The Canton times. (Canton, Miss.) 1893-1906, 1894-11-23
trALMAGES SERMON.
The Joyful Celebration When the
Prodigal Comes Home.
The Inexpressible Gladness Of the Christian
Service The joys OF the World Tame
When Compared With the Ray
lures of the Gospel.


while he has notyet begun active pulpi
work, makes selection of the following
sermon as appropriate for the time ant
the occasion. 1t is based on the text
Bring hither the fatted calf and kill it.--Luk
Nv, %.
In all ages of the world it has beer
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 oul
table may have stinted supply, or
Thanksgiving day there must be some
thing bounteous. 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, 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 returned to his fathers
house, the father proclaims celebra-
ton. There is calf in the pad
dock that has been kept up
and fed to utmost capacity, so
as to be ready for some occa-
sion of joy that might come along. All!
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 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 stancs
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 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 at the remembrance of the trouble |
he had seen. All ready now. Let the |
cover lift. Music. He was dead and |
be is alive again! He was lost and
ne is found By such bold imagery
Ices the Bible set forth the merry
making when soul comes home to
God.
First of all, there is the new con-
7ert's joy. 1t is no tame thing to be-
.orne Christian. The most tremulous
moment in mans life is when he sur
enders himself to God. The grandest
ime on the fathers homestead is when
he boy comes back. Among the great
hrong who, in the parlors of my
hurch, professed Christ one night was
young man, who next morning rang
ny door bell and said: ''Sir, can not
myself with the joy feel; l
anne here this morning to express it.
have found more joy in FIVE minutes
a serving God than in all the years of
ny prodigality, and came to say So"
You have seen, perhaps, a man rum
ing for his physical liberty, and the
Ulcers of the law after him; and you
lw him escape, or afterward you '
card the judge had pardoned him,
nd how great was the glee of that
escued man; but it is a very tame
hing that, compared with the rum {
ing for ones everlasting life-the ter
ors of the law after him, and Christ
oming in to pardon and bless and res
ne and save. You remember John '
unyan, in his great story, tell how
ne pilgrim put his fingers in his ears
nd ran, crying: Life, life, eternal
fep' A poor car driver, after having
ad to struggle to support his family
Or years, suddenly was informed that
large inheritance was his, and there
as Joy amounting to bewilderment;
ut that is a small thing compared {
18th the experience of one when he
as put in his hands the title deed to
ne joys, the raptures, the splendors
{ Heaven, and he can truly say: Its
are mine, it's temples are
line, it's songs are mine. its God Is
Iiner
Oh, it is no tame thing to become |
hristian. 1t is a merry-making. 1t
the killing of the fatted calf. 1t is I
lbiIee. You know the Bible never (
Dmpares it to a funeral, but always
ompares it to something bright 1t
more apt to be compared to banquet
han anything else. 1t is compared In I
he Bible to the water-bright, I
ASKING water; to the morning
oseate, fireworked, mountain-trans-