The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1890-06-27

ing for the return of that boy especial.
that day. l do not know but that b.
had been in prayer, and that God ha'
told him that that day the recreant DO.
would come home. 1.-THE father saw
him great way of.
wonder If Gods eyesight can descr,
US when we are coming back to Him
The text pictures our condition-we arr
a great way of. The young man wa
not farther off from his fathers house
sin is not farther off from holiness, he'll
| is not farther of from Heaven than We
have been by our sins away off from oul
God; aye, so far off that we could not
hear His voice though vehemently Hs
has called us year after year. / do mo-
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 te
acknowledge, If your heart has not beer
changed by the grace of God, that you
are great way off-aye, SO far of 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 eyesight. she saw him a
great way off," He has seen all your
frailties, all your struggles, all your dis
advantages. He has been longing for
your coming. He has not been looking
at you with critics eye or bailiff's
eye, but with Fathers eye; and if a
parent ever pitied child, God pities
you. You say: 80, had so many evil
surroundings when | started life.''
Your Father sees it. You say: shave
so many bad surroundings now, and it
is very difficult for me to break away
from evil associations" Your Father
sees it, and If you should start heaven
ward-as pray you may-your Father
would not sit idly down and allow you
to struggle on up to Him. o, MOI See-
ing you great way off 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 a
swift vehicle is coming, and may de-
stroy him2 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
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
hc
He did not know but that something
fatal 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. SIN 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 sinner starts for God
the father runs to meet him. OH if a
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 tYou are good enough, and
need no Redeemer. Take thine ease,
eat, drink and be merry" 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 indulgences; back to
your prayerless pillow The silliest
thing that young man ever does is to
come home after he has been wander
ing"
o, how much help a man does want
when he tries to become a Christian.
Indeed, the prodigal can not 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 unforgiven
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 en-
to cheer us2 Glory be to
God, we have in the text the announce
ment: "When he was yet a great way
of his father 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 bound. 1.-THE father ran"
D, 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
Iong-injured Father falls upon your
neck with attestations of compassion
and pardon. Your poor. wandering,
sinful, polluted soul and the loving, the
eternal Father have met.
1 remark upon the fathers kiss. HE
fell on his neck" my text says, ''and
kissed him." 1t is not every father
hat would have done that way. Some
would have scolded him and said :
Here, you went off with beautiful
but now you are all in tatters
You went off healthy and come back
'ick and wasted with your designations.
he did not say that The son, all bag
yard, and ragged, and filthy, and wretch
ID, stood before his father. The father
,harged him with none of his wander
ngs. He just received him. He just
Kissed him. His wretchedness was a
recommendation to that fathers love.
}, that fathers kiss! How shall 1 de-
cribe the love of God?-the ardor with |
which He receives sinner back again?
live me plummet with which I may
athom the sea. Give me ladder with |
which / NAV scala this height Gira