The morning news., 1889-02-04


into this greater JOY, this sublime solace,
this magnificent beatltude. The night after
the battle of Shiloh, ami there were thous-
anIs of wounded on the field, and the ambu-
lauceS had not come, one Christian soldier
living there a-dying under tho starlight be-
gan to sing:
There is a land of pure delight
And when he came to the next line there
were scores of voices uniting;
where saints immortal reign
The song was caught up all through the
fields among the wounded, until 1t v as aid
there were at least ten thou and wounded
men reuniting tleir voices as they came to
the verse:
There everlasting spyjng abides,
And never-W itherlng GOwers,
Death like a narrow stream divides
That heavenly land from ours.
Oh, it is a great religion to live by and it
is a great religion TO die by There is only
one beart-throb between you and that re-
lgion TINS morning. Just look into the
face of your pardoning God, and surrender
yourself for time aud for eternity, and he
is yours, and heaven is yours, and
all is yours. Some OF you, like the
Young man of the text, bave gone far
astray | know not the history, but you
know it, you know it. When young man
went forth into life, the legend says, his
GuaIQIau anger went IOFtn Win UlUl. huu
getting him into field the guardian angel
swept circle cleac around where the
youug man stood. IT was circle Of virtue
and honor and he must not step beyond
that circle. Armed foes came down but
were obliged to halt at the circle--they
could not pass. But one dav a tanptreSs
with diamonded hand stretched forth and
crossed that circle with the hand and the
tempted soul took it, and by that one fell
ha nd
died. Some Of you have stepped beyond
that circle. Would you not like this day
by the grace of God to step backs 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 the
ministers of state should gather in angry
contest, and, worried and worn out
by the coming hour, and in momentary
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 clockF' She made no answer, but soon
died. There Is a clock scene in every his
tory. 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 to your fathers
house. Come home, oh, prodigal, from the
WILDERNESS Come home. come homel
But ] nouice that when the prodigal
came there was the fathers JOY He did
not greet him with auy formal How do
YOU dop He did not come out and say:
''You are unfit to enter go out and wash
in the trough by the well, and then you can
come in; we have mad enough trouble with
you.n All no. When the proprietor of
that estate proclaimed festival, it was an
outburst OF fathers love and q fathers
JOY. God is your father. | have not mucn
sympathy with that description of God
sometimes hear, as though he were Turk
ish sultan, hard and unsymUathetic, and
listening not TO the cry of his subjects A
man told ME he saw in one of tue eastern
lands king riding along. and two men
were in alteration, aud oue charged the
other with having eaten his rico; aud the
kiug SAID: Then Slay the man, aud by
post-mortem examination iud whether he
has eaten the rice" And ne was slain.
Ali the cruelty of scene like that. Our
God is not sultan, not czGr, not a d"s-
pot, but father-kind, loving, forgiviUg
and he makes all heaven ring again whom
prodigal comes back. 81 have no pleas
ure," be says, I'm the death Of him that
eth"
II a man does not get TO heaven il is be-
cause he will not go there. No difference
the color, no difference the history, no DIFF
ference the antecedents, no difference the
surroundings no ditre .ence the sin. When
the white horses of Christ s victory are
brought ont To celebrate the eternal triumph.
you may ride one of them, and as God is
greater than all, his Joy is greater, and
when a soul comes back there is in his heart
the surging of an infinite ocean of gladness,
and 10 express that gladness it takes all the
rivers of pleasure, and all the thrones of
pomp, and all the ages of eternity. II is a
JOY deeper than all depth, and b CHER than
all hight, and wider than all width and
vaster than all immensity. 1t overtops, it
nndergirds, it outweighs all the united
splendor and joy of the universe. Who can
tell what Gods joy isl
You remember reading the story of
king, who on some great day Of testivity
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
ont new worlds into space, and kindles up
now suns, and rolls among the white-robed
anLnenlS OF Jpe TeueetneQ u greater nailelu-
jnh, while with a voice that reverber ates
among the mountains OF frankincense and
is echoed back 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, saw a Mexican hutist, and he
PLAYED the solo, aad then afterward the
e,g2t or ten bands of music. accompanied
by the great organ, came in; but the sounu
Of that one flute as compared with all the
orchestra was greater thal all the combined
JOY Of the universe when compared with
the resounding heart Of Almighty God
For ten years a father went three times
a day 10 the depot. His son went off In ag-
gravating circumstances. but the father
said: "He will come back" The strain was
too much, and bi, mind parted, aud three
times day the father went. In the early
morning he watched the train, its arrival,
the stepping out of the PAS ,engers. aad then
the departure of the train. At noon he was
there again watching the advance Of tue
train, watching tue departure. At 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, tweoty years, thirty years, forty
years, perhaps fifty years-wsiting wait
ing, watching. watching; and If this morn
ing the prodig9l should come home, what
a scene Of gladuess and festivity, and how
the great Fathers heart would rejoice at
your coming home You will come, some
Of you, will you u You Will, you will.