Juniata sentinel and Republican. [volume] (Mifflintown, Juniata County, Pa.) 1873-1955, 1897-03-17

and wOrriei and worn out by the COM
ing hour, and in momentary absence OF
the nurse. in the power, the strange
power, which delirium sometimes gives
one, shn arose and stood in front of the
clock and stood there watching the clock
when the nurse returned. The nurse said,
DO you see anything peculiar about that
| clockt She made no answer but soon
died. There is a clock scene in every his
tory. If some OF you would rise from the
bed of lethargy and come out from your de-
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,
nowt On, come home to your Fathers
house! Come home, prodigal, from the
wilderness! Come home. come home.
But l notice that when the prodigal came,
there was the fathers Joy. He did not greet
him with any formal "How do you do?' He
lid not come out and say: "You are unfit to
ehter. Go and wash in the trough by the
well, ami then you can come in. We have
had enough trouble with you" Ah no,
When the proprietor OF that estate pro-
claimed festival, it was an outburst of
fathers love and fathers Joy. God is your
father. l have not much sympathy with
the description of God sometimes hear, as
and unsympathetir, and listening not
to the cry OF His subjects. man
told me he saw in one OF the
eastern lands king riding along,
AMI two men were in alteration and one
charged the other with having eaten his rice,
and the king said, Then stay the man, and
| by post mortem examination find whether
he has eaten the rice" AMI no was slain.
Ah. the cruelty of scene like thati Our
| God is not a sultan, not a despot, bur a
Father-kind. loving, forgiving- and He
| makes all heaven ring again when prodigal
| comes back. 81 have no pleasure" p" He says,
Sin the death of him that dieth.'' All may
be saved. II man does not get to heaven,
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
J 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
| comes back there is in His heart the
surging of an infinite ocean of gla =
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
| ali width and vaster than all i'm
it outweighs all the united sp.endor
| and joy of the universe and who can |
| tell what Gods JOY Is? You remember read
| lcg the story of king who on some great |
day of festivitv scattered silver and gold |
among the people, who sent valuable presents |
to his courtiers. but methinks, when a soul /
comes back, God Is SO glad hat 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 a |
greater halleluiah, while with a 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 again.
At the opening of the exposition in New /
Orleans l saw Mexican fiutist and he |
played the solo, and then afterward the eight I
Of ten bands of music, accompanied by the /
great organ, came in. but the sound of that I.
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 n .
| father went three times day TO the depot. /
His son went of in aggravating circum- 1
stances, but the father said. ''He will come
back" The strain was too much and his /
mind parted, and three times day the father !
went. In the early morning ho watched .
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, .
come back. God has been watching and
waiting for some of YOU. my brothers, ten .
years, twenty years thirty years, forty years,
perhaps fifty years, waiting, waiting,
watching. watching and if now the proiigai |
should come home, what a scene of gladness |
and festvitv and how the great Fathers |
heart would rejoice at your coming home.
You WILL come, some of you, will you not? .
You will, You will.
l notice also that when a prodigal comes
! home there is the JOY of the ministers of re-
ligion. Oh, ii is a grand thing to preach this .
I haa bs,,
said about the trials and the hardships OF
the Christian ministry. l wish somebody
would write good rousing book about the
joys of the Christian ministry, Since l en-
tered the profession have seen more of the .
goodness of God than will be able to cele-
brate In all eternity. 1 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 l see a man coming to God
and giving up his sin feel in body, mind
and soul transport. When 1 see a man
bound hand and foot in evil habit emanci-
pated, / rejoice over it as though it were my
own emancipation.
notice also when the prodigal comes back
all earnest Christians rejoice. II you stood
on Montauk point and thers was a hurricane
at sea, and ii was blowing toward the shore.
and vessel crashed into the rocks and you
saw people get ashore in the lifeboais. and
he very last man got on the rocks in saf fety,
u
glad time when the church OF Col sees men
who are tossed on the ocean of their
sins plant their feet on the rock
Christ Jesus. Oh. when prodieal. come
home, just hear the Christians sing. Just
hear the Christians pray. 1t Is not a stereo-
typed supplication we have heard over and
over again for twenty years. but putting of
the case in the hands of God with an impor-
tunate pleading. No long prayers. Men
never pray at great length unless they have
10th to "A . hEfr k,a
cold. All the prayers in the Bible that were .
answered were short prayers. "God be
mercitul to me sinner" Lord, that NAV /
receive my sight" Lord, save me. or ! .
perish"
Once moro l remark that when the pro l.
igal gets back the inhabitants of heaven !
keep festal. an very certain of 1t. If you /
have never seen a telegraph chart you have /
no idea how many cities are connected to- !
gether. and how many iants. Nearly all the /
neighbC rhoods OF the earth seem reticu lated /
and news flies from city to city and from /
continent 10 continent. But more rapidly !
go the tidings from earth to heaven, ana
when prodigai returns il is announced be-
fore the throne of God. And if these souls
now present should enter the king Ion there
would be some one in the heavenly kingdom
to say: That's my father" CHATS my
mother" s'That's nv son." ''That's the one
used to pray for" That's the ons for
whom wept so many tears" and one soul
would say HoSanna! ami another soul
would say "Halleiuiah.'
Pleased with the news, the saints below
In songs the tongues employ.
Beyond the skies the tidings 20,
And heaven is filed with 10y.
nor angels can their Joy contain,
But k;nie with new fire.
The sinner lost is found, they sing,
And strike the sounding Tyre.
At the banquet of Lucullus sat Cicero the
| orator. mt the Macedonian festival sat Philip
| the condueror. at the Grecian banquet sat
| Socrates the philosopher, but at our Father
l table sit all the returned prodigais, more
than copuuerors Tho table Is so wide lis
/ I,n &c 81 u nnr-.-s snas M lands Its quests