The national leader., 1889-07-11
REV. DIR. TALMAGE.
THE BROOKLYN DIVINE'S SUN.
DAY SERMON.
Subject: "Our House on the Hills" /"
preached at the HamptOns,
Long Island.)


Here is bottle of medicine that is a cure
all. The disciples were sad and Christ of
fered heaven as an alternative, a stimulant
and a tonic. He shows them that their sor-
rows are only dark background of a bright
picture of coming felicity He lets
them know that though now they live
on the lowlands they shall yet have a
descriptions of heaven may be fgurative.
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 it! The favorite symbol by
which the Bible presents 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 transla-
ton Of which is a little changed so as to give
the more accurate meaning, says: "In my
Fathers house are many rooms"
This hvindy authorized comparison of
heaven to a great homestead of large accom-
inodations propose to carry out. In some
healthy neighborhood q man builds a
very commodious habitstion. He must
have room for all his children. The
rooms come to be called after the
different members of the family That is
mothers room. That Is Georges room.
That is Henry's room That is Flora's
Is all occupied. But time goes by and the
sons go out into the world and build
their own homes and daughters are married
or have talen6 enough singly to go out and
DO good work in the world. After wlrle
the father and mother are almost alone in
tbe 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 grandchildren come with them, and
perhaps great-grandchildren, and again
The house is full. Many millennia ago
en- great homestead for family innumer-
able, yet to be. At first He lived alone in
that great house, but after a while it was
occupied by very large family, cherubic,
seraphic, angelic. The eternities passed on
and many of tho inhabitants became way
ward and left never to return. And many
Of the apartments were vacated. refer to
are filling up again. There are arrivals at
the old homestead of Gods children every
Itay, and the day will come 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. I'm 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 i'll the same room They
may be better than we are, but they are
Of a divergent. 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, but [ am glad to say that we shall
live In different apartments. I'm my Fathers
house are many rooms" You see heaven will
be so large that if one want an entire room to
himself or herself, it can be afforded. An in
geniOuS statistician taking the statement
made in Revelation, twenty-irst chapter, that
the heavenly Jerusalem was measured and
found to be twelve thousand furlongs and
that the length and height and breadth
Of it are equal, says that would make
heaven in size 94S sextillion 9S8
qumtilljon cubic feet, and then reserving a
certain portion for the court of heaven and
the streets, and estimating that the world
may last hundred thousand years. lie 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 two small. From all l can read, the
rooms will be palatial, 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 a vast prairie or in a
mountain 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 cradle 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 and uncramped ROOM
And should not wonder if instead of the
room that the statistician ciphered out as
only seventeen feet by sixteen, it should be
larger than any of the imperial rooms at Ber-
lin, st. James or Winter Palace. "In my
Fathers house are many rooms" Carrying
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 invisible
guardsman swings open the front door and
we are ushered to the right into the recep-
tion room of the old homestead. That is the
place where we first meet the welcome of
heaven. There must be place where the
departed spirit enters and place in which it
confronts the inhabitants celestial. The re
ception room of the newly arrived from this
world-what scenes it must have witnessed
since the first guest arrived, the victim of
the first fratricide, pious Abel. In that room
Christ lovingly greeted all new COM
ers. He redeemed them and He has the
right to the first embrace 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, just for
one second to see Him. The most rapturous
idea we ever had of Him on sacramental
days or at the height of some great revival
or under the uplifted baton of an oratoro
are bankruptcy of thought compared with
the first flash Of His 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. Mightiest moment of an i'm
mortal history-the first kiss of heaven!
Jesus and the soul. The soul and Jesus.