The weekly intelligencer. [volume] (Lexington, Mo.) 1891-1901, 1897-03-13
the fields among the until it
was said there were at least 10000
wounded mel uniting their voices as
they Game to- the verse:

NAiS1 ~ W. SAS $500
There everlasting spring abidcs
And never-withering flowers:
Ills but "A narrow stream divides
This heavenly land from ours
Oh, it is Il great religion to live by,
and n great religion to die by. There
is only one heart-throb between you
and that religion. Just look into the
face of your pardoning God and sur
render yourself for time and eternity,
and He is yours, and Heaven is yours.
and all is yours. Some of you, like
the Young man of the text, have gone
astray. | know not the history, but
you know it, you know it.
But | notice that when the prOdigal
came there was the fathers JOY. lie
did not greet him with any formal
How do you do?" He did not come
out and say, You are unfit to enter;
90 and wash in the trough by the well,
and then you can come in; we nave had
enough trouble with YOU All, no!
When the proprietor of hat estate pro-
claimed festival, it was an outburSt of
a fathers love and II fathers joy. God
is your father. | have not much sym
patty with the description of God /
sometimes hear, as though He were a
Turkish sultan, hard and unsympa-
thetic, and listening not to the cry of
His subjects. A man TOLD me he saw in
one of the eastern lands a king riding
along, and two men were in alterca-
ton, and one charged the other with
having eaten his rice, and the king said:
Then Stay the man, and by post
norton examination find whether he
has eaten the rice" And he is slain.
All! the cruelty of a scene like that.
Our God is not a sultan, not a despot,
but n fathcr-kind, loving, f~orgiving,
and He make all Heaven ring again
when a prodigal comes back. Il have
no pleasure" He says, "in the death of
him that dieth." All may be saved.
If a man does not get to Heaven, it is
because he will not go there. No diff
ference the color, no difference the his
tory, no difference the a%ntecedents, no
difference the surroundings, no differ
ence 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 comes back, there is in His
heart the surging of an infinite ocean
of gladness; and to express hat glad
uCSS IL IdhSS ali IhC lNSIS VI PlCdo-
ure, 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 immensity.
1t oveftops, it undergirds, it outweighs
all the united splendor and joy of the
universe, and who can tell what Gods
joy is? You remember reading the
story of a 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 a SOU comes back, God is so glad
that to express His joy He filings out
new worlds into space, and kindles up
new suns, and rolls among the white
robed anthems of the redeemed a great
err hallelujah, while with a voice that
reverberates among the mountains of
frankincense and is echoed back from
the everlasting gates he cries: This,
my son, was dead, and ne is alive
again!"
| notice also, that when a prodigal
comes home there is the joy of the min
listers of religion. Oh, it is a grand
thing to preach this gospel. l know
there has been a great deal SAT- about
the trials and the hardships of the
ministry. l wish somebody
would write u good, rousing book
about the joys of the Christian minis
try. Since ] entered the profession, l
have seen more of the goodness of God
1 will be able to celebrate in all
eternity. l know some boast about
their equilibrium, n they do not rise
into enthusiasm, and they do not break
down with emotions; but ! confess to
you plainly that when l see a man COM
ing to God and giving up his sin | feel
in body, mind and soul a transport.
When l see a man bound hand and foot
in evil habit emancipated, l rejoice
over it as though it We're my own
emancipation.
When in one communion service such
throngs of young and old stood up and
in the presence of Heaven and earth
and hell attested their allegiance to
Jesus Christ, / felt a joy something
akin to that which the apostle de-
scribes when he says: whether in
the body 1 cannot tell, or out of the
body cannot tell; God knoweth,"
Oh, have not ministers a right to re-
joice when a prodigal comes homer
They blew the trumpet, and ought
they not be glad of the gathering of
the host? They pointed to the full
and ought they not to rejoice
thirsty souls plunge Is h hart
the water brooks? They came
forth, saying; 'All things are now
r~eady"-ought they not to rejoice when
the prodigal sits down at the banquet?
Life insurance men will all tell you
that ministers of religion, as a class,
live longer than any other. 1t is the
statistics of all thQse who calculate
upon human longevity that ministers
Of religion, as a class, live longer than
any other. Why is it? There is more
draft upon the nervous system than
in any other profession, and their
toll is more exhausting. l have seen
ministers kept on miserable stipends
by parsimonious congregations wing
wondered at the dullness of the ser
mon when the men of God were per-
picked almost to death by questions of
and had not enough nutri-
food to keep any fire in their
No fuel, nc fire. Ihave
sometimes seen the inside of the life
Of many of the American elergymen,
never accepting their hospitality be-
cause they cannot afford it; but have
seen them struggle on with salaries of
$500 or $500 a year-the average less
than that-their struggle well depict
ed by the western missionary. who
says in IA letter: THANK you for the
last remittance; until 1t came we had
not had any meat in the house for one
year, and all last winter, although it
Yas a severe winter, our children wore
snmmer clQthes."
notice also when the prodigal comes
back all earnest Christians rejoice. If
YOU stood on Montauk point, and there
was q hurricane at sea and 1t was
toward the shore, and vessel
into the rocks, and you saw
the people get ashore Ia the Afehoats,
md the very last man got ashore in
you could not control you Joy.
And it is a glad time when the church
IF God sees men who are tossed on the
,cean OF their sins plant their feet on
he rock of Christ Jesus. Oh, when
,rodigals come home, just hear the
sing. Just hear the ChriS-
ians pray. 1t is not a sterotyped
application we have heard over
over again for 20 years,
a putting of the case in the
of God with an 'importunate /