The national leader., 1889-02-16
DIR. TALMAGE'S SERMON:
JOY. JOY: Joy

souls. In all dStS VI Cno WIN
been customary to celebrate loyful
events by festivity-the signing OF trea-
ties, 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 he some
thing bounteous. And all the comfort
able homes Of Christendom have at
some time celebrated joyful events by
banquet and festivlty.
Something has happened in the old
homestead greater than anything that
has ever happened before.
AFAvoRITE son,
whom the world supposed would be-
come vagabone and outlaw forever,
has got tired of sightseeing and has re-
turned 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, hay
ing returned to his fathers house, the
father proclalms celebration.
There is a calf in the paddock that
has been kept up and fed to utmost
capacity, SO as to be ready for some oc-
caslon Of Joy that might come along.
Ahl there never will be grander day
on the old homestead than this day.
Let the butchers do their work, and
the houss keepers bring in to the smok-
ing 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
the table, and says grace, and thanks
God that his long-absent boy is home
again. Oh how they missed him!
now GLAD THEY ARE
to have him back! One brother. in
deed, stands pouting at the back door
ana says: This is a great ado about
nothing; this bad boy should have been
chastened instead Of greeted; veal is
too good for him!" But the father
says: Nothing is too good, nothing
is good enough" There sits the young
man, glad at tile hearty reception, but
a shadow Of sorrow fitting across his
brow at the remembrance of the trou-
BILE he had seen. All ready now. Let
the covers lift. Music. He was dead,
and he is alive agalnl 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.
i. First Of all, there is
THE NEW CONVERTS JOY.
1t is no tame thing to become Chris
tian. The most tremendous moment
in a 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 pallors OF this church pro-
fessed Christ one night, was a yoang
man, who next morning rang my door
bell and said: ''Sir, l cannot contain
myself with tile joy feel; l came here
this morning to express it. | have
found more JOY in five minutes in serv-
ing God than i'll all the years of my
prodigality, and came to say So"
You have seen, perhaps, a man rum
ming 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 rescued man;
but 1T Is very tame thing that, COM
pared with the running for ones ever
lasting lite-the terrors of the law after
him, but Christ coming i'll to pardon and
bless and rescue and save. You re-
member John Bunyan in his great story
tells how the pilgrim put his fingers III
his ears. and ran, crying, Life, life !
eternal llte." A poor car-driver in this
city some years ago, after having had a
struggle 10 support his family, sudden
ly was informed that
LARGE INHERITANCE
was his, and there was joy amounting
to beWilderment; but that is a small
thing compared with the experience 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, It's tenn
pies are mine, its songs are mine, its
God is mineI' Oh, it is no tame thing
to become Christian. 1t is merry
making. 1t is the killing Of the fatted
calf. 1t is jubilee. You know the
Bible never compares 1t to u funeral,
but always compares it to something
bright. 1t is more apt to be compared
to banquet ,lan anything else. 1t is
compared in the Bible to the water,
bright, flashing, water; to the morning,
roseate, tire-worked, mountain-trans-
figured morning. l wish | 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 garland, and put it on the
brow of the humblest child Of God in
this assemblage, and cry: "Wear it,
wear it now. wear it forever, son of
God, daughter of the Lord God AL
mighty!" Oh, the JOY of the new con-
vertl Oh, the gladness of the Chris
tian servicel
You have seen, sometimes, man in
a religious assembly get up and give his
experience. Well,
PAUL GAVE HIS EXPERIENCE.
He arose in the presence Of the two
Churches, the Church on earth and the
Church i'll Heaven, and he said: 'Now
this is my experience: 'sorrowful, yet
always rejoicing-poor, yet making
MANY rich--having nothing, yet posses