The Austin weekly statesman. (Austin, Tex.) 1883-1898, 1894-01-04
THE STATESMAN wishes all OF you
q Happy and Prosperous New Year.
II WILL ARISE AND 90 TO NY
FATHER"

II WILL ARISE AND 90 To NY
FATHER"
1t must have been at this season OF
the year, the day before New Years,
the day for making good resolutions
to turn new and brighter leaf In life,
that the prodigal son who had wasted
all his substance in riotouB living,
exclaimed: III will arise and go to my
father" He had been feeding swine
with husks and would fsin have salts
fled his own appetite on the same food,
when he thought of his fathers house
where plenty loaded the tables, and
every comfort was at hand, every
virtue adjoining 1t, and contrasting it
with his own miserable condition he
wisely determined to retrace his steps
into the land Of prebity, honor and
duty. The husks he fed to the swine
reminded him Of the miserable, false
pleasures that had brought him 80
low. He recognized that even in his
days and nights of wRssail and wine
he had morally and mentally been
feeding on husks, and he felt himself
degraded to an equality with the hog
at wallowet in the mlre and he
determined that he would no longer
feed upon such husks or degrade his
moral nature by wallOwing in the
filth and CLINE of forbidden pleasures,
ne would go to his fathers house.
Alas, how many young men today
scattered all over this broad land are
ooking back over wasted years and
longing to 60 back to their fathers
house, but lack the courage of the pro-
dical son. For 1t required courage for
him to determine to go back, and per-
haps that was the only good left in
his perverted nature. He knew or be-
lieved that he would meet with great
humiliation. What would that elder
brother say who had remained loyal
to his father, faithful to his duty and
ready "to speak with the enemy at
the gate" He believed that even the
hired servants would sneer at him be-
hind his back, and perhaps he did en-
counter all this, but he had the cOur-
age to go, throwing the miserable
husks OF his past life to the winds.
In his great humility he would only
ask TO become servant in his
fathers house. This was not
seliishuess in him, it was heroic
to turn his back on every
thing hat detiled and degraded, and
I o be willing 10 assume the most hu.
initiating of all positions, servant in
his fathers house.
A las and alas how many thousands |
upon thousands OF young men, just in |
the condition of this prodigal, have
not the courage to turn from life of
shame and uselessness and walk hum
bly, In a purer, more wholesome at.
OF morality, virtue and use.
lulness. How many can look back,
n0t unexpectedly, but really, to a
fathers house and see there mother
whose tears are shed in silence over
her hayward youth, a father bent
with age and grief by disappointment
in the son of hi old age. There may
be others about the board To console
he stricken parental hearts, but that
young man knows that he has wOdn.
led too deeply those tender affections
Or them to be touched by other Joys.
He knows that their longing hearts
ire going out to him, and thar every
sunset that goes down on his absence
ieepens their grief, and yet, knowing
VI this, he is too deeply stepped in
he false pleasures Of life to have the
outrage to determine that he will arise
nd go to his fathers house. That IL
Ielf1shness of the deepest dye.
1t does not require material home
r a real father for young man to
etermine to live no longer on the ,
usks of life and turn from the useless /,
fe that he has led to o life OF honor
nd usefulness. II he has the courage
} do so, he will be- welcomed by the .
erling men and women of the world 2