The Leon reporter., 1900-03-01

town. opening the best bottles Of wine
driving the fastest horses. and living
with evil companions whom he dare
not Introduce to his sisters. He does
not describe him in some lewd dance
hall. intoxicated with fiattery as much
as with wine. He does not have q
palace OF Circe filled with princes and
princesses. the walls pictured. the
noors OF mosaic. the banquet table
groaning under the weight of gold and
silver a. we'll as fruits and viands.
Parable Omits DetanA
He does not trace him on and on,
running into debt. having his friends
leaving him one by one, as humming
birds with their pretty wings will fut-
ter away from flower as soon as the
honey is gone. He does not describe
him at last SO poor that he Is begging
alongside OF the beggars whom he once
cursed in the street. No. Jesus covers
up the months of wassail, libertinism.
and conviviality with the simple SEN
tence Of my text The younger son
gathered all together and took his
journey into a far country In
Christ's parable it is only one step
from the fathers house to q swine's
trough.
The trouble with many so-callea
Christian teachers is that we put a
halo over sin and talk too much about
water nymphs. fairies. seamaids, denl-
zens OF the air, sylphs. spirits and
fiaxen-haired goddesses. We picture
Temptation as dream Of beauty seat
ed upon the rim OF cloud. She holds
in one hand pack Of cards and in the
other chalice Of wine. The colors OF
her cheek. the flowers caught in the
folds OF the garment clinging about her
1.-the form make her look 80 innocent
one can't help loving her. even though
she may be bad.
THE great criticism against John
Milton Is that he introduces his Satan
as very respectable sort OF gentle
man. supposing tonight should at
tack certain intidel book or a vile
French novel and mention the book by
name and the author, and tell you un-
der no condition to read 1t; that II you
did you would blast your soul for time
and eternity. What would be the re-
suit? Tomorrow morning fifty or one
hundred Of the young people sitting be-
fore me would arise early and take the
first car down town and hurry to the
publishers and buy that very book.
merely because the preacher told you
not to read it. That Is human nature.
What is the greatest damage a
newspaper can do man! Attack
him? No! That always does an in
nocent public man good. The harder
the newspaper denounces. the more
prominent the man becomes. The
worst insult the newspapers can give
is to simply ignore man. Never men
tion his name. Treat him as II he was
not worth noticing. The most awful
contempt you can hurl at an enemy is
silence. complete silence. neyer-ending
silence.
MOI S6t0n'0i bullet1u Board
Refuse to allow your back to be
Satan's bulletin board. Pose not be-
fore community as reformed drunk
Drd, or an evangelical thief. II you
,ce had diseased tongue, please do
t tell it. II you were once bedaubed
INA tn social filth, we do not want to
Sssy it. Talk not about the gilded
's|ss "a and ba0n1 aafed thAu
good tin,eg you
joined the church and married and
CAV aga. run. Throw not the coat of
many colors o9er llcentiousness and
somber black over virtue. Leave evil
advertisement, 3 alone. With one
plunge jump from the highest noun
tain Of inspiration into the lowest
depths of despair with the simple SEN
tence, And he went into far coun-
try
"In the next place, learn that the
prodigal Of my text went into the far
country because the father was too
lenient, and divided unto him his liv-
ing. OF course, we all know the great
teaching Of this parable was to show
Gods mercy; how. as broken-hearted
parent he is longing for the wayward
child to come home. But there are
many minor truths as we'll as the
major one. All the gold taken from
the mines is not poured into the same
mold. The chisel of Michael Angelo
can CIT a surly-hcaded shepherd boy as
well as the long, flowing beard and
swarthy muscles Of the Jewish law
giver. The wheels in factory should
not be despised because they do not re-
volve the one way.
''Mr. Moody said: This father ought
to be censured. He could not have
done greater unkiAdness to the boy
than to give the younger son his goods
and money and let him go. A true
father would have said to such a con-
temptible hlial spirit, "Go and earn
your own portion by the sweat Of your
brow" Yet hundreds of parents are
making the same mistake every day.
Try as hard as the loving heart may,
we are very apt to be partial to the
babies. When the young couple stand
at the marriage altar, hope and poverty
generally clasp hands. The first chill
dren who sleep in the cradel have to
take their share of struggle fer daily
bread. But when the youngest babies
are born the parents often have foot
hold Servants now clean the house
and run the errands and care for the
shoes. To use q worn-out figure, the
younger son lies on a bed of roses