Weekly expositor. (Brockway Centre, Mich.) 1882-1894, 1892-02-26
,R. 9TAEMAGE M IOWA.
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~ oONefsATUE%rroNS." w
k-strikIne AMI Earnest Appeal for u.
So Repent and Lead Better Lives,
for There VIII BE JOY In
Heaven.

- LhhoWlse Joy shati % IN heaven over
one sinner thatf repenteth, more sthan
ninety and nine just persons who need no
repentance
a lost sheepi Nothing can be more thor
oughly lost look through the window
OF shepherds house at night Tho
candles are lighted. The shepherd has just
placed his staff against the mantel. He
has taken of his coat, shaken out of it the
r. dust and hung itup, sec by tho candle
light that there are neighbors who have
come in. The shepherd, tagged out with
the long tramp, sits down on bench, and
the wife and the children and the neigh
bors say to him: Come now, tell us how
you found the poor thing" "Well," he
says, this morning won't out to the yard
TO look at the flock. Nosooner had Hooked
over the fence than l saw something
wrong. The fact was they did not count
/ right Ninety-fve ninety-six. ninety
seven, ninety-eight, ninty-nine-only nine
! LYNNE. M'Donald, you know we had a.
! hundred. And l wondered which one was
gone, and'l began again, and l counted
. nlnety-hve, ninety-Six, ninety-seven, nine
ty-eight, ninety-nine. Well whistled up
the dogs, and. started on tho fields and
across the bridges, and tracked the moors,
and leaped the gullies, but no bleating of
the poor thing did hear, l said to myself:
The lamb must have fallen into a ditch
or pack of wolves from the noun
I tains must have torn it to pieces
and sucked its life out But could
not give it up. You see il was q pet
lamb twas that ono with the black
spot on the right shoulder that used TO
come and lick my hand as 1 crossed tho
field, and somehow l could not give it I'D.
So went on and on and on until after
awhile heard the dogs bark and I said
What's thatP Then / fastened to the
top OF the hill and looked down, and there
saw the poor lamb. II had fallen into
the ditch. and as l came where il was and
bent over the ditch, and stopped down
to lift the poor thing out, wis h you could
have seen the loving and imploring
and tender way it looked at me. / lifted
1t out and it was all covered with
the slush and the mud 1t was an
awful thing to do, but / lifted it out, and
IL was so lame and so weak it could not
walk alone, so l threw it oyer nv should.
ers, and started homeward; and the con-
dltion OF that lamb, you may Judge OF
from the coat which have Just hung up
but tramped on and on until it is safe in
the yard, poor thing Thank God, thank
GodI" Tnen the shepherds wife spread
the table and brought out the best fare
that the cabin could afford, and they sat
up very late that night, ard they talked
dthey laughed, and they sang, and they
ate, and they drank, and they danced, and
told over and over and over again the
story OF the lost sheep that was found.
With such tenderness and rusticity of
illustration does Christ represent the
DO pff,or afF a a.
back when he says: Likewise there is
JOY In heaven among tho angels of God
over one sinner that repenteth more than
over ninety and nine just persons that
need no repentance" To repent Is to
feel that you are bad and to be sorry
about it, and to turn over a new leaf.
and to pray for forgiveness aud help.
Just as soon as a man does that, they
hear right away of it in heaven. There
are no gossips in glory going around to
chatter and laugh when a man falls: but
there are many souls in glory who are
glad TO run about and tell it when "A man is
saved. The news goes very quick from
gate TO gate, and from north wall to south
wall, and from east wall to west wall, and
In three minutes every citizen Of eaven
has heard OF it; for "there is Joy in heaven
among the angels OF God over one sinner
that repenteth." can very easily under
stand how there should be Joy in heaven
over Pentecost with three thousand
souls saved in one day-no mystery
about that; l can understand how
there should DO Joy in heaven over
the Parish of Schotts, when four hundred
souls were saved under one sermon of Mr..
Livingston; l can understand how there
should be Joy in heaven over the great
awakening in tho tsms of. Harland Page.
when in one year four hundred and
seventy-three thousand souls were brought
to- God in'the United States; can under !
stand very easily how there should be joy
In heaven over five hundred thousand
souls converted in 1857, in this country;
but mark you, my text announces there is /
Joy in heaven among the angels OF God
over one, just one sinner that repenteth
Some cathedrals have one tower; some
cathedrals have two, three, four towers. |
DID you ever hear them all ring at oncel 4
am told that the bell in the cathedral Of |
St' Paul rings only on rare occasions, for /
instance, at the death or the birth of a
KING. have you. seen cathedral with /
four towersl and have you heard them
all strike into one great chime OF glad \
neSsi Here is a man who il moral. He
sors Of religion in some things; he never
did mean thing in his life; he pays all
his debts, and is good citizen and a good
neigh6or, but he says he is not a
christian. Some day the Holy Spirit
comes into his heart and he sees that he
cannot depend upon his mortality for sal.
walton. He says: 20 Lord God, 1 have
been depending upon my good works.
hnd am sinner, aud want thy saliva
ton. Lord for Jesus sake, have mercy
on me-" And God pardons him, and i'm
mediately one Of the towers of heaven
strikes silvery chime, for there are four
towers to the heavenly temple. Here is a
man who Is bad; he knows he is bad, and
everybody else knows he Is bad, but he
Is not an outcast, far from being an
outcast He moves in respectable circles.
But one day, by the power of the Holy
Ghost, he rouses up to see h,s sinfulness
and he says: 40 Bord. have mercy, am
. wanderer. and without Thee perish.
Have mercy" God hears him, and imme-
aiateIs Aso Of the towersof heaven strike
silvery chime But here Is an outcast
He was picked up last night out of
he gutter and carried to the police
station. He has been In the penitentlary
three times. He is, covered. and. soaked, i