The Londonderry sifter. (South Londonderry, Vt.) 1883-19??, 1891-12-11

Nonio w iooh at ~, anu itS dTOlllu hlltii
be as though the cherubim had swung
before the throne thousand censers
| have not seen it yet, l 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 l am rich or poor or
whether the world hates me or loves
me, or whether l 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 a
month, soon to crumble, but an old
mansion which is as firm as 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 GEN.
fury plants of eternity. The Queen Of
Sheba hath walked its 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
hospital-these 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 rummage
the garnet, and open old scrapbooks,
and shout and laugh and cry and talk
over old times, and, though you may
be forty five years of age, act as though
you were sixteen! 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 heavenf
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-not 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 hands! What en-
bracings! What coming together of
lip to lip! What tears of joy! You
say, 81 thought there were no tears in
heaven" 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 away2 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 thee2 Dost thou break down under
the gladness of this reunion2 Then
will help thee" And with his one arm
around us and the other arm around
our loved one he shall hold us up in
the eternal jubilee.
OH, DAY OF REUNION.
While l speak, some of you with
broken hearts can hardly hold your
peace. You feel as if 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. I faint from listen
ing for feet that will not come, and the
sound of voices that will not speak.
Speed on, oh, day of reunion! And
then, Lord Jesus be not angry with
me if after have 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
reunions are heaven encircling heaven,
heaven overlapping heaven, heaven
commingling with heaven!"
l 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 / speak! Spread the table,
spead 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 gold
en- tankards for that table. On baskets
carry in the bread of which, if man
eat, he shall never hunger. Take all
the shott-orn flags Of earthly con-
quest and entwine them among the
arches. Let David come with his harp,
and Gabriel with his trumpet, and
Miriam with the timbrel; for the prodi-
gals 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!
E,.o al, In