Martinsburg herald. [volume] (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1881-1920, 1894-11-17
Neutrality-suspicious.
THE FACT SUGGESTS A SERMON ON
HOME cOMiNGS AND PROoIGALS.

tf1E FAIL SOGGEo . = SEkMt ON
HOME coMlNGS AND PRooIGALS.
/ There Is Mere Joy In Heaven Over the
Rcpenting Sinner Than Over Any Other
Event on Enrth--Telegraphy ofahe Skies
Home, Sweet Home.
| BROOKLYN, Nov. l1.--Roy. DR.. Tai
rage, having concluded his round the
world tour, has selected rs tho subject
for today's discourse through the press
Home Again, the text chosen being
Luke XIV, %. Bring kither the fatted
calf and kill it..
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 le something bounteous.
And all the comfortable homes of Chris
tendon have at some time celebrated
joyful events by banquet and fcstivity
Tho Prodigai's Return.
! Something has happened in the old
homestead greater than anything that
has ever happened before A favorite
son, whom the world supposed would
become vagabond and outlaw forever,
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 re-
turned to his fathers house, the father
proclaims celebration. There is calf
in the paddock that has been Kept up
and fed to utmost capacity, so rs TO be
ready for some occasion 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 ard neighbors are gathered in,
and extra supply is sent out to the table
of the servants. The father presides at
the table, and says grace, and thanks
God that his long absent boy is home
again. Oh, how they missed himl How
glad they are to have him back! One
brother indeed stands pouting at the
back door and says: "This is q great
ado about nothing. This bad boy should
have been chastened instead of greeted
Veal is too good for him. But the fa-
Ither says: Nothing is too good. Moth
ing is good enough" There sits the
young man, glad at the hearty reception,
out shadow of sorrow fitting across
his brow at the remembrance of the
| trouble he had seen. All ready row.
Let the covers lift. Music. He was dead,
and he is alive again! He was lost, and
he is found! By such bold imagery does
the Bible set forth the merrylnaking
when a soul comes home to God.
The Young Convert.
First of all, there is the new convert S
joy. 1t is TO tame thing to become a
Christian. Tho most tremendous mo-
ment in 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, i'll the parlors of MY church,
professed Christ one night was a Young
man, who next morning rang my door
bell and said: "Sir, | cannot contain
myself with the joy feel / came here
this morning to express it. l have found
more joy i'll five minutes i'll serving God
than in all the years Of my prodigality,
and came to say so. ~
Gou have seen perhaps q man run
ming for his physical liberty and the
officers of the law after him, and you
saw him escape or afterward you heard
the judge had pardonod him and how
great was the Sleo of that rescued man!
But it is q very tame thing that COM
pared with the running for ones ever
lasting life--the terrors of the law after
him and Christ coming in to pardon
and bless and rescue and save. You re-
member John Bunyan, i'll his great sto-
ry, tells how the pilgrim put his fin
gers III his ears and ran, crying, Life,
life, eternal life! A poor car driver,
after having had to struggle to support
his family for years, suddenly was in
formed that large inheritance was his,
and there was JOY amounting to bewil-
derment, but that is a small thing com
pared with the experience of enc when
he has put i'll his hands the title deed to
the joys, the raptures, the splerdors of
heaven, and he can truly say, Its man
sions are mine; its temples are mine;
its songs are mi'!e; its God is miner'
Joy of the Christian.
Oh, it is no tame thing to become a
Christian. 1t is a merrymaking. 1t is
the killing of the fatted calf 1t is ju-
bilee You know the Bible never COM
pares it to a funeral, but always com
pares it to something bright. 1t is more
apt to be compared to banquet than
anything else. l. is compared in the BIZ
BILE to the water-hright, flashing wa
ter-to the morning, roseate, fire work
ed, mountain TRANSPORTED morning. !
wish | could today take all the Bible
EXPRESSIONS ABOUT pardon ana peace
and life and comfort and hope and
heaven, and twist them into one gar
land, and put it on the brow of the
humblest child of God in all this land,
and cry: Wear it, wear it now, wear
it forever, son OF God, daughter Of the
Lord God Almighty. Oh, tho joy Of the
new convertl Oh, the gladness Of the
Christian servicc!"
You have seen sometimes a man in
religious assembly get up and give his
experience. We'll, Paul gave his expert
ence, He rose i'll the presence CT two
churches-the church on earth and the
church i'll heaven and he said, Now,
this is my experience, sorrowful, yet
always rejoicing; poor, yet making
many rich; having nothing, yet pos.
sessing all things" If all the people
who read this sermon knew the joys Of
tho Christian religion, they would all
pass over into the kingdom of God the
next moment When Daniel Sandemau
~An n