The Wilmington daily Republican. (Wilmington, Del.) 1890-1902, 1899-11-06
THE HEAVENLY HOME
Or TALMAGE ON THE eLoRIES OF
THE fATHsR's HOME.

There Are In II Many Roone, snd
There IL = Place For All Of Gods
ChiIdren--The Family Room and Its
Blessed Associations.
copyright. Louis Klopach. 1901
WASHINGTON, Nov. BIN unique
way the heavenly world Is discoursed up
on by DIR. Talmage In this sermon under
the figure of home; text, John xiv, 2,
"In my Fathers house are many rooms"
Here Is bottle of medicine that is a
cure nll. The disciples were sad, and
Christ offered heaven us an Alternative, a
stimulant and q tonic. He shows them
that their sorrows are only dark back
ground Of bright picture of coming fe-
licity. He lets them know that, though
now they live on the lowlandB. they shah
yet have house on the uplsnds. Nearly
oil the Bible descriptions Of heaven may
be fgurstive. l am not positive that in
all heaven there Is a literal crown OF harp
or pearly gate or throne or chariot. They
may be only used to Illustrate the glories
Of the place. but how well 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,
80 as to give the more accurate meaning,
says, In my Fathers house are many
rooms
This divinely authorized comparison Of
heaven to great homestead Of large ac-
commodations l propose to carry out In
some healthy neighborhood man builds
a very commodious habitation. He must
have room for all his children. The rooms
come to be called after the different
members of the family. That is mothers
room, that Is Georges room, that Is
Henry's room, that is Flora's room, that
is Mary's room, and the house Is all &C.
cupicd. But time goes by, and the sons
SO out into the world and build their
own homes, and the daughters are mar
ried or have talents enough singly to go
out and do good work in the world.
After awhile the father and mother are
almost alone in the big house, and, seat
ed by the evening stand, they say, We'll,
our family Ia no larger now than when
we started together 40 years ago." But
time goes still farther by, and some of
the children are unfortunate and return
to the old homestead to live, aud the
grandchildren come with them and per-
haps great-grandchildren. and again the
house Is full.
Millennia ago God built OH the hills Of
heaven great homestead for family
innumerable, yet to be. At first he lived
alone In that great house, but after
awhile 1t was occupied by very large
family, cherubic, seraphic, angelic. The
eternties passed on, and many OF the in
habitants became hayward and left. new
or to return, and many Of the apartments
were vacated. | refer to the fallen an
gels. 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, thought
you would like to get some more particu-
lars about the many roomed homestead.
I'm 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 better than we are. but
they are of divergent 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. "ln
You see, heaven will be so large that IL
one wants an entire room to himself or
herself 1t can be afforded.
It's Extent Ia Borndlegs.
An ingenious statistician, taking the
statement made in Revelation, twenty
first chapter, that the heavenly Jerusalem
was measured and found to be 1900
furlongs and that the length and height
and breadth Of II are equal. says that
would make heaven in size 94S sextillion
9SS quiutillion cubic feet, and then, re-
serving certain portion for the court of
heaven and the streets and estimating
that the world may last hundred thou.
sand years. he ciphers out that there are
over 100000, 600, 900 rooms, each room
II feet long, 16 feet wide, 10 feet high.
But | have no faith in the accuracy Of
that calculation. He makes the roon.s
too small. From all l can read, the
roons will be palatial, and those who
have not had enough room in this world
Lc, -, ,f b., Ia. 10
fact is that most people in this world are
crowded, and though out on a vast rrai-
ric or in 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 ana the graves
crowded in the cemetery by other graves,
and one of the richest Injuries Of many
people In getting out Of this world will be
the gaining of unhindered and uncramp-
ed room. And ! should not wonder il,
instead Of the room that the statistician
ciphered out as only II feet by 10, it
should be larger than any of the rooms at
Berlin, st. James or Winter palace. IN
my Fathers house are many rooms"
Carrying ont still further the symbol
ism Of the text, let us join hands and 60
up to this majestic homestead and sec for
ourselves. As we ascend the golden steps
IN invisible guardsman swings open the
front door, and we nre 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 contrOnts
the inhabitants celestial. The reception
room Of the newly arrived from this
world-whst scenes 1t must have Witness
ed since the first guest arrived, the VIC
tim Of the FIRST fratricide, pious Abel. In
that room Christ lovingly greets all new
corners. He redeemed them, aud he has
the right to the first embrace on arrival.
What 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 he,
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 bankruptcy Of
thought compared with the first fash Of
his appearance In that reception room.
At that moment when you confront each
a