Connecticut western news., 1890-06-18
THE KISS OF WELCOME.
DR. TALMAGE COMMENTS ON THE
 TROPICAL SON PARABLE.

A Wonderful serpon Drawn from the
 We'll Known Text-God Greets Sinners
 as JoyousIy as Did the Father His Err
 ing Child.
 BROOKLYN, June 15.-Dr. Talmage's sermon for today is on the Prodigal Son, and his text, Luke xv, 20: "When he was yet a great way off, his father saw him, and had compassion, and ran, and fell on his neck, and kissed him." Following is the sermon:
 One of the deepest wells that inspira- ton ever opened is this well of @ para ble which we can never exhaust. The parable, I suppose, was founded on facts. 1 have described to you the going away of this prodigal son from his fathers house. and I have showed you what hard time he had down in the wilderness, and what very great mistake it was for him to leave so beautiful home for such a miserable desert. But he did not always stay in the wilderness; he came back after while. We do not read that his moth CT came to greet him. I suppose she was dead. She would have been the first to come out. The father would have given the second kiss to the re- turning prodigal; the mother the first. It may have been for the lack of her example and prayers that he became a prodigal. Sometimes the father does not know how to manage the children of the household. The chief work comes upon the mother. Indeed, no one ever gets over the calamity of los ing mother in early life. Still this young man was not ungreeted when he came back.
 However we'll appareled we may be in the morning when we start out on a journey, before night, what with the dust and the jostling, we have lost all cleanliness of appearance. But this prodigal, when he started from the swine trough, was ragged and wretched, and his appearance, after he had gone through days of journeying and expos ure, you can more easily imagine than describe. As the people see this prodi- gal coming on homeward they wonder who he is. They say: 1T wonder what prison he has broken out of I wonder what lazaretto he has escaped from. I wonder with what plague he will smite the air." Although these people may have been well acquainted with the family, yet they do not imagine that this is the very young man who went off only little while ago with quick step, and ruddy cheek, and beautiful apparel. The young man, I think, walks very fast. He looks as though be were intent upon something very important. The people stop They look at him. They wonder where he came from They wonder where he is going to.
 You have heard of a son who went off to sea and never returned. All the people in the neighborhood thought the son would never return, but the par ents came to no such conclusion. They would go by the hour, and day, and sit upon the beach, looking off up on the water, expecting to see the sail that would bring home the long absent boy. And so I think this father of my text sat under the vine looking out to- ward the road on which his son had de- parted; but the father has changed very much since we saw him last. His hair has become white, his cheeks are furrowed, his heart is broken. What is all his Dountiful table to him when his son may be lacking breada What is oil fhn Of %Io o{ that homestead when the son may not have decent coat2 What are all the sheep on that hillside to that father when his pet lamb is gone7 Still he sits and watches, looking out on the road, and one day he beholds foot traveller. He sees him rise above the hill; first the head and after awhile the entire body; and as soon as he gets fai1 glance of him he knows it Is his recre- ant son. He forgets the crutch, and the cane, and the stiffness of the joints, and bounds away. I think the people all around were amazed. They said '1t is only footpad. It is only some old tramp of the road. Don't go out to meet him." The father knew better.
 The change in the sons appearance could not hide the marks by which the father knew the boy. You know thai persons of a great deal of independence of character are apt to indicate it in their walk. For that reason the sailor | almost always has peculiar step, moi only because he stands much on ship board amid the rocking of the sea, an6 he has to balance himself, but he Ina: | for the most part an independent char acter, which would show in his gai even if he never went on the sea; an6 we know from what transpired after ward and from what transpired before that this prodigal son was of an inde pendent and frank nature, and sup pose that the characteristics of his minG and heart were the characteristics O. his walk. And SO the father knew him He puts out his withered arms toward him; he brings his wrinkled face against the pale cheek of his son; h. kisses the wan lips; he thanks God tha the long agony is over. ''When he wa! yet great way off, his father saw him and had compassion, and ran, and fel on his neck and kissed him."
 Oh, do you not recognize that Fla ther2 Who was it2 It is God! I hay, no sympathy with that cast iron theol ogy which represents God as hard severe and vindictive. God is Fathe kind, loving, lenient, gentle, lonl suffering, patient, and he flies to ou immortal rescue. Oh, that we nigh
 realize it.. A wealthy lady in one of tn
 eastern countries was going off for som time, and she asked her daughters fo
 some memento to carry with her. On'