The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1899-11-29


and go up to this majestic homestead
a nd see for ourselves. AS We ascend
the golden steps an invisible guards
man swings open the front door, and
we are ushered to the right into the
reception room of the old homestead.
That is the place where we first meet
the welcome Of heaven. There must
be place where the departed spirit
enters and place in which it con-
fronts the Inhabitants celestial. The
reception room of the newly arrived
from this world-what scenes it must
have witnessed since the first guest
arrived, the victim of the first fratri-
eide, pious Abel! In chat room
Christ lovingly greets all newcomers.
He redeemed them, and He has the
right to the first embrace on arrival.
What minute when the ascended
spirit first sees the Lord! Better
than all we ever read about Him or
talked about Him or 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
rapturous idea we ever had of Him on
sacramental days or at the height of
some great revival or under the uplift-
ed baton of an oratorio is a bankruptcy
of thought compared with the first
fash of His appearance in that recep-
tion room. At that moment when
you confront each other, Christ look
ing 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 thatrepent-
ant sinner chose Christ. Mightiest
moment of an immortal history-the
first kiss of heaven! Jesus and the
soul! The soul and Jesus!
But now into that reception room
pour the glori6cd kinsfolk, enough of
earthly retention to let you know them,
but without their wounds or their
sickness 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 ardor proportional to the
anguish Of your parting and the
length of your separation. Father!
Mother There is your child. Sis
tiers! Brothers. Friends! I wish
you joy. For years apart, together
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 we're in some other world on er-
rand from God, a signal would be
thrown that would fetch them.
Though you might at first feel dazed
aud overawed at their supernal splen-
dor, all that feeling will be gone at
their first touch of heavenly saluta-
tion, and we will say: "Oh, my lost
boy!" ooh. my lost companionr'
"Oh, my lost friend! Are we here to-
gether!' What scenes in that recep-
tion room of the old homestead have
been witnessed! There met Joseph
and Jacob, finding it brighter room
than anything they saw in Pharaoh
palace; David and the little child for
whom I've once tasted and wept; Mary
and Lazarus after the heartbreak of
Bethany; Timothy and grandmother
Loi>; Isabella Graham and her sailor
son; Alfred and George Goodman, the
mystery of the sea at last made mani
fest; Luther and Magdalene, the
daughter he bemoaned; John Howard
and the prisoners whom he gospelized,
and multitudes without number who,
once SO weary aud 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.
'In my Fathers house are many
rooms.
Another room in our Fathers house
is the throne room. We belong to the
royal family. The blood Of King
Jesus flows in our veins, so we have
a right to enter the throne room. It
is no easy thing on earth to get
through even the outside door of a
kings residence. During the Franco
German war, one eventide in the sum-
mer of 1870, I stood studying the ex-
quisite sculpturing of the gate of the
Tuileries, Paris. Lost in admiration
of the wonderful art Of that gate, /
knew not that I was exciting suspic-