Daily Yellowstone journal., 1888-08-19

There has been many a store that had
more goods in the show window than
inside Oh the shelves.
This self righteous man Of the text
stood at the corner OF the house hugging
himself In admiration. We hear a great
deal in our day a5ou. the higher ife.
Now, there ere two kinds Of higher life
men. The one are admirable, and the
other are most repulsive. The one kind
Of higher life man is very lenient in his
criticism Of others, does not bore prayer
meetings TO death with long harangues,
does not talk great deal about himself,
but much about Christ and heaven, gets
Eindlicr and more gentle and more useful
until one day his soul spreads wing and
he flies away 70 eternal rest, and every
body moums his departure. The other
higher life man goes around with Bible
cOn5picuously under his arm; goes from
church to church, q sort Of general evan
gelist; Is a nuisance % his own pastor
when he is at home and nuisance 10
other pastors when he is away from
home; runs up 10 some man who IS
counting out a roll Of bank bills or run
ming up difficult line Of figures and
asks him how is soul is; makes religion
a dose Of ipecacuanha; standing in a re-
igious meeting making an address, he has
q patronizing way, as though ordinary
Christians were clear away down below
him, so he has to talk at the top Of his
voice in order TO make theiil lear; hgt qt
ne same time encouraging them 10 nope
on; that by climbing many years they
may after a while come up within sight
Of the place where he now stands! /
tell you plainly that roaring, royster-
ing, bouncing sinner is not so repulsive
to me as that higher life malformation.
The former may repent; the latter never
gets over his pharislism. Tie younger
brother of the parable came back, but
the senior brother stands outside entirely
obliyious of his own delinquencies and
deficits, pronouncing his own eulogium.
Oh, how much easier il is to blame
others than to blame ourselves! Adam
blamed Eve, Eve blamed the serpent,
the serpent blamed the devil, the senior
brother blamed the younger brother, and
none of them blamed themselves.
Again, the senior brother of my text
stands for all those who are faithless
about the reformation Of the dissipated
and the dissolute. In the very tones of
his voice you can hear the fact that he
has no faith that the reformation Of the
younger son is genuine. His entire
manner seems to say: THAT boy has
come back for more money. He got a
third Of the property; now he has come
back for another third. He viii reyer
be contented to stay on the farm. lie
viii fall away. Iwould goin, too. and re-
j1icc with the others if | thought this
thing was genuine; but it is a sham. That
boy is a confirmed inebriate and de-
bauchee." Alas! my friends. for the In
creduity in the church OF Christ in re-
gard to the reclamation Of the re-
creant. You say a man has been a
strong drinker. say: YES, but he has
reformed" "Oh," you say, with u lu-
gubrt0us face, II hope you are not mis-
taken; ! hope you are not mis-
taken. Nou say: Don't rejoice too
much over lis conversion. for soon
be will be unconverted, ] fear.
Don't make too big a party for that re-
turned prodigal, or strike the timbrel too
loud; and if you kill a calf. kill the one
that is on the commons, and not the one
that has been luxuriating in the paddock. "
That is the reason why more prodigals
donot come home TO their fathers house.
1t Is the rank iniidelity in the church of
God on this subject. There is not q
house ON the streets Of heaven that
has not in it a prodigal that has
returned and strayed home. There
could be unrolled before you a scroll Of
hundred thousand names-the names
of proligals who came back forever
reformed. Who was John Bunyanl A
returned prodigal. Who was Richard
Baxter? \ returned prodigal Who
was George Whitefeld, the thunderer!
A returned prodigal. And ! could go
out in all directions in this audience and
find on either side those who, once far
astray for many years, have been faith
full, and their eternal salvation is as sure
as though they had been ten years in
heaven. And yet some Of you have not
enough faith in their return.
You do not know how 10 shake hands
with prodigl. You do not know how
to pray for him. You do not know how
TO greet him. He wants 10 sail IN the
warm gulf stream Of Christian sympa-
thy. You are the iceberg against which
he strikes and shivers. You say he has
been a prodigal ! know it. But you
are the sour, unresponsive, censorious,
saturnine, cranky elder brother, and II
YOU are going to heaven one would think
some people would be tempted TO 90 to
perdition TO get away from you. The
hunters say that IL deer be shot the
other deer shove him out of their CON-
pany. and the general rule is, away
with the man who has been wounded
with sin. Now, say the more homes q
man has broken the more need he has
Of a hospital, and that the more q man
has been bruised and cut with sin the
more need lac has to be carried into human
and divine sympathy. But for such men
there is not much room in this world
the men who want TO come back after
wandering. Plenty Of room for elegant
sinners, sinners in velvet and satin and
lace, for sinners high saloricd, for kid
glovcl and patent leather sinpcrs, for sin
ners fixed up by hair dresser, pomntumed
and hvondcred and cologncd and frizzled
and crimped and banged sinners