Evening capital journal. (Salem, Or.) 1888-1893, 1891-12-07

you Deard tfle fOOtSJep OF the ram on
the garret roof. You swung on the
gate You ransacked the barn. You
waded into the brook You thrashed
the orchard for apples and the neigh
boring woods for nuts, and everything
around the old homestead is of interest
TO you. tell you of the old home
stead of eternity. In my Fathers
house are many mansions. When we
talk of mansions we think of Chats
worth and its park, nine miles in cir
cumference. and it's conservatory, that
astonishes the world its galleries of art,
that contain the triumphs of Chantrey,
Canova and Thorwaldsen of the kings
and the queens who have walked its
stately halls, or, flying over the heather,
have hunted the grouse. But all the
dwelling places OF dukes and princes
and queens are as nothing to the fam
lily mansion that is already awaiting
our arrival. The hand of the Lord
Jesus lifted the pillars, and swung the
doors, and planted the parks. Angels
walk there, and the good of all ages.
The poorest man in that house is a
millionaire. and the lowliest king, and
the tamest word he speaks is an an
them and the shortest life an eternity
THE OPEN GARDENS OF GOD.
It took Paxton to build for Chats
worth covering for the wonderful
flower Victoria Regia, fve feet in diam
eter But our Lily of the Valley shall
need no shelter from the blast, and in
the open gardens of God shall put forth
its full bloom, and all heaven shall
come to look at it, and its aroma shall
be as though the cherubin had swung
before the throne u thousand censers
| have not seen it yet. am in for
eign land. But my father is waiting
for me to come home. have brothers
and sisters there. In the Bible have
letters FROM there telling me what a
fine place it is. 1t matters not much to
me whether / am rich or poor, or
whether the world hates me or loves
me, or whether go by land or by sea,
If only may lift my eyes at last on the
family mansion.
1t Is not a frail house. built in a
month, soon to crumble, but an old
mansion which is as firm as the day 1t
was built. Its walls are grown with
the ivy of many ages, and the urns at
the gateway are abloom with the CEN
tury plants of eternity. The Queen of
Sheba hath walked its halls, and Es-
tlier and Marie Antoinette and Lady
Huntingdon and Cecil and Jeremy
Taylor and Samuel Rutherford and
John Milton, and the widow who gave
two mites, and the poor men from the
hospital last two perhaps out
shining all the kings and queens of eter-
nifty.
A family mansion means reunion.
Some of your families are very much
scattered. The children married and
went off to st. Louis or Chicago or
Charleston; but perhaps once year
you come together at the old place.
How you wake up the old piano that
has been silent for years (Father and
mother do not play on it, How you
bring out the old relics, and runmage
the garret, and open old scrapbooks,
and shout and laugh and cry and talk
over old times, and, though you may
be forty-Ave years of age, act as though
you were sixteenl Yet soon it is goodby
at the car window and goodby at the
steamboat wharf.
But how will we act at the reunion
In the old family mansion of heaven ?
1t is good while since you parted at
the door of the grave There will be
Grace and Mary and Martha and
Charlie and Lizzie and all the darlings
of your household pale and sick
and gasping for breath, as when you
saw them last, but their eye bright
with the luster OF heaven and their
cheek roseate with the flush of celestial
summer.
What clasping of handsl What em,
bracingsl What coming together of
lip to lip What tears of joy You
say, IL thought there We're no tears in
heaven" There must be, for the Bible
says that "God shall wipe them away" 4"
and il there were no tears there how
could he wipe them awayl They can
not be tears of grief or tears of disap-
pointment. They must be tears of
gladness. Christ will come and say,
"What, child of heaven, is it too much
for thaeS Dost thou break down under
the gladness of this reunionl Then
will help thee" And with his one arm
around us aud the other arm around
our loved one he shall hold us up in
the eternal jubilee.
OH, DAY OF REUNION.
While speak, some of you with
broken hearts can hardly hold your
peace You feel as II you would speak
out and say; "Oh, blessed day, speed
on Toward thee press with blistered
feet over the,desert way, My eyes fail
for their weeping, faint from listen
ing for feet that will not come, and the
sound OF voices that will not speak.
Speed ON, oh, day of reunlonl And
then, Lord Jesus, be not angry with
me II after have just once kissed thy
blessed feet turn around TO gather
mp the long lost treasures OF my heart.
Oh. be not angry with mel One look
at thee were heaven. but all these
v.,,,r,ions ar. baax x,at an.ircliny haavan