The Brookhaven leader., 1889-02-14
TALMAGE'S SERMON.
A Jubilee Occasion Characterised
by Words of Special Import.
The rrodiEars Return the Theme Chosen
to illustrate the Welcome Extended
TO Large Number OF New
COMMANDMENTS.


and forty new communicates, chose for
his subject the Return of the Prodigal, I"
his text being:
Bring hither the fatted calf and kill it-Luke
Nv. %.
Joyl Joyl JOY, 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 eTer happened before. A favorite
son whom the world supposed would be-
come a 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.
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. Ali there never
will be a grander day on the old home
stead 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
81,
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;
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 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 the hearty reception, but shadow
OF sorrow fitting across his brow at the
remembrance of the trouble he had 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 mer-
ry-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 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, l 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
Che years Of my prodigality, and 1 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 ones everlasting life-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 lifen 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
me who has put in his hands the title
OF - No joys, the raptures, the splen-
oeeds 10 Va and he can truly say:
doris Oh heaven, n. its temples are
"Its mansions are Tnin~, ~od is nina -
mine, its songs are mine, its~, Cbri..
Oh, 1t is no tame thing to become a..
tan. 1t is a merry making. 1t Is tho ,
killing of the fatted calf. 1t is jubilee.
You know the Bible never compares it to
funeral, but always compares it to
something bright. 1t 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 mG1H-
ing-roseate, fire-wsrked, mountain
TRANSPORTED morning. l wish could to-
day take all the Bible expressions abont
pardon, and peace, and life, and comfort,
and hope, and Heaven, and twist them in
30 one garland, and put it on the brow of
the humblest child of God in this assem-
blage, and cry: "Wear 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.
You have seen sometimes man IN q
religious assembly get up and give his ex-
perience. 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; Snow, this is my
experience; Sorrowful,yet always rejoice
ing; poor, yet making many rich-hav1ng
nothing, yet possessing all things" II
the people in this house this morning
knew the joys of the Christian religion
they would all pass over into the King
dom of God the next moment. When
Daniel Sandman was dying of cholera
his attendant sand: "Have you much
painW "Oh," he replied, ''since found
the Lord have never had any pain ex-
cept SIM" Then they said to him: "Would
you like to send message to your
friends?" ayes, 1 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,
1t is enough; stop, Lord, enough'" Oh,
the Joys of this Christian religion!
Just pass over from those tame joys in
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 for
other worlds to conquer, and yet drowned
In his own bottle; Byron whipped by dis
auietudes around the world; Voltaire
cursing his own soul while all the streets