The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1897-03-12

gaSA 80 ~ Thanksgiving day
lf., r 81 St-4sSz-s EIJy5, there must be some
REV. TAIMAGE. thing bounteous.
And all the comfort able homes of
Christendom have at some time cele-
brated joyful events by banquet and
festivitv. Something has happened
On the old 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 said he never would come
back. The old man always said his
son would come back. lie had been
looking for him day after day and
year 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 table the smok
ing meat. The musicians will take
their places, and the 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 that 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 a great
ado about nothing; this bad boy should
have been chastised instead of greeted;
veal is too good for him. But the
father says: Nothing is good enough"
There sits the young man. glad at the
hearty reception, but a shadow of sor-
row fitting across his brow at the re-
membrance of the trouble he had seen.
All ready now. Let the covers lift
Music. He was dead and he is alive
again! lie was lost and he was found!
BY such bold imagery does the Bible
set forth the merry-making when
soul comes home to God.
First of all, there is the new converts
Joy. 1t is no tame thing to become
Christian. The most tremendous mo-
ment in a mans life is when he sur
renders himself to God. The grandest
time on the fathers homestead is when
the boy comes back. Among the great
throng who in the parlors of our
church protested Christ one night was
a young man who next morning rang
nv door bell and said: ''Sir, cannot
contain myself with the Joy l feel; l
came here this morning to express it; l
have found more JOY in five minutes
serving God than in all the years ofmy
prodigality, and l 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 that 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 lifer' A poor car
driver some time ago, after years hav-
ing had to struggle to support his fam
lily. suddenly was informed that large
inheritance was his, and there was
Joy amounting to bewilderment; but
that is a small thing compared with
the experience of one when he has put
in his hands the 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,
it is no tame thing to become Chris
tan. 1t is merry-making. 1t is the
killing of the fatted calf. 1t is jubi-
lee. You know the Bible never COM
pares it to funeral, but always COM
pares it to something delightful 1t is
more apt to be compared to banquet
than anything else. 1t is compared in
the Bible to water, bright, flashing
water, to the morning, rOseate, fire.
worked. mountain-tranSfgur morn
ing. wish 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 brow of
the humblest child of God in this
assemblage, and cry: Wear 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.
You have seen sometimes a man in
religious assembly get up and give his
experience. Well, Paul gave his expe-
rience. He arose in the presence of
the churches, the church on earth and
the church in Heaven, and he said:
"Now, this is my experiences; sorrow
full, yet always rejoicing-poor, yet
making many rich-having nothing
yet possessing all things" If the peo
pie Of this house knew the joys of tho
Christ5an religion they would all pass
over IL the kingdom Of God the next