Fisherman & farmer. [volume] (Edenton, N.C.) 1887-19??, 1894-11-23

claimed festival. if was an outbur5t of a
fathers love and a fathers joy. God is
your father.
have not much sympathy with that de-
scriptfon ofGod sometimes hear, asthough
He were a Turkish sutan-hard and unsym-
pathetic and listening not TO the CRY of His
subjects. A man told me he saw in one ofthe
eastern lands king riding along, and two
men were in an alteration, and one charged
the other with having eaten his rice. and
the king said, ''Then Stay the man, and by
post mortem examination find whether he
has eaten the rice" And he was slain. All,
the cruelty Of q scene like that Our Gods
not sultan, not a despot, but a father
kind, loving, forgivinG-and He makes all
heaven ring again when prodigal comes
back. 81 have no PLEASURE He says, "in
the death of him that dieth."
ia man does not get heaven, it is because
he will not 90 there. No difference the col
or no difference the history. no difference
the antecedents, no difference the surround
ings, no difference the sin. When the white
horses of Christ'S victory are brought out to
celebrate the eternal triumph. you may ride
one of them. and, as God is greater tn IN all,
His Joy is greater, and when a soul comes
back there is in His heart the surging OF an
infinite ocean of gladness, and TO express
that gladness it takes all the rivers OF pleas
ure, and all the thrones Of pomp, and all the
ages of eternity. 1t is iov deeper than all
depth and higher than all height, and
wider than all width, and vaster than all i'm
mensity. It overtops. it uudergirls, ii o ut
weighs all the united spiendor and Joy Of the
universe. Who can tell what Gods Joy is?
You remember reading the story OF king
who on some great day of festivity scat
tered silver and gold among the people, who
sent valuable presents TO his courtlers, but
methinks when soul comes back God is
so glad that TO express His Joy He filings out
new worlds into space, kindles up new suns
and rolls among the white robed anthems OF
the redeemed greater halI9Iuiap, while
with voice that reverberateS among the
mountains of frankincense and is echoed
back from the everlasting gates He cries,
"This, my son. was dead and is alive again! y
At the opening of the exposition in New
Orleans l saw a Mexican futist. and he
played the solo, and then afterward the
eight or ten bands of music, accompanied by
the great organ, came in, but the sound OF
that one flute as compared with all the Or
chestra was greater than all the combined
Joy of the universe when compared with the
resounding heart of Almighty Goo.
For ten years father went three times a
day to the depot. His son went off in ag-
grayating circumstances, but the father said,
''He will come back" The strain was too
much. and his mind parted. and three times
a day the father went. In the early morning
be watched the train-its arrival, the step
ping out of the passengers, and then the de-
parture of train. At noon lie was there
watching the departure.
At night there again, watching the COM
ing, watching the going, for ten years. He
was sure his son would come back. God has
been watching and waiting for some of you,
my brothers, ten years. twenty years. thirty
years, forty years, perhaps fifty years, wait
ing, waiting. watching. watching, and if
this morning the prOdigal should come
home, what a scene of gladness and festivity
and how the great Fathers heart would
rejoice at your coming home! You will
come, some OF you, will you not? You will,
you will
notice also that when prodigal comes
home there is the joy Of the ministers of re-
ligion. Oh, it is a grand thing to preach
this gospel! know there has been great
deal said about the trials and the hardsnips
of the Christian ministry. wish somebody
would write good. rousng book about the
joys OF the Christian ministry. Since 1 en-
tered the profession l have seel more Of the
goodness of God than l will be able to cee.
brate in all eternity. [ know some boast
about their equilibrium, and they do not
rise into enthusiasm, and they do not break
down with emotion, but I confess to you
plainly that when I see man coming to
God and giving up his sin feel in body,
mind and soul a transport. Whom l see a
man who is bound hand and foot in evil
habit emancipateG, l rejoice over it as
though it were my own emancipation. When,
in our Communion service, such throngs of
young and old stoodup at the affairs and in
the presence of heaven and earth and hell
attested their allegiance to Jesus Christ, I
felt Joy something akin to that which the
apostle describes when he says: whether
in the body cannot tell or out of the body
l cannot tell. God knoweth."
Have not ministers a right to rejoice
Wien Prodigal comes nomer They blew
the trumpet, and ought they not to be glad
of the gathering of the host2 They pointed
nrnlX- I IItphf or 70
joice when souls pant as the hart for the
water brooks? They came forth saying,
"All things are now ready" Ought they
not rejoice when the pro itgal sits down at
the banquet?
Life Insurance men will all tell you that
ministers of religion as a class live longer
than any other. 1t is confirmed by the
statistics of all those who calculate upon
human longevity. Why is it? There
is more draft upon the nervous system
than IN any other profession, and
their toll is most exhausting. l have
seen ministers Kept on miserable sti-
ponds by parsmonious congregations
who wondered at the dullness of the sermon,
when the men of God were perplexed almost
to death by questions of livelihood and had
not enough nutritious food to keep any fire
IN their temperament. No fuel no fire. [
have sometimes seen the inside of the life of
many OF the American clergymen-never ac-
cepting their hospitality because they can
not afford it-but have seen them struggle
on with salaries of $500 and 5000 a year the
average less than that, their struggle we'll
depicted by the Western missionary who
says IN letter "Thank you for your last
remittance. Until it came we had not any
meat IN our house Tor one year, and all last
winter although It was a severe winter, our
children wore their summer clothes"
And these men of God | find in different
parts OF the land, struggling against annoy
ances and exasperations fnnumerable some
Of them week after week entertaining agents
who have maps to sell and submitting them
selves to all styles OF annoyances, and vet
without complaint and cheerful Of SON.
How do you account for the fact that Z 50
life insurance men tell US that ministers as a
class live longer than any others? 1t is be-
cause of the JOY of their work, the joy of the
harvest field, the Joy of greeting proGigals
home to their Fathers house.
We are in sympathy with all innocent
hilarities. We can enjoy a hearty song, and
we can be merry with the merriest, but those
of US who have toiled in the service are
ready to testify all these joys are tame COM
pared with the satisfaction Of seeing men
enter tho kingdom of God. The great eras
of every minister are the outrourings Of the
Holy Ghost, and I thank God I have seen
twenty Of them, Thank God, thank God
/ notice also when the prodigal comes
back all earnest Christians rejoice. If YOU
stood on promontory, and there was hur-
ElcdQo dl sea, anu IL was DAOWIHS lO"dEu tHo
shore and vessel crashed into the rocks.
and you saw people get ashore IN the life
boats, and the very last man got on the rocks
in safety, you could not control your joy.
And it is glad time when the church of God
sees men who are tossed on the ocean oftheir
sins plant their feet on the rock Christ Jesus.
When prodigals come home, just hear
those Christians sing! It is not 4 dull tune
you hear at such times. Just hear those
Christians pray 1t is not stereotyped sup
plication we have heard over and over for
twenty years, but a putting of the case inthe
hands of God with an importunate pleading.
Men never pray at great length unless they
hard and cold Ali the prayers in the Bible
that were answered were short prayers.
God be merciful to me, a sinner Lord,
that 1 may receive my sight"
lord, save me or perish" The longest
PRAYER SolomOn's PRAYER ut the dedication