The Monitor-register., 1897-03-12

SouI-It Is a Sublime solace and a Mag
nifcent B~eatitude.
WASHINGTON, March 1.-THE glad
nesses of religion are set forth by DIR.
iTalmage in this sermon under the figure
of a banquet, and all the world is in
vited to be guests. The text is Luke XIV,
2S. Bring hither the fatted calf and
kill it"
In all ages of the world it has been
customary to celebrate joyful events by
festivity. The signing of treaties, the
proclamation of peace, the inauguration
of presidents, the coronation of kings,
the Christmas, the marriage. However
much on other days of the year our ia
Bile may nave stinted supply, on Thanks
giving day there must be something
bounteous. And all the comfortable
homes of Christendom have at some
time celebrated joyful events by banquet
and festivity. Something has happened
on the old homestead greater han any
thing that has ever 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. He 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 paddock a calf that has been
Hont nm or6 fnl fo ,7fy,acf oananitr ca
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 butch
ers do their work, and the housekeepers
bring in to the table the smoking 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 presides at the ia
BILE 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 too good; nothing is
good enough" There sits the young
man, glad at the hearty reception, but
a shadow of sorrow fitting across his
brow at the remembrance of the trouble
he had seen. All ready now. Let the
covers lift. Music. He was lead and
he is alive again! He was lost and he is
found! By such bold imagery does the
Bible set forth the merrymaking when
u soul comes home to God.
The Greatest Rescue.
First of all, there is the new convert
joy. 1t is no tame thing to become a
Christian. The most tremendous mo-
ment in a mans life is when he surren-
ders 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
professed Christ one night was a young
man who next morning rang my door
bell and said: "Sir, 1 cannot contain
myself with the joy I feel. I came here
this morning to express it. Ihave found
mort joy in five minutes in serving God
than in all the years of my prodigality,
and I came to say So" You have seen
perhaps a man running for his temporal
liberty and the officers of the law after
him, and you saw him escape, or after
ward you hear the judge had pardoned
him, and how great was the glee of that
rescued man; but it is a very tame thing,
fhof a0r,naTa1 xrIth tho ,r,r,ro f~p
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 hay
ing had to struggle to support his fanli-
ly, 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 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 a Christian.
1t is a merrymaking. 1t is the killing
of the fatted calf. 1t is a jubilee. You
know the Bible never compares it to a
funeral, but always compares it to some
thing delightful. 1t is more apt to be
compared to a banquet than anything
else. 1t is compared in the Bible to wa
ter, bright, flashing water, to the NOM
ing, ~roseate, freworked, mountain trans
figured morning.
I wish I could today take all the Bi-
BILE expressions about pardon, and peace.
and life, and comfort, and hope, and
heaven, and twist them into one gar
land and put it on the brow of the
humblest child of God in this assem-
blage and cry, "Wear it, wear it now,
wear it forever, son of God, daughter
of the Lord Gcd Almighty!'' Oh, the
Joy of the new convert! Oh, the glad
ness of the Christian ~servicel You have
seen sometimes a nan in a religious as
sembly get up and give his experience.
Well, Paul gave his experience. He
arose in the presence of two churches,
the church on earth and the church in
heaven, and ne said, Nov this is my ex-
perience-sorrowful, yet always rejoic-
ing, poor, yet making many rich, hav-
ing nothing. yet possessing all things"
If the people in this house knew the
joys of the Christian religion, they
would all pass over into the kingdom of
God the next moment. When Daniel
Sandman was dying of cholera, his at.
tendant said, "Have you much pains''
''Oh," he replied, "since 1 found the
Lord I have never had any pain except
SIM" Then they said to him, Would
you like to send a message to your
friends?'' Eyes, 1 would. Tell them
that only last night the love of Jesus
came rushing into my soul like the
= surges of the so;, and had to cry out.
Stop, Lord, it is enough; stop, Lord
enough!, Oh, the joys of this Chris
tian religionl Just pass over from those
tame joys III which you are indulging,
joys of this world, into the raptures of
the gospel. The world cannot satisfy
you. You have found that out. Alexan-
der longing for other worlds TO conquer
and yet drowned in his W bottle;
Byron whipped by disquietudes around
the world; Voltaire oursing his own
soul while all the streets of Paris were
applaud him; Henry II consuming
with ha9tG against poor Thomas a
Becket-all illustrations of the fact that
this world cannot make a man happy.
The very man who poisoned the POM
mel of the saddle on which Queen Eliza