The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1889-02-20


could not pass. But one day a
| temptress with diamonded hand stretched
| forth and crossed that circle with the hand,
| and the tempted soul took it, and by that ono
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 back1 This I 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
the Ministers Of State should
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:
''Do you see anything peculiar about
that clock?' She made no answer,
but soon died. There is clock
scene in every history. II some of you
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
to your Fathers house. Come home, oh,
prodigal from the wilderness. Come home,
come home!
II. But I notice that when the prodgal
came there was the fathers 10Y. He did not
greet him with any formal How do you do"
He did not come out and say: You are un-
fit to enter: go out and wash in the trough
by the well, and then you can come in; we
hoy hod ypifh
no. When the proprietor of that estate pro-
claimed festival, it was an outburst Of a
fathers love and fathers Joy. God is your
Father. I have not much sympathy with
that description Of God 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
two men wore in alteration, and one charged
the other with having 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. Ah! the
cruelty Of a scene like that. Our God is not
Sultan, not Car, not despot, but
Father-kind, loving, forgiving and He
makes all heaven ring again when prodigal
comes back. 81 have no pleasure" he says,
Sin the death of him that dietb."
If man does not get to heaven 1t IS be-
cause he will not 60 there. No difference
the color, no difference the history, no differ
ence the antecedents, no difference the sur
roundngs, no difference the sin. 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, and wider than
all width, and vaster than all inmensty. 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 a
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 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 q greater hallelujah
while with voice that rever berates among
the mountains of frankincense and is
echoed back from the everlasting gates, He
cries: "This, my son, was dead. and he ls
alive again"
At the opening of the Exposition in New
| Orleans, I 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 q father went three times a
day to the depot. His son went Off in aggra.
waiting circumstances, but the father saio:
He will come back" The strain was too
much, and his mind parted, and three times
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
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 tor some OF
you, my brothers, ten years, twenty years,
thirty years, forty years perhaps nifty years
-waiting, waiting, watching. watching; and
if this morning the .prodigal should come
home, what scene of gladness and festlvlty,
and how the great Fathers heart would re.
ioice at your coming home. You will come,
some of you, will you not! You will, you
will
III. I notice also that when a prodigal
comes home there is the Joy of the ministers
Of religion. Oh, it is a grand thing to preach
GnlS SOSpel. 1 knO" UueIe Deto DeSH q eicdO
deal said about the trials and the hardships
of the Christian ministry. | wish somebody
would write good, rouSing book about the
joys of the Christian ministry. Since en-
tered the profession / have seen moro of the
goodness OF God than I will be able to
celebrate in all eternity. know some boas.
about their equilibrium, and they do not rise
into enthusiasm. and they do not break down
with emotion: but confess to you plainly
tn Gnl nd
giving up his sin feel in body, mind and sou
q transport. When see mau who Is bouna
hand and foot in evil habit emancipated,
rejoice over it as though it were my OWL
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 he'll attest their al
legiance to Jesus Christ, l feel JOY some
thing akin to that which the apostle de-
scribes when he says: whether in the body
| ! cannot tell, or out OF the body l cannon
tell: God knoweth."
Oh, have not ministers right to rejoice
| when a prodigal comes home! Ihey pleW
| the trumpet. and ought they not to be GLAD
of the gathering Of the hosta They pointed
to the full supply, and ought they not to re-
| joice when souls pant as the hart Tor tne
water-brooks? They come forth saying: "Al
things are now ready" ought they not &c
rejoice when the prodigal sits down az tne
banQuetl
Life insurance men will all tell you that
ministers of religion as class live longer
| than any other. It 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 e1hausting
| / have see.l ministers kept on miserable sti-
pends by parsimonious congregations who
| wondered at the dullness 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