New Ulm weekly review. [volume] (New Ulm, Minn.) 1878-1892, 1889-02-13
THE FATTED CALF.
Or. Talmage Gives a New and Inter-
esting Application to the Parable
Of the Prodiga1 Son.

Bring hlther the fatted calf and KILT DR..
Talmage said
JOY! Joy! Joy We banquet to-day over
this accession ola multitude ofsouls.
In all ages of the world it has been Gus
tomary to celebrate joyful events by festivity
the signing OF treaties, the proclamation Of
peace, the Christmas. the marriage. However
much on other days of the year our table
may have stinted supply, on Thanksgiving
day there must be something bounteous.
And all the comfortab bic homes of Christendom
have at some time celebrated joyful events
by banquet and festivity.
Something has happened in the old home
stead greater than any thing that has ever
happened before. A favorite son whom the
world supposed would become vagabond
and outlaw forever has got tired of sight
seeing and has returned to his fathers house.
The world said he would never come back
The old man always said he would come. He
had been looking for him day after day and
year after year. He knew he would come
back: Now, having returned to his fathers
house, the father proclaims celebration.
There is a calf in the paddock that has
been kept-up and fed to utmost capacity so
as to be ready for some occasion of JOY to
l, come along. All! there never will be
+ grander day on the old homestead than this
day. Let the butchers do their work, and
the housekeepers bring in to the table the
smoking meat. The musicians will take
their places, and the gay groups will move up
and down the floor All the friends and
neighbors are gathered in and extra supply
is sent out to the table of the servants. The
father presides at the table, and says grace,
and thanks God that his long absent son is
home again. Oh! how they missed him; how
glad they are to have him back. One broth
er indeed stands pouting at the back door
and says: "This is a great ado about moth
ing, this bad boy should have been chastened
instead of greeted; veal isstp good for him!"
But the father says: Nothing is too good,
1nt, n ,1rrb5' ,;tr
young man, glad at the hearty reception, but
q shadow OF sorrow fitting across his brow
ut the remembrance OF the trouble he had
seen. All ready now. Let the covers lift.
Music. He was dead and he is alive again!
He was lost and he is found By such cold
imagery does the Bible set forth the merry
making when soul comes home to God.
j. First of all there is the new converts
Joy. 1t is no tame thing to become a Chris
Gian. The most tremendous moment in a
man life is when he surrenders himself to
God. The grandest time on the fathers
homestead is when the boy comes back.
Among the great throng who in the parlors
of this church protested Christ one night was
Ia young man who next morning rang my
door bell and said: Sir, I cannot contain
myself with the JOY I feel; I came here this
morning to express it. I have found more
the years of my prodigality, and | came to
say zso,''
8 You have seen, perhaps, q man running for
his physical liberty and the officers of thelaw
after him, and you saw him escape, or after
ward you heard the Judge had pardoned him,
and how great was the glee Of that rescued
man; but it is a very tame thing that, COM
pared with the running for ones everlasting
aife-thc terrors of the law after him, but
Christ coming in to pardon and bless and res
cue and save. You remember John Bunyan
in his great story, tells how the pilgrim put
fnC in 0rSa ran life
life, eternal life. poor car-driver in this
city some years ago, after having had a
struggle to support his family, suddenly was
Informed that a large inheritance was his and
ahesa Vas joy amounting to bewilderment;
but that is small thing compared with the
experience Of one when he has putin his hands
the titie-deed to the joys, the raptures, the
splendoTs of heaven, and he can truly say:
cts mansions are mine it's temples are mine,
its songs are mine, its God is mine!''
Oh, it is no tame thing to become a Chris
tian. 1t is a merry making. 1t is the killing
f:she fattad calf It is the jubilee You
now the Bible never compares it to a funer-
IN, but always compares it to something
fight. 1t is more apt to be called a ban
53 yet than anything else. 1t is compared in
The Bible to the water, bright, flashing wa
Ger, on the Water;to the morning, roseate
fil'eworked, mountain transfgured morning
I wish could take all the Bible expressions
about pardon and peace and life and comfort
and hope and heaven and twist them into
one garland, and put it on the brow of the
humblest child of God and this assemblage
and cry: ear j t, wear it now, wear it for
ever. son of God, daughter OF the Lord God
sfmighty." Oh. the Joy of the new convert
Oh, the gladness OF the Christian service!
You have seen sometimes man in a re-
sligious assembly get,up and give his expert
ence. Well, Paul gave his experience He
arose in the presence of two churches, the
church on earth, and the church in heaven,
and he said: ''Now this is my experience
ssorrowful, yet always rejoicng-poor, yet
taking many rich-haying nothing, yetpos-
Sssing all thin s." If the people in this
g,use this morning knew the joys of the
rists ian religion, they would all pass over
; ~, t., The K11igdo ON of God the next moment
Wien Taniel Sandman was dying of cholera
ais Attendant said: "Have you much pain?
cong he replied, s'since found the Lord
:hays never had d! any pain except sim Then
mesgfge to your friends?" eyes, would; tell
then5 that only last night the love Of Jesus
eacame rushing into my soulllke the surges of
shes and had to cry out: Stop Lord, it
us enough; stop, Lord, enoughv" Oh, the
Rsjoys of this Christian relgionl
N Just pass over from those tame joys in
which you are indulgng-joys of this world
into the raptures of the gospel. The
world cannot satisfy you: you have found
\ that Alexander longngfor other worlds
sSGo SOiiGuGE, anu YET utOWlieu III HIS own UOt-
tie; Byron whipped by disquietudes around
the world; Voltaire cursing his own soul
while all the streets OF Paris were applauding
him; Henry Ii, consuming with hatred against
\ poor Thomas "A. Becket-an Illustrations of
the fact that this world cannot make man
happy. The very man who poisoned the
pomme OF the saddle on which Queen Eliza
beth rode, shouted in the street: Good save
! the Queen!'' One moment the world anathe-
matizes. Oh, come over into the greaterjoy.
this sublime solace this magnificent beati-
Jude. The night after the battle Of Shiloh,
field, and the ambulances had not come one
christian solder lying there a-dying under
cha starlight began to sing:
tsThere is a land of pure delight
And when he came to the next line there
we're scores of voices uniting:
Where saints immortal reign"
The song was caughtup all through the
fields among the wounded, until it was sud
there were at least 10 600 wounded men re-