The Brookhaven leader., 1889-07-18
"Iu INV Fathers house are many

| SpOnd 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 q seperate room, in the family room
they all gather, and joys and sorrows and
| experiences of all styles are there re-
| hearsed. Sacred room in all our DWELL
! ings. Whether it be luxurious with otto-
mans aud divans and books in Russian
lids standing in mahogany case, or there
be only a fiw plain chairs and cradle.
So the family room on high will be the
place where the kinsfolk assemble and
talk over the family experiences of earth,
the weddings, the births, the burials, the
festal days of Christmas aud Thanks
giving reunion. viii the children
| Will the aged remain aged therc'
Oh, no; every thing is perfect
t ere. The child will 60 ahead to Glorified
maturity and the aged will 60 back to
glorifed maturity The rising sun Of the
one will rise to meridiln and The descend
ing sun of the other will return to me-
ridian. However much we love our chill,
dren, we would consider it a domestic
disaster if they staid children, aud so we
rejoice at their growth here. And when
we meet in the family room of our Fa-
TIERS house we will he glad that they
have graGdly and gloriously patured;
while our parents. who were aged and in
firm here, we shall he glad TO find restored
to the most agile and vigorous immortal
ity there. IL forty. or forty five, 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 thG'.
When We join them in that family room
we shall have much to tell them. We
snail want to know of them right away
such things as these: Did you see us in
this or that or the other struggle? Did
you know when we lost our property and
sympathize with Us? Did you know we
had that awful sickness? Were you how
ering any whore around when We plunged
into that memorable accident? Did you
know of our back5lidiug? Did you know
of that moral victory? Were you pleased
when VIC started to Heaven? Did you
celebrate the hour of our conversion?
And then, whether thew know ii or not,
we will tell them all. Bat they will have
more to tell us than we to tell them. Ten
years on earth may be very eyentful
but what must bs 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 hicrarchS, story of wrecked or ran
somed planets, story Of angelic victory
over diabolic revolts, of extinguished
suns, of obliterated consultations, Of
new Calaxies kiudled and swung, OF
stranded comets, of worlds on fire, and
story of Jehovah's majestic reign.
If in that family 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 10 tell US
Of, what they 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 hurry. "Let
me open q window" said a humble Chris
tian servant to Lady Rafiles, who, because
of the death of her child, had shut herself
up in dark room and refused to see any
one; you have been many days in this
dark room. Are you not ashamed to
grieye 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 Col taken him to Heaven in all
his beauty? Leave off weeping, and let
me open window" SO to- day | am try
ing to open upon the darkness 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 to-day? / am
sure there is no room in which you would
rather stay than in the enraptured circle
Of yoLf assembled and glorificd kinsfolk.
We might visit other rooms in our
Fathers house. There may be picture
galleries penciled not with earthly art,
but by some process unknown in this
world, preserving for the next world the
brightest and most stupcndous scenes of
human history. And there may be lines
and forms of earthly beauty preserved
for heavenly inspection 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. "In 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 order
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 at the door: and we
must start in time, and the only hour you
are sure of is the hour the clock now
strikes, aud the only second the one your
watch is now ticking. I hold in my hand
a roll of letters inviting YOU all TO make
that your home forever. The New Testa-
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 furnished.
Pearls are nothing, emeralds are nothing,
chrysophrasus is nothing; illumined
panels of sunrise and sunset nothing;
the aurora of the northern heavens. moth
ing-compared with the spendor with
which have garnitured them. But you
must be clean before you can enter there,
and So l have opened fountain where
you may wash all your sins away. Come,
now! Put your weary but cleanscd feet
on the upward pathway. Do you not see
amid the thick foliage on the heavenly
hill tops the old family homestead:'
I'm my Fathers house are many rooms.'
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AN AMUSING PARADOX,