Fisherman & farmer. [volume] (Edenton, N.C.) 1887-19??, 1891-07-24


hand toward the mountains. he said. There
shall be no Alps" That wonderful pass was
laid cut which has been the wondeFment OF
all the wears since-the wonderment OF all
engineers And you tell me there are such
mountains of sin between your soul and God.
there is no mercy. Then | see Christ wav-
ing His hand toward the mountains near
Him say, Il will come over the mountains of
thy sin and the hills OF thy iniqulty.' There
shall be no Pyren ees; there shall be no Alps.
Again | notice that this resolution Of the
young man of the text was founded in sor-
row at his misbehaTior. 1t was not mere
physical plight 1t was grief that he had so
maltreated his father 1t Is a sad thing
after father has done everything for child
to have that child be ungratefu.
How sharper than a serpenrs tooth. It's.
To have thaakless child.
That is Shakespeare. "a foolish son is the
heaviness of his mother" That is the Bible.
Well, my friends, have not some of us been
cruel prOiigals? Have we not maltreated
our Father? And such a Father! So low
inc; so kind. If He had been a stranger, il
He had forsaken us, if He had fagellatei US,
if He had pounded us and turned US out OF
doors on the commons, it would not have
been so wonderful-our treatment Of Him;
but He is Father so loving, so kind, and
yet how many of us for our wanderings have
never apologized. We apologize for wrongs
done to our fellows, but some of US perhaps
have committed ten thousand times ten
thousand wrongs against God and never
apOlOgiZed.
Iremark still farther thai this resolution
of the text was founded in feeling of home
sickness I don't know how long this young
man, how many months, how many years
he had been away from his fathers house;
but there is something in the reading of my
text that makes me think he was homesick.
Some of you know what that feeling is, Far
away from home sometimes, surrounded by
everything bright and pleasapt-plenty of
friends-you have said, II would give the
world to be home tonight" Well, this
young man was homesick for his fathers
house. l have no doubt when he thought of
his fathers house he said, Now, perhaps,
father may not be living"
We read nothing in this story-this par
able founded everyday ife-we read
nothing about the mother. 1t says nothing
about going home to her. l think she was
dead. think she had died Of broken heart
at his wanderings. A man never gets over
having lost his mother. Nothing said about
her here. But he is hOmasick for his fathers
house. He thought he would just like to go
and walk around the old place. He
thought he would just like to go and see if
things were as they used to be. Many man
after having been off long while has gone
home and knocked at the door, and stran-
ger has come. 1t is the old homestead, but
stranger comes to the door. He finds out
father is gone and mother is gone and
brothers and sisters all gone. [ think this
young man of the text SAID to himself, per
haps father may be dead" Still ne starts to
find out. He Is homesick. Are there any
here to-day homesick for God, homesick for
heayen2
A sailor, after having been long on the
sea, returned to his fathers house. and his
mother tried to persuade him not to go away
again. She said: Nov you had better stay
at home. Don't go away; we don't want you
to go. You will have it great deal better
here" But it made him angry. The night
before he went again to he heard his
mother praying in the next room, and that
made him more angry. He went Tar out on
the sea, and a storm came up, and he was
ordered to very perilous duty, and he ran up
the ratlines, and amid the shrouds of the
ship he heard the voice that he had heard in
the next room. He tried to whistle it off
he tried to rally his courage but
he could net silence that voice be had
heard IN the next ROOM and there in
the storm andthe darkness he said: 80 Lord!
what wretch l have been: what wretch
| am. Help me just now, Lord God" And
[ thought in this assembIage to-day there
may be some who may have the memory of
a fathers petition or a mothers PRAYER
pressing nightly upon the soul, and that
this hour they may make the same resolution
find in my text, saying, Il will arise and
go to my father"
A lad at Liverpool went out to battle, went
out into the sea, went out too far got beyond
his depth and he tioated far away. A ship
bound for Dublin came along and took him
on board. Sailors are generally very gener-
Gus fellows, and one gave him a cap and
another gave him a jacket, and another gave
him shoes. gentleman passing along on
the beach at Liverpool found the lads
clothes and took them home, and the father
was heartbroken, the mother was heartbroken
at the loss of their child.
They had heard nothing from him day
after day, and they ordered the usual mourn
ing for the sad event. But the lad took ship
from Dublin and arrived in Liverpool the
very day the garments arrived. He knocked
at the door, and the father was overioved,
and the mother was overjoyed at the return
of their lost son. Oh, my friends have YOU
waded out too deep? Have you wa1ed down
into sin? Have you waded from the shore?
Will you come back? When you come back.
will! you come in the rags of your SIM or will
you come rObed in the SaviCur's righteous
ness? l believe the latter Go home to your
God to-day. He is waiting for you 90
home!
But remark concerning this resolution,
it was Immediately put into execution. The .
context says, He arose and came to his
father" The trouble in nine hundred and
ninety, nine times out of a thousand is that
our resolutions amount to nothing because
we make them for some distant time Ii [ !
resolve to become Christian next year, that
amounts to nothing at all. If l resolve to
become a Christian tomorrow, that amounts
to nothing at all. If / resolve at the service
tonight to become Christian, that amounts I
to nothing at all. If resolve after l go
home to-day to yield my heart to God, that I
amounts to nothing at all. The only kind Of /
resolution that amounts to anything is the
resolution that is Immediately put into exc
cutiOn.
There is a man who had the typhoil fever,
He said: "Oh. if [ could get over this ter
rible distress! Ii this fever should depart
if / could be restored to health, / would all |;