The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1889-04-11
TALMAGE'S SERMON.
A Jubilee Occasion Characterize
by Words Of Special Import.
The PrOdigaTs Return the Theme Chosen
to illustrate the Welcome Extended
to a Large Number of New
Communicates.

49,
his text being:
Bring hither the fatted calf and kill it.-Luke
Ky. %.
JOY! JOY! Joyl We banquet to-day
over this accession of a multitude of
souls. In all ages of the world it has
been customary to celebrate joyful events
by festivity-the signing Of treaties, the
proclamation of peace, the Christmas, the
marriage. However much on other days
of the year our table may have stinted
supply, on Thanksgiving Day there must
be something bounteous. And all the
comfortable homes Of Christendom have
at some time celebrated joyful events by
banquet and festivity.
Something has happened in the old
homestead greater than any thing that
has ever happened before. A favorite
son whom the world supposed would be-
come vagabond and outlaw forever, 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 re-
turned to his fathers house, the father
proclaims celebration.
1. First of all there is the new converts
Joy. It is no tame thing to become a
Christian. The most tremendous moment
IN a mans life is when he surrenders him
self 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 young man who
next morning rang my door-bell and
said: "Sir, can not contain myself with
the Joy feel; 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 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 es-
cape, or afterward you heard the Judge
had pardoned him, and how great was the
glee of that rescued man; but it is a very
tame thing that, compared with the run
ming for one's everlasting ife-the ter
rors of the law after him, but Christ COM
ing to pardon, and bless, and rescue, and
save. You remember John Bunyan, in
his great story, tells how the Pilgrim put
his fingers in his ears and ran, crying:
Life, life, eternal lifew A poor car
driver in this city some years ago, after
having had struggle to support his fam
lily, suddenly was informed that a large
inheritance was his, and there was joy
amounting to bewilderment; but that is a
small thing compared with the experience
of one who has put in his hands the title
deeds to the joys, the raptures, the SPLEEN
doris of Heaven, and he can truly say:
Its mansions are mine, its temples are
mine, its songs are mine, its God is mine. u
Oh,itis no tame thing to become Chris
tan. 1t is a merry-making. 1t is the
killing of the fatted calf. 1t is jubilee.
You know the Bible never compares it to
funeral, but always compares it to
something bright. It is more apt to be
compared to banquet than any thing
else. 1t is compared in the Bible to the
water, bright flashing water; to the morn
ing-roseate, fire-worked, mountain
TRANSPORTED morning. 1 wish I could to.
day take all the Bible expressions aboni
pardon, and peace, and life, and comfort
and hope, and Heaven, and twist them in.
to one garland, and put it on the brow OF
the humblest child of God in this assem-.
blage, and cry: swear it, wear it now,
wear 1t forever, son Of God, daughter of
the Lord God Almighty" Oh, the joy Of
the new convert? Oh, the gladness of the
Christian service.
Just pass over from those tame joys il
which you are indulging-joys of this
world-into the raptures of the Gospel
The world can not satisfy you, you have
found that out. Alexander longing fol
other worlds to conquer, and yet drowned
In his own bottle; Byron whipped by dis
quietudes around the world; Voltaire
cursing his own soul while all the streets
of Paris were applauding him; Henry II
consuming with hatred against poo
Thomas Becket-all illustrations of thu
fact that this world can not make mai
happy. The very man who poisoned tn
pomrhel Of the saddle on which Queer
Elizabeth rode, shouted in the street
'God save the Queen" One moment tn
world applauds and the next moment tn
world mathematics. Oh, come over int,
this greater JOY, this sublime solace. thi
magnificent beatitude. The night after
the battle of Shiloh, and there were thou
sands of wounded on the field, and tn
ambulances had not come, one Christian
soldier lying there dying under the star
light began to sing:
There is q land of pure delight
and when he came to the next line Their
were scores of voices uniting
Where saints immortal re ign
The song was caught up oil through tn
fields among the wounded, until it wa
said there were at least ten thousan,
wounded men reuniting their voices a
they came to the verse:
There everlasting spring abides,
And never-withering flowers;
Death like narrow stream divides,
That Heavenly land from ours.
Oh, it Is great religion to live by, an
it is q great religion to die by. There i
only one heart throb between you an
that religion this morning. Just look int
the face of your pardoning God, and sur
render yourself for time and eternity, an
He is yours, and Heaven is yours, and al
is yours. Some of you, like the yount
man of the text, have gone far astray.
know not the h istory, but you know il
you know it. When young man wen
forth into life, the legend says, his guard
ian went forth with him, and getting hin
into field the guardian angel sweep
circle clear around where the youn
man stood. It was circle of virtue an,
honor, and he must not step beyond tina
circle. Armed foes came down, but wer
obliged to halt at the circle-they ooul
not pass. But one day temptress, wit
diamonded hand, stretched forth an
crossed that circle with the hand, and tn