The Bolivar bulletin. (Bolivar, Tenn.) 1888-1946, 1894-11-23
"HOME AGAIN"
Rev. DR.. Talmage Returns From
His Tour Around the World.
The Parable of the PrOdIgaPs Return
Chosen rs a FITTING Subject to Pre-
sent to His Great Reading
Congregation.

CHOSEN rs a Fitting Subject to Pre-
sent to His Great Reading
Congregation.
The following sermon was selected
by Rev. II. Dewitt Talmage, who has
returned from his trip around the
world, for publication this week. Its
subject, Home Again" is based upon
the text:
Bring hither the fatted calf and kill it.-Luke
Nv, 23-
In all ages of the world it has been
customary to celebrate joyful events
by festivity-the signing of treaties,
the proclamation of peace, the
Christmas, the marriage. However
much on other days of the year our
table may have stinted supply, on
Thanksgiving day there must be soGie-
thing bounteous. And all the cJu.
Portable homes of Christendom have at
some time celebrated joyful events by
banquet and festivity.
Something has happened in the old
homestead greater than anything that
has ever happened before. A favorite
son, whom the world supposed would
become a vagabond and outlaw for
ever, has got tired of sightseeing and
has returned to his fathers house.
The world said he never would come
back. The old man always said his
son would come. He had been looking
for him day after day and year after
year. He knew he would come back.
Now, having returned to his fathers
house, the father proclaims celebra-
tion. There is a calf in the pad
dock that has been kept up
and fed to utmost capacity, SO
as to be ready for some occa-
sion of Joy that might come along. All!
there never will be a grander day on
the old homestead than this day. Let
the butchers do their work, and the
housekeepers bring into the table the
smoking meat. The musicians will
take their places, and the gay groups
will move up and down the floor. All
the friends and neighbors are gathered
in. and extra supply is sent out to the
table of the servants. The father pre-
sides at the table, and says grace, and
thanks God that his long absent boy is
home again. Oh! how they missed
him; how glad they are to have him
back. One brother indeed stands
pouting at the back door, and says:
''This is a great ado about nothing;
this bad boy should have been
chastened instead of greeted: veal is
too good for himl'' But the father says,
Nothing is too good; nothing is good
enough" There sits the young man,
glad at the hearty reception, but a
shadow of sorrow fitting across his
brow at the remembrance of the trouble
he had seen. All ready now. Let the
cover lift. Music. He was dead and
he is alive again! He was lost and
he is foundl BY such bold imagery
does the Bible set forth the merry
making when a soul comes home to
God.
First of all, there is the new con-
vert's joy. tt is no tame thing to be-
come Christian. The most tremulous
moment in a mans life is when he sur
renders himself to God. The grandest
time on the fathers homestead is when
the boy comes back. Among the great
throng who, in the parlors of my
.hurch, professed Christ one night was
a young man, who next morning rang
my door bell and said: "Sir, 1 can not
contain myself with the Joy feel;
came here this morning to express it.
have found more joy in five minutes
in serving God than in all the years of
my prOdigality, and l came to say so.
You have seen, perhaps, man run
aing for his physical liberty, and the
officers of the law after him; and you
saw him escape, or afterward you
heard the judge had pardoned him,
and how great was the glee of that
rescued man; but it is a very tame
thing that, compared with the rum
uing for ones everlasting life-the ter
rors of the law after him, and Christ
coming in to pardon and bless and res
cue and save. You remember John
Bunyan, in his great story, tell how
the pilgrim put his fingers in his ears
and ran, crying: Life, life, eternal
liteIn A poor car driver, after having
had to struggle to support his family
for years, suddenly was informed that
large inheritance was his, and there
was JOY amounting to bewilderment;
but that is small thing compared
with the experience of one when he
has put in his hands the title deed to
GnG lOgcs AAAC PInACSs b1AC
of Heaven, and he can truly say: Its
mansions are mine, its temples are
mine, its songs are mine, it's God is
Miner
oh, it is no tame thing to become a
Christian 1t is a merry-making. 1t
is the killing of the fatted calf. 1t is
Jubilee. You know the Bible never
compares it to a funeral, but always
compares it to something bright. 1t
is more apt to be compared to a banquet
than anything else. IL is compared in
the Bible to the water-bright,
flashing water; to the morning
roseate, freworked, mOuntain-trans-
figured morning. / wish
could to-day take all the Bible express
sions about pardon and peace, and life
and comfort, and hope and Heaven,
and twist them into one garland. and
put it on the brow of the humblest
child of God in all this land, and cry:
Wear 1t, wear il now, wear it forever.
son Of God, daughter of the Lord God
Almighty" Oh, the JOY of the new con-
vertl oh, the gladness of the Christian
service
You have seen sometimes man in
religious assembly get up and give his
experience. Well, Paul gave his expert
ence- He rose in the presence Of two
churches-the church on earth and the
church in Heaven-and he said; Now,