Essex County herald. [volume] (Guildhall, Vt.) 1873-1964, 1889-02-22


obliged to halt at the circle-they
could not pass But one day a
temptress with diamonded hand stretched
| forth and crossed that circle with the hanc.
and the tempted soul took il, and by that one
fell grip was brought beyond the circle and
died. Some Of YOU have stepped bevond that
circle. Would you not like this day by the
grace OF God to step backl This. 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 her hand
She was waiting for the hour when
gather in angry contest, and worried and
worn out by the coming hour, and in mo-
mentary absence of the nurse, in the power
the strange power which delirium 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
tb D9 you oIno see asnEything peculiar about
but soon died. There is 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 would
say: Now, now, now, nowl" Oh, come home
toyour Fathers house. Come home oh,
prodigal, from the wilderness. Come home.
come home
II. But 1 notice that when the prodiCal
came there was the fathers 10y. He did not
greet him with any formal How do you dor
He did not come out and say: 'You are I'M
6t 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" Ali
no. When the proprietor of that estate pro-
claimed festival, it was an outburst of
fathers love and fathers Joy. God is your
Father. l have not much sympathy with
that description of God sometimes hear, as
though He were a Turkish Sultan, hard and
nnsympathetic, 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 alteration, and one charged
the other with having eaten his rice; and the
King said: "Then Stay the man and by post
norton examination find whether he has
eaten the ricen And he was slain. All! the
cruelty of a scene like that. Our God is not
Sultan, not a Gar, not a despot, but
Father-kind, loving, forgivng, and He
makes all heaven ring again when prodigal
comes back. II have no pleasure" he says
I'm the death of him that dieth."
If a man does not get to heaven it Is be-
cause he will not go there. No difference
the color, no difference the history, no differ
ence the antecedents, no difference the sur
roundings, no difference the sim 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 it takes all the rivers of pleasure
and all the thrones of pomp and all the ages
OF eternity. 1t is joy deeper than all depth,
and higher than all height, AID wider than
all width and vaster tina Ill immensity 1t
overtops it undergirds, it outweighs ali 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 some great day of festivity
scattered silver and gold among the people,
and sent valuable presents to his courterS;
but methinks when a soul comes back, God
is so glad that to express His Joy He filings
out new worlds into space, and Eindles up
new suns, and rolls among the white robed
anthems OF the redeemed greater halleluj ah
while with voice that reverberates among
The mo.--Odln of frankincense and is
echoed DacA from the everlasting gates, He
cries: This, my son, was dead, and he is
alive again"
At the opening of tho Exposition in New
Orleans, | saw 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 combined JOY of the
universe when compared with the resounding
heart of Almighty God.
For ten years a father went three times q
day to the depot. His son went off in aggra-
waiting circumstances, but the father said:
HE will come back The strain was too
much, and his mind parted, and three times
a day the father Went In the early morning
h.. nfnl,al Id ,A,
ping out Of the passengers, and then
the departure of the train. At noon
he was there again watching the ad
vance of the train, watching the depart
ure. As night, there again. watching the
coming, 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 years,
thirty years, forty years, perhaps fifty years
waiting, waiting, watching, watching; and
if this morning the prodigal should come
home, what a scene of gladness and festivity,
and how the great Fathers heart would re-
joice at your coming home. You will come,
some of you, will you not! You will, you
will
III. | notice also that when a prodgal
comes home there is the joy of the ministers
of religion. Oh, it is grand thing to preach
this Gospel l know there has been a great
deal said about the trials and the hardships
OF the Christian ministry. | wish somebody
would write a good, rouSing book about the
joys of the Christian ministry. Since ! en-
tered the profession | have seen more of the
goodness of God than | will be able to
celebrate in all eternity. | know some boast
about their equilibrium, and they do not rise
into enthusiasm. and they do not break down
with emotion; but confess to you plainly
that when see man coming to God, and
giving up his sin I feel in body, mind ,and sou
k.o. - 7 rrb0 10 nd
hand and foot in evil habit emancipated,
rejoice over it as though 1t were my own
emancipation. When to-day in our com.
munion service such throngs of young and
old stand at these affairs, and in the presence
of heaven and earth and hell attest their al
legiance to Jesus Christ, | feel joy some
thing akin to that which the apostle de-
scribes when he says: "Whether in the body
l cannot tell, or out of the body l cannot
tell: God knoweth.n
Oh have not ministers right to rejoice
when prodigal comes home! They blew
the trumpet, and ought they not to be glad
of the gathering of the host9 They pointed
to the full supply, and ought they not to re-
joice when souls pant as the hart for the
water-brooks9 They come forth saying: "All
things are now ready" ought they not to
rejoice when the prodigal sits down at the
banquet
Life insurance men will all tell you that
ministers of religion as class live longer
than any other. 1t is confirmed by the sta
tistcs 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 more exhausting.
have seen ministers kept on miserable sti-
ponds by parsimonious congregations who
wondered at the dizziness of the sermons, 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. have
sometimes seen the inside of the life of many
Of the American clergyman-never accept
afford it; but l have seen them struggle on