Sharp County record., 1890-07-10

III tHc tuLtu HAaNC A's4NN 1''
kiss.
To begin: The fathers eyesight
"When he was great way oil his
father saw him You have noticed now
old people sometimes put book OIL on
the other side Of the light They can
see at distance a great deal easier
than they can close by. / do not know
whether this father could see well that
which was near by, but l do know he
could see a great way off. "liis father
saw him." Perhaps he had been look
ing for the return of that boy especially
that day. do not know but that he had
been in prayer, and that God had told
him that that day the recreant boy
would come home. "The father saw
him a great way off,"
l wonder if Gods eyesight can descry
us when we are coming back to Him.
The text pictures our condition-we are
great way off That young man was
not farther off from his fathers house,
sin is not farther off from holiness, hell IS
not farther off fromHeaven, than we hare
been by our sins away off from our God
aye, so far off that we could not hear
His voice, though vehemently He has
called US year after year. | do not
rot know what bad habits you may
have formed, or in what evil places you
may have been, or what false notions
you may have entertained, but you are
ready to acknowledge, if your heart has
not been changed by the grace of God
that you are a great way of-aye, so
far that you can not get back OF your
selves. 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 eye
sight. 'He saw him great way
off" He has seen all your frail-
ties, all your struggles, all
your disadvantages. He has been
longing for your coming. He has not
been looking at you with critics eye
nor a bailiff's eye, but with a fathers
eye; and if parent ever pitied a child,
God pities you. You say: "Oh, l had
so many evil surroundings when start
ed life" Your Father sees it. You
say: 81 have so many bad surroundings
now, and it is very difficult for me "a
break away from evil associations" !"
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 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
Father to spring to the deliverance of
lost child. when he was 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. .gpiF,~
-rnd 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, "ln the fourth watch
OF tho night" it says, Jesus came unto
them walking on the sea- "IIe walk
eth 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 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 got 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 thou
sand voices say: "Back with you. God
is hard Master The church is a col
lection of hypocrites. Back into your
sins; back to your evil indulgences;
back to your prayerless pillows. The
silliest thing that young man over
does is to come home after he has been
wandering" Oh, how much help man
docs want when he tries to become q
Christianl Indeed, the prodigal can not
find his way homo to his Fathers house
alone. Unless some one comes to meet
him hc had better have stayed by tho
swino troughs.
When the tide comes in, you might
nero easily with your broom sweep back
the surges than you could drive back
tho ocean Of your unlorglyen tansgrcs-
slons 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 encourages.
mont TO cheer us? Glory bo to God, we
have in the text tho announcements
"When llo was yet n great way of, His
Father ran" When tho sinner starts
for God, God starts for the sinner, God
docs not come ont with o slow and
hositating pace, The infinite spaces
alln hnnnnLh llis foot. and lln Inllna