Daily tobacco leaf-chronicle. (Clarksville, Tenn.) 1890-1895, 1890-06-16

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has seen all your frailties, all your strug-
giles, al your disadvapti ges. He has been
| longing for your cc1ning. He has not been
lco1,n0 at you with a CT itlc's eye or bail
| ifriI eye, but with fathers eye; and If a
pasent ever pitied child, God pities you.
I Zou say: "Oh, had 70 many evil sur
f3,mdings when / started life" Your
Father sees it. You say: 81 have so many
bad surroundings now, and it is very diff
cult for me to break away from evil asso-
CATIONS" Your Father sees it, and If you
should start heavenwa rd-as l pray you
may--your Father would not sit idly down
ard allow you to struggle on up toward
hin. Oh, moi Seeing you great way off
he would fly to the rescu How long does
1t take father to leap INTO the middle of
| the highway If his Child be there and a
swift vehicle is coming and may destroy
hims Five hundred times longer than it
takes our heavenly Fat her to spring to the
deliverance of lost child "When he was
q great way off his father saw him"
HE FASTENED I'd GREET 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 mini and go back. He
/ QIQ not KNOW Dlb budb lc
from exhaustion. He did not know but
that something fatal might overtake him
before he got up to thr doorsill and so the
father ran. The Biblo, 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"
| Our first parents heard the voice of the
1 Y IL, H.. 4,,N l,s, Hav. If
| the day; but when sinner starts out for
| God the father runs o meet him. Obi if
| a man ever wants hep it is when he tries
| to become a Christian. The world says to
him: Back with yolL Have more spirit.
Don't be hampered With religion. Time
enough yet. Wait un Ill you get sick, Wait
until you get old" Satan says. "Back
with you; you are s., 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"
| Ten thousand voices say; "Hack with you.
God IL . hard mastel The church is col
lection Of hypocrites, Back into your sins;
back to your evil ind llgences; back to your
prayerless pillow. The silliest thing that
young man ever does Is to come home af-
ter he has been wandering" Oh, how
to become Cbristianl 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 cones in you might more
easily with your broom sweep back the
| surges than you eou Id drive baOk the ocean
of your unforgivGg transgressious, What
| tnH ng Arc sva IN frht ha hot 10
alone, and trudge oil with no one to aid us,
and no rock to shell ter us, and no word of
encouragement to cheer us? Glory be to
God, we have in the ext the announcement:
"When hS was yet great way off his ia
ther ran. When th sinner starts for God,
God starts for the sinner. God does not
come out with slow and hesitating pace.
The infinite spaces Zip beneath his feet and
he takes worlds at bound. "The father
ran" Oh. wonderful meeting when God
and the soul come together. "The father
ran" You staff !or God and God starts
for you, AID you meet; and while the
angels rejoice over the meeting your long
injured father lall upon your neck with
attestations IF conlp9ssion and pardon
Your pool, wand ering, sinful, polluted
sonl, and ths loving, the eternal Father,
have met.
fiIE FATHERS KISS.
remars upon the fathers kiss, "He
fell on Ia neck" my text says, nand
kissed MIN" 1t Is not every father that
would hive done that way. Some would
have seeded him, and said: "Here, you
went off with beautiful clothes, but now
you are all in atters. You went off
healthy and come back sick and wasted
with your dissipa tons" He did not say
that. The son, all haggard and ragged
anG hi,hJ and Wretched, stood before his
father The father charged him with none
Cf his wsnderings He just received him.
He jugt Used hirL His wretchedness was
recommendation to that fathers love.
Oh, that fathers kissl How shall l de-
scribe the love If GodY-the ardor with
which he receives a sinner back again.
Give me plum met with which ] may
sathom this sea- Give me ladder with
which can scale this height Give me
words with which can describe this love-
The apostles say in one place, "unsearch-
able" In another, past finding out"
Height oyertop ping all height; depth
piunging beneath all depth, breadth COM
passing all immensely
Oh, this lovel God so loved the world
he loves you. Don't You believe it9 Has
he not done ever ything TO make you think
so? lie has given you life, health, friends
bOme--the use o. your hand, the sight of
your egg, the herring of your ear. He has
stFewn your path with mercies He has
fed you, clothel you, sheltered you, de-
Tended you, loved you, importuned you oil
your life long. Don't you believe he loves
SOu' Why, IL 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
10 Manager and cross ans sepulchre. With
all the passions Of bis holy nature reused
he stands before you today, and would coax
you 20 happiness and heaven. Oh, this ia
theirs kissl Fhnre is 50 much meaning and
love and compassion in it, so much par
don In ii; so much heaven ia IL, | pro
claim him the Lord God, merCiful, Rra-
cious and Ions suffering, abundant in
goodness and truth. Lest you would not
believe him h. goes up Golgotha, and
while the rocks are rending, and the graves
ase opening, ard the MODS are bowling,
and the sun is liding, he dies for you. See
hlmi See him on the Mount of Cruciflxion,
the sweat on bis brow tinged with the
blood exudipg from his laGerated templesl
Sae his eyes swimming In DEATH Hear
the loud breathing of the sufferer as be
pants with o world on his heaFt Hark to
the fall Of tbs blood from brow and hand
and foot ON the rocks beneath-drppl
dropl dropl Look at the nails How wide
/ the wounds rel Wider do they cape as
bic body com IS down upon them. OH
TIM cuchxioI agony! Tears melting into
| team Blood flowing into blood, Dark
ness droppinl on darkness. Hands OF
men Nned v ith hands Of devils to tear
| apart t.N qnlyering heart Of the Son Of