Eagle River review. [volume] (Eagle River, Wis.) 1890-1927, 1891-06-25

READY TO accept UnlS utlP VI toIC oookOA'
/ would like to have this divine care;
how shall go to work?" Let me say
that a mere whim, an unlefned lpg-
ing amounts to nothing. gu must hpve
stout, tremendous resolution like tls
young man of the text when he said,
| will arise and go to my father.
"Oh," says some man, "hoW DO L KNOW
my father wants me? How'd l knqN,
if l go back, / would be- recelyef
''Oh!' says some man, you don't know
where | have been; you don't know hdv
far l have wandered; you wouldn't tap
that way to me if you knew all the n
EQUITIES l have committed" WhatpS
that fiutter among the angels Of God? II
is news, it is news! Christ has found
the lost.
No angels can their joy contain,
~ But lindie with new fire;
ksEa The sinner lost, is found, they sing,
And strike the sounding Tyre.
When Napoleon talked of going into
Italy, they said: "You can't get there;
if you knew what the Alps were you
wouldn't talk about it or think OF tlu
You can't get your ammunition wagons
over the Alps" Then Napoleon rosefn.
his stirrups and waving his hand toward
the mountains, he said. 'There shall
be no Alps" That wonderful pass was
laid out which has been the wonderme o.
OF all engineers. And you tell me ther
are such mountains of sin between yoIp
soul and God, there is no mercy. Then
see Christ waving his hand toward the
mountains; l hear Him say, 81 will
come over the mountains of thy sin and
the hills of thy iniquity." There shall
II A
Again, notice that this resolution of
the young man of the text was founded
in sorrow at his misbehayior. 1t was
not mere physical plight. 1t was grief
that he had so maltreated his father.
1t is a sad thing after a father had done
everything for child, to have that
child be ungrateful.
How sharper than serpent's tooth it is
To have q thankless child.
That is Shakespeare. ga foolish son
is the heaviness of his mother" That
is the Bible. Well, my friends, have not
some of us been cruel prodigals? Have
we not maltreated our father? And
such father! So loving, so kind. If
he had been a stranger if he had for
saken US, if he had Negotiated us, if he
had pounded us and turned us out Of
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. r
/ remark still further that this resolu-
ton of the text was founded in d feeling
of inconsistencies. l 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 some
thing 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 pleasant
plenty of friends-you have said, Il
would give the world to be home to-
night" Well, this young man was
homesick for his fathers house. | 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
parable founded on everyday life-We
read nothing about the mother. 1t says
nothing about going home to her. |
think she was dead. | think she had
died of broken heart at his wander
ings. A man never gets over having
lost his mother. Nothing said about
her here. But he is homesick 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 a long while, has gone home
and knocked at the door, and a stranger
has come. 1t is the old homestead, but a
stranger comes to the door He finds
out father is gone and mother is gone
and brothers and sisters all gone. l
think this young man of the text said to
himself, ''Perhaps father may be dead"
Still he starts to find out. He is home
sick. Are there any here to-day home
sick for God, homesick for Heaven?
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,
Now, you had better stay at home;
don't go away: we don't want you to go;
you will have it a great deal better here"
But it made him angry. The night be-
fore he went away again to sea, he
heard his mother praying in the next
room and that made him more angry.
He went far ont on the sea. and storm
came up, and he was ordered to very
perilous duty, and he ran up the rat
lines, 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 Lot silence that voice he had
heard in the next room, and there in the
storm and the darkness he said: 30,
Lord! what wretch | have been; what
a wretch / am. Help me just now,
Lord God" And I thought in this as
to-day there may be some who
may have the memory of a fathers petit
ton or mothers prayer pressing
upon the soul, and that this
hour they may make the same resolu-