Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1900-05-10

mat hud lDOiV goods I'm the snow WINDOW |
than inside on the shelves.
The SELF Righteous Man.
This self righteous man Of the text |
stood at the corner Of the house hugging |
himself in admtratiou We hear a great |
deal in our day about the higher life. |
Now, there are two kinds of higher life |
men. The one is admirable, and the
other is most ropulSivc. The one kind OF
higher life man is very lcnicnt in his
criticism of others, does not bore prayer
meetings to death with long haraugues,
does not talk u great deal about himself,
nut much about Christ and heaven, gets
kindier aid more gentle and more useful
until one day his soul spreads awning.
and he flies away TO eternal rest, and Cv-
cryhody mourus his departure. The 9th
or Il cher Lire man gocs around with
Bible conspcuously Under his arm, goes
from church to church, sort Of general
evangelist. is Il nuisance to his own pas
tor when he is at home and nuisance to
other pastors when lie is away from
home. runs UP to some man who is count
ing out roll OF bank bills or running up
Il difficult line OF figures and asks him
how his soul is, makes religion dose OF
ipccacuanha. Standing in n religious
meeting making an address. he has
patrouiling way, rs though ordinary
Christians were clear away down below
him. So hc had to talk at the top of his
voice in order To- make thom hear, but
ut the same time encouraging them to
hope on that 10y climbing many years
they may after awhile come NJ within
sight of tho place where h. now stands.
tell you plainly that n roaring, roister-
ing, bouncing sinner is not 50 r'puISlve to
me rs that higher life malformatipn. Tho
former may repent; the latter never
gets over his pharisasm. The younger
brother of the parable came back, but
the senior brother stands outside entirely
nhlivuuS of his own dcliuqucncies and
deficits. pronouncinc his own oulogium.
oh. how much easier it Is t. blame others
than to blame ourselves, Adam blamed
Eve. Eve blamed the serpent, the senior
brother blamed the younger brother and
none Of them blamed themselves
Again. the senior brother OF my text
stands for all those who are faithlcss
about the reformation Of the diSsipatci
and the dis~olutc In the very tones Hf
his voice you can hear the fact that he
has no faith that the reformation of the
younger son is genuine. Ills entire man
ncr seems to say: THAT hoy has come
'''N ''' n.y. mn 80 lI 60,
'h' PIoPe,S HoN az va" ., I
a"' 'her 'n'Iu' re Wiu r. I'm eaiI
away | would 60 in too and rejoice
with the others if | thought this thing
were genuine; but it is a sham. That boy
is n confirmed inebriate and dcbaucheo
Alas, my friends. for the incr'dullty IN
the church Of Christ in regard to the
reclamation of the rCcreant, \ GU say
man mas n'en S'r"Hs u..lNV!t !, S"Si
''' h.t ne mas rel"r','N' o., ", 49,! w..
',a ,,,. ,,iYt,l,on. borc vou ora not mis-
tol,eu." You say. Don't rejoice too
much over his conversion. for soon he
win be unconvertcd. | fear. Don't mako
foo hip marty for that returned prod
igal or strike tho timhrel too loud; and, if
Won kill calf. kill the one that is on the
commons and not the one that mas been
hxuriatinc in the paddock" That is the
reason why more prodigaS do not come
home 10 their fathers house 1t is the rank
infdelity in the church of God on this
suhiect There is not a house on the
streets of heaven that has not in it
nrodigol TINT returned and stad home.
There could be unrollcd before you
scroll of n hundred thousand names-thc
3 names of pTOulEnlS who came back fOr-
ever reformed. Who was John Bunyan?
4 returned prodical. Who was Richard
Ra.ter? A returned prodigal. Who was
George Whitefcld, the thundercr? A
returned prodiCal. And could go out
in all the aisles Of this church today and
find on either side those who. once far
astray for many wears. have been faith
/ ful. and their eternal salvation is rs sure
rs though they had been ten years in
heaven. And yet some of you have not
enough faith in their return
r., ,,, prodi,.,,
ON 90 hot KNOW low 10 s"'Ne n%HuS
with prouic"l' lou U' Ho' N"oN Nv"
10 pray ior MN lou "' HoI N"oN nov
/ 10 greet MN ne Wdu'S 10 san lH'' t"e
warm gun stream OF ChrlstIah > inpa'ny'
lou are lue Ic"perE "s"'"S. NH'Vn "o
strikes ana stlVers' lou say he mas peGh
/ a proulSal' klo" H. puI you are 'He
sour, uhresponslNe cehSorlouS' saturn'he'
cranky elder prolhef ana IL you are 20
ing 10 heaven one WonlN thlnN sunni Pco-
pie Wouid De tempted 10 :" 10 peIu''ion
10 ger away from you, ne hunters say
that II deer he Shot the other deer ShoNe
nm our or thelr company "hu lhe gen
eral rule away win man lhat mas
been wounded WIN SIN Now say the
more bones man mas broken Inc more
need he mas OF hospital ana lhe
more man mas been bruised ana cut
/ with sin the more need he mas to he car