The Dickinson press., 1892-09-03
THE PRODIGAL SON,
he Takes for His Text the Young Man
Who Became Weary Of Swine
and Corn Husks.
The Lessons That May Be Learned
Hunger and Homesickness Pow.
eriul Lessons.

er1ul Lessons.
LoNDoN-Dr. Talmage has been
preaching during the past week every
day. Besides the engagement made
in his original program for the week
he preached i'll several towns which he
had promised to visit earlier, but had
been unable to do 80, owing to so
much more time than ne expected be-
ing taken up by his visit to Russia.
whittier he went to attend the distri-
button OF the Christian Herald relief
cargo. The cancelling of these EN-
gagements caused acute disappoint-
ment to the citizens, and as tur as
possible. DIR. Talmage has yielded to
their e%ntreaties to fix q later date.
The audiences asst week at Leeds,
Bradford, Sheffield and Derby were
enormous, and at each place the pop
ular ovation in the streets was most
enthusiastic. The III selected
for publication this week is from the
text Luke XIV: Is: ~ will arise and
go to my father"
There is nothing like hunger to take
the energy out OF n nan A hungry
man can toll neither with pen nor
hand nor foot. There has been many
an army defeated not so much for
lack OF ammunition as for lack of
bread. 1t 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 u time, known as the carab.
Once in a while the people reduced
to restitution would eat these car
abs, but generally the carabs. the
beans spoken of here in the text, are
thrown only to the swine and they
crunched. them with great avidity.
But this young man OF my text could
not get even them without stealing
them. So one day amid the swine
troughs he began to soliloquize. He
says: "These are no clothes for q
rich mans son to WEAR; this is no
kind of business for Jew to be en-
gagged in-feeding swine; I'll go home;
I'M go home; 1 Will arise and 20 to nv
father"
1 know there are a great many peo-
pie who try to throw a fascination, q
romance, u halo about sin; but not
withstanding all that Byron and
George Sand have said in regard to
it it is q mean, low, contemplate
business, and putting food and fodder
into the troughs of u herd of inquit-
les that root and wallow 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, 1T was q 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 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 today and he promises allluxuries,
all emoluments ii we will only serve
him. Liar, down with thee to the
pit! The wages of sin is DEATH" Oh!
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 Eng
land, a prosecutor came to a Chris
tain woman who had hidden in her
house for the Lords sake one OF
Christ's servants, and the prosecutor
said: "Where is that heretic?" The
Christian woman said: "You open
that trunk and you will see the
hereto" The prosecutor 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 l take
up the mirror of Gods word today, l
would that instead Of the prodi-
gal OF the text, we might see ourselves
our want, III wandering, our sin,
our lost condition, so that we might
be Us wise MS this young man was and
say: 81 will arise andg to my father"
The resolution OF this text was
formed by the young man in disgust
at his present circumstances. If this
young man had been by his employer
set to culturing flowers, or training
vines owe an arbor, or keeping an &C
count OF the pork market, or over
seeing other laborers, he would not
have thought OF going home. If he
if he had been able to say, II
have $1,000 now of my own;
what's the use of my going back
to my fathers house? do you think l
am going back to ~apologizeto 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; I won't go
home: there is no reason why Ishould
go home; 1 have plenty of money,
plenty OF pleasant surroundings, why
should l go homer" 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 talk about the progress of the
10th century, and talk Of something
more exhilarating?" 1t is for this
reason; a man never wants the Cos.
pei until he realizes he is in a famine
struck state.
Again, l notice that this resolution
OF the young man of the text was
founded in sorrow at his misbehavior.
1t was not mere physical plight. 1t
was grief that he had SO maltreated
his father. 1t is a sad thing after a
father has'done everything for a child
to have that child be ungrateful.
How sharper than a serpent's tooth, it is,
To have q tAankle:s child.
That is Shakespeare. "a foolish
son is the h%eaviness OF his mother"