The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1892-09-02

whim, an underlined longing amount
to nothing. You must have stout
tremendous resolution like this young
man of the text when he said: 81 will
arise and go to my father"
''0!" says some man, chow do 1 know
my father wants me? How do l know
| if go back l would be received?" 80,
says some man, ''you don't know where
1 have been; you don't know how far
have wandered; you won't talk that
way TO me if you know all the iniquities
l have committed" What is that hut
ter among the angles of God? 1t is
news, it is newsi Christ has found the
lost.
Nor angels can their joy contain,
But kindled 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 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
toward the mountain he said: There
shall be no Alps" That wonderful
pass was laid out which has been the
wonderment of all years 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 l see God waving his
hand toward the mountains, and hear
him say: 81 will come over the noun
tains of thy sin and the hills of thine
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. 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 ungratefuL
How sharper than serpent's tooth it is
To have 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 a Father! So loving, so kind
If He had been a stranger, if He had
forsalSen us, if He had flagellated us, if
he had pounded us and turned us out
of doors on the common. it would not
have 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
committed ten thousand times ten thou
sand wrongs against God and never
apologized.
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 l think she had
died of Broken heart at his wander
ings, or perhaps he had gone into dissi-
patton from the fact he could not re-
member a loving and sympathetic
mother. 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. lie thought he would Just like
TO go and see if things were as they
used to be. Many a 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, mother is gone and
brothers and sisters all gone. think
this young man of the text said TO him
self: 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 nome; 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 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 out on the sea and a 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 il
off. he tried to rally his courage; but he
could not silence that voice that he had
heard in the next room, and there in
the storm and the darkness he said: ''Ol
Lord, what a wretch / have been, what
wretch ] am. Help me just now,
Lord God" And l thought in this as
semblage to-day there may be some
who have the memory of fathers pc
tition, or a mothers prayer pressing
nightly upon the soul, and that this
hour they must make the same resolu-
ton l find in my text, saying: Il will
arise and go to my father"
But / remark the characteristic of
this resolution was, it was Immediately
put into execution.
The context SAYS che arose and came
TO his father" The trouble in 800 times
ont of 1000 is that our resolutions
amount to nothing because we make
them for some distant time. If resolve
to become a Christian next year, that
amounts to nothing at all. If l resolve
TO become Christian tomorrow. that
to nothing at all II resolve
at the service to-day to become Christ
ian. that amounts to nothing at all. If
I resolve after I go home to-day to yield
my heart TO God, that amounts to moth
ing at all. The only kind of resolution
that amounts to anything is the resolu-
ton that is Immediately put into execu-
ton.
There Is q man who had the
typhoid fever. He said: 20! If !
could get over this terrible distress:
if this fever should depart, if II