Fort Worth daily gazette. (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1890-06-16

| other side of the light. They can see a.
distance a great deal easier than they
can close by. 1 do no know whether
| this father could see well that which wa:
near by, but do know he could see 6
| great way off. Ellis father saw him. -
Perhaps he had been looking for the re-
turn of that boy especially that day.
do not know but that he had been in
| prayer, and that God had told him that
that day the recreaut boy would come
! home. "The father saw him a great
way off. -
/ wonder if God IS eyesight can descry
US when we are coming back to Him?
4 The text pictures our condition-we are
a great way off. That young man was
not farther of from his fathers house
sin is not farther off from holiness, hell
is not farther off from beayen, than we
have been by our sins away from our
God; aye, so far off that we could not
bear his voice, though vehemently He
has called US year after year. l do not
know what bad habits you may have
formed, or in what evil places you have
been, or what false notions you may have
entertained; but you are ready to &C
knowledge, if your heart has been
changed by the grace of God, that you
cannot get back to yourselves. You
would like to come back. Aye, this mo-
ment you would start, if it were not for
this sin, and that habit, and this disad-
vantage. But am to tell you of the
Fathers eyesight.
''HE SAW HIM GREAT WAY OFF. -
He has seen all your frailties, all your
struggles, all your disadvantages. He
has been longing for your coming. He
has not been looking at you with a crit
les eye or a bsiliff IS eye, but with q
Fathers eye; and if parent ever pitied
a child, God pities you. You say:
"Oh, had so many evil surroundings
when l started life. - Your Father sees
it. You say. 81 have so many bad
surroundings now, and it is very difficult
for me to break away from evil associa-
TONS Your Father sees it, and If you
start heavenward-as pray you may
your Father would not sit idly down and
allow you to struggle on up toward Him.
oh, no! Seeing you great way off, He
would fly to the rescue. How long does
it take father to leap into the middle
of the highway If his child be there, and
q swift vehicle is coming, aud may de-
stroy him? Five hundred times longer
than it takes our heavenly Father to
spring to the deliverance of a lost child.
"When he was a great way off his
Father saw him.
And this brings me to notice the IA
theirs haste. The Bible says he ran.
No wonderi He did not know but that
the young man would change his mind
and go back. He did not know but that
he would drop down from exhaustion
He did not know but that something IA
tai might overtake him before he got up
to the doorsill, and so the father ran.
The Bible, for the most part, speaks of
God as walking. Gin the fourth watch
of the night it says, "Jesus came
unto them, walking on the sea. - "He
walketh upon the wings of the wind. -
Our first parents heard the voice of the
Lord, walking in the garden in the cool
of the day, but when GIN
ner starts for God, the Faith
er runs to meet him. Oil if man ever
wants help, it ls when he tries to become
a Christian. The world says to him:
"Back with you. Have more spirit.
Don It be hampered with religion. Time
enough yet. Wait until you get sick.
Wait until you are old. - Satan says:
"Baok with you; you are so bad that
God will have nothing to do with you;"
or, "You are good enough, and need
no Redeemer. Take thine ease, eat,
drink, and be merry. "a
TEN THOUSAND VOICES SAY:
"Back with you. God is hard master.
The church is collection of hypocrites.
Back into your sins; back to your evil
indulgenoles; back to your praYerless
pillow. The silliest that a young man
ever does is to come after he has been
wandering. - Oh, how much help
man does want when he tries to become
a Chrisuanl Indeed, the prodigal can
not find his way to his fathers house
alone. Unless some one comes to meet
him he had better have stayed by
the swine troughs.
When the tide comes in you might
more easily with your broom sweep ba1lEF
the surges than you could drive backsfhe
surges OF your unforgiven transgressions.
What are we to do? Are we to fight the l
battle alone, and trudge on with no oas
to aid US, and no rock TO shelter US, .szi1
no word of encouragement to cheshs?
Glory be to God, we have in the text the
announcement: "When he was yet
great way off, his father ran When
the sinner starts for God, God starts for
the sinner. God does not come out with
R slow and hesitating pace. The infinite
spaces slip beneath His feet, and He
takes worlds at bound. "'The father
ran. Oh, wonderful meeting, when
God and the soul come together. "'Xhe |
father RAM You start for God and |
God starts for you and you meet, and |
while the angels rejoice over the meet |
ng, your long-injured Father falls upon |
Eour neck with attestations of compass
zion and pardon. Your poor, wander
ing, sinful, polluted soul and the loving, |
he eternal Father have met. i
l remark upon the fathers kiss. s'He |
ELL on his neck" my text says, "and
Kissed him. It is not every father that
would have done that way. Some
would have scolded him, and said;
Here, you went off with beautiful
clothes, but now you are all in tatters.
You went off healthy, and come back
lick and wasted with your designations. I"
lie did not say that. The son, all hag-
ssrd, and ragged, and filthy, and
Fretched stood before his father. The
ather charged him with none of his
Eanderings. He just received him. He
ust kissed him. His wretohedness was
recommendation 20 that fathers love.
OH, THAT FATHERS KISS.
low shall 1 describe the love of God?
he ardor with which He receives a sinner
ack again? Give me a plummet with X
which may fathom this sea. Give me
ladder with which i can scale this