Abilene weekly reflector. [volume] (Abilene, Kan.) 1888-1935, 1889-02-14

lace Ol YOUR pdIuOnIHS OOu, anu suIIcu
der yourself for time and eternity, and HI
is yours, and Heaven is yours, and all il
yours. Some of you, like the young mar
of the'text have gone far astray. l know
not the history, but you know it, you
know it. When young man went fortt
into life, the legend says. his guardian
angel went forth with him, and getting
him into a field the guardian angel sweep
circle clear around where the young mar
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 a the circle-theY could not pass
But one day temptress with diamonded
hand stretched forth and crossed tina
circle with the hand and the tempted soul
took it, and by that one fell grip wa:
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 back! This, l say to you
is your hour of salvation.
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 heI
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 delirium some times
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 a clock scene IN
every history. If 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 something 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
will say: Now, now now now" y,
come home to your Fathers house. Come
home, o, prodigal, from the wilderness.
Come home, come home!
Second-But 1 notice that when the
prodigal came there was the fathers JOY.
He did not greet him with any formal
How do you do?" He did not come out
and say: sYou are unfit 10 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 L sometimes hear,
as though He were Turkish Sultan, hard
and unsympathetic and listening not to
the cry of His subjects. A man told me
he saw in one Of the Eastern lands a King
riding along and two men were in alterca-
ton and one charged the other with hav-
ing eaten his rice. and the King said:
''Then slay the man and by post mortem
examination find whether he has eaten
the rice" And he was slain. All! the
cruelty of a scene like that.
Our God is not a Sultan, not Gar, not
a despot, but Father-kind, loving, for
giving, and He makes all Heaven ring
again when a prodigal comes back. II
have no pleasure" He says, lin the death
of him that dieth." If a man does not get
to Heaven, ii is because he will not go
there. No difference the color, no differ
ence the history, no difference the ante
cedents, no difference the surroundings,
no difference the sin. When the white
horses of Christ's victory are brought out
to celebrate the triumph, you may ride
one of them, and az God is greater than
all, His Joy is greater, and when a soul
comes back there is in His heart the surging
of an infinite ocean of gladness and to
express that gladness it takes all the
rivers of pleasure, and all the thrones of
pomp, and all the ages of eternity. 1t IS a
joy deeper than ali depth, and higher
than all height, and wider than all width,
oil
tops, it undergirds it outweighs
all the united splendor and joy of the
universe. Who can tell what Gods joy
is?
You remember reading the story of a
King, who on soma 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 express His
joy He filings out new worlds into space,
and kindles up new suns, and rolls among
the white robed anthems of the redeemed
a greater halleujah, while with a voice
that reverberates among the mountains of
frankincense and is echoed back from the
everlasting gates. He cries: This, my
son. was dead. and he is alive again"
At the opening OF the Exposition in New
Orleans, saw a Mexican flutist, and he
played the solo, and then afterward the
eight or ten bands of music, accompanied
by the great organ, came in; but the sound
of that one flute as compared with all the
orchestra was greater than all the COM
bned joy of the universe when compared
with the resounding heart of Almighty
God.
For ten years father went three times
a day to the depot. His son went off in
exasperating circumstances, but the father
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, its
arrival, the stepping out of the passengers,
and then the departure of the train. At
noon he was there again watching the adj
vance of the train, watching the departure.
At night there again; watching the COM
ing, watching the going for ten years. He
was sure his son would come back. God
has been watching and waiting for some
of you, my brothers, ten years, twenty
fifty years-waiting, waiting, watching,
watching; and if this morning the prodi-
gal should come home what a scene of
RlduneSs anu LoSbiflOy, anu noW tuo SISdI
Fathers heart would rejoice at YOUR COM
ing home. You will come. some of you,
will you not? You will, you will.
Third notice also that when a prodi-
gal comes home there is the joy of the
ministers of religion. o, it is a grand
thing to preach this Gospel. know there
has been great deal said about the trials
and the hardships OF the Christian minis
try. Iwish somebody would write a good,
rousing book about the joys of the Chris
tian ministry. Since I entered the pro-
fession l have seen more of the goodness
of God than 1 will be able to celebrate in
all eternity. 1 know some boast about
their euuilibrium and thav do NOT rico