Arizona republican., 1892-09-04


 the statements of men or by the state- ment of God. Which shall it be? You all say, "Let us have the statement of God" Well, he says in one place, "The heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked" He says in another place, What is man that he should be clean, and lfe which is born of woman, that he should be righteous" He says in another place, "There is none that doeth good; no, not one." He says in another place, "As by one man sin en- tered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men. for that all have sinned."
 THE ALL POWERFUL NAME.
 "Well," you say, Il am willing to &C., knowledge that, but why should l take the particular rescue that you proposel' This is the reason, Except man be born again he cannot see the kingdom of God" This is the reason, "There is one name given under heaven among men whereby they may be saved. v Then there are thousand voices here ready to say, Well, l am ready to ac- cept this help of the Gospel; l would | like to have this divine cure; how shall l go to worki" Let me say that a mere whim, an undetned longing amounts to nothing. You must have stout, tre- mendous resolution liko this young man of the text, when he said, 'I will arise and go to my father"
 "Oh," says some man, "how do know my father wants me? How dc know, if l go back, would be receivedY" "Oh, says some man, you don't know where l have been; you don't know how far have wandered; you wouldn't talk that way to me if you knew all the iniquities I have committed" What is that flptter among the angels of God? 1t is news; it is news. 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; fl you knew what the Alps were you wouldn't talk about it or think of it; you can't get you ammunition wagons ovei the Alps" Then Napoleon rose in hi' stirrups, and waving his hand toward the mountains he said, There shall bt no Alps" That wonderful pass was laid out which has been the wonderment ol all the years since-the wonderment ot all engineers. And you tell me there are such mountains of sin between you soul and God there is no mercy. TheI sec Christ waving his hand toward tn, mountains, and I hear him say, "l vii come over the mountains of thy sin ant the hills of thine iniquity." There shal
 be no Pyrenees; there shall be no Alps.
 Again. notice that this resolution O the young man of the text was founded in sorrow at his misbehavior. It wa
 not mere physical plight. It was grie
 that he had so maltreated his father.
 is sad thing after a father has don
 everything for a child to have that chil'
 be ungrateful.
 How sharper than serpent's tooth it is : To have thankless child.
 Flat is Shakespeare. "A foolish sol is the heaviness of his mother" Ina , is the Bible. Well, my friends. hay l not some of us been cruel prodigals , Have we not maltreated our Father And such Father. So loving, so kind If he had been stranger, if he had foi l saken us, if he had fagellated us, if h had pounded Us and turned us out c 3 doors on the commons, it would nc , have been so wonderful-our treatmen 3 of him; but he is Father so loving, s 8 kind, and yet how many of us for ou
 wanderings have never apologized! W : apologize for wrongs done to our fe I lows, but some of u- perhaps have con r mitted ten thousand times ten thousan l, wrongs against God and never apolc t gized.
 |, THE DIsGUsTED PEoDIGAL. 9 I remark still further that this res, @ lution of the text was founded in a fee 0 ing of homesickness. l do not kno' 0 how long this young man, how man ], months, how many years, he had bee @ away from his fathers house, but thel f is something about the reading of m d text that makes me think he was hom 0 sick. Some of you know what that fee l. ing is. Far away from home sometime o surrounded by everything bright ar pleasant, plenty of friends, you hay o said, T would give the world to
 home tonight" Well, this young ms d was homesick for his fathers house. ,. have no doubt when he thought of h l. fathers house he said, "Now perhal l. father may not be living"
 ,- We read nothing in this story-th g parable founded on everyday iife-v e read nothing about the mother. It sa d nothing about going home to her. n think she was dead. think she hi IS died of a broken heart at his wande y ings, or perhaps he had gone into dis b patton from the fact he could not I @ member loving and sympathetic mot 10 CT. A man never gets over having lc g his motheA Nothing said about h IS here. But he is homesick for his f 70 ther's house. He thought he would ju Id like to go and walk around the old plat 7, He thought he would just like to go al y see if things were as they used to be. 1- Many a man after having been off to long while has gone home and knock
 at the door, and a stranger has come.
 is the old homestead, but strang 0: comes to the door. He finds out fatl Id is gone. mother is gone and brothe It and sisters all gone. think you e. man of the text said to himself, "P' ] Al |.