Savannah courier. (Savannah, Tenn.) 1885-1979, 1900-10-05
SAVANNAH, TENNESSEE, FRIDAY, OCTOBER s. 1900.
swung on the gate. You ransacked the

swung on the gate. You ransacked the
barn. You waded into the brook. You
thrashed the orchard for apples and
the neighboring woods for nuts, and
everything around the old home
stead is of interest to you. l
tell you of the old homestead of
eternity. SIN 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 thatastonishesthe
world, it's galleries of art that con-
tain the triumphs of Chantrey, Canova
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 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 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 Heav-
en- shall come to look at it, and its
aroma shall be as though the cherubim
had swung before the throne thou
sand censers. l have not seen 1T yet.
| am in foreign land. But my Fa-
Their is waiting for me TO come home.
have brothers and sisters there. In
the Bible l have letters from there,
telling me what fine place it is. 1t
matters not much to me whether / am
rich or poor, or whether the world
hates me or loves me, or whether go
by land or by sea, if only may lift my
eyes at last on the family mansion. 1t
is not frail house, built in a month,
soon to crumble, but an old mansion,
which is as 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
of eternity. The queen Of Sheba hath
walked its halls, and Esther and Marie
Antoinette and Lady Huntingdon and
Cecil 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 all the kings and
queens of eternity.
A 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 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 As
years of age, act as though you were
16. Yet soon it is good-by at the car
window and good-by at the steamboat
wharf. But how will we act at the re-
union in the old family mansion Of
Heaven? 1t is good while since you
parted at the door of the grave. There
will be Grace and Mary and Martha
and Charlie and Lizzie and all the dar-
lings of your household, not pale and
sick and gasping for breath, as when
you saw them last, but their eyes
bright with the luster of Heaven and
their cheeks roseate with the flush Of
celestial summer.
What clasping of hands! What en-
bracings What coming together Of
lip to lip! What tears of joy! You
say: 81 thought there were no tears
in Heaven" There must be, for the
Bible says that God shall wipe them
away" and If there were no tears there
how could He wipe them away? They
cannot be tears of grief or tears
of disappointment. they must be
tears of gladness. Christ will come
and say: "What, child of Heaven,
is it 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
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 II you would speak
out and say: "Oh, blessed day, speed on!
Toward thee / press with blistered
feet over the desert N.y. My eyes fail
for their weeping. 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 II
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, Heaven
overlapping Heaven, Heaven comming'
ling with Heaven!"
| was at Mount Vernon and went
into tire dining-room In which our first
president entertained the prominent
men of this and other lands. II wa,
a very interesting spot. But, oh, tn,
banquet hall of the family mansion Of
which l speak! Spread the table, spread
it wide, for great multitude are tc
sit at it. From the tree by the river
gather the u manner of fruits fol
that table. Take the clusters from
the heavenly vineyards and press then