The San Saba news. [volume] (San Saba, Tex.) 1873-1966, 1889-04-19

rev. 1. DE VIII damage, ID, at an eS-
pecial communion for the reception of 24o
persons, making the present communicate
membership of the Brooklyn Tabernacle
44OS This was also moving day in that
church. The annual rental of pews had just
occurred and many of the congregation occu-
pied new places The pews brought higher
premiums this year than ever before, and the
income of the church this year will be SSS,
s04 But both plans are observed in the
church. A vast spacs is kept free from all
expense and only part OF the building is
mapped of for rent. DR.. Talmage took his
text from Luke XIV, o.: Bring hither the
fatted calf and kill itH1
Joyl joy Joyl We banquet to-day over
this accession of multitude of souls.
In all ages OF the world it has been Gus
tomary 20 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 TIA
ble may have stinted supply, on Thanksgiv-
ing Day there must be something bounte0us.
and all the comfortable homes Of Christen-
dom have at some time celebrated joyful
events by banquet and festivitY.
Something has happened in the old home
stead greater than anything that has ever
happened before. A fayorite son whom the
and outlaw foreve-s,as cot et1fed Of Sight
seeing and has returned TO his fathers house.
The world said he never would come back
The 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 cele-
bration.
There is a calf in the paddock that has
been kept up and fed to utmost capacity 50
as to be ready for some oeeasion CT joy that
might come along. Ali there never VIII 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
viii 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
table, and says grace, and thanks God that
his long absent boy is home again. Oh!
how they missed him; how glad they are to
nave him back. One brother indeed stands
pouting at the back door and says: "This IS
a great ado about nothing; this bad boy
should have been chastened instead
Of crested; veal is too good
for hiInlr But the father says:
Nothing is too good, nothing is good
enough There sits the young men, glad at
the hearty reception, but a shadow Of sor-
row fitting across his brow at the remeul-
brance Of the trouble he has 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 bold imagery does the
Bible set forth the merry making when
soul comes home to God.
1. First OF all there is the new converts
Joy. It is no tame thing to become Chris
tan. The most tremendous moment in
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 my
door bell and said: ''Sir, cannot contaiIa
myself with the JOY l feel; came here this
morning to express it. l have found more
Joy in five minutes in serving God than in
all the years of my prodigality, and / came
20 say 500
You have seen, perhaps, a man running
for his physical liberty and the officers of the
law after him, and you saw him escape, or
alterward you heard the Judge had pardoned
him. and how great was the glee of that res
cued man; but it is a very tame thing that,
compared with the running for ones ever
asting life-the terrors of the law after him,
put Christ coming in TO pardon and bless and
rescue and save. You remember John Bun
yan in his great story tells how
the Pilgrim put his fingers in
his ears, and ran, crying; Life life, eternal
lifet7 A poor car-driver in this some
years ago. after having had a sEngrle to
support his family. suddenly VI informed
that large inheritance wasGs and there
was Joy amounting TO beP>iiderment; but
that IS snail thing com Jared with the ex-
perience Of one when he has put in his hands
the title deed to the Joys, the raptures, the
splendors Of heaven, and he can truly say:
Its mansions are mine, its temples are
nine its songs are mine. its God is miner
Oh, it IS no tame thing to become Chris
tan. 1t is a merrv-making. It is the kill
ing Of the fatted calf 1t is jubilee You
know the Bible never compares it to a fu-
neral, but always compares it to something
bright 1t is more apt TO be compared to a
banquet than anything else. It is compared
in the Bible to the water-bright, flashing
water; TO the morning fire.
worked mountain-transiigured morn
ing. 1 wish l 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 gar
land and put it on the brow of the humblest
child Of God in this assemblage, and cry:
wear II wear It now, wear 1t forever, son
Of God daughter OF the Lord God Al
mighty.' Oh. the Joy of the new convert
Oh, the gladness of the Christian service!
You have seen sometimes a man in q re-
hgious 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:
Sorrowful, yet always reioicing-poor, yet
making many rich-having nothing, yet pos
posing all things.n If the people in this
house this morning knew the joys of the
Christian religion, they would all pass
over into the kingdom Of God the
next moment. When Daniel Sandman was
dying of cholera his attendant said "Have
you much pain ~ " OH he replied, " since
I found the Lord I have never had any pain
except SIN Then they said to him: Would
you like to send message 70 your friends ~
- Yes, | would tell them that only last
night the love of Jesus came rushing into my
soul like the surges Of the sea, and l had to
cry out Stop, Lord, it is enough stop,
Lord, enough rh Oh, the joys of this Chris
tian religion
Just pass over from those tame joys in
which YOU are indulgIng-loys OF this worl0
into the raptures OF the Gospel The world
cannot satisfy you; you have found that out
Alexander longing for other worlds TO con-
Quer, and yet drowned in his own bottle;
Byron whipped by disquietudes around
the world Voltaire cursing his own
soul while all the streets of Paris were
him; Henry II. consuming
with hatred against poor Thomas a
Beckett-all illustrations of the fact this
world cannot make a man happy. The very
man who poisoned the pommel or the sauuIe
~ WHicn queen rfiztSvsif FOties sststlf a IA
the street: God Save the Queen' One
moment the world applauds and the next
moment the world mathematics Oh.come
over into this greater JOY. this sublime
solace, this magnificent beatitude The night
after the battle of Shiloh. and there were
thousands of wounded on the field, and the
ambulances had not come, one Christian
soldier lying there a-dying under the star
light began 10 sing:
'There Is 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 caught up all through the
fields among the wounded. until &c was said
there we're at least ten Thousand wounded
men reuniting their voices as they came to
the verse:
There everlasting spring abides,
And never-witherng flowers;
Death like narrow stream divides
That heavenly land from onrsr
Oh. It lisa great religion to live by. and it is
a great religion to die by. There is only one
leart-throb between you and that religion
his morning. Just lcok into the face of your
God, and surrender yourself for
lime and for eternity, and He is yours, and
heaven is yours, and all is yours Some of
7ou, like the young man of the text. have gone