The intelligencer. [volume] (Lexington, Mo.) 1887-1891, 1890-06-21

YOU gil " koJ oISh VI
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 l 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 a critics eye or a bailiff's
eye, but with a Fathers eye; and il a
parent ever pitied a child, God pities
you. You say: 20, l had so many evil
surroundings when l started life"
Your Father sees it. You say: "Ihave
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 l pray you may-your Father
would not sit idly down and allow you
to struggle on up to Him. o. no! See
ing you a great way off he would fly to
the rescue. How long does it take a
father to leap into the middle of the
highway II his child be there, and a
swift vehicle is coming, and may de-
stroy him? Five hundred times longer
than it takes our Heavenly Father to
spring to the deliverance of a lost child.
when he vas a great way off his
Father saw him"
And this brings me to notice the
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.
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. ''In the fourth watch
OF the night" 1t 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! II a
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 a
hard master. The church is a collection
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 after he has been wander
ing"
o, how much help q 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 soine one zones 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 un~forgiven
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 en-
couragement to cheer US? Glory be to
God, we have in the text the our
ment: when he was yet q great way
of 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 He takes
worlds at a bound. 1.-The father ran"
o, 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
l~ong-injured Father falls upon your
neck with a~ttestations Of compassion
and pardon. Your poor. wandering,
sinful, polluted soul and the loving, the
eternal Father have met.
remark upon the fathers kiss. "He
fell on his neck" my text says, ''and
kissed him." 1t is not every father
that would have done that way. Some
would have scolded him and said
Here, you went of with beautiful
clothes, but now you-are all in tatters.
You went of healthy and come back
sick and wasted with your designations"
He did not say that The son, all bag
gard, and ragged, and filthy, and wretch
ed, stood before his father. The father
charged him with none of his wander
ings. He just received him. He Just
kissed him. His wretchedness was q
recommendation to that fathers love.
o, that fathers kissl How shall l de
scribe the love Of God2-the ardor with
whiQh He ranafuao a ofnnap hocL onain0
Give me a plummet with which l may
fathom the sea. Give me a ladder with
which 1 may scale this height. Give
me words with which I can describe
this love. The apostle says In n
place ''unsearchable;' in another ''past
finding out" Height overlapping all
height; depth plunging beneath all
depth; breadth comprising all immen-
sity.
D, this lovei God so loved the world.
he loves you. Don't you believe itr
HsE W HotdoneEeEery thing w mako
9nse' tho ase q your
11Iz19 <6e sight 81 your eys. tAt henri
Ing o. your . 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, II 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, cross and se~puchre.
With all the passions of His holy nature
reused He stands before you to-day and
would IA you to happiness and
Heaven. o, this Fathers kiss! There
Is SO much meaning and love and COM
passion it.; so much Heaven in 1t. /
proclaim him the Lord God, merciful,
gracious and long-sutfering, abundant
in goodness and truth. Lest you would
o believe Him. He goes p.Golgotha,
and while the rocks are rending,
and the graves are opening, and
the mobs arc bowling. and the
sun is hiding. He dies for you. See
HimI See Him on the moun Of cruci'
fixion, the sweat on His brow tinged
with the blood exuding from his LAGER
ated temples! See His eyes swimming
in DEATH Hear the loud breathing OF
the sufferer as He pants with a world on
His heart! Hark to the fall Of the blood
from brow and hand and foot on the
rocks beneath-drop! drop! drop! Look
nj the nailsl How wide the wounds are!
Wider do they cape as His body comes
down upon them. OF this crucifixion
agony! Tears melting into tears. Blood
flowing into blood. Darkness dropping