The McCook tribune. (McCook, Neb.) 1886-1936, 1896-04-17

pread. 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 in Asia Minor
there are trees which bear fruit look
Ing very much like the long bean of our
time. 1t IS called the carob. Once in a
while the people, reduced to destitu-
ton, would eat these carobs, but gen.
orally the carobs, the beans spoken of
here in the text, were thrown only to
the swine, and they crunched them
with great avidity. But this young
man of my text could not ever get
them without stealing them. So one
day, amid the swine troughs, he begins
to soliloquize. He says: "These are
no clothes for a rich mans son to wear;
this is no kind of business for a Jew to
be engaged in, feeding swine; I'll go
home; I'll go home; I will arise and go
to my father" know there are a great
many people who try to throw a fasci-
nation, a romance, a halo about sin;
but Notwithstanding all that Lord
Byron and George Sand have said in
regard to it, it is a mean, low, con-
temptible business, and putting food
and fodder into the troughs of a herd
OF %iniauities that root and wallow in
the soul Of man is a very poor business
for men and women intended to be sons
and daughters Of the Lord Almighty,
and when this young man resolved to
go home 1t was a 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 be 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 bloodhounds
of hell. Satan comes to us to-day and
he promises all luxuries and emolu-
ments If we will only serve him. Liar,
down with thee to the pit! "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
uy IdIuCls LII tuC lluuS VI V1dIys ll6
prosecutor, a prosecutor came to a
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 a glass. He said: There is no
hereto here" "Ah!" she said, you
look in the glass and you will see the
hereto"
AS I take up the mirror Of Gods
Word to-day, I would that. instead Of
seeing the prodigal of the text, we
might see ourselves-our want, our wan
dering, our sin, our lost condition, so
that we might be al wise as this young
man was and say, 81 will arise and go
to my father" The resolution Of this
text was formed in a disgust at his
present circumstances. If this young
man had been by his employer set to
culturing flowers, or training vines
over an arbor, or keeping an account
Of the pork market, or overseeing other
iaborers, he would not have thought Of
going home. If he had had his pockets
full of money, IL he had been able to
say. II have a thousand dollars now Of
my own, what's the use of my going
back to apologize to the old man? why,
he would put me on the limits; he
-1,lJ -o& houa yotno On orO11nd tho
old place such conduct as 1 have been
engaged in; 1 won't go home; there is
no reason why I should go home; I
have plenty Of money, plenty of pleas
ant surroundings; why should I go
homer" All! it was his pauperism, 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 nineteenth
century, and talk Of something more
exhilarating?" 1t is for this reason:
IA man never wants the Gospel until
me realizes he is in a famine-struck
state. Suppose I should come to you
in your home, and you are in good,
sound, robust health, and I should be-
gin 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 physician and that physician. At
ter awhile you would get tired, and you
would say: Fl don't want to hear about
medicines. Why do you talk to me OF
physicians? I new have a doctor"
But suppose I come into your house
and / find you severely sick, and 1 know
the medicines that will cure you, and
I know the physician that is skillful
enough to meet your case. You say:
Bring on that medicine, bring on that
physician. I am terribly sick, and I
want help" If I come to you 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
I 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 Gospel, bring me
that divine medicament, bring me Jesus
Christ" But" says some n in the