Daily tobacco leaf-chronicle. (Clarksville, Tenn.) 1890-1895, 1891-06-22
Christ has Tounu rne losu.

If you knew what the Alps were you
wouldn't talk about it or think Of it,.
You can't get your ammunition wagons
over the Alps" Then Napoleon rose
in his stirrups and waving his hand to-
ward the mountains, he said, "There
shall be no Alps.n That wonderful pass
was laid out which has been the won
derment Of all the years since-the won
derment Of all engineers. And you
tell me there are such mountains of sin be
tween your soul and God, there is no
mercy. Then see Christ waving his hand
toward the mountains / hear him say
II will come over the mountains of thy sin
and the hills of thy iniquity." There shall
be no Pyrenees; there shall be no Alps.
Again, notice that this resolution of the
young man Of the text was founded in sor
row at his misbehavior. 1t was not mere
physical pliSlt. 1t was grief that he had
so matreated his father. 1t is a sad thing
after father has done everything for a
child to have that child be ungratefuL
How sharper than a serpent's tooth, it is
To have q thankless 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 prodigalsP Have we
not maltreated our FatherS And such II
Fatherl So loving, so kind. If he had
been a stranger, If he had forsaken us, if
he had flagellated u.s. If he had pounded
us and turned us out of doors on the com
mons, 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 apollo
gized. We apologize for wrongs done to
our fellows, but some OF us perhaps have
committed ten thousand times ten thou.
sand wrongs against God and never apollo
gized.
| remark still farther that this resolu-
ton of the text was founded in feeling
of homesickness. | 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 every
thing bright and pleasant plenty of
friends-you have said, u would give the
world to be home tonight" Well. this
young man was homesick for his fathers
house. have no doubt when he thought
of his fathers house he said, Nov, per
haps, father may not be living"
WAS THE PRoDIGAL's MOTHER DEADS
We read nothing in this story-this par
able founded on everyday life-we read
nothing about the mother. 1t says moth
ing about going home to her. ] think she
was dead. | think she had died of a broken
heart at his wanderings. A man never
gets over having lost his mother. Moth.
ing said about her here. But he is home
sick 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
q long while has gone home and knocked
nj the door, and stranger has come. 1t
is tle old homestead, but II stranger comes
TO the door. lie finds out father is gone
and mother is gone, and brothers and sis
ters a. gene. | think this young man of
the text Lh.C 90 himself, perhaps father
may be dead" Still he starts to find out.
He is homesick Are there any here today
homesck for God, homesick for heavenY
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 bet
ter stay Mt home. Don't go away; we
don't want you to 60 You will have it
great deal better here" But it made him
angry. The night before he went away
again to sea he heard his mother praying
in the next room, and that made him more
angry. He went far out on the sea and
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 not
silence that voice he had heard in the next
room, and there in the storm and the dark
ness he said o LordI what n wretch !
have been; what n wretch am. Help me
just now, Lord God" And | thought in
this assemblage today there may be some
who may have the memory of 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, II will arise and go to
my father"
ILLUSTRATION OF THE RESCUED BOY.
A lad ut Liverpool went out to battle,
went out into the sea, went out too far, got
beyond his depth and he floated far away.
A ship bound for Dublin came along and
took him on board. Sailors are generally
very generous fellows, and one gave him a
cap and another gave him u Jacket, and an.
other gave him shoes. A gentleman pass
ing along on the beach at Liverpool found
the lads clothes and took them home and
the father was heartbrokcn, the mother
was heartbrOken Mt the loss of their child.
They had heard nothing from him day
after day, and they ordered the usual
mourning for the sad event. But the lad
took ship from Dubliu and arrived in Liv
erpool the very day the garments arrived.
He knocked ut the door, and the father
was overjoyed, and the mother was over
jOyed at the return of their lost son. Oh,
my friends, have You waded out too deepY
Have you waded down into sinP Have
YOU waded from the shore2 Will you come
backP When you come back, will you
come in the rags of your sin. or will you
come ROBBED in the Saviour's riGhteousnessi
believe the latter Go home to your God
today. He is waiting for you. Go homel
But remark concerning this resolution,
it WAS Immediately put into execution.
The context says, ale arose and came to
his father" The trouble in nine hundred
and ninety-ninc times out of "A thousand is
Tat our resolutions amount to nothing be
cause we make them for some distant time
If resolve to become Christian next
year, that amounts to nothing at all. If
resolve to become n Christian tomor ow,
that amounts TO nothing ut all. II re-
solve mt the service tonight to become a
Christian, that amounts to nothing at all.
If resolve after 90 home today to yield
my heart to God, that amounts TO nothing
at all. The only kind of resolution that
amounts to anything is the resolution that
is Immediately put into execution.