
see amid the thick foliage on the heavenly
hill tops the old family homestead" "In !
my Fathers house are many rooms"
CHILDHOOD'S BLESSING.