The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1890-07-25
THE HEAVENLY HOME.
DR.. Taimage on the Meeting Of
Friends In Heaven.
The Muitituass IN waiting TO Welcome
Friends ia elory-No Doubt Of Receg-
milton OF F, lends IN Hezven-1hss
AGlc-scus Reunions.

Rev. 7. Dewitt Talmage recently
preached to great throng at Waseca,
Mimi, his subject being Meeting Our
Friends IN Heaven" His text was from
II. Fam Lel, xii %. ~ shall go to him. "
DR.. Tslmage said:
There is very sick child in the abode
of David the King. Disease, which
stalks up the dark lane of the poor and
puts its smothering hand. on the lip and
,nostril of the wan and wasted, also
mounts the palace stairs, and bending
over the pillow blows into the face of a
young prince the frosts of pain and
death. Tears are wine to the king of
terrors Alasl for David the King. He
can neither eat nor sleep and lies pros
trate on his face, weeping and wailing
until the palace rings with the cutlery OF
woe.
What are courtly attendants, or VIC
torious armies, or conquered provinces
under such circumstances? What to
any parent is all splendid surrounding
when his child is sick? Seven days
have passed on. Then in that great
house two eyelids are gently closed, two
little hands folded two little feet quiet
one heart still The servants come to
bear the tidings to the King, but they
can not make up their minds to tell
him, and they stand at the door whis-
pering about the matter, and David
hears them and he looks up and says
to them: SIS the child desd?" "Yes,
he is dead" David rouses himself up,
washes himself, puts on new apparel,
and sits down to food What power
hushed that tempest? What strength
was it that lifted up that King whom
grief had dethroned? Oh, It was the
thought that he would come again into
possession OF that darling child. No
grave digger's spade could hide him.
The wintry blasts of death could not
put out the bright light There would
be a forge somewhere that with silver
hammer would weld the broken links
In city where the hoofs of the pale
horse never strike the pavement he
would clasp his lost treasure. He wipes
away tears from his eyes, and he clears
the choking grief from his throat, and
~exclaims: Il shall go to him."
Was David right or wrong? If we
part on earth will we meet again in the
next world? WELL" says some one,
shat seems to be an impossibility.
Heaven is so large place we never
could find our kindred there" Going
into some city without having appointed
q time and place for meeting you might
wander around for weeks and months
and perhaps for years and never see
each other, and Heaven is vaster than
all earthly cities together, and how
are you going to find your departed
friend in that country? 1t is so vast a
realm. John went up on one mountain
of inspiration and looked off upon the
multitude and he said: Thousands of
thousands" Then he came upon q
greater altitude of inspiration and
looked off upon it again and he said:
Ten thousand times ten thousand "
And then he came on a higher mount of
inspiration and looked off again and he
said: "A hundred and forty and four
Thousand and thousands of thousands. :"
And became on a still greater height of
inspiration and he looked off again and
man can number" Now l ask, how
are you going to find your friends in
such 4 throng as that? Is not this idea
we have been entertaining after all a
falsiiy? Is this doctrine of future rec
-ognition of friends in Heaven a guess,
a myth, within, or is it granite foun-
dalton upon which the soul pierced of
all ages may build glorious hope? In
tense quest on! livery heart in this
audience throbs right into it. There is
in every soul here the tomb of at least
one dead.
The object of this sermon is to take
this theory cut of the region of surmise
and speculation into the region of pos
it!ve certainty. People say: 1T would
be very pleasant if that doctrine were
true. l hope it may be true. Perhaps
it is true. i wish it were true" But /
believe that j can bring an accumula-
tion of argument to bear upon this mat
ter which win prove the doctrine of fu-
-ture recognition as plainly as that there
is any Heaven at all, and that the kiss of
reunion at the celestial gate VIII be as
certain as the dying kiss at the door of
the sepulcher.
The doctrine of future recognition is
not SO often positively stated in the
Word of God as implied, and you know,
my friend, that that is after all the
strongest mode Of affirmation. Your
friend travels in foreign lands. He
comes home. He does not begin by
arguing with you to prove that there are
such places as London, and Stockholm,
and Paris. and Dresden and Berlin. but
his conversation implies it. And so this
Bible does not so positively state this
theory as, all up and down its chapters,
take it for granted. What does my text
imply? 81 shall go to Him" What
would it be to David to 60
60 his child if he would not know him?
Would David have been allowed to re-
cord this anticipation for the inspection
of all ages if it were grOundless antici-
patton? We read in the first book of
the Bible Abraham died and was gath
cred to his people. Moses died and was
gathered to his people. What people?
Why their friends. their comrades, their
old companions. OF course it means
that 1t can not mean any thing else.
So in the very beginning of the Bible
four times that is taken for granted.
The whole New Testament is an arbor
over which this doctrine creeps like
luxuriant vine full of the purple clus-
tiers of consolation. James. John and
Peter followed Christ into the mount
ain. A light falls from Heaven on that
and lifts it into the glories of
the celestial Christ's garments glow
and His face shines like the sun. The
door of Heaven swings open. Two spir-
its come down and alight on that
mountain. The discipes look at them