Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1899-11-06

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 a place where the departed spirit
enters and a 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 ar
rived, the victim of the first fratricide,
pious Abel! In that room Christ low
fngly greets all newcomers. He re-
deemed them, and he has the right to
the first embrace on arrival. What a
minute when the assembled 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 uplifted baton of an oratOriO is a
bankruptcy of thought compared with
the first flash of his appearance in
that reception room. At that moment
when you confront each other, Christ
looking upon you and you looking up
on Christ, there will be an ecstatic
thrill and surging of emotion that beg
gar all description. Look! They need
no Introduction. Long ago Christ
chose that repentant sinner, and that
repentant sinner chose Christ. Might
est moment of an immortal history
the first kiss of heaven! Jesus and the
soul. The soul and Jesus!
Life In Heaven.
But now into that reception room
pour the glorified kinsfolk, enough Of
earthly retention to let you know
them, but without their wounds or
their sickneSses 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. Sisters!
Brothers.! Friends! 1 wish you joy.
For years apart, together again in the
reception room Of the old homestead.
You see, they will know you are COM
ing. 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 were in some
other world on errand from God, a
signal would be thrown that would
fetch them. Though you might at
first feel dazed and overawed at their
Of &hof xxyiII
be gone at their first touch of heavenly
salutation, and we will say: ooh, my
lost boyr' "Oh, my lost companion"
"Oh. my lost friend! Are we here to-
getherw What scenes in that recep-
ton room of the old homestead have
been witnessed! There met Joseph
and Jacob, finding it a brighter room
than anything they saw in PharaOh's
palace: David and the little child for
whom he once tasted and wept; Mary
and Lazarus after the heartbreak Of
Bethany; Timothy and grandmother
Lois: 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 and 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. I'm
my Fathers house are many rooms"
The ThrOneroom.
room in orr hnuSo
is the throneroom. We belong to the
royal family. The blood of King Jesus
flows in our veins, so we have a right
to enter the thronerOom. 1t is no easy
thing on earth to get through even
the outside door of kings residence.
During the Franco-German war, one
eventide in the summer Of 1870, l stood
studying the exquisite sculpturing of
the gate Of the TuilerieS, Paris. Lost
in admiration of the wonderful art of
that gate, l knew not that was ex-
citing suspicion. Lowering my eyes
to the crowds Of people, I found my
self being closely inspected by the gov
ernmental officials, who, from my COM
plexion, judged me to be a German
and that for some belligerent purpose
l might be examining the gates of the
palace. My explanation in very poor
French did not satisfy them, and they
followed me long distances until l
reached my hotel and were not salts
fed until from my landlord they
found that L was only an inoffensive
American. The gates Of earthly pal
aces are carefully guarded. and if SO,
how much more the throneroOm! A
dazzling place is it for mirrors and
all costly art. No one who ever saw
the throneroom of the first and only
Napoleon will ever forget the letter N
embroidered in purple and gold on the
upholstery of chair and window, the
letter y gilded on the wall, the letter n
a. li<.x><z in44