The united opinion. [volume] (Bradford, Vt.) 1881-1970, 1891-12-11
emotions of gladness and THANKSGIVING

emotions of gladness and THANKSGIVING
and triumph.
What think you of the family prop.
ertya II Is considered an honor to
marry into a family where there is great
wealth. The Lord, the bridegroom Of
earth and heaven, offers you his heart
and his hand, saying, in the words OF
the Canticles, Rise up, my love- nv
fair one, and, come away" and once
having put on thy hand the signet rina
OF his love you will be endowed with
all the wealth of earth and all the
honors Of heaven.
Almost every family looks back to a
homestead-some country place where
you grew up. You sat on the doorsill.
You heard the footstep Of the rain on
the garnet 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. I 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.
conference, and its 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 I 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
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 a covering for the wonderful
flower Victoria Regia, five 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
it's full bloom, and all heaven shall
come to look at it, and its aroma shall
be as though the cherubim had swung
before the throne thousand censers.
l 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. It matters not much to
me whether I 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 frail house, built in q
month. soon to crumble, but an old
which is as .tlrm The day it
was built. Its walls are grown with
the ivy Of many ages, and the urns at
the gateway are abloom with the CEN
fury plants of eternity. The Queen of
Sheba hath walked it's halls, and Es-
ther 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
last two perhaps out
shining all the kings and queens of eter-
1ity.
A family mansion means reunion.
Some of your families are very much
scattered. The children married and
vent off to st. Louis or Chicago or
Charleston; but perhaps once a year
you come together at the old place.
How you wake up the old piano that
las been silent for years! Gather and
mother do not play on it, How you
BRING out the old relics, and rummage
he garnet, and open old scrapbooks,
md shout and laugh and cry and talk
'ver old times, and, though you may
'e forty-five years of age, act as though
vou were sixteen Yet soon it is goodby
It the car window and goodby at the
teamboat wharf.
But how will we act at the reunion
n the old family mansion of heaven9
t is good while since you parted at
he door of the grave. There will be
trace and Mary and Martha and
charlie and Lizzie and all the darlings
It your household-not pale and sick
nd gasping for breath, as when you
aw them last, but their eye bright
With the luster of heaven and their
heck roseate with the flush of celestial
ummer.
What clasping of handsl What en-
'racings! What coming together of
p to ipl What tears of joyl You
ay, II thought there were no tears in
eaven." There must be, for the Bible
avs that "God shall wipe them away"
nd if there were no tears there how
ould he wipe them away9 They can
OF be tears of grief or tears of disap-
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