The Bolivar bulletin. (Bolivar, Tenn.) 1888-1946, 1899-11-10

place ID WQlcn II cODITODlS lne lD nd u
itants celestial The reception room
of the newly arrived from this world
what scenes it must have witnessed
since the first guest arrived. the VIC
tim of the first fraticide, pious Abel.
In that room Christ lovingly greets all
newcomers. He redeemed tiie"l, and
He has the right to- the first embrace on
arrival. What minute when the
ascended spirit frs: sees the Lord. Bet
ter than all we ever read about Him OF
talked about Him O: sang about Him in
all the churches and through all our
earthly lifetime will it be, just for one
second to see Him. The most raptur-
Gus idea we ever had of Him on sacra-
mental days or at the height of some
great revival or under the uplifted
baton of an oratorio is a bankruptcy of
thought compared with the first flash
of His appearance i'll that reception
room. At that moment when you con-
front each other, Christ looking upon
you and you looking upon Christ, there
will be an ecstatic thrill and surging of
emotion that beggar all description.
Look! They need no introduction.
Long ago Christ chose that repentant
sinner, and that repentant sinner chose
Christ. Mightiest moment of an i'm
mortal history-the first kiss of Heav-
en-! Jesus and the soul! The soul and
Jesus!
But now into that reception room
pour the glorifed kinsfolk, enough of
earthly retention to let you know them,
but without their wounds or sicknesses
OF their troubles-see what Heaven has
done for them!-so radiant, so gleeful,
so transportingly lovely! They call you
by name. They greet you with an ar
dor proportional to the anguish of your
parting and the length of your separa-
ton. Father! Mother! There is your
child. Sisters! Brothers! Friends! [
wish you joy. For years apart, togeth-
er again in the reception room of the
old homestead. You see, they will know
you are coming. There are so many
immortals filling all the spaces between
here and Heaven that news like that
flies like lightning. They will be there
in an instant. Though they were in
some other world on errand from God,
signal would be thrown out that
would fetch them. Though you might
at first feel dazed and overawed at
their supernal splendor, all that feel
ing will be gone at their first touch
of Heavenly salutation, and we will say:
"Oh, my lost boy!" ooh, my lost com
panion!" ''Oh, my lost friend! Are we
here together?" What scenes in that
roaon+S0T, nf no old hOO1nc+o O a1
have been witnessed! There met Jo-
seph and Jacob, finding it a brighter
room than anything they saw in Pha-
raoh's palace; David and the little child
for whom he once tasted and wept;
Mary and Lazarus after the heart
break of Bethany; Timothy and grand
mother Lois; Isabella Graham and her
sailor son; Alfred and George Cook
man, the mystery of the sea at last
made manifest; Luther and Magdalene,
the daughter he bemoaned; John How
ard and the prisoners whom he gospel
lied, and multitudes without number
who, once so weary and SO sad, parted
on earth, but gloriously met in Heaven.
Among all the rooms of that house
there is no one that more enraptures
my soul than that reception room. I'm
my Fathers house are many rooms"
Another room in our Fathers house
is the music room. st. John and ether
Bible writer's talk so much about the
music of Heaven that there must be
music there, perhaps not so much as
on earth was thrummed from trem-
bling string or evoked by touch of ivory
key, but if not that, then something
better. There are so many Christian
harpists and Christian composers and
Christian organists and Christian CHOIR
listers and Christian hymnologists that
have gone up from earth, there must
be for them some place of especial de-
lectation. Shall we have music in this
world of discords and no music in the
land of complete harmony? 1 cannot
give you the notes of the first bar of
the new song that is sung in Heaven.
[ cannot imagine either the solo or the
doxology. But Heaven means music,
and can mean nothing else. Occasional
ly that music has escaped the gate.
DR.. Fuller, dying at Beaufort, S. G.,
said: "Do you not hear?" Hear
what?" exclaimed the bystanders. "TKe
music! Lift me up! Open the win
dows!"
In that music room of our Fathers
house you will some day meet the old
masters. Mozart and Handel and Men
delssohn and Beethoven and Doddridge,
whose sacred poetry was as remark
able as his sacred prose, and James
Montgomery, and William Cowper, at
last got rid of his spiritual melancholy,
and Bishop Heber, who sang of Green
lands icy mountains and India's coral
strand" and DR.. Raff1es, who wrote of
High in yonder realms of light" and
Isaac Watts, who went to visit Sir
Thomas Abney and wife for week, but
proved himself so agreeable guest
that they made him stay sc years, and
side by side Augustus Toplady, who has
got over his dislike for Methodists, and
Charles Wesley, freed from his dislike
for Calvinists, and George w. Bethune, +,
as sweet as a song-maker as he was
great as a preacher and the author of
''The Village Hymns" and many who
wrote in verse or song, in church or by
eventide cradle, and many who were
passionately fond of music, but could
make none themselves, the poorest
singer there more than any earthly
prima donna and the poorest players
there more than any earthly Gottschalk
Oh, that music room, the headquarters
of cadence and hythm, symphony and
chant, psalm and antiphon! May we
be there some hour when Haydn sits
at the keys of one of his own oratorios,
and David the psalmist fingers the harp,
and Miriam of the Red sea banks claps
the cymbals, and Gabriel puts his lips
to the trumpet and the four and twenty