The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1897-03-24

oeu VI IetudrSy duu cOne Oul iIou youA uo-
lirium OF sin and look on the clock OF your
destiny this moment, you would see and
hear something you have not seen or heard
before, and every tick of the minute, and
every stroke of the hour and every swing OF
the pendulum would say, NOW. now. now,
now!" Oh, come home to your Fathers
housel Come home, o prodigal, from the
wilderness! Come home, come home!
But I notice that when the prodigal came,
there was the fathers Joy. He did not greet
him with any formal How do you do?'' He
did not come out and say: ''You are unfit to
enter. Go and wash In the trough by the
well, and then you can come in: We have
had enough trouble with you" Alb, no!
When the proprietor Of that estate pro-
claimed festival, 1t was an outburst OF a
fathers love and fathers Joy. God is your
father. I have not much sympathy with
the description OF God 1 sometimes hear, as
though He were Turkish sultan, hard
and unsympathetie, and listening not
to the cry Of His subjects. A man
told me. he saw in one OF the
and two men were IL alteration and one
charged the other with having eaten his rice,
and the king said, "Then say the man, and
by post mortem examination find whether
he has eaten the rice" And he was slain.
Ah. the cruelty of scene like that! Our
God is not sultan, not despot, but
Father-kind, loving, forgiving-and he
makes all heaven ring again when prod1gal
comes back. II have no pleasure" he says,
be saved. If a man does not get to heaven,
It Is because he will not 60 there. No
difference the color, no difference the
history, no difference the antecedents,
no difference the surroundings, no diff
ference the sin. When the white horses
of Christ's victory are brought out to
celebrate the eternal triumph, you may
ride one of them, and as God is greater than
all, His joy is greater, and when a soul
surging of an infinite ocean OF glad
ness, and to express that gladness It
takes all the rivers Of pleasure, all
the thrones of pomp and all the ages OF
eternity. 1t is a Joy deeper than all depth
and higher than all height and wider than
all width and vaster than all i'm
mensity. 1t overtops, 1t undergirds,
it outweighs all the united splendor
and JOY of the universe and who can
icg the story of king who on some great !,
day of festivity scattered silver and gold
among the people. who sent valuable presents
to his courtiers, but methinks, when soul
comes back, God Is so glad that to express
his Joy He filings out new worlds into space
and kindles up new sums and rolls among
the white robed anthems OF the redeemed
greater halleluiah, while with q voice that
reverberates among the mountains OF frank
incense and Is echoed back from the ever
lasting gates he cries, "This, my son, was
dead, and he Is alive againF'
At the opening of the exposition In New
Orleans I saw a Mexican flutist, and he
PLAYED the solo, and then afterward the eight
OF ten bands Of music, accompanied by the
great organ, came in, but the sound OF that
one flute as compared with all the orchestras
was greater than all the combined joy OF the
universe when compared with the resound-
ing heart of Almighty God. For Ten years a
father went three times day to the depot.
His son went off in aggrayating eircum-
stances, but the father said. "He will come
back" The strain was too much and his
mind parted, and threetimes a day the father
the train. its arrival, the stepping out
of the passengers and then the departure
OF the train. At noon he was there again
watching the advance of the train, watching
the departure At night he was there again,
watchdog the coming, watching the going,
for ten years. He was sure his son would
come back. God has been watching and
waiting for some Of you. my brothers, ten
years, twenty years, thirty years, forty years,
perhaps uity years, n"'ine, "oi.n6!
watching. watching and II now the prodigal
should come home, what scene Of gladness
and festivity, and how the great Fathers
heart would rejoice at your coming home.
notice also that when prodigal comes
home there Is the Joy of the ministers OF re-
ligion. Oh, it is grand thing to preach this
gospel! know there has been great deal
said about the trials ana the hardships OF
the Christian ministry. j wish somebody
would write good rousing book about the
joys Of the Christian ministry. Since en-
tered the profession have seen more Of the
goodness OF God than will be able to cele-
brate in all eternity. I know some boast
about their equilibrium, and they do not
rise into enthusiasm. and they do not break
down with emotion, but I confess to you
plainly that when / see man coming to God
and giving up his sin feel in body, mind
and soul transport. When l see a man
bound hand and foot in evil habit emanci-
pated, I rejoice over It as though It were my
own emancipation.
At the banquet of Lucullus sat Cicero the
orator, ut the Macedonian festival sat Philip
the conqueror, at the Grecian banquet sat
Socrates the philosopher, but at our Fathers
table sit all the returned prodigals, more
than conquerors. Tho table Is SO wide its
leaves reach across seas and lands. Its guests
are the redeemed OF earth and the glorilef
of heaven. The ring of Gods for
giveness on every hand. The robe OF
Saviour's righteousness adroop from every
shoulder. The wine that glows in the cups
is from the bowls of10,000 sacraments. Let
all the redeemed OF earth and allthe glorttlei
of heaven rise and with cleaning chalices
drink to tho return of thousand prodigals.
Sing, sing, sing! "Worthy is the Lamb that
was slain 10 receive blessing and riches and
honor and glory and power, world without
end" That scene ofiubience comes out be-
fore me this moment as in a sort OF picture
gallery. All heaven in pictures.
Look! Look! There Is Christ. Cuyp
painted Him for earthly galleries, and Cor
reggio and Tintoretto and Benjamin West
and Dore painted Him for earthly galleries,
but all those pictures are eclipsed by this
masterpiece Of heaven. Christ! Christ! There
Is Paul, the hero Of the Sanhedrim, and OF
Agrippa's courtroom, aud of Mars hill. and
of Nero's infamy, shaking his chained fist
in the very face of teeth chattering roy
atty Here is Joshua, the fighter OF
Bethoron and Gideon, the man that
postponed sundowD. And here IS Vashti,
the profligacy OF the Persian court unabeto
remove her veil OF modesty or rend it or lift
il. And along the corridors OF this picture
gallery find other great heroes and heroines
David with his harp. and Miriam with the
cymbals, and Zachariah with the SCROLL and
st. John with the seven vials. and the resur-
recton angel with the trumpet. On farther
in the corridors see the faces OF our loved
ones, the cough gone from the throat, the
wanness zone from the cheek, the WEAKNESS
gone from the limbs. the lauguor gone from
the eye. Let US go up and greet them. Let
US go up and embrace them. Let US 60 up
and live with them. We will We will
From this hilItopI catch glimpse ofthose
hilltops where all sorrow and signing shall
be done away. Oh, that God would make
that world to us q reality Faith in that
world helped old DR.. Tying when he stood by