The Monitor-register., 1896-04-10
THE TURNING POINT.
AT WILL ARISE AND GO TO MY FS'
THEIR"

Tha PrOd1EHlB
BY the Father.
WASHINGTON, April ga most rad
ical gospel sermon is the one =. So,Sn
nv Dr. falmage. 1t runs up ana uomn
he whole gamut of glorious lnVlration.
His text was Luke XIV, Is, Il Will ARISE
and go to my father" ..to
There is nothing like hunger 10 'aAo
the energy out of a man. A hungry mMl
oon toll neither with pen nor hand nor
foot. There has been many an army oe-
fested not so much for lack OF ammun.
tion as for lack of bread. 1t was tha'
fact that took the fire out OF his young
man of the text. Storm and exposure
will wear out my mans life in time,
Int hunger makes quick work. The most
awfui cry ever heard on earth is the cry
for bread. A traveller tells us that III
Asia Minor there are trees which pear
fruit looking very much like the long
bean of our time. 1t is called the carou.
Once In awhile the people. reduced TO
d~estitution. would eat these caroDs' pu'
ooraralIv the carobs-the beans SPOKEN
~ here in the text-were thrown only u
tba swine. and they crunched them with
great ayidity. But this young man OF
INV text could not even get them with
ont stealing them. So one day, amId the
swine troughs, he begins to soliioqulze.
He says: "These are no CLONES ior
rich mans son to wear. This is no /
~ business for a Jew to be engaged in,
feeding swine. I'll go home. I'll go
home. I will arise and got o my father.
I know there are a great many people
wbo try to throw a fascination, a ro-
nance, a halo, about sin; but, notwith-
standing all that Lord Byron and George
Sand have said in regard to it, it is a
mean, low, contemplate business, and
puttinq food and fodder into the troughs
of a herd of i~niquities that root and
wallow in the soul of man is a very
DOOR 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 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 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 Injuries 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, 81 will arise and go to my
fatherp' In the time of Mary, the perse-
cutor, 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 m 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 nc hereto here" "Ahl" she said.
"You look in the glass, and you will see
the hereto.
Our Lost Condition.
As I take up the mirror Of Gods
word today I would that instead of see
ing the prodigal of the text we might
see ourselves-our want, our wander
we might be 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 a disgust at his present cir
cumstances. If this young man had been
by his employer set to eulturing 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: 81 have s., 900
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
ON around the old place such conduct as
I have been engaged in. l won't GO
home. There is no reason why should
60 home. I have plenty of money,
plenty of pleasant surroundings. Why
should I go homer" All, it was his pau
perism, it was his beggaryl He had to
90 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 I'M
til he realizes he is in a famine struck
state. Suppose I should ONE to you in
your home, and you are in good, sound,
robust health, and I 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
sician and that physician. After awhile
you would get tired, and you would say +;
II don't want to near about medicines.
Why do you talk to me of physicians? ]
never have a doctor" But suppose ]
come into your house, and find you Sc
verely sick, and I know the medicines
that will cure you, and / know the ply
bician who is skillful enough to meet
your case. You say: "Bring on all that
medicine; bring on that physician ]
am terribly sick, and / want help" II
l 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 yor
say, Bring me that balm of the COS
pei; bring me that divine ~medicament !;
bring me Jesus Christ"
But, :" says some one in the audience.
how do you know that we are in o
ruined condition by sin?" Well, [ can
prove it in two ways, and you may have
your choice. l can prove it either by the
statements of men or by the statemenl
Of God. Which shall it be? You say.
"Let us have the statement of Cod"
Well. he says in n place, "The heart
is deceitful above all things and desper-
ately wicked" He says in another place.
what is man that he should be clean,
and he which is born of woman that be
should be riehteousr" He says in anoth
er place, "There is none that doeth good
mo-, not one" He says in another
place, "As by n man sin entered into
the world, and death by sin, and SO
death passed upon all men, for that all
had sinned." "Well," you say, II am
willing to acknowledge that, but why
should I take the particular rescue that
you propose?" This is the reason: eek
cept a man be born again he cannot see
the kingdom of God" This is the rea-
son: "There is one name given under
heaven among men whereby they may
be saved Then there are a Thousand
voices here ready to say: "Well. ! am
ready to accept this help of the gospel
I would like to have this divine cure.