Connecticut western news., 1896-04-09

have wandered. You wouldn't talk that way to me if you knew all the iniquities I have committed. " What is that flutte, among the angels of God? What is tha, horseman running with quick dispatch It is news It is news Christ has found the lost.
 Nor angels can their joy contain.
 But kindle with new fire.
 The sinner lost is found, they sing,
 And strike the sounding Tyre.
 When Napoleon talked of going intd Italy, they said: "You can't get there. If you knew what the Alps were, you wouldn't talk about it or think about it. You can't get your ammunition wagons over the Alps. Then Napoleon rose ir his stirrups, and, waving his hand to. ward the mountains, he said, "Therd shall be no Alpsr' That wonderful past was laid out which has been the won- derment of all the years since-the won- derment of all engineers. And you tell me there are such mountains of sin be- tween your soul and God there is nc mercy. Then I see Christ waving his hand toward the mountains. I hear him say, "I will come over the mountains oi thy sin and the hills of thine iniquity. ' There shall be no Pyrenees; there shall be no Alps.
 Repentant.
 Again, notice that this resolution oi the young man of my text was founded in sorrow at bis misbehavior. It was not mere physical plight. It was grief that he had so maltreated his father. It is g sad thing after father has done every thing for child to have that child un- grateful.
 How sharper than a serpent's tooth 1t is
 To have thankless child.
 That is Shakespeare. "A foolish son is the heaviness of his mother" That is the Bible. We'll, my friends, have not some of us been cruel prodigals2 Have we pot maltreated our Father? And suct Fatheri Three times day has he fec thee. He has poured sunlight into thy day, and at night kindled up all the street lamps of heaven. With what vari. cities of apparel he hath clothed thee fol the seasons Whose eye watches theei Whose hand defends theef Whose heart sympathizes with thee? Who gave you your children? Who is guarding yonl loved ones departed? Such Father Sc loving, so kind. If he had been a stran- ger. if he had forsaken us, if he had flagsllated us, if he had pounded us and turned us out of doors on the commons. it would not have been so wonderful our treatment of him-but he is Fla. ther, so loving, so kind, and yet how many of us for our wanderings have never apologizedl If we say anything that hurts our friends feelings, if we do anything that hurts the feelings of those in whom we are interested, how quickly we apologize We can scarcely wait un til we get pen and paper to write let ter of apology. How easy it is for any one who is intelligent, right hearted, to write an apology or make an apolo- gyl We apologize for wrongs done to -oui fellows, but some of us perhaps have committed ten thousand times ten thou sand wrongs against God and never apologized.
 Iremark still further that this resolu- tion of the text was founded in feel ing of homesickness. do not know how long this young man, how many months, how many years, he had been away from his fathers house, but there is some- thing about the reading of my text that makes me think he was homesick. Some of you know what that feeling is. Far away from home sometimes, surround ed by everything bright and pleasant plenty of friends-you have said, "l would give the world to be home to- night. We'll, this young man was homesick for his fathers house. have no doubt when he thought of his fathers house he said, "Now perhaps father may not be living" We read nothing in this story-this parable-founded on everyday life; we read nothing about the mother. It says nothing about going home to her. think she was dead. think she had died of a broken heart at his wanderings, or perhaps he had gone into dissipation from the fact that ho could not remember loving and sym pathetic mother. A man never gets over having lost his mother. Nothing said about her, but he is homesick for his fa- ther's house. He thought he would just like to go and walk around the old place. He thought he would just like to go and see if things were as they used to be. Many man after having been off a long while has gone home and knocked at the door, and a stranger has come. It is the old homestead, but a stranger comes to the door. He finds out father is gone, and mother is gone, and broth CTS and sisters are all gone. think this young man of the text said to himself, Perhaps father may be dead" Still, he starts to find out. He is homesick. Are there any here today homesick foi God, homesick for heaven?
 A sailor. after having been long on the sea- returned to his fathers house, and hts mother tried to persuade him not to go away again. She said: "Now. you had better stay at home. Don't go away. We don't want you to go. You will have it great deal better here. |" But it made him angry. The night be- fore he went away again to sea he heard his mother praying in the next room, and that made him more angry. He went far out on the sea, and storm came up, and he was ordered 10 very perilous duty, and he ran up the rat lines, and amid the shrouds of the ship he heard the voice that he had heard in the next room. He tried to whistle it off, he tried to rally his courage, but he could not silence the voice he had heard in the next room, and there in the storm and darkness he said: 70 Lord, what a wretch have beeni What wretch I am Help me just now, Lord God. '' And thought in this assemblage today there may be some who may have the memory of fathers petition or a mothers prayer pressing nightly upon the soul, and that ,Sis hour they may make the same resolution I find in my text, saying, "I will arise and go to my father"
 A lad at Liverpool went out to bathe went out into the sea, went out too far, got beyond his depth, and he floated far away. A ship bound for Dublin came along and took him on board. Sailors are generally very generous fellows, and one gave him 8 cap, and another gave him a jacket, and another gave him