Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1889-07-08
In MYFATHER'S HOUSE
RRV. DR.. TALMAGBS ELOQUENT SERMON
AT THB HAMPT0N'S, YESTERDAY.
Into the Reception Room Pour GlOrifsd KinsiolkS
About the ThrOns-Among the Musicians
The Family ROm-JOys, Sorrows,
Experiences are Related.
Special Telegram to he Register.


7. De Witt Talmage, DID,, preached here
to-day on the subject: "Our House on the
Hills" His text was John xiv, 2; Sin
my Fathers house are many rooms." He
said:
Here is bottle of medicine that is o
cure-all. The disciples were cad and
Christ offered heaven as an alternative, q
stimulant and a tonic. He shows them
that their sorTows are only dark back
ground of bright picture Of coming felic-
ity. He let's them know that though now
they live on the lOwlands they shall yet
have house on the uplands. Nearly all
the Bible descriptions Of heaven may be
figurRtive. 1 am not positive that in all
heaven there is literal crown or harp or
pearly gate or throne or chariot. They
may he 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 house. Paul,
who never owned house, although he
hired one for two years in Italy, speaks of
heaven as "house not made with hands,"
and Christ in our text, the translation OF
which is a little changed 80 as to give the
more accurate meaning, says: I'm my
Fathers house are many rooms"
APPORTIoNED OFF IN APARTMENTS.
Aa you and expect to enter it and
make there eternal residence, / thought
you would like to get some more partieu-
lars about that many rOomed homestead.
"In my Fathers house are many rooms. "
You see the place is to be apportiOned off
into apartments. We shall love all who
are in heaven, but there are some very
good people whom we would Hot want to
live with in the same room. They may be
better than we are, but they are of d.
vergent temperament We would like to
meet with them on the golden streets and
worship with them in the temple and
walk with them on the river banks, bat
am glad TO say we shall live in different
apartments. 'In my Fathers house are
many rooms" You gee heaven will be so
large that if one wants an entire room TO
himself or herself it can be afforded.
An ingenious statistician, taking the
statement made in Revelation, TWEEN
ty.first chapter, that the heavenly
Jerusalem was measured and found
to be twelve thousand fdrloDgs and that
the length and height and breadth Of it
are equal, says that would make heaven
in size 948 sixtillion 9S8 quintillion cubic
feet, and then reserving certain portion
for the court of heaven and the streets,
and estimating that the world may last
a hundred thousand years, he ciphers out
that there are over five trillion rooms, each
room seventeen feet long, sixteen feet
wide, fifteen feet high. But / have no
faith in the accuracy of that calculation.
He makes the rooms too small. From all
can read, the rooms will be palatisl, and
those who have not had enough room in this
world will have plenty of room at the last.
The fact is that most people in this world
are crowded, and though out on vast
prairie or in O mountain district people
NAV have more room than they want, in
most cases it is house built close to house,
and the streets are crowded and the cradle
ia crowded by other cradles, and the graves
crowded in the cemetery by other graves
and one of the richest luxuries of many
psople in getting cut of this world will be
the gaining of unhindered and uncramped
room. Aud l should not wonder if in
stead of the room that the statistician
ciphered out as only II feet by 16, it
,hould be larger than any of the imperial
rooms at Berlin, st. James or Winter
palace. "Iu my Fathers house are many
roomsn Carrying out still further the
symbolism of the text let us join hands
and 20 up to this majestic homestead and
see for ourselves.
THE RECEPTION ROOM.
As we ascend the golden steps, an in
visible guardsman swings open the front
door and we are ushered to the right into
the reception room of the old homestead.
This ia the place where we first meet the
welcome of heaven. There must be a
place where the departed spirit enters and
a place where it confronts the inhabitants
celestial. The reception room ofthe newly
arrived from this woIld-what scenes it
must have witnessed since the first guest
arrived. the victim of the first fratTicide,
pious Abel. In that room Christ lovingly
greeted all new comers He redeemed
them and he has the right TO the first em-
brace on their arrival. What minute
when the assembled spirit first sees the Lord.
BETTER than all 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,
inst for one second to see him. The most
rapturous idea we ever had of him on sac
ramental days or at the height OF some
great revival or under the uplifted baton Of
an oratorio are a bankruptcy of thought
compared with the first fash of his appear
snce in that reception room. At that mo-
nent 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 de-
scription. Look They need no introduc-
ton. Long ago Christ chose that repent
ant sinner and that repsntant sinner chose
Christ. Mightiest moment OF an immor-
tai history-the first kiss of heaven! Jesus
and the soul. The soul and Jesus.
WHAT HEAVEN HAS DONE FOR THEM.
But now into that reception room pour
the gIorified kiusfolks. Enough Of earth
ly retention to let you know them, but
without their wounds or their sicknesses
or troubles. See what heaven has done
for them. So radiant, so gleeful, so trans
portingly lovely. They call you by name.
They greet you with an ardor proportional
to the anguish of your parting and the
length of your separation. Father Moth
err There is your child. Sistersl Broth
ers! Friends! l wish you joy. For years
apart, together again in the reception room
of the old Homestead. You see they will
know You are coming. There are 80 many
immortals filling all the spaces between
here and heaven that news like that flies
like lightning. They will be there in an
instant; though they were in some other
world on errand from God a signal would
be thrown that would fetch them. Though
Won might at first feel dazed and overswed
at their supernal splendor, ell that feeling
will be gone at their first touch OF
heavenly salutation and we will say: 70
my lost boy" 20 my lost companion, "
30 my lost friend, are we here together"
What scenes have been witnessed in that
reception room Ofthe old homestead! There
met Joseph and Jacob, 6ndingit brighter
room than anything they saw in PhsIsoh's
palace; David and the little child for
whom he once tasted and wept; Mary and
Lazarus after the heartbreak Of Bethany;
Timothy and grandmother Lois; Isabella
Graham and her sailor son, Alfred and
Gorge Cookmsu, the mystery of the sea at
last made manifest; Luther and Magds-
lene, the daughter be bemoanedi John
Howard and the prisoners whom he gos-
pelizsd; and multitudes without number
who. once SO sorry aud so sad, parted on
earth but gloriously met in heaven.
Among ell the rooms of that house there is