The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1889-07-08
OUR HOUSE ON THE HILLS
TALMAGE DESCRIBES HEAVEN as
A HOMESTEAD.

| NANo 4AAl4lOu GOOQ-0lASo ADdTLm0nba
"A Room for Everyone on Earth
If They VIII Only Taks It.
THE HANPToNs, n. Y, July rev. T..
Dewitt Talmage d. D., preached here to-
day on the subject: ''Our House on the
HIS" Ills text was John xiv. Q: "In my
Fathers house are many rooms" He said:
Here is bottle Of medicine that is a cure
all. The disciples were sad and Christ Of
fered heaven as an alternative, a stimuIant
and tonic. He shows them that their sor-
rows are only dark background of a
bright picture of coming felicity. He let's
them know that though now they Ii We on
the lowlands they shall yet have h ouse on
| the uplands. Nearly. all the Bible
descriptions of heaven may ba
| iiguratlve. l am not positive that In
all heaven there is 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 il! The
fayorite symbol by which the Bible presents
celest al happiness is a house. Paul, who
| never owned a house, although he hired one
for two years in Italy, speaks of heaven as
| "house not made with hands,n and Christ
| in our text, the translation Of which is a
little changed so as to give the more accur-
ate meaning, saws; I'm my Fathers housa
are many rooms
Inls dIvlnely authorized comparison of
heaven to great homestead Of large ac-
Communications, propose to carry out. In
| some healthy neighborhood a man builds a
very commodious habitation.. He must
have room for all his children. The rooms
come to be called after the different mem
bers of tho family. That is mcther's room.
That Is Georges room. That is Henrys
room. That is Floras room.
That is Mary's ROOM And the
house is all occupied. But time goes by and
the sons go out into the world and build
their own homes, and the daughters
are married or have talents enough
singly to go out and do a good work in the
| world. After a while the father and mother
are almost alone in the big house and,
seated by the evening stand they say=
| "Well, our family is no larger now than
when we started together forty years ago.~
| But time goes still further by and some OF
the children are unfortunate and return to
| the old homestead to live, and the grand
| children come with them, and perhaps
great-grandchildren, and again the house is
| full. Many mlllennia ago God built on the
hills of heaven great homestead for a fam
lily innumerable, yet to be. At first he lived
alone in that great house, but after while
it was occupied by very large family,
cherubic, seraphic, angelic The eternities
passed on and many of the inhabitants be-
came wayward and left, never to return.
| And many Of the apartments we're vacated
| refer to the fallen angels. Now these
apartments are filling up again. There are
| arrivals at the old homestead of Gods chill
dren every day, and the day will coms
when there will be no unoccupied room in
| all the house.
AS you and / expect to enter it and make
! there eternal residence, | thought YOU
would like to get some more particulars
/ about that many-roomed homestead "Iu
1 nv Eafh
see the place is TO be apportioned off into
apartments. We shall love all who are in
heaven, but there are BonB very good people
| whom we would not want to live with in
the same room. They may be- better than
| we are, but they are of divergent temper.
ament. We would like to meet with them on,
| the golden streets aud worship with them in
the temple and walk with them on the
river banks, but | am glad to say that we
. shalt live in different apartments, "In my
| Fathers house are mary rooms" You see
heaven will be so large that if one want an
entire room to himself or herself, it can be
| afforded. An ingenious statistican, taking
the statement made in the Revelation,
| twenty first chapter, that the heavenly
| Jerusalem was measured and found to be,
| 1900 furlongs, and that the length
and hight and breadth Of it are equal,
says that would make heaven in
size 94S sextillion 9SS quintillion
1 p
| ing a certain portion for the court of
heaven and the streets, and estimating that
| the world may last hundred thousand
years. he ciphers out that theyS 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 paIatial, and those who have not
| had enough room in this world VIII have
| plenty Of room at the last. The fact is that
most people in this world are crowded, and
| though out on a vast prairie or in noun
tain district people may have more room
| than they want, in most cases it is house built
| close to house, and the streets are crowded
and the tadle 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 aud un-
cramped room. And / should not wonder
il instead Of the room that the statistician
ciphered out as only II feet by 16, it should
be larger than any OF the imperial rooms at
Berlin, st. james Or Winter palace. I'm
| my Fathers house are many rooms" Car
| rying out still further the symbolism Of the
| text let us join hands and go up to this
| majestic homestead and see for ourselves.
AS we ascend the golden steps, an in
| visible guardsman swings open the 'front.'
| the reception room of the old homestead.
| That is the place where we first meet the
| welcome of heaven. There must be a place
where the departed spirit enters and place
! in which it confronts the inhabitants ce-
lestial. The reception room of che newly
arrived from this world--what scenes ID
must have witnessed since the first
guest arrived the victim of the first
fratricide, pious Abel. In that room.
Christ lovingly greeted SH new
| comers. He redeemed them and he has the.
right TO the first embrace on their arrival
What a 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,
just for one second to see him. The most
rapturous ideas we ever had of him ON:
sacramental days or at the hight of some
great revival or under the uplifted
baton of an oratorio are a bank
| ruptcy Of thought compared with the,
first fash of LIS appearance in that;
reception room. At that moment 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.
Lookl They need no introduction. Long,
ago Christ chose that repentant sinner and
that repentant sinner chose Christ
Il 90 L