The Russellville Democrat., 1890-06-26
THE TROPICAL SON.
Rev. T. Dewitt Talmage Discourses
 on We'll Worn Subject
The Love of God for His Firing but Re- pentant Children as Great Now as When the Parable was First
 Glvon to Illustrate It.

Given to Illustrate It.
 Tho following sermon hy Rev. T. Do Witt Talmage was delivered in the Brooklyn Academy of Music, from the text:
 When hs was yet a great way of, hls father saw him. and had compassion, and ran and fell on his neck and kissed him. Luke xv.. 20.
 One of the deepest wells that inspira- ton ever opened is this well of par able which we can never exhaust The parable, l suppose. was founded on facts I have described to you the go- ing away of this prodigal son from his fathers house, and have showed you what a hard time he had down in the wilderness, and what mistake 1t was for him to leave so beautiful home for suck q miserable desert Buthe did not always stay in the wilderness; he came back after awhile. We do not read that his mother came to greet him. l suppose she was dead. She would have been the first to come out. The father would have given the second kiss to the returning prodigal; the mother the first. 1t may have been for the lack of her example and prayers that he became a prodigal. Sometimes the father does not know how to manage the children of tho household. The chief work comes upon the mother. Indeed, no one ever gets over the calamity of los ing a mother in early life. Still, this young man was not ungreeted when he came back.
 However we'll appareled we may be in the morning when we start out on a tourney, before night, what with the dust and the jostling, we have lost all cleanliness of appearance. But this prodigal, when he started from the swine-trough, was ragged and wretched, and his appearance, after he had gone through days of journeying and expos ure, you can moro easily imagine than describe. As the people see this prodi- gal coming on homeward they wonder who he is. They say: 'T wonder what prison he has broken out Of l wonder with what plague he will smite the air" Although these people may have ' yet they do not imagine that this is the very yovng man who went of only lit tie while ago with quick step and rud- dy cheek and beautiful apparel. The young man, I think, walks very fast He looks as though he were intent upon something very important The peo- ple stop. They look at him. They wonder where he came from. They wonder wh ere he is going to.
 You have heard of son who went of to sea and never returned. All the peo- pie in the neighborhood thought the son would never return, but the parents came to no such conclusion. They would go by the hour. and day, and sit upon the beach, looking off upon the water, expecting to see the sail that would bring home the long-absent boy. sat under the vine looking out toward tho road on which his son had departed; but the father has changed very much since we saw him last His hair has be- come white, his cheeks are furrowed, his heart is broken. What is all his bountiful table to him when his son may be lacking bread? What is all the splendor of the wardrobe of that home- stead when the son may not have de. cent coat? What are all the sheep on the hillside to that father when his pet lamb is gone? Still he sits and watches, looking out on the road, and one day he beholds a foot-trayeler. He sees him rise above the hills; first the head and then the entire body; and as soon as he gets fair glance of him he knows it is his recreant son. He forgets the crutch and the cane, and tho stiffness of the joints, and bounds away. think the people all around were amazed. They said; ''It Is only footpad. It is only some old tramp of the road Don't go out to meet him." The father knew better.
 The change in the sons app earance could not hide the marks by which the father knew the boy. You know that persons of great deal of independence of character are apt to indicate 1t in their walk. For that reason the sailor almost always has peculiar step, not only because he stands much on ship board amid the rocking of the sea, and he has to balance himself, but he has for the most part an independent char acter, which would show in his gait even If he never went on the sea; and we know from what transpired after ward, and from what transpired before, that this prodigal son was of an inde- pendent and frank nature; and suppose that the characteristics of his mind and heart were the characteristics of his walk. And so the father knew him. He puts out his withered arms toward him; he brings his wrinklea face against the pale cheek of his son; he kisses the wan lips; he thanks God that the long agony is over. When he was yet a great way of his father saw him and ran and fell on his neck and kissed him."
 Oh, do you not recognize that father2 Who was it2 It is Godl I have no sympathy with that cast-iron theology which represents God as hard, severe, and vindictive. God Is father--kind, loving, lenient gentle, longsuffering, patient and He flies to our immortal rescue. Oh, that we might realize it. A wealthy lady in one of the Eastern countries was going of for some time. and she asked her daughters for some memento to carry with her. One Of the daughters brought marble tablet beautifully inscribed; and another daughter brought beautiful wreath of flowers. Jhe third daughter came and said: Mother, brought neither flow CTS nor tablet but here is my heart have inscribed it all over with your name, and wherever you go it will go with you" The mother recognized it as the best of all the mementoes. Oh, that our souls might go out toward our Father-that our hearts might be writ ten all over with the evidences of His loving kindness, and that we might never again forsake Him.
 In the first place l notice in this text the fathers eyesight. in the second place notice the fathers haste; and in the third place notice the fathers kiss
 To begin The fathers eyesight.