The Bolivar bulletin. (Bolivar, Tenn.) 1888-1946, 1891-07-03

II Leu III Boy AA1D Oh LAG4G GA AZ
fined longing amounts to nothing.
You must have a stout tremendous res
olution like this young man of the text
when he said: ST will arise and go tc
my father"
20" says some man, show do I know
my father wants me? how do / know, il
/ go back, 1 would be received?" s'Or
says some man, '.you don't know where
] have been; you don't know how far
have wandered; you wouldn't talk that
way to me If you knew all the iniqui-
ties / nave committed" What Is that
dutter among the angels of God? II
is news, it is news! Christ has found
the lost
Nor angels can their Joy contain,
But kindle with new fire;
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 yoc
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 toward
the mountains he said: ''There shall
be no Alps" That wonderful pass was
laid out which has been the wonder
ment 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 noun
talns 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 sorrow at his misbehavior. tt was
not mere physical plight. 1t was grief
that he had so maltreated his father.
1t is a sad thing after a father has done
everything for a child, to have that
child be ~ungrateful.
How sharper than a serpent's TOOTH, 1T is,
To have a 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 prodigals?
Have we not maltreated our Father?
And such a Fatherl So loving, so kind.
If He had been a stranger, if He lad
forsaken us, if He had fagelated us, if
He had pounded us and turned us out of
doors On the commons, it would not
nave been so wonderful-our treatment
of Him; but He is a 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
oA-ar,f4fnA ION 4I4,,1or1 4s-aae ko-1 4I1,,
sand wrongs against God and never
apologized.
/ remark still further hat this reso-
luton of the text was founded in a
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 something in the reading of my text
hat makes me think he was homesick.
Some of you know what that feeling is.
Far away from home sometimes, sur
rounded by everything bright and pleas
ant-plenty of friends-you have said:
81 would give the world to be home to-
night" ''Well this young man was
homesick for his fathers house. 1 have
no doubt when he thought of his fathers
house he said: Nov, perhaps, father
may not be living"
We read nothing in this story-this
parable founded on everyday life-we
read nothing about the mother. Itsays
nothing about going home to her. 1
think she was dead. / think she had
died of a 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 seei if things were as they used
to be. Many a man, after having been
OH a good while, has gone home and
knocked at the door, and a stranger has
come. 1t is the old homestead, but a
sJ anger 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: perhaps father may be
dead" Still he starts to find out. He
is homesick. Are there any here to-day
homesick 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 60
away; we don't want you to go; you
will have it a great deal better
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
a storm came up. and he was ordered to
very p~erilous duty, and he ran up the
ratlines, and amid the shrouds of the
he heard the voice that he had
heard in the next room. He tried to
whistle it off, he tried to rally his cour-
age; but he could not silence that
voice he had heard in the next room,
and there in the storm and theudark-
he said: 80, Lordl what a
/ have been; what a wretch !
am. Help me just now, Lord God"
And / thought in this assemblage to-
day there may be some who may have
memory Of a fathers petition or a
mothers prayer pressing nightly upon
the soul, and that this hour they may
the same resolution / find in my
text, saying: II viii arise and go to my
A lad at Liverpool went out to battle
out into the sea-went out too
far, got beyond his depth, and he float
ed far away. A ship bound for Dublin
along and took him on board.
Sailors are generally very generous fell
and ono Unva him n can and