The Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1868-1895, 1889-07-17
THE INDIANA STATE SENTINEL WEDNESDAY JULY IT, 1880

Lind and Parepa render matchless duet in
the mushroom of the old heavenly home
stead. I'm my Fathers house are many
rooms"
Another room in our Fathers house will
be the family room. 1t may correspond
somewhat 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 separate
room, 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
! and books in Russian lids standing in
mahogany case or there be only few
plain chairs and q cradle. So the family
room on high will be the place where the
| kinsfolk assemble and talk over the fam
lily experiences of earth, the weddings,
| the births, the burials, the festal days OF
| Christmas and Thanksgiving reunion.
Will the children departed remain chill
dren there? Will the aged remain aged
there? Oh, no. everything is perfect there.
| The child will 20 ahead to glorified maturity
and the aged will 90 back TO glorified ma
| turity. The rising sun of the one will rise
to meridian and the descending sun of the
other will return to meridian. However
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 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. Ii forty
or forty-fve or fifty years 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 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 YOU see us
| in this or that or the other struggle? Did
| you know when we lost our property and
| and sypathize with us? Did YOU know
we had that awful sickness? Were you
! lowering anywhere around when we
! plunged into that memorable accident
Did you know of our backslidi1g? Did
you know of that moral victory?
Were you pleased when we started
! for heaven? Did you celebrate the
! hour of our 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 tell them. Ten years on
earth may be 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 immensely, story of conquerors and
! hierarchs, story of wicked or ransomed
planets, story of angelic victory over dia-
bolical revolts, of extinguished suns of OBJ
| liberated consultations, of new galaxies
kindled and swung. of stranded comets, Of
worlds on fire, and story of Jehovah's
majestic reign. If in that familv-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 arousing that which they have to tell
us of what thew have passed through since
we parted. Surely that family-room will
be one of the most favored rooms in all
our Fathers house. What long lingering
there, for we shall never again be in q
hurry. LET me open a window" said
| humble Christian servant TO Lady Raffles,
who, because of the death of her child,
had shut herself up in a dark. room and
refused to see any one. you have been
many days in this dark room. Are you
not ashamed to grieve in this manner when
you ought to be thanking God for 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 all his beauty? Leave off weep
ing and let me open a window" So to-
day / am trying to open upon the dark
ness of earthly separation the windows
and doors and rooms of the heavenly
homestead. ''In my Fathers house are
many rooms"
How would it do for my sermon to leave
you in that family-room tonight? | am
sure there is no room in which you had
rather stay than in the enraptured circle
| OF your assembled and gloritied kin folk.
| We might visit other rooms in our Father
house. There may be picture galleries
| penciled not with earthly art but by some
process unknown in this world preserv-
ing for the next world the brightest and
| most stupendOus scenes OF human history.
And there may be lines and forms of
earthly beauty preserved for heavenly in
spection in something whittier and chaster
and richer than Venetian sculpture ever
wrought. Rooms beside rooms. Rooms
over rooms. Large rooms. Majestic rooms,
opalescent rooms, amethystine rooms. ain
my Fathers house are many rooms"
| hope none of us will be disappointed
about getting there. There is a room
for us if we will go and take it, but in or
der to reach it it is absolutely necessary
that we take the right way, and Christ
is the way and we must enter at the
right door, and Christ is the 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 / hold in my hand
a roll of letters inviting you all to make
that your home forever. The new tesla
ment is only roll of letters inviting you,
as the spirit of them practically says
"My dying Yet immortal child in earthly
neighborhood, have built for you a great
residence. 1t is full of rooms / have
furnished them as no palace was ever fur
nished. Pearls are nothing, emeralds are
nothing, chrysophrasus is nothing; illu-
mined panels of sunrise and sunset, moth
ing-compared with the splendor with
which l have garnitured them. But you
must be clean before you can enter there,
and so | have opened a 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
hiil-tops the old family homestead" "In
my Fathers house are many rooms"
MISTAKES OF THE CHURCH.