The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1888-08-24
ENVY AND JEALOUSY.
DR.. Talmage Discourses on Self.
Righteous Christians
Lessons to be Learned From the Parable Of
the Prodigal Son-The Fallei. to bo
Pitied, Not Scorned- God Ready
to Forgive.

Fitted, NOT ScOrue0-GO0 Ready
to Forgive.
Rev. 7. Dewitt T.lmags, who has been
making q tour Of the West and South, has
been greeted by crowds wherever he
preached. In q recent sermon at the great
Piedmont Chautauqua in Georgia he
preached from Luke xv. %: "And be was
angry, and would not 60 in" He said:
Is the elder son Of the parable 80 unsym-
pathetic and 50 cold that he is not worthy
Of recognition: The fact is that we minis
ters pursue the younger son. You can
hear the Tapping Of his rags in many q SER
monte breeze, and the branching Of the
pods for which he was an unsuccessful con-
testant. 1 confess that for . long time
was unable to train the camera OBJ
scura upon the elder son Of the parable.
l never could get . negative for q
photograph. There was not much light
in the gallery, or the chemicals were
poor, or the sitter moved in the picture.
But now think have him. Not a side
face, or three-Quarters, or the mere bust,
but full length portrait as he appears to
me. The father in the parable of the prod
igal had nothing to brag of in his two sons.
The one was rake and the other a churl.
find nothing admirable in the dissolute-
ness of the one and find nothing attract
i've in the acrid sobriety Of the other. The
one goes down over the larboard side, and
the other goes down over the starboard
side; but they both go down.
From the window Of the old homestead
bursts the minstrelsy. The floor quakes
with the feet of the rustics, whose dance
is always vigorous and resounding. The
neighbors have heard of the return Of the
younger son from his wanderings, and
they have gathered together. The house
is full Of congratulators. I suppose the
tables are loaded with Injuries. Not only
the one kind of meat mentioned, but its
concomitants. "Clapw go the cymbals,
''thrumw go the barps, ''click" go the
chalioes, mp and down go the feet inside,
while outside is q most sorry spectacle.
The senior son stands at the corner of the
house a frigid phlegmatic. He has Just
come in from the fields in very substantial
apparel. Seeing some wild exhilaration
around the old mansion, he asks Of a SER
want passing by with a goatskin of wine
ON his shoulder what all the fuss is about.
One would have thought that, on hearing
would have gone into the house and re-
joiced, and il he were not cOnscientiously
opposed to dancing, that he would have
Joined in the oriental schOttische. No.
There he stands. His brow lowers. His
lip curls with contempt. He stamps the
ground with indignation. He sees nothing
at all to attract. The odOrs Of the feast
coming ont on the air do not sharpen his
appetite. The lively music does not put
any spring into his step He is in terri
BILE pout. He criticises the expense, the
injustice and the morals of the entertain.
ment.
The father rushes out bareheaded and
coaxes him to come in. He will not go in.
He scolds his father. He goes into a
pasquinade against the younger brother,
and he makes the most uncomely scene.
He says: ''Father. you put a premium on
vagabondism. I stayed at home and
worked on the farm. You never made q
party for me; you didn't so much as kill a
kid; that wouldn't have cost half as much
as calf; but the scapegrace went off in
fine clothes, and he came back not fit to be
seen, and what time you make over him.
He breaks your heart and you pay him for
it. That calf which we have been giving
extra feed during all these weeks wouldn't
be SO fat and sleek il l had known to what
use you were going to put it! That vag-
abone deserves to be cowhided instead Of
banqueted. Veal is too good for him."
That evening while the younger son sat
telling his father about his adventures and
asking about what had occurred on the
place since his departure, the senior
brother goes to bed disguised and slams
the door after him. That senior brother
still lives. You can see him any Sunday,
my day of the week. At q meeting of
ministers in Germany some one asked the
question, :'Who is that elder SOM" and
krummacher answered, II know him; l
saw him yesterday" And when they in
sisted on knowing whom he meant, he
said: "Myself; when saw the account of
the conversation of most obnoxious man,
was irritated."
First, this senior brother of the text
stands for the self -congratulatory, self
satisfied, self-worshipful man. With the
same breath in which he vituperates
against his younger brother he ut
tiers a panegyric for himself. The
self-righteous man of my text, like
every other self-righteous man, was full of
faults. He was an migrate, for he did not
appreciate the home blessings which he
had all those years. He was disobedient,
for when the father told him to come in he
stayed out. He was a liar, for he said
the recreant son had devoured his fathers
living, when the father, so far from being
reduced to penury, had homestead left,
had instruments Of music, had jewels, had
. mansion, and instead Of being pauper
was prince. This senior brother, with so
many faults Of his own, was merciless in
his criticism Of his younger brother. The
only perfect people that have ever
known were utterly obnoxious. was
never so badly cheated in all my life as by
. perfect man. He got SO far up in his
devOtions that he was clear up above all
the rules Of common honesty. These men
that go about providing among prayer
meetings and in places of business telling
how good they are, look out for them;
keep your hand on your pocketbook! /
have noticed that just in proportion as a
man gets good he gets humble. The deep
Mississippi does not make as much noise
as the brawling mountain rivulet. There
has been many a store that had more goods
in the show windows than inside on the
shelves.
The self-righteous nan Of the text
stood at the corner Of the house huggins
himself in admiration. We hear a great
deal in our day about the higher life.
Now there are 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 criti-
cism of others. does not bore prayer meet
ings to death with long harangues, does
not talk great deal about himself, but
much about Christ and Heaven, gets kind
lier and more gentle and more useful until