Connecticut western news., 1894-11-15
DR.TALMAGEATHOME
THE FACT SUGGESTS A SERMON ON HOME COMINGS AND PRODiGALs.

THE FACT SUGGESTS A SERMON ON
 HOME coMINGs AND PRoDicALs. There Is More Joy In Heaven Over the
 Repenting Sinner Than Over Any Other
 Event on Earth-Telegraphy of the Skies.
 Homo, Sweet Home.
 BRooKLYN, Nov. 11.-Rev. Dr. Tal- mage, having concluded his round tho world tour, has selected as the subject for today's discourse through the press Home Again." the text chosen being Luke xv, 23, Bring hither the fatted calf and kill 1t"
 In all ages of the world 1t 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 something bounteous. And all the comfortable homes of Chris tendon have at some time celebrated joyful events by banquet and festivity.
 Tho Rrodigals 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 rome. 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 proolaims celebration. There is calf in the paddock that has been kept up and fed to utmost capacity, so as to be ready for some occasion of. joy that might como along
 An, there never will be 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 presides at the table, and says grace, and thanks God that his long absent boy ia home again. Oh. how they missed himl How glad they are to have him baokl One brother indeed stands 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 him" But the fa- ther says: Nothing is too good. Noth- ing 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 covers lift. Music. He was dead, and he is alive againl He was lost, and he Is foundl By such bold imagery does the Bible set forth the merrymaking when a soul comes homo to God.
 The Young Convert.
 First of all, there is the new convert B joy. It Is no tame thing to become a Christian. The most tremendous mo ment in mans life is when he sur Tenaers himself to God. The grandest time on tho fathers homestead is when the boy comes back. Among the great throng who, in the paslors of my church, professed Christ one night was 8 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. have found more joy in five minutes in serving God than in all the years of my prodigality, and came to say so. "
 You have seen perhaps 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 pardoned him and how great was the glee of that rescued man But it is very tame thing that com pared with the running for one's 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, in his great sto- ry. tells how the pilgrim put his fin gers in his ears and ran, crying, Life, life, eternal lifep' A poor car driver, after having had to struggle to support his family for years, suddenly was in- formed that a large inheritance was his, and there was joy amounting to bewil- derment, but that is small thing com pared with the experience of one when he has put in his hands the title deed to the joys, the raptures, the splendors of heaven, and he can truly say, Its man. sions are mine; it's temples arc mine; its songs are mine; its God Is minei'
 U Joy of tho Christian.
 Oh, 1t Is no tame thing to become 8 Christian. It is merrymaking. It is the Killing of the fatted calf. It is ju- bilee. You know the Bible never com- pares 1t to a funeral, but always oom- pares it to something bright It is more apt to be compared to banquet than anything else. It Is compared in the Bi- ble to the water-bright, flashing wa ter-to the morning, roseate, fire work ed, mountain transfigured morning. wish could today take all the Bible expressions about pardon and peace and life and comfort and hope and heaven, and twist them into one gar. land. and put 1t on the brow of the humblest child of God in all this land, and cry: Wear it, wear 1t now, wear 1t forever, son of God. daughter of the Lord God Almighty. Oh, the joy of the new convertl Oh, the gladness of the Christian servicep'
 You have seen sometimes man in 2 religious assembly get up and give his experience. We'll, Paul gave his experi enoe. He rose in the presence of two churches-the church on earth and tho church in heaven-and he said, "Now, this is my experience, sorrowful, yet always re5oicing; poor, yet making many rich; having nothing, yet pos sessing all things." If all the people who read this sermon knew the joys oi the Christian religion, they would all pass over into the kingdom of God the next moment. When Daniel Sandema1 was dying of cholera, his attendant said, Have you much pain?'' "Oh, ,