The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1892-09-02
THE PRODIGAL SON.
Dr.. Talmage Discourses on the
Wages of Sin.
Abject Went Often Needed to Bring Men
ts hepentance-WithP Plenty Man Is
Often Arrogant, But Poverty
Compels Him to Pause.

ed hearers in England In the latest
sermon selected for publication DIR. Tai
mage took his text from Luke XIV. is:
81 will arise and go to my father" He
said:
There is nothing like hunger to take
the energy out of man. A hungry
man can toll neither with pen nor hand
nor foot. There has been many an
army defeated not so much for lack ot
ammunition as for lack of bread. II
was that fact that took the fire out OF
this young man of the text Storm and
exposure will wear out any mans life
in time, but hunger makes quick work.
The most awful cry ever heard on earth
is the cry for bread.
A traveller tells US that in Asia Minor
there are trees which bear fruit looking
very much like the long bean of our
time. This is named the carab. Once
in awhile the people reduced to destitu-
ton would eat these carabs, but gener-
ally the carabs, the beans spoken of
here in the text, were thrown only TO
the swine and they crunched them with
great avidity. But this Young man of
my text could not get even them with
out stealing them. So one day amid
the swine troughs he begins to solilo-
quize He says: ''These are no clothes
for rich mans son to wear; this is no
kind of a business for jew to be en-
gagged in-feeding swine: I'll go home;
I'll go home; ] will arise and 90 to my
father
l know there are a great many people
who try to throw a fascination. ro-
nance, a halo about sin: but notwith-
standing all that Lord Byron and
George Sands have said in regard to it,
it is mean, low, contemplate bust
ness, and putting food and fodder into
herd of iniquities that root and wal
low in the soul OF man is very poor
business for men and women intended
to be sons and daughters of the Lord
Almighty. And when this young man
resolved to go home. it was a very wise
thing for him to do, and the only ques-
ton is whether we will follow him.
Satan promises large wages if we
will serve him; but he clothes his vic
TINS 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 Satan comes to
us to-day and he promises all luxuries,
all emoluments if we will only serve
him. Liar, down with thee to the pit!
''The wages of sin is death" o. the
young man of the text was wise when
he uttered the resolution: 81 will arise
and go to my father"
In the time of Queen Mary, of En-
gland, persecuter came to Christian
woman who had hidden in her house
for the Lords sake one of Christ's ser
wants, and the prosecutor said: where
is that heretic?" The Christian woman
said: "You open that trunk and you
will see the hereto" The persecutor
opened the trunk, and on the top of the
linen of the trunk he saw a glass He
said: There is no hereto here" "Ah!'
she said, you look in the glass and you
will see the heretic!'' As take up the
mirror of Gods word to-day. l would
that instead OF seeing the prodigal of
the text, we might see ourselves-our
want, our wandering, our sin, our lost
condition, so that we might be as wise
as this young man was and say: Il will
arise and 90 to my father"
The resolution Of this text was formed
in disgust at his present circumstances.
If this young man had been by his en-
ployer set to culturing flowers, or train
ing vines over an arbor, or keeping ac-
count of the pork market, or oversee
ing other laborers, he would not have
thought of going home. If he had had
his pockets full OF money, if he had
been able to say: Il have 81, 600 now
of my own: what's the use of my going
back to my fathers house? Do you
think l am going 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
have been engaged in. l won't go
home; there IS no reason why ! should
go home; l have plenty of money,
plenty of pleasant surroundings, why
should I go home?" All! it was his
pauperism, it was his beggary. He had
to go home.
Some man comes and says to me:
''Why do you talk about the ruined
state of the human soul? Why don't
you speak about the progress of the
nineteenth century, and talk of some
thing more exhilarating?" 1t is for
this reason: a man never wants the
gospel until he realized he is in
a famine struck state. Suppose /
should come 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 medi-
cine is than that, and some other medi-
cine than some other medicine, and talk
about this physician and that physi-
clan. After a while you would get
tired, and you would say: q don't
want to hear about your medicines.
Why do you talk TO me of physicians?
l never have 4 doctor" Suppose 1
come into your house and l find you
severely sick and l know the medicines
that Will cure you and know the ply
sician who Is skillful enough to meet
your case. Xou say: Bring on all
that medicine, bring on that physician.
1 am terribly sick and l want help" If
come 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 moth
ing; but suppose have persuaded you
that the leprosy of sin is upon you, the
worst of ali sickness. o, then you say:
Bring me that balm of the gospel;
bring me that divine medicament; bring
me Jesus Christ"
But says some one in the audience:
How do you prove that we are in
ruined condition by sin?'' Well, 1 can
prove it in two ways, and you may
have your choice. I can prove it either !
by the statements of men. or by the
statement of God Which shall IL be?
,ll -, L., IL.