The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1899-12-14


rs only II feet by 16, it should be
larger than any of the rooms at Berlin.
81. James or Winter palace. ''In my
Fathers 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 ushereG
to the right into the reception room of
the old homestead. That is the first
place where we first meet the welcome
of Heaven. There must be place
where the departed spirit enters, and
place in which it confronts the inhab-
itants celestial. The reception room
of the newly arrived from this world
what scenes it must have witnessed
since the first guest arrived, the vic
tim of the first fraticide. pious Abel!
In that room Christ lovingly greets all
newcomers. He redeemed them, and
He has the right to the first embrace on
arrival. What minute when the
ascended spirit first sees the Lord! Bet
ter 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 raptur-
Gus idea we ever had of Him on sacra-
mental 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 flash
OF His appearance in that reception
room. At that moment when you con-
front each other, Christ looking upon
you and you looking upon Christ, there
will be an ecstatie Thrill and surging of
emotion that beggar all description.
Look! They need no introduction.
Long ago Christ chose that repentant
| sinner, and that repentant sinner chose
Christ. Mightiest moment of an inn
mortal history-the first kiss of Heav-
en-! Jesus and the soul! The soul and
Jesus!
But now into that reception room
pour the glorified kinsfolk, enough of
earthly retention to let you know them,
but without their wounds or 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 ar
dor proportioned to the anguish of your
parting and the length of your separa-
tion. Father! Mother! There is your
child. Sisters! Brothers! Friends!
wish You joy. For years apart, togeth-
er again in the reception room of the
old homestead. You see, they will know
you are coming. 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 out that
would fetch them. Though you might
at first feel 5dazed and oyerawed at
their supernal splendor, all that feel
ing will be gone at their first touch
of Heavenly salutation, and we will say:
.Oh, my lost boy!" "Oh, my lost COM
panion!'' "Oh, my lost friends Are we
here together?" What scenes in that
reception room Of the old homestead
have been witnessed! There met Jo-
seph and Jacob, finding it a brighter
room than anything they saw in Pha-
raoh's palace; David and the little child
for whom he once tasted and wept;
Mary and Lazarus after the heart
break of Bethany; Timothy and grand
i mother Lois; Isabella Graham and her
sailor son; Alfred and George Cook.
man, the mystery of the sea at last
made manifest; Luther and Magdalene
the daughter he bemoaned; John How.
ard and the prisoners whom he gospel
! lized. and multitudes without number
who, once SO weary and SO sad, parted
on earth, but gloriously met in Heaven
4 Among all the rooms of that house
. there is no one that more enrapture'
my soul than that reception room. III
nv Fathers house are many rooms.
Another room in our Fathers house
is the music room. st. John and othel
Bible writer's talk so much about th'
. music of Heaven that there must b'
music there, perhaps not SO much a
!. on earth was thrummed from trem
: bling string or evoked by touch OF ivor.
kew. hut if not that, then something
; better. There are so many Christian
: harpists and Christian composers ant
8 Christian organists and Christian chor
= listers and Christian hymnologists tha
have gone up from earth, there mus
5 I be for them some place of especial de
3 llectation. Shall we have music in thi
l world Of dliscords and no music in th
r land Of complete harmony? ! canno
] give YOU the notes Of the first bar o
. the new song that is sung in Heaven
t / cannot imagine either the solo or til
doxology. But Heaven means music
and can mean nothing else. Occasional
h ly that music has escaped the gate
i. DR.. Fuller, dying at Beaufort, S. C
n said: do you not hear?' "Hea
: what 2. exclaimed the bystanders. 18th
h music! Lift me up! Open the win
f dows!"
4 In that music room of our Father
rr.~., x,,if1 Soma Iox, r,,oa4 the ~