The weekly intelligencer. [volume] (Lexington, Mo.) 1891-1901, 1897-03-13

ssAAx GEAMW there must be some
REV. TALMAGE. thing bounteous.
And all the comfortable homes of
Christendom have at SOM time cele-
brated joyful events by banquet and
festivity. Something has happened
on the i homestead greater than any
thing that has happened before. A
favorite son whom the world supposed
would become a vagabond and outlaw
forever has got tired of sightseeing
and has returned to his fathers house.
The world sal he never would come
back. The old man always said his
son would come back. He had been
looking for him day after day and
rear after year. He knew he would
come back. Now, having returned to
his fathers house the father ~proclaims
celebration. There is in the pad
dock a calf that has been kept
up and fed to utmost capacity, SO as to
be ready for some occasion of joy that
might come along. All! there never
would be a grander day on the old
homestead than this day. Let the
butchers do their work, and the house
keepers bring in to the able the smok-
ing meat. The musicians will take
their places, and h gay groups will
move up and down the floor. All the
friends and neighbors are gathered in
and an extra supply is sent out to the
table of the servants. The father pre-
sides at the table and says grace and
thanks God hat his long absent boy is
home again. OH how they missed
him, how glad they are to have him
back.
One brother stands pouting at the
back door and says: This is n great
ado about nothing; this bad boy should
have been chastised instead of greeted;
real is too good for him!" But the
father says: Nothing is good enough"
There sits the young man, glad at h
hearty reception, but a shadow of sor-
row fitting across his brow at h re-
membrance of the trouble he had seen.
All ready now. Let the covers lift.
Music. He was dead and he is alive
again! He was lost and he was found!
BY such bold imagery does the Bible
set forth the merry-making when a
soul comes home to God.
First of all, there is the new converts
joy. 1t is no tame thing to become a
Christian. The most tremendous mo-
ment in a mans life is when he sur
renders himself to God. The grandest
INK III viz i~hbiACA u - y y
the boy back. Among the great
throng who in the parlors of our
church professed Christ one night was
a young man who next morning rang
my door bell and said: ''Sir, | cannot
contain myself with the joy l feel; l
came acre this morning to express it; l
nave found more joy in five minutes
serving God than In all the years of my
prodigality, and | came to say So"
You have seen a man running for his
temporal liberty and the officers Of the
law after him, and you saw him escape,
or you afterward heard the judge had
~pardoned him, and how great was the
glee of hat rescued man: but it is a
very tame thing that compared with
the running for ones everlasting life,
the terrors of the law after him, and
Christ coming in to pardon and bless
and rescue and save.
You remember John Bunyan in his
great story tells how the pilgrim put
his fingers to his ears and ran, crying:
Life, life, eternal life" A poor car
driver some time ago, after years haV-
ing had to struggle to support his fam
lily, suddenly was informed that a large
inheritance was his, and there was a
joy amounting to bewilderment; but
That is a small thing compared with
the experience of one when he has put
in his hands ths title deed to the joys,
the raptures, the splendors of Heaven,
and he can truly say: Its mansions
are mine, its temples are mine, its
songs are mine, its God is mine? Oh,
il is no tame thing to become a Chris
tian. 1t is a m~erry-makipg. It is the
killing of the fatted calf. 1t is o jnbi-
lee. You know the Bible never COM
pares it to n funeral, but always com-
pares it to something delightful. 1t is
more apt to be compared to a banquet
than anything else. 1t is compared in
the Bible to water, bright, flashing
water, to the morning, Poseate. fire.
worked, mountain-transfigured morn
ing. l wish L could to-day take all the
Bible expressions about pardon, and
peace, and life, and twist them into
one garland and put it on the n of
the humblest child of God in this
asseinblage, and cry: :'Weer IT, wear
it now, wear it forever; son of God,
daughter of the Lord God Almighty"
Oh, the joy of the new convert. Oh,
the gladness of the Christian service.
Yop have seen sometimes a man in a
religions assembly get mp and give his
experience. Well, Paul gave his e9pe-
rience. He arose in the presence OF
the churches, the church on earth and
the churc in Heaven, and he said:
"Now, this is my experience; sorrow
full, yet always rejoicing-poor, yet
making many ricb=having nothing,
yet possessing all things" If the peQ-
pie of this house knew the joys of h
Christian religion they would all pass
over into the kingdom Of God the pext
moment. When Daniel Sandeman vas
dying Of cholera, his attendant said;
s'Haye you much pain?" ''0h," he re-
piled, 'since | found the Lore / have
never bad any pain except sim" e
they said TO him: "Would you like to
send "A message to yoair friends?" yes,
| would; tell them that only last night
the love of Jesus came rushing into my
soul like the surges of the sea, and
had to cry out: Stop, Lord, IL Is
enough; stop, Lord, e~nOugh!" Oh, the
joys OF this Christian religion. just
pass over from chose tame joys in
you are indulging, Joys Of
this world, into the raptures of the
The world cannot satisfy you;
you have found that out. alexander
for other worlds to conquer,
and yet drowned in his own bottle;
Byron whipped by disquietudes around
the world; Yoltaire cursing his own
soul while nil the streets of Paris were