Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1899-11-09

i'm the music room of the old heavenly
homestead! ain my Fathers house are
many rooms
Room For the Family.
Another room in our Fathers house will
be the family room. 1t may correspond
| somewhat with the family room on earth.
! At morning and evening, You know, that
is the place we now meet. Though every
member of the household have a separate
room, in the family room they all gather,
and Joys and sorrows and experiences of
all styles are there rehearsed. Sacred
room in all our dwellings. whether it be
luxurious with ottomans and divans and
books in Russian lids standing in mahog-
any case or there be only a few plain
chairs and a cradle. So the family room
on high will be the place where the kins-
folk assemble and talk over the family
experiences OF earth, the weddings, the
! births, the burials, the festal days Of
Christmas and Thanksgiving reunion.
Will the children departed remain chill
dren there? Will the aged remain aged
there? oh, no! Everything is perfect
there. The child will go ahead to g~lorified
maturity, and the aged will go back to
glorifed maturity. Tho rising sun of the
one will rise to meridian, and the de-
scending sun OF the other will return to
meridian. However much we love our
children on earth, we would consider it Il
domestic disaster if they staid children,
and so we rejoice ut their growth here.
And when we meet in the family room of
our Fathers house we will be glad that
they have grandly and gloriously matur-
ed, while our parents. who were aged and
infrm here, we shall be glad to find re-
stored to the most agile and vigorous inn
" 4. - - To n -. N
be the apex Of physical and mental life
on earth, then the heavenly childhood
will advance to that, and the heavenly
old age will retreat to that. When we
Join them in that family room, we shall
have much to tell them. We shall want
TO know Of them, right away. such things
as these: Did you see us in this or that
or the other struggle? Did you know
when we lost our property and synpa-
thize with us? Did you know we had
that awful sickness? Were you lowering
anywhere around us when we plunged in
TO that memorable accident? Did you
know of our backsliding? Did you know
Of that moral victory? Were you pleased
when we started for heaven? Did you
celebrate the hour of our conversion?
And then. whether they know it or not.
we will tell them all. But they will have
more to tell us than we to tell them.
Ten years on earth may be very event
ful, but what must be the biography of
ten years in heaven? They will have to
tell us the story OF coronations. story OF
news from all immensely, story OF con-
querors and hierarchs. story Of wrecked
or ransomed planets, story of angelic vic
tory over diabolic r~evolts, of extinguish-
ed suns. of oblitcrated consultations, of
I'LL - ~
stranded comets, Of worlds on fire, and
story Of J~ehovah's majestic reign. If in
that family room of our Fathers house
we have so much to tell them Of what
we nave passed through since we parted,
how much more thrilling and arousing
that which they nave to tell us of what
they nave passed through since we part
ed. Surely that family room will be one
of the most favored rooms in all orr Fa-
TIERS house. What long lingering there,
for we shall never again be in n hurry
Let me open a window" said a hum
BILE Christian servant to Lady Ratfles,
who, because of the death Of her child
had shut herself up in a dark room and
refused to see any one. You have beer
many days in this dark room. Are You
not ashamed to grieve in this manner
when you ought to be thanking God fol
having given you the most beautiful chile
that ever was seen, and, instead Of lcav
ing him in this world till he should b.
worn with trouble, has not God taker
+, him to heaven in all his beauty? Leav,
! Off weeping and let me open a window
: SO today | am trying to open upon thu
, darkness Of earthly separation the win
dows and doors and rooms Of the heaven
ly homestead. in my Fathers hous'
are many rooms"
The Invitation to All.
How would it do for my sermon L
leave you in that family room today?
> am sure there is no room in which 20
would rather stay than in the cnrapture'
. circle of your assembled and g%loritie'
- kinsfolk. We might visit other rooms i
= our Fathers house. There may be pic
4 ture galleries ~penciled not with earthl
- art. but by some process unknown in thi
\ world. preserving for the next world tn
- brightest and most stupendous scenes o
: human history, and there may be line
and forms of earthly beauty preserve
- whittier and chaster and richer than We
i netian sculpture ever wrought-room
beside rooms, rooms over rooms, larg
= rooms, majestic rooms, opalescent rooms
= amethystine rooms. "ln my Father
lpAHt w many u
hope none of MS will be %disappointe
about getting there. There is a ROOF
for us if we will go and take it, but in oil
der to reach it it is absolutely neccssar
y that we take the right way. and Christ
the way. and we must enter mt the rigl
door. and Christ is the door, and we mus
IS start in time, and the only hour you ar
lie sure of is the hour the clock now strikes
and the only second the one your watc
e, is now ticking. | hold in my hand a ro
n of letters inviting you all to make thg
W your home forever. The New TestameI
N is only a roll of letters inviting you, q
y the spirit Of them practically says: "Mf
> dying yet immortal child in earthly neigl
VI borhood, / have built for you n great re-
tidence. 1t is full OF rooms. | have fu'
- nished them as 10 palace was ever fu
nishcd. Pearls are nothing. cmeralds al
II! nothing, chrysoprasus is nothing, illumil
cd panels of sunrise and sunset nothin.
'u the aurora OF the northern heavens not
- ing, compared with the splendor wit
IL which | have garnitured them. But yc
v must be clean before you can enter Their
- and so ! have opened n fountain whel
p you may wash all your sins away Con
NJ now, Put your weary but ~cleansed fe
: on the upward pathway. DO you not 81
81 amid the thick foliage on the heaven
u hilltops the old family homestead 81
>, my Fathers house are many rooms"