Fisherman & farmer. [volume] (Edenton, N.C.) 1887-19??, 1894-11-23
REV. DIR. TALMAGE.
THE BROOKLYN DIVINE'S SUN
DAY SERMON.
Subject: "Home Again.

In all ages Of the world 1t has been GUS
tomary 70 celebrate joyful events by festiv-
ity-the signing Of treaties, the proolama-
ton OF peace. the Christmas. the marriage.
However much on other days Of the year
our table may have stinted supply. on
Thanksgiving there must be something
bounteOus. And all the comfortable MONIES
Of ChristandOm have at SOM time Ce!e-
hrated joyful events by banquet and 'es-
tivitv.
Something has happene1 in the old home
stead greater than anything that has ever
happened before. A favorite SOD, whom the
world supposed would become vagabond
and outlaw forever has got tired of sight
saeing and has returned to his fathers
rouse 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 celebration. There ts cali 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 come along.
Alb. there never will be grander day on
| the Old homes: cad 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 preside- 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 him." But
| the father says s"NOthing is too good.
| Nothing is good enough" There sits the
| yon1g man. glad at the hearty reception,
l~,,& Oh, Jorx 81
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
! again! He was lost, and he Is found! By
such bold imagery does the Bible set forth
| the merrymaking when a soul comes home
| to God.
First OF all, there Is the new converts Joy.
! II is no tame thing to become Christian.
: The most tremendous moment in a mans
| life is when he surrenders 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
church, protested Christ one night was a
! Young man. who next morning rang my
| doorbell and said "Sir, l cannot contain
myself with the 10y feel. l came here this
| Joy in five minutes in serving God than in
all the years of my prodigaltty, and came
| to say So"
You have seen perhaps man running 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 res
! cued man! But 1t is a very tame thing that
| compared 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 remember John
| BunyaD, in his great story, tells how the pill
| grim put his fingers in his ears and ran, cly-
ing, "Life, life, eternal life" A poor car
| driver, after having had to struggle to sup
| port his family for years, suddenly was in
| formed that large inheritance was his, and
| there was Joy amounting to bewilderment
| 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 raptures,
the SptendOrs of heaven, and he can truly
say, "Its mansions are mine; its temples are
mine its songs are mine its God is mine ~
Oh, It is no tame thing to become a Chris
tian. 1t is a merrymaking. 1t is the killing
of the fatted calf. 1t is jubilee. You know
the Bible never compares 1t to funeral, but
always compares it to something bright. 1t
| is more apt to be compared to a banquet
than anything else. If is compared in the
Bible to the water-5right, flashing water
TO the morning, roseate, fire worked, noun
tain TRANSPORTED morning. l wish / could
to-day take all the Bible expressions 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 hum
blest child Of God in all this land, and cry
Wear it, wear it now. we ar it forever, son
o? God. daughter of the L ord God Almighty.
On, the Joy of the new convert Oh, the
gladness of the Christian service ~
You have seen sometimes man in re-
hgiOus assembly get up and give his expe-
renee We'll, Paul gave his experience.
He rose i'll the presence of two churches
the church on earth and the church in
heaven-and he said. Now, this is my ex-
perIence, sorrowful, yet always rejoicing
poor, yet making many rich having moth
ing, yet possessing all things" II all the
people who read this sermon knew the joys
OF the Christian religion, they would all
pass over into the kingdom of God the next
moment. When Daniel Sandman was dy-
ing of cholera. his attendant said, "Have
you much pain?" SOB" he replied, 'since
found the Lord 1 have never had any pain
except sim" Then they said to him.
would you like to seni message to your
trients?' Eyes. 1 would. Tell them that
only last night the love OF Jesus came rush.
ing into my soul like the surges OF the sea,
and had to cry out Stop, Lord it is
emo Stop, Ihordcenough =" oh;
Just pass over from those tame joys in
which you are Neutrality-suspicious. of this
Word-into the rap'ures of the gospel The
world cannot satisfy you; you have found
out-Alexander longing for other worlds to
conquer and yet drowned in his own bottle
world, Voitaire cursing his own soul while
all the sire Its o. Paris were applauding him.
Henry II. consuming with hatred against
poor Thomas Beckett. all illustrations of
the tact that this world cannot make man
happy The very man who poisoned the
pOmmel of the saddle or which Queen
Elizabeth rode shouted in the street, ''God
Save the Queenr' One moment the world
applauds. and the next moment the world
mathematics.
int low
sublime solace, this magnificent beatitude
The night after tho battleof Shiloh there
werH thousands of wounded on the field, and
the nmbulances had not come. One Chris
tlan soldier. lying there a-dying under the
starlight, began to sing
There is a land of pure delight.
And when we came to the next line there
were scores OF voices united
Where saints immortal reign.
The song was caught up all over the field
among the wounded until it was said that
there were at least 10000 wounded men
uniting their voices rs they came to the
verse:
There everG sling spring abdes
And never whitening flowers.
Death. like narrow stream, divides
That heavenly land from ours.
Oh, it is great religion to live by, and it
is great religion TO die by. There is only
one heart throb between YOU and that reliS-
ion this moment. Just look into the face of
your pardoning GOD, and surrender yourself
Tor time and for eternity. and He is yours.
and heaven is yours, AMI all is yours. Some
OF YOU. like the young man OF the text, have
gone astray. L know not the history, but
you know it-you know it.
When young man went forth into life,
the legend says, his guardian angel went
forth with him, and getting him into field
the guardian angel swept a circle clear
around where the young man stood. 1t was
a circle of virtue and honor, and he must
not step beyond that circle. Armed foes
came down, but were obliged TO halt at the
circle. They could not pass. But one day
temptress, with diamoned hand, stretched
forth and crossed that circle with the hand,
and the tempted soul took 1t, and by that
one fell grip was brought beyond the circle
| and died