The Kinsley graphic. [volume] (Kinsley, Kan.) 1890-1940, 1890-06-20

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 to |
acknowledge, il your heart has not been
changed by the grace of God, that you |
are great way of-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- HE 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 bailih's
eye, but with Fathers eye; and II
parent ever pitied child, God pities
you. You say: 30, had so many evil
surroundings when I started life"
Your Father sees it. You say: '1have
so many bad surroundings now, and 1t
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. no! See
ing you great way of he would ny 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 de-
stroy him? Five hundred times longer
than it takes our Heavenly Father to
spr ng to the deliverance of a lost child
''When he was great way on his
Father saw him"
| 10.
fathers haste. The Bible says he ran.
No wonderl 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.
lie 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. ''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 Lord,
walking in the garden in the cool of the
day; but when a sinner starts for God
the father runs to meet him. Obi il 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 no Redeemer. Take thine ease
eat, drink and be merry Ten thousand
voices say: Back with you. God is q
} hard master. The church is collection
} of hypocrites- Back into your sins
back to your evil indulgences; back tC
your prayerless pillow. The sillies
= thing that young man ever does is t.
, come home after he has been wander
5 ing"
7 o, how much help a man does want
t when he tries to become a Christian
3 Indeed, the prodigal can not find hi:
t way home to his fathers house alone
=. Unless some one comes to meet him he
t had better have stayed by the swine
1 troughs.
:; When the tide comes in you NIGH
h more easily with your broom SWEEP
; back the surges than you could drive
J, back the ocean of your unforgiveI
s transgressions. What are we to dol
n Are we to fight the battle alone and
Q trudge on with no one to aid us and ne
: rock to shelter us and no word of en-
= enlargement to cheer us? Glory be t.
n God, we have in the text the announce
t ment: when he was yet a great way
y off his father ran" When the sinner
Q starts for God, God starts for the sinner
n God does not come out with a slow anC
d hesitating pace. The infinite spaces
$ slip beneath His feet, and He take
Is worlds at bound. 1.-The father ran.
e o, wonderful meeting, when God an,
81 the soul come together. 1.-THE fathe
k ran" You start for God and God start
d. for you, and you meet; and while tn
Is angels rejoice over the meeting you
It long-injured Father falls upon you
W neck with attestations of compassio
and pardon. Your poor, wandering
&c sinful, polluted soul and the loving, tn
lie eternal Father have met.
at remark upon the fathers kiss ''H
ce fell on his neck" my text says, IAN
In kissed him." 1t is not every fathe
or that would have done that way. Som
OF would have scolded him and said
p Here, you went off with beautifr
nd clothes, but now you are all in latter,
as You went off healthy and come bac
n sick and wasted with your designations.
IT. He did not say that The son, all hal
nd gard, and ragged, and filthy, and wretch
r. ed, stood before his father. The fathe
e, charged him with none of his wande
e. ings. He Just received him. He i'll:
p- kissed him. His wretchedness was
us recommendation to that fathers Low,
cs o, that fathers kissl How shall 1 d,
ew scribe the love of God?-the ardor wit
To- which He receives a sinner back agar
ce Give me plummet with which ma
ne fathom the sea. Give me ladder wit
at which may scale this height. Gil,
as me words with which / can descrit
N, this love. The apostle says in OF
ell place ''unsearchable;" in another "pa
finding out" Height overlapping a
IT? height; depth p unging beneath a
m depth; breadth comprising all immel
gy sity.
re o, this love! God so loved the worl,
ID He loves you. Don't you believe i
*, Has He not done every thing to maL
es- you think so? He has given you lif
n health, friends, home; the use of yol
I'm hand, the sight of your eye, the hea
ne ing of your ear. He has strewn vol
ne path with mercies. He has fed yo
he clothed you, sheltered you, defendt
81 you, loved you, importuned you all yo,
Ter life long. Don't you believe He Low
oil you? Why, IL now you should start
nd from the wilderness of your sin, I
W. would throw both arms around you. !
make you believe that He loves you 1
ur stopped to manger, cross and sepuchr
go With all the passions of His holy natu
1t reused He stands before you to-day al
" would coax You to happiness al
'ur Heaven. o, this Fathers kiss! The
u is so much mean 'ng and love and col
~ passion it; so much Heaven in it