The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1900-05-11

Iurnalfa! Contentment IL something
you can neither rent nor purchase. It
lis o extrinsic; IL Is intrinsic. Are
there fewer rooms in the house to
which you move? You will nave less
to take care of. Is IL to be stove in
stead Of furnace? All the doctors say
the modern modes OF warming build
Iings are unhealthy. Is 1t less pier mir
lrors? Less temptation 20 your vanity.
Is Ii old fashioned toilet instead OF
water pipes all through the house?
Less to freeze and burst when you cam
not get a plumber. Is it less carriage?
More room for robust exercise. Is 1t
less social position? Fewer people who
want TO drag you down by their jeal-
l~ousies. Is it less fortune to leave in
your last will and testament? Less to
spoil you children. Is IL less money
flor marketing? Less temptation 20
ruin the health OF your family with
lpineapples n i~ndigestible salads. Is
liz a little deaf? No hearing so many
Edisagreeables.
/ meet you this springtime at the
door of your G home. and while I
help you lift the clothesbasket over
the banisters n the carman is getting
red in the face in trying TO transport
that article of furniture TO some new
destination / congratulate you. You
are going to nave a better time this
year., SOHle VI you, IMAM you ever ndu.
You take God and the Christian re-
lligion in your home, and you will be
lgrandly happy. God in the p~arlor-that
will Sanctify your sociabilities. God in
the nursery-that will protect your
children. roc in the dining hall-that
will make the plainest meal an impe-
rial banquet. God in the morning-that
will launch the day brightly from the
ldrydockS. God in the g
will sail the day sweetly int the har-
Dor.
whether you move or do not move. Get
Joy out of the thought that we are
soon all going to have a grand moving
day. Do you want a picture of the new
house into which you will move? Here
it is wrought with the hand Of a mas
ter, 1--WE know that, if our earthly
house of this tabernacle were dissolv-
ed, we have a building of God. a house
not made with hands, eternal in the
heavens" How much rent will we
have to pay for it? We are going to
own it. How much must we pay for
lit? How much cash down, and how
much left on mortgage? Our Father
is going to give it as a free gift.
When are we going to move into it?
We are moving now. On moving day
heads of families are very apt to stay
in the old house until they have seen
Everything off. They send ahead the
children, and they send ahead the
treasures and the valuables. Then,
after awhile, they will come them
selves. 1 remember very we'll in the
country that in boyhood moving day
was a jubilation.
GOING TO THE FATHERS HOUSE.
On almost the first load we, the chill
dren, were sent on ahead to h new
house, and we arrived with shout and
laughter, and in an hour we had rang
ed through every room in the house,
the barn n the granary Toward
night, and perhaps in the last wagon,
father and mother would come, looking
very tired, and we would come down
to the foot of the lane to meet them
and tell them of all the wonders we
discovered in the new place, and then,
the last wage ~uHloaded, the candles
lighted, our neighbors who lac helped
us to move-for in those times neigh
bds helped each other-sat down with
us at a table on which there was every
luxury they could think of. Well,
my lear Lord knows "a some of us
have been moving a good while. We
have sent our children ahead, We have
sent many of ~valuables ahead, sent
many treasures ahead. We cannot go
yet. There is York for us to do, but
after awhile it will be toward night,
and we will be very tired, and then
we will start for our new home, and
thase who have gone ahead of us they
will see our approach, and they will
come down the lane to meet us, and
they will have much to tell us of what
they have discovered in the house of
many mansions" and Of how large
large the rooms are and of how bright
the fountains. And then, the last load
unloaded, the table will be spread and
our celestial neighbors will come in
to sit down with our reunited families
and the chalices will be full, not with
the wine that sweats in the vat of
earthly intoxication, but with 1.-The new
wine of the kingdom" And there for
the first time we will realize what
fools we were on earth when we feared
Ito die, since death has turned out only
to be the moving from a smaller house
into a larger me and the exchange
of a pauper's hut for a princes castle
and the going up stairs from a miser-
able kitchen to a glorious parlor. .
house of God not made with hands,
eternal in the heavens!
l(Copyrighted, 1900, by Louis Klopsch.)
MR. GATES GIVEN A HEARING