The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1897-03-08
GLADNESSES OF RELIGION.
A BANQUET TO WHICH ALL THE
WORLD Is INVITED.

Fathers House.
Washington D. c., March THE glad
uesses of religion are set forth by DIT.
Talmage in this sermon under the figure
of a banquet. and all the world is invited
to be guests. The text is, Luke 10: q:
Bring hither the fatted calf and kill it,
In all ages Of the world it has been GUS
tomary to celebrate joyful events by fes-
tivity. The signing of treaties, the proc
lamation of peace. the inauguration OF
presidents. the coronation of kings. the
Christmas. the marriage. However much
on other days of the year our table may
have stinted supply on Thanksgiving day
there must be something bounteous. And
all the comfortable homes of Christendom
have at some time celebrated joyful
events by banquet and festivity. Some
thing has happened on the old homestead
greater than anything that has ever nap
pened before. A favorite son whom the
world supposed would become a vagabond
and outlaw forever has got tired of sight
seeing 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 look
ing 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 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
grander day on the old homestead IMAM
this day. Let the butchers do their work,
and the housekeepers bring in TO the Ia
BILE the smoking meat. The musicians VIII
take their places, and the gay groups VIII
move up and down the floor All the
friends and neghbors are gathered in and
AN extra supply is sent out to the table OF
the servants. The father presides at the
table and saws grace, and thanks God that
his Iong-absent boy is home again. On!
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 shadow of
sorrow 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! He
was lost and he is found! BY such bold
imagery does the Bible set forth the merry
making when a 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 moment
in a mans life is when he surrenders him
self 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-ben and said: Sir,
i cannot contain myself with the JOY
feel / came here this morning to express
it, l have found more joy in five minutes
in serving God than in all the years of my
prodigality, and / 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
afterward you hear the judge had pardon
ed MIN, and how great was the glee of that
rescued man; but it is 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
support his family, suddenly was inform
ed that large inheritance was his, and
there was a JOY amounting to bewilder-
ment; but that is small thing compared
with the experience of one when he has
put in his hands the titie-deed to the joys,
the raptures, the splendors of heaven, and
he can truly say, Its mansions are mine,
ats temples are mine, its songs are mine.
its God is mine." Oh, 1t is no tame thing to
become a Christian. 1t is a merry-making.
1t is the killing of the fatted calf. II is
jubilee. You know the Bible never COM
pares 1t to a funeral, but always compares
1t TO something delightful. 1t is more
apt to be compared to a banquet than any
thing else. 1t is compared in the Bible to
water. bright flashing water, to the morn
ing, roseate, freworked, mountain trans
figured morning. / wish l could to-day
take all the Bible expressions about par
don, and peace, and life, and comfort. and
hope, and heaven, and twist them into one
garland and put it on the brow of the hum
best child of God in this assemblage, and
cry: Wear il, wear it now, wear 1t for
ever; son of God, daughter of the Lord
God Almighty" Oh, the Joy of the new
convert. Oh, the gladness of the Christ
ian service You have seen sometimes a
man In a religious assembly get up and
give his experience. Wei, Paul gave his
experience. He arose in the presence of two
church in heaven, and he said: Now this
is my experience; sorrowful yet always re-
Joicing-poor yet making many rich
having 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 king
dom of God the next moment. When
Daniel Sandman was dying of cholera,
his attendant said: Have you much
pain?' oh" he replied, "since I found
the Lord have never had any pain ex-
cept sim" Then they said TO him:
would you Ike to send a message 70
your friends?' Yes, 1 would; tell them
that only last night the love of Jesus
came rushing into my soul like the
surges of the sea. and / had to cry
out, Stop, Lord, II is enough; STOP Lord
enough! oh, the joys OF this Chris.
tian religion. Just pass over from those
tame joys In which you are INDUCING
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 20 conquer
and yet drowned I'm his own bottle BY.
ron whipped by disquietudes around tbs
world; Noltaire cursing his own SOU
while all the streets of Paris were an.
plauding him; Henry II consuming
with hatred against poor frhornao "a NJ