The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1900-08-31

swung on the gate. on fanSackeu inc
barn. You waded into the brook. You
thrashed the orchard for apples and
the neighboring woods for nuts, aud
everything around the Old home
stead is of interest to you.
tell you of the old homestead Of
eternity. "ln my Fathers house are
many mansions" When we talk OF
mansions we think of Chatsworth and |
its park, nine miles in circumference
and its conservatory that astonishes the
world, its galleries of art that con-
tain the triumphs of Chantrey, Canoya
and Thorwaldsen, of the kings and |
queens who have walked its stately |
halls or, flying over the heather. have |
hunted the grouse. But all the dwell |
ing places of dukes and princes and |
queens are as nothing to the family |
mansion that is already awaiting our
arrival. The hand of the Lord Jesus
lifted the pillars and swung the doors
and planted the parks Angels walk
there and the good of all ages. The
poorest man in that house is a million
aire, and the lowest king. and the
tamest word he speaks is an anthem
and the shortest life an eternity.
! 1t took Paxton to build for Chats
worth a covering for the wonderful
flower, Victoria Regia, five feet in di-
| ameter But our lily of the valley
| shall need no shelter from the blast,
| and in the open gardens of God shall
| put forth its full bloom. and all lIeay-
/ en- shall come to look at it. and its
| aroma shall be as though the cherubim
! had swung before the throne thou
| sand censers. / have not seen il yet.
| ! am in a foreign land. But my Fa-
/ Their is waiting for me 10 come home.
| have brothers and sisters there. In
the Bible | have lstters from there,
telling me what fine place it is It
matters not much TO me whether | am
/ rich or poor, or whether the world
hates me or loves me. or whether 90
by land or by sea. il only may lift my
eyes at last on the family mansion. 1t
is not a frail house. built in month,
soon TO crumble but an old mansion,
which is a. firm as the day it was built.
Its walls are covered with the ivy of
many ages. and the urns at the gateway
are abloom with the century plants
y
walked its halls. and Esther and Marie
Antoinette and Lady Huntingdon and
Ceci, and Jeremy Taylor and Samuel
Rutherford and John Milton and the
widow who gave two mites and the poor
men from the hospital-these last two
perhaps outshining al the kings and
queens Of eternity.
\ family mansion means reunion.
Some of your families are very much
scattered. The children married and
went off to St. Louis or Chicago or
Charleston. But perhaps once a year
you come together at the old place.
How you wake up the old piano that
has been silent for years. Father and
mother do not play on it. How you
bring out the old relic and rummage
the garnet and open old scrapbooks and
shout and laugh and cry and talk over
old times, and though you may be -
years of age, act as though you were
rs. Yet soon il is goOd-by at the car
window and good-by at tine steamboat
wharf. But how will we act at the re-
union in the old family mansion of
Heaven? 1t is good white since you
parted az the door of the grave. There
will be Grace and Mary and Martha
aud Charlie and Lizzie and all the dar-
mgs Of your nous, hold. not pale and
sicl, and ca.piug for breath. %, when
you saw them last but their eyes
bright with the custer of Heaven and
their cheeks rosoate with the husl of
celestial summer
What cluspiug Of hands! What cm-
lruciug,, What coming together of
,ip 20 Hp What tear, of JOY! You
say: 81 thought there were no tears
IN Heaven" There must be. for The
Bible saws that "God shall wipe them
away" and if there were no tears there
how could lie wine them away? They
cauuot be tear, of grief or tears
Of Disappointment they must be
tears of glaju,-s Christ will come
and say: what. child of heaven,
is IL too much for thee? Dost
thou break down under the gladness OF
this reunion? Then | will help thee
And with His one arm around us and
the other arm around our loved ones
3 He shall hold us up in the eternal jubi'
lee.
While I speak some of you with
broken hearts can hardly hold your
peace You feel as il you would speak
=, out and say: "Oh, blessed day, speed on
Toward thee | press with blisterec
feet over the desert way. My eyes fai
for their weeping. I faint from lis
' tening for feet that will not come and
the sound of voices that will not speak
Speed on, oh day of reunion! And then
Lord Jesus, be not angry with me il
after | have kissed thy blessed feet
| turn around to gather up the long
lost treasures of my heart. Oh, be
not angry with me. One look at thee
were Heaven. But all these reunions
' are Heaven encircling Heaven. HEAVIER
=. overlapping Heaven, Heaven comming
, ling with Heaven."