Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1889-02-04

not to rejoice when the prodigal sits down
at the banquet?
Life insurance men will all tell you that
ministers of religion as a class live longer
than any other. 1t is confirmed by the
statistics Of all those who calculate upon
human longevity. Why is it? There is
more draft upon the nervous system than in
any other profession, and their toll is most
e1hausting. / nave seen ministers kept on
miserable stipends by
PARSIMoNIoUS CONGREGATIONS
who wondered at the dullness of the SER
mons, when the men OF God were perplexed
almost to death by questions of livelihood,
and had not enough nutritious food to keep
any fire in their temperament. No fuel, no
fire. I have sometimes seen the inside of the
life of many of the American clergyman
never accepting their hospitality, because
they cannot afford it; but / have seen them
struggle on with salaries of $500 and $500 q
year-the average less than that-their
struggle well depicted by the Western mis-
sionary who says in a letter: 'Thank you
for your last remittance; until it zane we
had not any meat in our house for one year,
and all last winter, although it was a severe
winter, our children wore their summer
Clothes" And these men of God I find in
different parts of the land, struggling
against an~noyances and exasperations in
Vulnerable; some of them week after week
entertaining agents who have maps to sell,
and submitting themselves to all styles of
annoyance, and yet without complaint, and
cheerful of soul. How do you account for
the fact that these life-insurance men tell US
that ministers as a class live longer than
any others? 1t is because of the Joy of their
work, the joy of the harvest field, the Joy of
greeting prodigals home to their Fathers
house.
Oh, we are in sympathy with all innocent
hilarities. We can enjoy a hearty song,
and we can be merry with the merriest; but
those of us who have toiled in the service
are ready to testify that all these joys are
tame compared with the satisfaction of see
ing men enter the kingdom of God. The
great eras of every minister are the out
pourings of the Holy Ghost, and I thank
God 1 have seen is of them. Thank God,
thank Godl
1 notice also when the prodigal comes
back, all earnest Christians rejoice. If you
stood on Montauk Point, and there was
a hurricane at sea, and it was blowing to-
war2 the shore, and a vessel crashed into
the rocks, and you saw people get ashore
IN THE LIFEBoATS,
and the very last MAI got on the rocks in
safety, you could not control your joy. And
it is q glad time when the church Of God
sees men who are tossed on the ocean of
their sins plant their feet on the rock Christ
Jesus.
Oh, when prodigals come home just hear
those Christians sing. Just hear those
Christians pray. 1t is not a stereotyped
supplication we have heard over and over
again for 20 years, but a putting of the case
IN Tho hondc IF nnd with ON nnNrtunQfo
pleading. No long prayers. Men never
pray at great length unless they have moth
ing to say and their hearts are hard and
cold. All the prayers in the Bible that
were answered were short prayers: "God be
merciful to me q sinner" Lord, that l
NAV receive my sight" "Lord. save mt or
1 perish" The longest prayer, Solomon's
prayer at the dedication of the Temple, less
than eight minutes in length, according to
the ordinary rate of enunciation.
And Just hear them pray now that the
prodigals are coming home. Just see them
shake hands. No putting forth of the four
tips of the fingers in a formal way, but a
hearty grasp, where the muscles of the heart
seem to clench the fingers Of one hand
around the other hand. And then see those
Christian faces, how illumined they are.
And see that old man get up n with the
same voice that he sang so years ago in the
old country meeting house, say: Now,
Lord, lettest Thou Thy servant depart in
peace, for mine eyes have seen Thy saliva
tion." There was
A MAN OF KEITH |
who was hurled into prison in time of per-
seeution, and one day he got off his shackles
and he came and stood by the prison door,
and when the jailer was opening the door,
with one stroke he struck down the man
who had incarcerated him. Passing along
the streets of London he wondered where
his family was. He did not dare to ask
lest he excite suspicion, but, passing
along a little way from the prison, he
saw a Keith tankard, a cup that belonged
to the family from generation to generation
he saw it in a window. His family, hop
ing that some day he would get clear, came
and lived as near as they could to the
prison house, and they set that Keith
tsnkard in the window, hoping he would
see it; and he came along and saw it, and
knocked at the door, and went in, and the
long-absent family were all together again.
Oh, if you would start for the kingdom of
God to-day, 1 think some of you would find
nenrly all your friends and nearly all your
families around the holy tankard of the
holy communion-fathers, mothers, broth
ers, sisters, around that sacred tankard
which commentaries the love of Jesus
communion day when your whole family
sits around the sacred tankard. One on
earth, one in heaven.
Once more 1 remark that when the
prodigal gets back the inhabitants of heaven
Iaa- festival ny warn oarfaip ~ Tf
YOU have never seen a Geographic chart
you have no idea how many cities are con-
nected together, and how many lands.
Nearly all the neighborhoods of the earth
seem articulated. and news flies from city to
and from continent to continent. But
more rapidly go the
TIDINGs FROM EARTH
to heaven, and when a prodigal returns it is
announced before the throne of God. And
if these souls this morning should enter the
kingdom there would be some one
in the heavenly kingdom to say: 'That's
my father" chats my mother, 'that's
son, 3" that's my daughter" that's my
friend, " "that's the one l used to pray for"
that's the one for whom I wept SO many
tears, !" and one soul would say "Hosanna!"
and another soul would say "Hallelujah!"
PLEASED with the news the saints below
In songs their tongues employ;
Beyond the skies the tidings go,
And heaven is filled with Joy.
Nor angels can their Joy contain,
But kindle with new fire;
The sinner lost is found, they sing,
And strike the sounding Tyre"
At the banquet Of Lucullus sat Cicero the
orator, at the Macedonian festal sat Philip
he conqueror, at the Grecian banquet sat
Socrates the philosopher; butatou Fathers
able sit all the returned prodigals, more
han %conquerors. The table is so wide its
aaups roach aornSs Seas ond ooroes lands