The Londonderry sifter. (South Londonderry, Vt.) 1883-19??, 1889-02-21

on the clock of your destiny this morning,
you would sec 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; snow, now, now, noww Oh, come homo
to your Fathers house, Come home, oh,
prodigal, from the wilderness. Come home,
come home
ii. But ! notice that when the prodgal
came there was the fathers 10Y, He did nor
greet him with any formal "How do YOU dof'
Heidi not come ont ami say: "You are UNI
Ut to enter; so 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, 1t was an outburst OF q
fathers love and fathers Joy. God is your
Father. | have not much sympathy with
that description of God sometimes hear, as
though He We're 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 King riding along. and
two men were in alteration and one charged
the other with having eaten his rice; and the
King said: "Ihen Stay the man and by post
mortem examination find whether he has
eaten the rice" And he was slain Ali the
cruelty of scene like that Our God is not
q Sultan, not o Car, not n despot, but a
Father-kind, loving, forgiving, and He
makes all heaven ring again when prodigal
comes back. ~ have no pleasure he says,
Tin the death Of him that dieth.n
II 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
ronndings, no difference the sim When the
white horses of Christs 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 a JOY deeper than all depth,
and higher than all height, a. n wider than
all width, and vaster than all immensely. 1t
overtops, 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
King, who on some great day of festivity
scattered silver and gold among the people,
and sent valuable presents to his courtierS;
but methinks when 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 tine white robed
anthems of the redeemed greater hallelujah,
while with a voice that reverberatee among
The mo-. -Uiins of frankincense and is
echoed Uach 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, l 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 combined JOY of the
universe when compared with the resounding
heart of Almighty God
For ten years a father went three times
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
be watched the train, its arrival, the step
ping out of the passengers, and then
the departure OF the train. At noon
he was there again watching the ed
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 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!
jill l notice also that when a prodigal
comes home there is the joy of the ministers
OF religion. Oh, it is grand thing to preach
this Gospel. | know there has been great
deal said about the trials and the hardships
Of the Chriatian ministry. wish somebody
would VIZ to 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 lie able to
celebrate in all eternity. know some boast
about their equlibr UNI, 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 feel in body, mind, ana sou
transport. When / see man who is bound
hand and foot in evil habit emancipated,
l rejoice over it as though it 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 a JOY some
thing akin to that which the apostle de-
scribes when he says: "Whether in the body
I cannot tell, or out of the body l cannot
tell God knoweth.h
Oh, have not ministers n right to rejoice
when a prodigal comes home! They blew
the trumpet, and ought they not to be glad
of the gathering of the host2 They pointed
to the full supply, and ought they not to r.
joice when souls pant as the hart for the
waterbrooksl They come forth saying; "Al
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
tistics 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
l have seen ministers kept on miserable sti-
ponds by parsimonious congregations VINO
wondered at the dullness of the sermons, when
the men of God were perpexed 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.
ing their hospitality, because they cannot
afford it; but / have seen them struggle on
with salaries Of five and six hundred dollars
year-the average less than that
their struggle well depicted by
the Western missionary who says
in letter; THANK you for your last remit
lance; until it came we had not any meat in
our house for one year; and all last winter,
although it was severe winter, our children
wore their summer clothes.n And these men
OF God find in different parts of the land,
struggling against annoyances and exaspera-
tions innumerable; some of them week after
week entertaining agents who have maps
to sell, and submitting themselves to all
styles of annoyance, and yet without com
plant, and cheerful of soul. How do you
account for the fact that these life insurance
men tell us that ministers as class live
longer than any others' 1t is because of the
Joy of their work, the joy of the harvest
field, the joy of greeting prodigals home to
their Fathers house.
We are in sympathy with all innocent
hilarities. We can enjoy hearty song, and
we can be merry with the merriest; but
those of us who have toiled in the service are
ready to testify that all thess joys are tame
compared with the satisfaction of seeing men
enter the kingdom of God The great eras
OF every minister are the outpourings of the
Holy Ghost, and | thank God have seen
eighteen of them. Thank God, thank God!
~. notice also when the proligal comes
back all earnest Christians rejoice. If you
stood on Montauk Point and there was a
hurricane at sea- and it was blowing toward
the shore, and a vessel crashed into the rocks
and you saw people get ashore in the lie
boats and the very last man got on the rocks
in safety, you could not control your joy.
And it Is glad time when the Church of
God sees men who are tossed on the ocean OF
heir sins plant their feet on the rock Christ
Jesus.
Oh, when prodigals come home just hear