Peninsula enterprise. [volume] (Accomac, Va.) 1881-1965, 1896-04-11

toned Gospel IN His New Fashioned way
The Prodigaps Return and Forgiveness
by tho Father.
WASHINGTON, April 5.-A most rad
ical gospel sermon is the one of today
by DR.. Talmage. 1t runs up and down
the whole gamut of glorious invitation.
His text was Luke XIV, is, Il will arise
and 90 to my father. y
There is nothing like hunger to take
the energy out of man. A hungry man
can toll neither with pen nor hand nor
foot. There has been many an army de-
feated not so much for lack Of ammunl-
tion as for lack of bread 1t was that
fact that took the fire out of this young
man of the text Storm and exposure
will wear out any mans life in time,
but hunger makes quick work. The most
awful cry ever heard on earth is the cry
for bread. A traveller tells us that III
Asia Minor there are trees which bear
fruit looking very much like the long
bean of our time. 1t is called the carob.
Once in awhile the people. reduced to
restitution, would eat these carobs, but
generally tho carobs-the beans spoken
of here i'll the text-were thrown only to
the swine, and they crunched them with
great avidity. But this young man OF
my text could not even get them with
out stealing them. So one day, amid the
swine troughs, no begins to soliloquize
He says: "These are no clothes for Il
rich mans sou to wear. This is no kind
Of business for Jew to be engaged IN,
feeding swine. I'll go home. I'll 60
home Twill arise and go to my father. "
know there are great many people
who try to throw a fascination, ro-
nance, halo, about sin; but, notwith-
standing all that Lord Byron and George
Sand have said i'll regard to it, it is a
mean, low, contemplate business, and
putting food and fodder into the trouGhs
of herd of iniquitios that root and
wallow in the soul of man is a very
poor business for men and women in
tended to be SONS and daughters of the
Lord Almighty, and when this young
man resolved to go home it was very
wise thing for him to do, and the only
question is whether we will follow him.
Satan promises large wages if we will
serve him, but he clothes his victims
with rags. and he pinches them with
hunger, and when they start out to do
better he sets after them all the blood
hounds of hell Satan comes to us today,
and he promises all luxuries and emolu-
ments if we will only serve him. Liar,
down with thee to the pit 1.-THE wages
of sin is death. Oh, the young man Of
the text was wise when he uttered the
resolution, II will arise and go to my
father' In the time of Mary, the perse-
cutor, prosecutor came to Christian
woman who had hidden in her house for
the Lords sake one of Christ's servants,
and the prosecutor said, "Where is that
heretic?" The Christian woman said,
"You open that trunk, and you will see
the hereto. " The prosecutor opened the
trunk, and on the top of the linen of the
trunk he saw glass He said, "There
is no hereto here. - "Ah! !" she said.
"You look i'll the glass, and you will see
the hereto. y
Our Lost Condition.
AS take up the mirror Of God s
word today would that instead of see
ing the prodigal of tho text we might
see ourselves-our want, our wander
ing, our sin, our lost condition, so that
we might BIO as wise as this young man
was and say, 81 will arise and go to my
father. The resolution of this text was
formed in disgust at his present cir
cumstances. If this young man had been
by his employer set to culturing flow
ers, or training vines over an arbor, or
keeping an account of the pork market,
or overseeing other laborers, he would
not have thought Of going home-if he
had had his pockets full of money If he
had been able to say: II have $1,000
now of my own. what's the use of my
going back to my fathers house? Do
you think I'm going back to apologize
to the old man? Why, he would put me
on the limits. He would not have going
Oh around the old place such conduct as
[ have been engaged in. I won't go
home. There is no reason why should
90 home. l have plenty of money,
plenty of pleasant surroundings. Why
should l 90 home?" All, it was his pau
perism, it was his beggary He had to
go home. Some man comes and says to
me- "Why do you talk about the ruined
state of the human soul? Why don t you
speak about the progress of the nine
teenth century and talk of something
more exhilarating?" 1t is for this rea-
son: A man never wants the gospel un-
til he realizes he is i'll famine struck
state. Suppose l should come to you in
your home, and you are in good, sound,
robust health and | should begin to
talk about medicines, and about how
much better this medicine is than that,
and some other medicine than some
other medicine, and talk about this ply
stefan and that physician. After awhile
you would get tired, and you would say
~ don't want to hear about medicines.
Why do you talk to me of physicians? l
never have doctor. :" But suppose l
come into your house, and find you Sc
verely sick, and I know the medicines
that will cure you, and know the ply
stefan who is skillful enough to meet
your case. You say Bring on all that
medicine; bring on that physician. l
am terribly sick, and l want help. II
l come to ycu, and you feel you are all
right in body, and all right in mind,
and all right in soul, you have need of
nothing, but suppose l have persuaded
you that the leprosy of sin is upon you,
the worst of all sickness. Oh, then you
say, Bring me that balm of the gos-
pei; bring me that divine medicameit
bring me Jesus Christ.
But, says some one in the audience,
chow do you know that we are i'll a
ruined condition by sin?" Well, [ can
...o-.o - =, +ra ,rorc aud Won may have