The intelligencer. [volume] (Lexington, Mo.) 1887-1891, 1889-07-13
THE HEAVENLY 0 NJ
The Joy of the Redeemed Pictured
By DR.. Talmage.
The Eternal Mansion In which There is
Room For An-The Splendors of the
Great Homestead Where the Re-
deemed VIII Meet.

In a recent sermon Rev.. T. Dewitt Tall
mage took for his subject, Our House on
the Hills" His text was from John xiv.
q; ~ my fathers house are many
rooms. He said:
Here is a bottle of medicine that is a
cure-alL The disciples were sad and
Christ offered Heaven as an alternative, a
and a tonic. He shows them
tnat their sorrows are only a DARK back
groun OF a bright picture of coming fell
city. He lets them know that though now
sney 4 v OF the lowlandI they shall yet
nave a house on the uplands. Nearly all
OF the Bible descriptions of Heaven may
DC l~gurative. / am MT positive that In
all Heaven there is a literal crown OF harp
or pearly gate or throne or chariot. They
may be only used to illustrate the gl~ries
or the place, but how well they do It'll The
fevorite symbol by which the Bible pre-
sents celestial happiness is a house. Paul,
who never owned a house, although he
hired one for two years in Italy, speaks OF
Heaven as "a house not made with
hands" and Christ In our text, the trans
t1tion OF which Is a little changed so as to
give the more accurate meaning, says:
TN my Fathers house are many rooms"
This divinely authorized comparison Of
Heaven to a great homestead of largs ac-
propose to carry out. Ia
some healthy neighborhood a man builds
q very c~ommodious habitation. He must
have room for ell his children. The room.
must come to be called after different
members OF the family. That is mothers
room. That is Georges room. That is
lHenry's room. That is Flora's room.
That is MRry's room. And the house is
all occupied. But time goes by and the
Sons 60 out into IL , world and build their
own homes and the daughters are married
or have talents enough to go out and do
good WORK In the world. Alter awhile 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" Bat time goes still
further by and some of the children are
unfortunate and return to the old home
stead to live, and the grandchildren, and
perhaps the great-g and hildren, and
again the house is full.
Many millenia ago God built on the hills
OF Heaven great homestead for a family
innumerable yet to be. At first He lived
AioAe In that great house, but after a
VT 20 IL was occupied by a very large
family, %cherubic, seraphic, angelic. The
%stsrnities passed on and many of the IN
habitants became way ward and left never
TO return. And many of the apartments
were vacated. refer to the fallen angels.
Now these apartments are filling up
again. There are arrivals at the old
homestead Of Gods children every day.
anc the day will come when there will be
mo unoccupled room Ii. all the house. AS
you n expect to enter it and make
there eternal residence, / thought you
would like to get some more particulars
about that many roomed homestead. ain
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 not want to live
with In the same room. They NAV
% better than we are, but they are
OF Q divergent temperament. We would
like to meet them on the golden streets
and worship with them in the temple and
walk with them on the river banks, but /
am glad to say that we shall live In differ
snt apartments. SIN my Fathers house
are many rooms"
You see Heaven wifi be so large
that II n wants an entire room
TO himself or herself It can be af-
forded. An ingenious statistician, taking
the statement made in Revelation, twenty
hrst chapter, that the heavenly Jerusalem
was measured and found to be IL, 900 fur
longs and that the length aud height and
brsaeth of It are equal, says that would
make Heaven In size 94S sextillion $50 uuin.
tiilion cubic feet, and then, reserving a
certain porSion for the Court of Heaven
the streets, and estimating tha the
world may last 100, 900 years, he ciphers
out that there are over five trlllion rooms.
sGch room II feet long, 10 feet wide, Is
feet high. But / have no faith in the ac-
curacy Of that calculation. He makes the
rooms too small. From all / can read, the
rovIns will be palatiaL, and those who have
not had enough room in this world will
plenty of room at the last.
The fact is that people in this world are
crowded, and, though out on a vast prai-
ris or In a mountain district, people nav
have more room than they want, in most
cases IL is housc built close to house, and
tho streets are crowded and the cradle is
by other cradles, and the graves
crowde1 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 and
And / should not wonder. If in
stsad of the room that the statistician
ctphered out as only seventeen feet by
sixteen, IL should be larger than any of
the imperial rooms ut Berlin, st. James or
Winter palace. ain my Fathers house
ars many rooms"
Carrying out still further the symbolism
Of the text let us Join hands and go up to
thie majestic homestead and see for our
As we ascend the golden steps an
guardsman swings open the
front door and we are ushered 10 the right
the reception room of the old homs-
stead. That Is the place where we first
meet tho welcome St Heaven. There must
be . place where the departed spirit enters
and q place In which IL confronts the in
2abitants celestial. The reception room
of the newly arrived from this world
what scenes It must have witnessed since
the hcst guest arrived, the victim of the
fratricide, pious Abel In that
room Christ lovingly greeted all new
He redeemed them and He has
the right to The first embrace on their ar
What a minute when the assembled
spirit hrst sees the Lord. Better than all
ever read about Him or talked about
Him on sang aboytrHfm In all the churches
Ap0thfough all our earthly lifetime, will
Id ~. lubbA ~ u bOCOlh W q IN
most rapturcu4 idea we ever rae Of Him on
sscramental days or at the heightof some
revival or under the onlifted baton
OF an orasorion bankruptcy of thoughts
compared with the first fash Of His mp.
n that reception room. At that
moment whom you confront each other.
looking upon you and you looking
upon Christ there will be an ecstatic thrill
and surginR Of emotion that beggars all
Looki They need no intro
Long ago Christ chose that re-
psntent SINNER. and hat ant sinner
chose Christ. Mightlest moment OF an i'm
mortal kistory-the first Kiss of aver
Jesus and the soul The soul and Jesu+.
But now into thas reception room pour
che glorious kinsfolk. Enough Of earthly
retention TO let you know them, but with
out their wounds or their sickness or their
See what Heaven has done for
them. So radiant. so gleeful. so trans
p 3-tingly lovely. They call you ty name.
They greet you with an ardor proper
toned to the anguish OF your parting and
length of your separation. FatherS
There Is your child. SistersI
Brothersi Friendsi | wish you Joy. For
years apart, together again In the recep'
lion room OF the old homestead. You see
hey will know you are coming. There
Are 80 many immortals al ing all the
between here and Heaven that
news like that flies like lightning. They
Will be there In an i~nst7nt; though they
we're In some other world on errRnd from
God . signal would be thrown that would
them. Though you might at first
feel dazsd and overa~ed at their super
%splendor, ell tina feeling will be
gone at their first touch of heavenly
and you will say: 20. my lost
20. my lost %compsnion," 80, my
lost friend, are we here togetherYn