Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1890-06-16

y
bad habits you may have formed, or
in what evil places you have been, or
what false notions you may have en-
tertained; but you are ready to ac-
knowledge, if your heart has not
changed by the grace of God, that you
are Il great way off-aye, SO far that
you cannot get back of yourselves.
You would like to come back. Ave,
Ibis moment you would start if it were
not for this sin, and that habit. and
his disadvantage
But [ am to tell you of the fathers
ayesight. HE saw him a 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
critics eye or a bailiff's eye, but with a
fathers eye; and if a parent ever pitied
child God pities you. You say: "Oh,
had so many evil surroundings when
[ started life" Your father sees it.
You say: II have so many bad sur
-oundings now, and it is very difficult
for me to break away from evil associa-
ations" 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, no! Seeing you a 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 swift vehicle is coming and
may destroy him? Five hundred times
longer than it takes our heavenly ia
ther 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
fathers 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 ex
haustiOn. He did not know but that
something fatal might overtake him be-
fore he got up to the doorsill; and sc
the father ran. The Bible for the
most part speaks of God as walking.
GIN the fourth watch of the night" ii
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 a sinner starts for God the Father
runs to meet him.
Oh! if a man ever wants help it is
when he tries to become a 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 nc
Redeemer. Take thine ease, eat,
drink and be merry" Ten thousand
voices say: "Back with you God is
hard master. The church is a collec-
ton of hypocrites Back into yom
sins; back to your evil indulgences;
back to your prayerless pillow. The
silliest thing that a young man ever
does is to come home after he has been
wandering" Oh, how much help a
man does want when he tries to be.
come a Christianl Indeed, tie prodi.
gal cannot find his way home 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
back the surges than you could drive
back the ocean of your unforgiver
transgressions. What are we to do
Are we to fight the battle alone, and
trudge on with no one to aid us, and
no rock to shelter US, and no word OF
encouragement to cheer us? Glory be
to God, we have in the text the an
nouncement: 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 a slow and hesitating pace. The
infinite spaces slip beneath his feet, and
ne takes worlds at a bound. 1.-THE
father ran" Oh, wonderful meeting,
when God and the soul come together.
The father ran" You start for God and
Sod starts for you, and you meet; and,
while the angels rejoice over the meet
ng, your long injured father falls upon
your neck with attestations Of com
passion and pardon. Your poo9, wan
1ering, sinful, polluted soul and the
owing, the eternal father have met.
I remark upon the fathers kiss. HE
fell on his neck" my text says, land
kissed him" 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 tat
5ers. You went off healthy, and come
back sick and wasted with your dissi-
pations" 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 re-
ceived him. He just kissed him. His
was a recommendation to
that fathers love. Oh, that fathers
6issl How shall describe the love of
ardor with which he receives
met with which may fathom this sea.
Give me a ladder with which I can
scale this height Give me words with
which I can describe this love. The
apostle says in one place, "unsearcha-
ble;" in another past finding out"
Height overlapping all height; depth
2Iunging beneath all depth; breadth
all immensely.
Oh, this love! God SO loved the
world. He loves you. Don't you be-
Iieve it? Has he not done everything
to make you think SO? He has given
you life, health, friends, home-the
use of your hand, the sight ofyour eye,
the hearing of your ear. He has strewn
your path with mercies. He has fed you,
clothed you, sheltered you, defended
you, loved you, importuned you all your
life long Don't you believe he loves |
you? Why, if now you should start up
from the wilderness of your sin he
would throw both arms around you.
To make you believe that he loves you
he stopped to manger and cross and
sepulchre With all the passions of |
bis holy nature reused he stands before
you today, and would coax you to hap |
piness and heaven. Oh this fathers |
kiss! There is SO much meaning and !