The Brookhaven leader. [volume] (Brookhaven, Miss.) 1883-1891, 1891-07-02
THE HOME-SICK SOUL"
Dr Talmage Gives Words Of Com
fort to Wandering Prodigals.
The Fathers Door IS Always Open and
n Welcome Assured to Ali who will
Forsake Their Evil WAYS and
Turn to the Lord.

was delivered by Rev. II. Dewitt Tai
mage in the Brooklyn tabernacle, from
the text:
There is nothing like hunger to take
the energy out of man. A hungry
man can toll neither with pen nor hand
nor foot. There has been many an
army defeated not so much for lack of
ammunition as far lack of bread. 1t
was that fact that took the Sire out of
this Young man of the text. Storm and
exposure will wear out any mans life
In time, but hunger makes quick work.
The most awful cry ever heard on earth
is the cry for bread. A traveller tells us
that in Asia Minor there are trees which
bear fruit looking very much like the
long bean of our time. 1t is called the
carab. Once in awhile the people re-
duced to destitution would eat these
carabs, but generally the carabs, the
beans spoken of here in the text, were
thrown only to the swine, and they
crunched them with great avidity. But
this young man of my text could not
even get them without stealing them.
So one day amid troughs he begins to
soliloquize. He says: "These are no
clothes for a rich mans son to wear;
this is no kind of business for a Jew
to be engaged in-feeding swine; I'll go
home; | will arise and go to my father"
know there are a crest many peo-
pie who try to throw a fascination, a
romance, a halo about sin: but not
withstanding all that Lord Byron and
George Sand have said in regard to it,
it is mean, low, contemplate busi-
ness, and putting food and fodder into
the troughs of a herd of iniqmties that
root and wallow in the soul of man is
very poor business for men and women
intended to be sons and daughters of the
Lord Almighty. And when this young
man resolved to go home it was very
wise thing for him to do, and the only
question is whether we will follow
him. Satan promises large wages if
we will serve him; but he clothes his
victims with rags, and he pinches them
with hunger, and when they start out
to do better he sets after them all the
bloodhounds of perdition. Satan comes
TO us to-day and he promises all luxu-
ries, all emoluments, if we will only
serve him. Liar, down with thee to the
pit! "The wages of sin is death" o!
the young man of the text was wise
when he uttered the resolutions: 81 will
arise and go to my father"
In the time of Mary, the prosecutor
prosecutor came to Christian woman
hn l.; Il &c,
Lords sake one of Christ's servants,
and the persecutor said: where is
that herctic?" The Christian woman
said: "You open that trunk and you
will see the hereto" The prosecutor
opened the trunk, and on the top of the
linen of the trunk he saw glass. He
said: There is no hereto here" ''Ah,"
she said, you look in the glass and
you will see the heretic!" AS | take
up the mirror of Gods word to-day,
would that instead of seeing the prodi-
gal son of the text, we might see our
selves our want, our wanderings, our
sin, our lost condition, so that we might
be as wise as this young man was and
say 81 will arise and go to my father"
The resolution of this text was formed
in disgust at his present circumstances.
If this young man had been by his en-
ployer set TO cultivating flowers, or
training vines over an arbor, or keep
ing account of the pork market, or
overseeing other laborers, he would
not have thought of going home. If he
had had his pockets full of money, if he
had been able to say: 81 have a thou
sand dollars now of my own; what's
the use of my going back to my fathers
house? Do you think l am going back
to apologize to the old man? Why, he
would put me on the limits; he would
not have going on around the old place
such conduct as | have been engaged
in; l won't go home; there is no rea-
son why / should go home; l have
plenty of money, plenty of pleasant
surroundings, why should l go homer"
All! it was his pauperism, it was his
beggary. He had to go home.
Some man comes and says to me:
why do you talk about the ruined
state of the human soul? Why don't
you speak about the progress of the
nineteenth century, and talk of some
thing more cxhilarating?" 1t is for this
reason: man never wants the Gospel
until he realizes he is in famine-strack
state. Suppose / shoEld come to you IN
your home and you are in good, sound,
robust health, and i should begin to
talk about medicines, and about how
much better this medicine is than that,
and some other medicine than some
other medicine, and talk about this
physician and that physician. After
awhile you would get tired,
and you would say: 81 don't
want to hear about medicines.
Why do you talk to me of physicians? l
never have a doctor" But suppose
come into your house and find you Sc
verely sick, and know the medicines
that will cure you, and l know the ply
sician who is skillful enough to meet
your case You say: Bring on that
medicine, bring on that physician. l
am terribly sick and want help. III
come to you and you are all right IN
body and all right in mind, and all rign.
In soul, you have need of nothing; but
suppose have persuaded you that the
leprosy of sin is upon you, the worst OF
ali sickness. Ol then you say: Bring
me that balm of the Gospel. bring me
that Divine medicament, bring me Jesus
Christ.
But says some one in the audience:
How do you prove we are in n ruined
condition by sin?" Well, can prove IL
in two ways. and YOU may have your