The Brookhaven leader. [volume] (Brookhaven, Miss.) 1883-1891, 1891-12-17
r. ana Marie AntoinettA ana

and Esther, and Marie Antoinette, and
Lady Huntingdon, and Cecil, and Jer-
envy Taylor, and Samuel Rutherford,
and jobs Milton, and the widow who
gave two mites, and the poor men from
the hospital-these last two perhaps
outshining all the kings and queens of
eternity.
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! Gather and
mother do not play on it, How you
bring out the old relics, and rummage
the garnet, and open old scrap-books,
and shout, and laugh, and cry, and talk
over old times, and, though you may be
forty-five years of age, act rs though
you were sixteen. Yet soon il is good
by at She car window, and good-by at
the steamboat wharf. But how will
we act at the reunion in the old family
mansion of Heaven? 1t is a 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
not pale, and sick, and gasping for
breath, as when you saw them last,
but their eye bright with the lustre of
Heaven, and their cheek roseate with
the flush of celestial summer.
What clasping of hands! What en-
braeings! What coming together OF lip
to lips What tears of joy! You say: 81
thought there were no tears in ieav-
en-" There must be, for the Bible says
that God shall wipe them away" and
if there were no tears there how could
He wipe them away? They can not be
tears of grief or tears of disappoint-
ment They must be tears of gladness.
Christ will come and say: what! child
of Heaven, is it too much for thee? Dost
thou break down under the gladness of
this reunion? Then | will help thee"
And, with His one arm around us and
the other arm around our loved one.
lie shall hold us up in the eternal jubI-
lee.
While l speak some of you, with
broken hearts, can hardly hold your
peace, You feel as if YOU would speak
out and say: . blessed day! speed on.
Toward thee press with blistered feet
over the desert way. My eyes fail for
their weeping. l faint from listening
for feet that will not come, and the
sound OF voices that will not speak,
Speed on, O day of reunion! And then,
Lord Jesus. be not angry with me il
after I.havc just once kissed Thy blessed
feet, | turn around to gather up the
long-lOst treasures of my heart. Oh.
be not angry with me. One look at
Thee were Heaven. But all these re-
unions are Heaven encircling Heaven,
Heaven overlapping Heaven, Heaven
commingling with Heaven
was at Mount Vernon, and went
into the dining room in which our first
president entertained the prominent
men OF this and other lands. 1t was a
very interesting spot. But oh! the
banQueting hall of the family mansion
of which I speak! Spread the table,
spread it wide; for great multitude
are to sit at it, From the tree by the
river gather the twelve manner of
fruits for that table. Take the clusters
from the heavenly vineyards and press
them into the golden tanllards for that
table. On baskets carry in the bread
of which, if man eat, he shall never
hunger. Take all the shot-torn flags
of earthly conquest, and entwine them
among the arches. Let David come
with his harp, and Gabriel with his
trumpet, and Miriam with the timbrel;
for the prodigals are at home, and the
captives are free, and the Father hath
invited the mighty OF Heaven and the
redeemed of earth to come and dine!