The Roanoke times. [volume] (Roanoke, Va.) 1890-1895, 1890-07-15
ROANOKE DAILY TIMES. TUESDAY. JULY IS, 1890.

Joy1ng the evening hour there is q
knock at the door, and the door opens
and there comes in q brother that has
been long absent. He has been alb
sent-for years you have not seen him
and no sooner do you make up your
mind that it is certainly lie than you
leap up, and the question is who shall
give him the first embrace. That is
my idea of heaven-a great home
circle, where they are waiting for us.
Oh, will you not know your mothers
voice therel She who always called
you by your first name long after others
had given you tho formal 'NfisterT'
You were never anything but James,
or John, or George, or Thomas, or
Mary, Or Florence, to her VIII you
not know your child's voice2 She of
the bright eye, and the ruddy cheek,
and the quiet step, who came in from
play and flung herself into your lap. a
very shower of mirth and beauty2
Why, the picture is craven in your
soul. 1t cannot wear out If that
little one should stand on the other
side of some heavenly hill and call to
you you could hear her voice above
the burst of heavens great orchestra.
Know it2 You could not help but
know it.
A WONDERFUL ASSURANCE.
Now 1 bring you this glorious con-
ISOLATION of future recognition If you
could get this theory into your heart it
would lift great many shadows that
are stretching across it. When 1 was a
lad 1 used to go out to the railroad
track and put my ear down on the
track, and 1 could hear the express
train runbling miles away and coming
on, and today, my friends, if we only
Lad faith enough, we could put our ear
down to the grave of our dead and
listen, and hear in the distance the
rumbling on of the chariots Of resur
rection victory. o heaven, sweet
heaven! You do not spell heaven as
you used to spell it. You used to spell
it h-e-a-v-en-heaven. But now when
you want to spell that word you place
side by side the faces Of the loved ones
who arc gone, and in that irradietion
of light and love and beauty and joy
you spell 1t out as never before in
songs and hallelujahs. Oh, ye whose
hearts are down under the sod of the
cemetery, cheer up at tho thought OF
this reunionl Oh, how much you will
have to tell them when once you meet
them!
How much you have been through
since you saw them last. On the
shining shore you will talk it all over
The heartaches, the loneliness, the
sleepless nights, the weeping until
you had no more power to weep, be-
cause the heart was withered and dried
up. Story of vacant chair, and empty
cradle, and little shoe only half worn
out, never to be worn again, just the
shape Oh Ulle lou tlIuI OllCc piSooeu ie'
And dreams when you thought that
the departed had come back again, and
the room seemed bright with their
faces, and you started up to greet
them, and in the effort the dream
broke and you found yourself standing
amid room In the midnight-alone.
Talking it all over, and then, hand in
hand, walking up and down in the
light. No sorrow, no tears, no death.
o heaven beautiful heaven! Heaven,
where our friends are Heaven, where
we expect to be- In the east they take
a cage of birds and bring it to the
tomb of the dead, and then they open
the door of the cage, and the birds,
flying out, sing. And l would today
bring cage of Christian consultations
to the grave of your loved ones, and |
would open the door and let them fill
all the air with the music of their
voices.