The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1899-11-29
DIR. TALMAGE'S SERMON.
Vivid Pictures Of the Celestial Home.

upOu ny LIZ. dludSo III 'Hio oSi inaoa
under the figure Of a home; text, John
xiv, 2, ''In My Fathers house are
many rooms" "
Here is bottle of medicine that is
cure all. The disciples were sad.
and Christ offered heaven as an alter
ative, stimulant and a tonic. He
shows them that their sorrows are on
ly dark background cf a bright pic
ture OF coming felicity. He lets
them know that, though now they
live on the lowlands, they shall yet
have house on the uplands. Near
ly all the Bible descriptions of heaven
may be fgurative. am not positive
that in all heaven there is literal
crown or harp or pearly gate or throne
or chariot. They may be only used to
illustrate the glories Of the place, but
how we'll they do it.! The favorite
symbol by which the Bible presents
celestial happiness is house. Paul,
who never owned house, although
he hired one for two years in Italy,
speaks of heaven as house not
made with hands, and Christ in our
text, the translation Of which is little
changed. so as to give the more accur-
ate meaning, says: "In My Father $
house are many rooms
This divinely authorized compari-
son Of heaven to great homestead Of
large accommodations I propose to
carry ont In some healthy neigh
borhoud na, builds very commo-
dious hahitatlon. He must have
room for all his children. The rooms
come to be called after the different
members of thes family. That is
mothers room, that is Georges room,
that is Henry's room, that is Flora 8
room, that is Mary's room, and the
house is all occupied. But time goes
by, and the sons go out into the world
and build their own homes, and the
daughters are married or have talents
enough singly to 60 out and do a good
work in the world. After while the
father and mother are almost alone in
the big house, and, seated by the
evening stand, they say, "Well, our
family is no larger now than when we
started together forty years ago"
But time goes still further by, and
some Of the children are unfortunate
and return to the old homestead to
live, and the grandchildren come with
them and perhaps great-grandchildren,
and again the house is full.
Millennia ago God built on the hills
Of heaven great homestead for a
family innumerable, yet to be. At
first He lived alone in the great house,
but after awhile it was. occupied by a
very large family, cherubic. seraphic,
angelic. The eternities passed on,
and many Of the inhabitants became
wayward and left, never to return,
and many of the apartments were va
can't. I refer to the fallen angels.
Now these apartments are filing up
again. There are arrivals at the old
homestead of Gods children every
day, and the day will come when ther.
will be no unoccupied room in all TIE
house.
AS you and expect to enter it and
make there eternalre residence, I thought
you would like to get some more par
,ticulars about the many roomed home
stead. '.In my Fathers house are
many rooms" You see, the place is
to be apportioned off 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 bet
ter than we are, but they are Of di-
vergent temperament. 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 am glad to say that
we shall live in different apartments.
SIN my Fathers house are many
rooms" You see, heaven will be SO
large that if one wants an entire room
to himself or herself it can be afford
ed.
An ingenious statistician, taking
the statement made in Revelation,
twenty-frst chapter, that the heaven
" Jerusalem was measured and found
to be $4,000 furlongs and that the
length and height and breadth Of it
are equal, says that would make heav-
en- in size 948 sextillion 980 quintil-
lion cubic feet, and then, reserving a
certain portion for the court of heaven
and the streets and estimating that
the world may last a hundred tbous-
and uaars he cinhers out that there