El Paso daily herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1881-1901, 1899-03-20
Presbyterian Church.

Presbyterian Church.
Yesterday morning at the Presbyte-
rian church the Rev. W. Hayes Moore
of Santa Fee, N M. preached on ''The
Elder Brother ofthe Prodigal Son"
an aDsti act:
It Is d great thing to reform, but 1t
is a greater thing not not to need to
reform. 1t ls great thing to break
away from en5avi1 g naoii, bI5 IL Is
greater thing never to form such IA
bit. It Is something TO be able to stand
up in meeting and tell the people what
rake aud rascal one has been, ana
how Gods mercy overlook him, but 1t
is far better to lead such u life as
makes such a confession impossible.
Why is il that we talk SO much about
the PrOdigal Son who left his fathers
house and broke his fathers heart and
came back in rags and impurity and so
little about the elder brother who
stayed at home and took care of his
parents and patien " did his work and
led a clean life? Why is it that We so
often make heroes and heroiues OF men
and women who have followed careers
of vice and suddenly reformed, and do
not give even our encouragement TO
the more ordinary good people who
keep busy at LIES proper tasks aud
are pure and upright. The elder BROTH
er deserves more credit than he gets.
1t is no small achievement to go
through life and maintain an unsullled
manhood, TO meet all the dangers and
temptations and Keep "unspotted from
the world" Two things are necessary
to give man comfort when oeato
stands at his elbows. Ode is, certain
ty of salvation and the other is, clean
record. Neither one alone will give
full peace and happiness. l. takes
both A young man once lay down to
that God had heard his prayer and
saved his soul. But cloud gathered
upon his brow. And as his breath
grew fainter he beckOned to his a.
pendants to come near to his bedside
and he whispered: Take my
influence and bury it with me-" He
stood upon the very threshold of glory.
A moment more and the hallelujuhs of
heavens welcome would sound in his
ears. But the stain of sin was hot up
on his past and he lOnged to destroy it's
effect. Bury his influence with him
No, it could not be done. Influence
lives long after the one who has set It
dies. 1t is unspeskably sad that many
one who goes out of this world
christian leaves behind the infection of
his past to Turk still in the world, his
moral disease to tester as open sores
among the companions OF his life. Oh,
the Joy of q clean record! Oh, the tor
ture of an uncie8n one. What kind of
a record are you making!
When q boy, myself and brothers
often pulled weeds in thu garden.
the roots, and then again when we
wanted to play ball with the neigh bors'
BOYS we would only pull the tops of
and that night il would be sure to rain
and the next morning the weeds would /
be as much alive as ever. Some OF you
remember that old enemy OF farmers
boys called purslane, in some localities !
known as ''pusley" or pigweed. Thai !
weed would grow after it was taken up
root and all. It would grow standing |
Cd its head or lying on its side: we had |
to carry it away into some damp place !
where it would be sure to decompose.
It mover pays to pull the top off of some i
bad habit. You must pull all sin out /
by the root and put it away from you
forever. Do the right thing always,
the Christlike thing. No one ever gets
lost on straight road.
So much for the better side of the
Elder Brother. He was clean and
pure and straightforward and stayed
at home, helped his father and moth
er and brought them no disgrace.
But have you ever thought how cold
hearted he was, now stern and severe
and unforgiviug. When he bears of
his brothers return and the feast made
for him she is angry and would not go
H." Virtue is good thing, especially
the virtue of al unsullied moral
character, but it is bad thing to al
low this noble virtue to make US
jealous, angry, proud. cruel, I'M
charitable. selfrighteous, sullen, sulky,
logged. But il sometimes does this
and the Elder Brother in this aspect of
his character is figure in the life Of
today.
How do we treat to-day, those who
have made great moral mistakes and
fallen low? Alas! too often with the
cold severity of self Righteousness and
the savage criticism of hard-hearted-
ness. [ do not wonder that it is so
hard for the criminal to reform and the
moral waakliug to stand up for Christ.
They get no encouragement from nine
ten.hs' of those they meet. Too many
churches are like icebergs. Those