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

spOnd 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 sor-
rows and experiences of all styles are
there reheGrsed. Sacred room in all
our dwellings. whether it be luxurious
with ottomans and divans and books in
Russian lids standing in mahogany case
or there be only a few plain chairs and
cradle So the family room on high
will be the place where the hnsfolk
assemble and talk over the family ex-
periences of earth, the weddings, the
births, the burials, the festal days OF
Christmas and Thanksgiving reunion.
viii 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
glorified maturity, and the aged will
go back to glorifed maturity. The ris-
ing sun of the one will rise to meridian,
and the descending sun of the other will
return to meridian. However much we
love our children on earth, we would
consider it a domestic disaster If they
staid children, and so we rejoice at 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 matured, while our par
ents, who were aged and infirm here, we
shall be glad to find restored to the
most agile and vigorous Immortality
there. If 40 or 45 or so years be the
apex of physical and mental life on
| earth, then the Heavenly childhood will
| advance to that, and the Heavenly cid
| 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 sympa-
thize with US? Did you know we had
| that awful sickness? We're you hover
ing anywhere around us when we
plunged into 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 wears on earth may be very event
full, 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 immensity, story of
conquerors and hierarchs, story of
wrecked or ransomed planets, story of
angelic victory over diabolic revolts, of
extinguished suns, of obliterated con-
stellations, of new galaxies hndled and
swung, of stranded comets, of worlds
on fire and story of Jehovah's majestic
reign. If in that family room of our
Fathers house we have so much to tell
them of what we have passed through
since we parted, how much more thrill
ing and arousing that which they have
to tell US of what they have passed
through since we parted! Surely that
family room will be one of the most IA
vored rooms in all our Fathers house.
What long lingering there, for we shall
never again be in a hurry! LET me
open a window" said a humble Chris
tan servant to Lady Raff1es, who, be-
cause of the death of her child, had shut
herself up in dark room and refused
to see anyone. "You have been many
days in this dark room. Are you not
ashamed to grieve in this manner, when
YOU ought to be thanking God for hav-
| ing given you the most beautiful child
that ever was seen, and, instead of leav-
ing him in this world till he should be
worn with trouble, has not God taken
him to Heaven in all his beauty2 Leave
off weeping and let me open a win
dow So to-day am trying to open
upon the darkness of earthly separa-
ton the windows and doors and rooms
of the Heavenly homestead. "In my Fa-
theirs house are many rooms"
How would it do for my sermon to
leave you in that family room to-day?
[ am sure there is no room in which
YOU would rather stay than in the en-
raptured circle of your ascended and
glorified kinsfolk. We might visit other
rooms in our Fathers house. There
may be picture galleries penciled not
with earthly art, but by some process
unknown in this world, preserving for
the next world the brightest and most
stupendous scenes of human history,
and there may be lines and forms of
earthly beauty preserved whittier and
chaster and richer than Venetian sculp-
| ture ever wrought rooms beside
rooms, rooms over rooms, large rooms,
majestic rooms, opalescent rooms,
amethystine rooms. "In my Fathers
house are many rooms"
hope none of us will be disappointed
about getting there. There is a room
for us if we will go and take it, but in
order to reach it it is absolutely neces-
sary that we make the right way and
| Christ is the way, and we must enter
at the right door, and Christ is the door,
and we must start in time, and the only
hour you are sure of is the hour the
clock now strikes, and the only second
| the one your watch is now ticking. I
hold in my hand roll of letters invit-
| ing you all to make that your home for
ever. The New Testament is only roll
of letters inviting you, as the spirit of
them practically says: "My dying yet
immortal child in earthly neigh borhood,
have hIilt for you great residence.
| 1t is full of rooms. | have furnished
them as no palace was ever furnished.
Pearls are nothing, emeralds are moth
ing, chrysoprasus is nothing, illumined
| panels of sunrise and sunset nothing,
the aurora of the northern heavens
nothing, compared with the splendQr
with which l have garnitured them.
But you must be clean before you can
enter there, and so | have opened a
! fountain where you may wash all your
sins away. Come now! Put your weary
bnt cleansed feet on the upward path