Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1889-02-04
THE DAY OF JUBILEE.
Two Hundred and Forty Persons Re-
ceiVed Into Communion
AT THE BROOKLYN TABERNACLE.
Dr.. Talmage Draws a Lesson From the Re-
turn Of the PrOdigal.
IMMEASURABLE JOYS OF A CHRISTIAN

mon was preached this morning by the heV.
I. Dewitt Talmage, DID,, at the especial
communion for the reception of 240 persons.
making the present communicate member
ship of the Brooklyn Tabernacle 4,40S.
This is also moving day in this church. The
annual rental of pews has just occurred,
and to-day many of the congregation &C.
cupy new places. The pews brought higher
premiums this year than ever before, and
the income of the church this year will be
SS3,SO+. But both plans are observed in
this church. A vast space is kept free from
all expense, and only a part of the building
is mapped off for rent.
DR.. Talmage took his text from Luke XIV,
%: "Bring hither the fatted calf and kill
it" DR.. Talmage said:
JOY! JOY! Joyl We banquet to-day
over this accession of a multitude of souls.
In all ages of the world it has been custom
airy to celebrate joyful events by festivity-
the signing of treaties, the proclamation of
peace, the Christmas, the marriage. How
ever much on other days of the year our
table may nave stinted supply, on Thanks
giving Day there must be something
bounteous. And all the comfortable homes
of Christendom have at some time celebrated
joyful events by banquet and festivity.
THE PRoDIGAL SON.
Something has happened in the old home
stead greater than anything that has ever
happened before. A ~favorite son whom the
world supposed would become a vagabond
and outlaw forever has got tired of sight
seeing and has returned to his fathers
house. The world said he never would
come back. TIL old man always said his
son 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 that
might com along. All there never will
be a grander day on the old homestead than
this day. Let the butchers do their work,
and the housekeepers bring into 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 saws grace, and thanks God that his
long-absent boy is home again. Oh! how
they missed him; how glad they are to have
him back. One brother indeed stands pout-
ing at the back door and saws: ''This is a
great ado about nothing; this bad boy
should have been chastened instead of
greeted; veal is too good for him P But
the father saws: "Nothing is too good;
nothing is good enough :" There sits the
young man, glad at the hearty reception,
but a shadow of sorrow fitting across his
brow at the remembrance Of the trouble he
ha1 coor -o,o- - A. --- /
lift. Music, He was dead and he is alive
again He was lost and he is found By
such bold imagery does the Bible set forth
the merry-making when a soul comes home
to God.
THE CONVERTS JOY.
First of all there is the new converts ioy.
1t is no tame thing to become a Christian.
The most tremendous moment in a mans
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 professed Christ one night, was a
young man who next morning rang nv door
bell and said: "Sir, 1 cannot contain nv
self with the JOY 1 feel; 1 came here this
morning to express it. 1 have found more
JOY in serving God than in all the years of
my prodigality, and 1 can't to say So"
HOu have seen, perhaps, a man running
for his physical liberty and the officers of
the law after him, and you saw him escape,
or afterward you heard the judge had par
doned him, and how great was the glee of
that rescued man; but it is a verv tame
thing that, compared with the running for
ones everlasting life-the terrors of the law
after him, but Christ coming in to pardon
and bless and rescue and save. You remem-
Der John Bunyan in his great story tells
how the Pilgrim put his fingers in his ears,
and ran, crying: life, life, eternal life!"
A poor car-driver in this city some wears
ago, after having had a struggle to support
his family. suddenly was informed that a
large inheritance was his, and there was Joy
amounting to bewilderment; but that is a
small thing compared with the experience
of one when he has put in his hands the
title-deed to the joys, the raptures, the
%splendors of heaven, and be can truly saw:
Its mansions are mine, its temples are
mine, its songs are mine, its God is mine!''
oh, it is no tame thing to become a
Christian. 1t is a merr y-making. 1t is the
killing OF the tatted calf. 1t is Jubilee.
You know the Bible never compares it to a
funeral but always compares it to
SOMETHING BRIGHT.
1t is more apt to be compared to a banquet
than anything else. 1t is compared in the
Bible to the water, bright, flashing water;
to the morning, ~roseate, freworked, noun
tain-transfgured morning. l wish / could
to-day 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 in this assemblape.
and cry: "Wear it, wear it now, wear it for
ever, son of God, daughter of the Lord God
Almighty's. Oh, the joy of the new con-
vert! Oh, the gladnesS of the Christian
service!
You have seen sometimes a man in a re-
ligious assembly get up and give his ex-
p%erience. 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: Sorrowful, vet always
rejoicing; poor, yet making MANY rich; ]
having nothing, yet possessing all things"
IL the people in this house this morning
knew the joys Of the Christian religion they ]
would all pass over into the kingdom of J
God the next moment When Daniel I
Sandman was dying of cholera his attend {
said: Have you much pain?" ''Oh," {
he replied, 'since 1 have found the Lord [ '
have never had any pain except SIN" Then j
they said to him: would you like 10 send I
q message to your friends?" 'Yes, would;
tell them that only last night the love of
Jesus CAM rushing into my soul like the
surges of the sea, and 1 had to cry out: J
Stop, Lord, it is enough; stop, Lord, !
enoughr" oh, the joys of this Christian
Just pass over from those tame joys in
which you are ~indulging-joys of this
world-into the raptures of the gospel. The
world cannot satisfy you you have found
that out-Alexander longing Tor other
worlds to conquer, and vet drowned in his
own bottle; Byron whipped by disouietudes