The Brookhaven leader., 1889-02-14

Aud remembering flowers;
/ Death like q narrow strcau, ditideA
That Heavenly laid from ours
| oh, It Is q Great religion to live by, and
II is a great religion to die by. There is
only one heart throb between you and
that religion this morning. Just look into
the face Of your pardoning God, and sur
render yourself for time and eternity, and
He Is yours, and Heaven is yours, and all
Is yours. Some OF you, like the young
man Of the text, have gone far astray. |
know not the istory, but you know it,
you know it When a young man went
forth into life, the legend says, his guard
ian went forth with him, and getting him
/ into field the guardian angel swept
a circle clear around where the young
man stood. 1t was a circle of virtue and
honor, and he must not step beyond that
circle. Armed foes came down, but were
obliged to halt at the circle-they could
not pass, But one day temptress, with
diamonded hand, stretched forth and
| crossed that circle with the hand, and the
tempted soul took it, and by that one fell
grip was brought beyond the circle and
| died. Some of you have stepped beyond
that circle. Would you not like this day
by the grace OF God to step backi This,
There was in the closing hours of Queen
Anne what is called the clock scene. Flat
down on the pillow in helpless sickness,
she could not move her head or move her
hand. She was waiting for the hour when
the ministers of state should gather in
angry contest, and, worried and
worn out by the coming hour,
and in momentary absence of the nurse,
/ in the power, the strange power which de-
lirium sometimes gives one. she arose
and stood in front of the clock, and stood
there watching the clock when the nurse
returned. The nurse said: "Do you see
any thing peculiar about that clock?" She
made no answer, but soon died. There is
clock scene in every history. II some
OF you would rise from the bed of lethargy
and come out from your delirium of sin,
and look on the clock OF your destiny this
morning, you would see and hear some-
thing you have not seen or heard before,
and every tick of the minute, and every
stroke of the hour, and every swing of the
pendulum would say: Snow, now, now,
nowW Oh, come home to your Fathers
house. Come home, oh, prodigal, from
the wilderness. Come home, come home!
2. But | notice that when the prodigal
came there was fathers joy. He did not
greet him with any formal Glow do you
doE' he did not come out and say: "YOu
are unfit to enter; go out and wash in the
trough by the well, and then you can come
In; we have had enough trouble with
YOU" All! no. When the proprietor of
that estate proclaimed festival, it was
an outburst of fathers love and a
fathers joy. God Is your father. / have
not much sympathy with that description
of God sometimes hear, as though He
were Turkish Sultan, hard and unsympa-
thet1c, and listening not to the cry of his
subjects. A man told me he saw in one
of the Eastern lands King riding along,
and two men were in alteration, and one
charged the other with having eaten his
rice, and the King said. "Thol slay the
man, and by post-mortem examination
find whether he has eaten the rice" And
be was slain. All! the cruelty of a scene
like that. Our God is not a Sultan. not a
Car, not despot, but Father-kind,
loving, forgiving and He makes all Heav-
en- ring again when a prodisal comes
back. Il have no pleasure" He says, "in
the death of him that dieth."
IL man does not get to Heaven it is be-
cause he will not go there. No difference
the cOlCr, no difference the history, no
difference the antecedents, no difference
the surroundings, no difference the sin.
When the white horses of Christ's victory
are brought out to celebrate the eternal
triumph you may ride one of them, and as
God is greater than all, His joy is greater,
and when soul comes back there IS In
His heart the surging of an infinite ocean
of gladness, and to express that gladness
1t takes all the rivers of pleasure, and all
the thrones of pOmp, and all the ages of
eternity. 1t is a joy deeper than all depth,
and higher than all height and wider
than all width, and vaster than all i'm
mensity. 1t overtops, it undergirds, it
outweighs all the united splendor and joy
of the universe. Who can tell what Gods
joy is9
You remember reading the story Of a
King who on some great day of festivity
scattered silver and gold among the peo-
pie, and sent valuable presents to his
courtiers; but methinks when a soul
comes back, God is so glad that to ex-
press His JOY He filings out new worlds
into space, and kindles up new
suns, and rolls among the white-robed
antn.ns OF the redeemed a greater halle
luiah, whiic with a voice that reverber-
ates among the mountains of franklin
cense and is echoed back from the ever
lasting gates, He cries: "This, my son,
was dead, and he is alive again."
At the opening of the Exposition in
New Orleans, | saw Mexican fiutist, and
no played the solo, and then afterward
the eight or ten bands of music, accom-
panied by the great organ, came in; but
the sound ct that one flute as compared
with all the orchestra was greater than all
the combined Joy of the universe when
compared with the resounding heart of
Almighty God.
For ten years father went three times
O dav to the depot. His son went off in
aggravating circumstances, but the IA
tier said: "He will come back" The
strain was too much, and his mind parted,
and three times day the father went. In
the early morning he watched the train,
it's arrival, the stepping out of the pas
sengers, and then the departure of the
train. At noon he was there again,
watching the advance Of the train, watch
ing the departure. AT night, there again,
watching the coming, watching the going
for ten yeags, He was sure his son would
come back. God has been watching and
waiting for some of you, my brothers,
ten years, twenty years, thirty years,
forty years, perhaps fifty years-waiting,
waiting, was6hfng, watching, and If this
morning the pre,ligal should come home,
what a scene of Eladness and festivity,
and how the great FATHERS heart would
rejoice at your coming home. You will
come, some of you, Wiz you not? You
will, you will
8. 1 notice also that when prodigal
t,,, thor ic ma