Essex County herald. [volume] (Guildhall, Vt.) 1873-1964, 1889-02-22


pecial communion for the reception Of 24C
persons, making the present communicate
membership of the Brooklyn Tabernacle
44OS. THIS was also moving day in thai
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 S33,
! S04. But both plans are observed in the
church. A vast space is kept free from all
expense and only a part of the building il
mapped off for rent. DIR. Talmage took hi,
text from Luke XIV, 2I bring hither the
fatted calf and kill it"l
Joyl JOY! Joyl We banquet to-day ovel
this accession of a multitude of souls.
In all ages of the world it has been GUS
tomary 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 ia.
BILE may have stinted supply, on Thanksgiv-
ing Day there must be something bounteous.
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 favorte 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.
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 so
as to be ready for some occasion of Joy that
might come along. All there never will be
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
his long absent boy is home again. OH
how they missed him; how glad they are to
have 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
for limp But the father says:
enough" There sits the young man, glad at
the hearty reception, but a shadow of sor-
row fitting across his brow at the remem-
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 a
soul comes home to God
l. First of all there is the new converts
JOY. 1t is no tame thing to become Chris
tian. 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 contain
myself with the JOY I feel l came here this
morning to express it. have found more
Joy in five minutes in serving God than in
all the years of my prodigality, and l came
to say So"
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
afterward you heard the judge had pardoned
him, and how great was the glee of that res
cued man; but it is very tame thing that,
compared with the running for ones ever.
lasting life-the terrors of the law after him,
but Christ coming in to pardon and bless and
rescue and save You remember John Bun
van in his great story tells how
the Pilgrim put his fingers in
his ears, and ran, crying: LIE, life, eternal
life" A poor car-dr yer in this city some
years ago after having had struggle to
support his family, suddenly was Informed
that large inheritance was his, and there
was Joy amounting to bewildarment; but
that is small thing compared with the ex
perience of one when he has put in his hands
the tit deed to the joys, the raptures, the
splendors of heaven, and he can truly say:
"Its mansions are mine its temples are
mine, its songs are mine, its God is miner
Oh it is no tame thing to become Chris
tian. 1t is merry making 1t is the kill
ing of the fatted calf. 1t is jubilee. You
know the Bible never compares it to fu-
neral, but always compares it to something
bright 1t is more apt to be compared to a
in the Bible to the water-bright, flashing
water; to the morning-roseate, fire.
worked, mountain transfgured morn
ing. l 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 crv:
wear 1t, wear 1t 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 re-
ligious 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 rejoicing-poor, yet
making many rich-having nothing, yet pos
posing all things" 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 mu h pain Z" ooh" he replied, since
found the Lord I have never had any pain
except sin" Then they said to him: Would
you like to send message to your friends 4"
YES, | would tell them that only last
night the love of Jesus came rushing into my
soul like the surges OF the sea, and had to
cry out : Stop Lord, it is enough stop,
Lord, enough ?" Oh, the joys of this Chris
tian religion
just pass over from those tame joys in
which you are induging-ioys of this world
into the raptures of the Gospel The world
cannot satisfy you; you have found that out
Alexander longing for other worlds to con-
1uer, and yet drowned in his own bottle;
Byron whipped by disquietudes around
the world Votaire cursing his own
soul while all the streets Of Paris were
applauding him; Henry II. consuming
with hatred against poor Thomas a
Beckett-all illustrations of the fact this
world cannot make man happy The very
man who poisoned the pommel of the saodA
on which Queen Elizabeth rode, shouted IN
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 adying under the star
light began to sing:
"There is land of pure delight"
And when he came to the next line there
were scores of voices uniting: