Barton County democrat. [volume] (Great Bend, Kan.) 1885-1915, 1899-11-10

| of Heaven. There must be place
| where the departed spirit enters. and 4
| place in which it confronts the inhab-
| itants celestial. The reception room
OF the newly arrived from this world
what scenes il 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 them, and
| He has the right to the first Embrace on
| arrival. What minute when the
assembled spirit first sees the Lord. Bet
| ter than all we ever read about II i'm or
| talked about Him 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 iii 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
H
| Long ago Christ chose that repentanf
| sinner. and that repentant sinner chose
| Christ. Mightiest moment of an i'm
| mortal history-the first kiss of Heav-
en-! Jesus and the soult The soul and
| Jesusi
But now into that reception room
pour the glorified kinsfoIk. enough of
earthly retention to let you know them.
but without their wounds or sicknesses
| or 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 proportioned TO the anguish of your
| parting and the length of your separa-
| ton. Father! Mother! There is your
| child. Sisters! Brothers.! Friendsi
| 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
| iTnmortals 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,
a 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 Sanitation, and we will say:
"Oh. my lost boy!" ''Oh, my lost COM
| panion!" "Oh, my lost friend! Are we
here together?" What scenes in that
reception room of the old homestead
have been Witnessed There met Jo-
seph and Jacob. finding it 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 Magda1ene.
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 other
| Bible writers 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? l 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
| ~ that music has escaped the gate.
DR.. Fuller, dying at Beaufort, S. c.,
said: do you not hear?'' "Hear
| what" exclaimed the bystanders. 1.-THE
| musici 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
Mont gomery, 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.. Raffies. who wrote of
High in yonder realms of light" and
| Isaac Watts, who went to visit Sir
Thomas A bney and wife for week, but
proved himself so agreeable a guest
| that they made him stay sc years. and
| side By side Augustus Toplady. W no has
got over his dislike for Methodisfs, and