Herald and news. [volume] (West Randolph, Vt.) 1878-1943, 1890-06-19
.sThe father saw him a great way

wonder N too > eyeSlRub CHI ucsCfg uS
when we are coming back TO hims The
text pictures our condition-we are great
way of. That young man was not farther
off from his fathers house. sin is not farther
off from holiness, hell is not farther OH
from heaven, than we have been by our sins
away of from our God; aye, so far off that
we could not hear his voice, though vehe-
mently he has called ms year after year.
do not know what bad habits Tou may
have formed or in what evil PLACES you
have been, or what false notions you may
have entertained; but you are ready TO ac-
knowledge if your heart has not been
CHANGED by the grace of God, that you are
a great way of-aye, 50 far that you can
not get back Of yourselves. You would
like to come back Aye, this moment you
would start, if it were not for this sin, and
that habit, and this disadvantage.
But am to tell you of the Fathers eye
sight. "He saw him a great way of. lie
has seen all your frailties all your strug-
giles. all your disadvantages. He has been
longing for your coming. He has not been
looking at you with critics eye or ball
IFS eye, but with a fathers eye; and if
parent ever pitied a child, God pities you.
You say. "Oh, | had 50 many evil sur
roundings when ! started life" Your
Father sees it. You say: 81 have so many
bad surroundings now, and it Is very DUN
cult for me 20 break away from evil asso-
ciatiousn Your Father sees it, and If you
should start heavenward-as / pray you
may-your Father would not sit idly down
and allow you to struggle ON up toward
him Oh mol Seeing You "A great way of
he would fly TO the rescue. How long does
it take a father TO leap into the middle OF
the highway if his child be there and
swift vehicle IS coming and may destroy
himy Five hundred times longer than it
takes our heavenly Father TO spring to the
deliyerance of lost child. "When he was
a great way of his father saw him."
HE FASTENED TO GREET HIN.
And this brings me TO notice the fathers
haste. The Bible says he ran. No wonder!
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 fatal might overtake him
before he got up 20 the doorsill; and so the
father ran. The Bible, for the most part,
speaks of God AS walking. In the fourth
watch OF the night it says, Jesus came
unto them walking on the sea. He
walketh upon the wings of the wind P"
Our first parents heard the voice OF the
Lord, walking In the garden in the cool of
the day; but when sinner starts out for
God the father runs to meet him. OH If
man ever wants help it is when he tries
TO become Christian. The world says to
him: Back with you. Have more spirit.
Don't be hampered with religion. Time
enough yet. Wait until you get sick. Wait
until YOU get old Satan says: Back
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 he merry"
Ten thousand voices say: Back with you.
God is "A hard master. The church is "A col
lection OF hypocrites Back into your sins;
back to your evil indulgences; back to your
prayerless pillow The silliest thing that
a Young man ever does is TO come home af-
ter he has been wandering" Oh, how
much help a man does want when he tries
TO become Christianl Indeed, the prodi-
/ gal cannot find his way home TO his ia
theirs 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 back the
surges than you could drive back the ocean
Of your unforgiven transgressions What
are we to dos Are we 10 fight the battle
alone. and trudge on with no one TO aid us,
and no rock to shelter u.s. and no word Of
announcement to cheer usy Glory be to
God, we have in the text the announcement:
when he was yet great way Off his IA
Their ran. When the sinner starts for God,
| God starts for the sinner God does not
come out with slow and hesitating pace.
| The infinite spaces slip beneath his feet and
| he takes worlds at a bound. THE father
ran" Oh, wonderful meeting, when God
and the soul come together. THE father
ran" You start for God and God starts
| for YOU, and you meet; and while the
angels rejoice over the meeting your long
injured father falls upon your neck with
attestatons of compassion and pardon.
Your poor, wandering, sinful, polluted
soul. and the loving, the eternal Father,
have met.
THE FATHERS KISS.
| remark upon the fathers kiss. He
| fell on his neck, my text says, "and
kissed hiri" 1t 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
| heeIthy, and come back sick and wasted
with your designations" He did not say
that. The son, all haggard and ragged
and filthy and wretched, stood before his
father. The father charged him with none
of his wanderings He just received him.
He Just kissed him. His wretchedness was
a recommendation to that fathers love.
| ~, .l,ot fathar's kisSf How shall | de-
scribe the love of God.-the ardor with
which he receives sinner back again.
Give me a plummet with which | may
fathom this sea. Give me "A ladder with
which | can scale this height. Give me