The Bossier banner., 1894-12-27
TALMAGES SERMON.
The Joyful Celebration When the
Prodigal Comes Home.
The Incxpressible Gladness of the Christian
Seryice-The Joys G.; the World Tame
41 When Compared With the Rap
lures OF the Gospel.


lures OF tke Gospel
Rev.T. Dewitt Talmage is homeagain
from his tour around the world; and
while he has notyet begun active pulpit
work, makes selection of the following
sermon as appropriate for the time and
the occasion. 1t is based on the text:
Bring hither the fatted calf and kill it.-Luke
XIV, 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, Oh
Thanksgiving day there must be some
thing hounteous. And all the COM
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 vagabond and outlaw for
ever, mas 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 oeca-
sion of joy that might come along. All!
there neverwil1 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 astano S
pouting at the back door, and says:
This is great ado about nothing;
this bad boy should have been
chastened instead of greeted: veal is
too good for hirn!" 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 atthe remembranc 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 found. by such bold imagery
does the Bible set forth the merry
making when soul comes home. to
God.
First Of all, there is the new con-
vert's JOY. 1t is no tame thing to be-
come Christian. The most1nem nemulous
moment in mans life is when he sur
renders himself to God. The granaest
time on the fathers homestead is when
the boy comes back. Among the great
throng who in the parlors of my
church, professed Christ one night was
a young man, who next morning rang
my door bell and said: ''Sir, 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 prodigahty, and came to say so. !"
You have seen, perhaps, man rum
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 pardoned him,
and how great was the glee of that
rescued man; but it is a very tame
thing that, compared with the run
ming for one's everlasting life-the ter
rors of the law after him, and Christ
coming in to pardon and bless md fes-
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
! life!" A poor car driver, after having
had to struggle to support his family
for years, suddenly was informed that
a large inheritance was his, and there
was JOY duiOuabfnS 10 DCWIIucIAiCnt;
but that is a small thing compared
with the experience of one when he
| has put in his hands the title deed to
| the joys, the Taptures, the splendors
| of Heaven, and he can truly say: 'Its
mansions are mine, its temples are
mine, its songs are mine, its God is
miner'
Oh, it is no taIne thing to become a
Christian. 1t is merry making. II
is the killing of the fatted calf. 1t is
jubilee. You kgow the Bible never
compares it to 7 funeral, but always
compares it to something bright. II
is more apt TO be compared to a banquet
than anything else. 1t is compared il
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 expires
sions about pardon and peace, and life
and comfort, and hope and Heaven
| and twist thez4 into one garland, ant
put it on tbs bl9w of the hunbles
child of God IN al this land. and cry
"Wear it, wear il new, wear it forever