St. Tammany farmer. [volume] (Covington, La.) 1874-current, 1899-12-09

mother are almost alone in the house
and, seated by the evening stand, they
say: "Well, our family is no larger
now than when we started together A
years ago." But time goes still farther
by, and some of the children are unfor
tunate, and return to the old homestead
to live, and the grandchildren come
with them, and perhaps great-grand
children. and again the house is full.
Millennia ago God built on the hills Of
Heaven q great homestead for family
innumerable, yet to be. At first He lived
alone in that great house, but after
awhile it was occupied by very large
family, cherubic, seraphic. angelic
The eternities passed on, and many OF
the Inhabitants became Maynard and
left, never to return, and many of the
apartments were vacated. Irefer to the
fallen angels. Now these apartments
are filling up again. There are arrivals
at the old homestead of Gods children
every day, and the day will come when
there will be NO unoccupied room in all
the house.
AS you and expect to enter it and
make there eternal residence, 1 thought
you would like to get some more par
ticulars about the many roomed home
stead. I'm my Fathers house are many
rooms" You see the place is to be ap.
portioned of into apartments. We shall
love all who are in Heaven, but there
are some very good people whom We
would not want to live with in the same
room. They may be better than we are.
but they are of divergent tempera-
ment. We would like to meet with
them on the golden streets and worship
with them in the temple and walk with
them ON the river banks, but I am glad
to say that we shall live in different
apartments. In my Fathers house
are many rooms" You see, Heaven will
be so large that il one wants an entire
room to himself or herself it can be ate
forded. a
An ingenious statistician, taking the
statement made in Revelation, twenty
first chapter, that the Heavenly Jeru-
salem was measured and found to be
1000 furlongs and that the length and
height and breadth of it are equal, says
that would make Heaven in size GAS
sextillion 9SS quintillion cubic feet, and
then, reserving a certain portion for
the court of Heaven and the streets and
that the world may last q
hundred thousand years, he ciphers out
that there are over 5000, 000, 600, DOC
rooms, each room II feet long, is feet
wide, Is feet high. But have no faith
in the accuracy of that calculation.
He makes the rooms too small. From
all can read, the rooms will be pala-
tial, and those who have not had enough
room in this world will have plenty of
room at the last. The fact is that most
people in this world are crowded, and,
though out on = vast prairie or in q
mountain district people may have
more room than they want, in most
cases it is house built close to house,
and the streets are crowded, and the
cradle is crowded by other cradles, and
the graves crowded in the cemetery by
other graves. and one of the richest
luxuries of many people in getting out
Of this world will be the gaining of I'M
hindered and uncramped room. And l
should not wonder if, instead of the
room that the statistician ciphered out
IS only II feet by 16, it should be
larger than any of the rooms at Berlin.
St. James or Winter palace. '.In my
house are many rooms
Carrying out still further the symbol
ism of the text, let us join hands, and go
up to this majestic homestead and see
for ourselves. As we ascend the golden
steps an invisible guardsman swings
open the front door, and we are ushered
to the right into the reception room of
the old homestead. That is the first
place where we first meet the welcome
IF Heaven. There must be q place
where the departed spirit enters, and
place in which it confronts the inhab-
tants celestial. The reception room
II the newly arrived from this world
what scenes it must have witnessed
;ince the first guest arrived, the vic
i'm Of the first fraticide, pious Abel!
n that room Christ lovingly greets all
He redeemed them, and
ae has the right to the first embrace on
lrriSal What . minute when the
spirit first sees the Lord! Bet
er than all we ever read about Him or
alked about Him or sang about Him in
III the churches and through all our
,arthly lifetime will it b: .ast for one
'econd, to zee Him. The most raptur-
BUS idea we ever had Of Him on sacra-
mental days or 1t the height of some
great revival or under the uplifted
,aton of m oratorio is bankruptcy Of
thought compared with the first flash
y HiA appearance in that reception
room At that moment when you con-
[ront each other, Christ looking upon
go9 and you looking upon Christ, there
wtu be IN ecstatic thrill and surein9 Of
smotton that beggar al description.
Looki They need no introduction.
Long ago Christ chose that repentant
sinner, and that repsntant sinner chose