Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1892-08-22
'HOMESICK PRODIGALS.
Adversely Leads Them to Desire for
Their Fathers Fireside,
AND BLGETS TRUE REPENTANCE.
A Lesson of Resolution in the Parable
Uttered by the Savior.
TALNAGE's LATEST SUNDAY SERMON

preached BY Rev. Dr.. Talmage was tror
Luke xv., Is: 81 will arise and 20 to m
father"
There is nothing like hunger to take til
energy out of q man. A hungry man Ca
toll neither with pen nor hand nor foot
There has been many al. army defeated no
SO much for lack of ammuh :..on as Tor lacl
OF bread. 1t was that fact that took the fir
out of this young man of the text. Storm
and exposure will wear out any mans lif
in time. but hunger makes quick work. TIL,
most awful cry ever heard on earth is th'
cry for bread.
A traveller tells us that in Asia Minor ther,
are trees which bear fruit looking yer!
much like the long bean of our time
1t is styled the carab. Once in {
while the people, reduced TO destitution
would eat these carabs, but generally the
carabs, the beans spoken of here in the
text, were thrown only to the swine an6
they crunched them with great avidity.
But this young man OF my text could moi
get even them without stealing them. 81
one day among the swine troughs he begins
to soliloquize. He says: "These are nc
clothes for rich mans son to wear; this is
no kind of business for Hebrew to be en-
gagged in-feeding swine-Tll go home: will
arise and 60 to my father"
No GLORY in Committing Sin.
Iknow there are great many people who
try to throw a fascination, a romance, q
halo about sin; but Notwithstanding all that
Lord Byron and George Sand have said in
regard to it, it is a mean, low, contemplate
business, and putting food and fodder into
the troughs of a herd of iniquities that root
and wallow in the soul of man Is very poor
business for men and women in tended to be
sons and daughters of the Lord Almighty.
home. 1t was a 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 hell.
The resolution of this text was formed IN
disgust at his present circumstances. If
this young man had been by his employer
set to culturing flowers, or training vines
over an arbor. or keeping account of the
pork market, or overseeing other laborers,
he would not have thought of going homo.
If he had had his pockets full of money, if
lie had been able to say: 81 have $1,000 now
to my fathers house? Do you think 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 I have been engaged
in; won't go home; there is no reason why
1 should go home: have plenty of money.
plenty of pleasant tsurroundings, why should
l go homer" All! it was his pauperism. He
had to go home.
Some man comes and says to me: "why
do you talk about the ruined state of the
the progress of the nineteenth century, and
and talk OF something more exhilaratfng?"
Realization of Ruin Must Come First.
1t is for the reason q man never wants the
Gospel until he realizes he is in a famine
struck state. Suppose should CO me to you
in your home and you are in good, robust
health, and / should begin to talk about
medicines, and about how much better this
medicine is than that, and some other medi-
cine than some other medicine, and talk
about this physician and that physician.
void say: al don't want to hear about
'icines. Why do you talk to me of physi-
clans? l never have doctor"
Suppose / come into your house and find
yuu severely sick, and know the medicines
that will cure you, and know the physician
who is skillful enough to meet your case.
You say: Bring on all that medicine. bring
on that physician. 1 am terribly sick and
want help" If l came to you and you feel
you are all right in body and all right in
mind. and all right in soul, you have need of
nothing; but suppose have persuaded you
that the leprosy of sin is upon you, the
worst of all sickness, Oh! then you say:
Bring me that balm of the Gospel bring
Christ"
But says some one in the audience, "How
do you prove that we are i'm ruined condi-
tion by SIM" Well, can prove it in two
ways, and you can have your choice l can
prove it either by the statements of men, or
hv the statement of God. Which shall it be?
1ou all say, LET us have the statement of
God" Well He says in one place: "The
heart is deceitful above all things and des-
perately wicked" He says in another place:
"What is man that he should be clean? and
he which is born of woman, that he should
n Ga n fhar r,1o
There is none that doeth good, no, not
one." He says in another place: "As by one
man sin entered into the world, and death
by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for
that all have sinned."
Strong, Definite Resolutions Needed.
"well," you say, 81 am willing to acknowl-
edge that, but why should take tho partic-
ular rescue that you proposef" This 1. the
reason: Except man be born again he
cannot see the kingdom of God.r This is
the reason. There is one name given un-
der heaven among men whereby they may
be saved" Then there are q thousand
voices here ready to say: "Well, am ready
20 accept this help of the Gospel; l would
like to have this divine cure; how shall 20
to work." Let me say that mere whim. an
underlined longing amounts to nothing. You
must have a stout. tremendous resolution
like this young man OF the text when he
said: 81 will arise and go to my father"
"Oh? says some man, show do 1 know nv
father wants mef how do know, If I 20
back, 1 would be receivedP" "Oh" saws
some man, you don't know where 1 have
been; you don't know how far have wan
dered; yon wouldn't talk that way to me If
ted" What is that fiutter among the |
angels of God2 1t is news, it is news! Christ |
has found the lost.
Again. notice that this resolution of the |
young man OF the text was founded in sor- |
row at his misbehavior. IL was not mere |
physical plight. 1t was grief that he had so |
maltreated his father. 1t is a sad thing after |
a iather has done everything for a child to |
have that child be ungrateful.
How sharper than serpent's tooth, tits,
To have thankess child. |
That is Shakespeare. "A foolish SON is the |
heayiness OF his mother" That is the Bible. |
cruel prodigalsf Have we not maltrea ted |
our Father And such a Father, So loving. |
so kind. If He had been a stranger IF He |
lad lorsaken us. ii He had fiagellated us. if |
Iio had pounded MS and turned us out of |
doors on the commons, it would not have
been so wonderful-our treatment of Him:
nut He is a Father SO loving, so kind, and |
yet how many of us for our wanderings |
have never apologized.
Homesickness Makes Him Reso,ute
1 remark still further. that thi. resolution |
Of the text was founded in a feeling of home
sickness. / do not know how long this
young man, how many mon tbs, how many |
years, he had been away from his fathers
house; out there Is something about the
reading Of my text that makes me think he /
was honesick.
We read nothing in this story-this para
BILE founded on everyday life-we read moth
Ing about the mother 1t says nothing about
going home TO her. l think she wss dead. / |
think size had died of broken heart at his
OF perhaps he had gone into
isSi patton from the fact he could not re- |
member a loving and sympathetic mother.
A man never gets over having lost his
another. Nothing said about her here But
he is nOmusick for his fathcris lnuse