Peninsula enterprise. [volume] (Accomac, Va.) 1881-1965, 1900-05-12
shelves.
Self Admiration.

great deal In our day about the higher
life. Now. there are two kinds Of high
er life men. The one Is admirable, and
the other Is repulsive. The one kind
Of higher life man Is very lenIent In his
criticism OF others, does not bore pray
er meetings to death with long, ha-
rangues. does not talk great, deal
about himself. but much about Christ
and heaven, gets kindlier and more
gentle and more useful until one day
his soul spreads a-wlng. and he files
away to eternal rest. and everybody
mOurns his departure. The other high
er life man goes around with Bible
cOnsplcuously under his arm. goes from
church to church. sort Of general
| evangelist. Is nuisance to his own
| pastor when he Is at home and null
sance to other pastors when he Is away
| from home. runs up 10 some man who
Is counting out roll of bank bills or
running up difficult line of figures
and asks him how his soul Is, makes
| religion a dose Of ipecacuanha; stand
Ing In religious meeting making an
address. he has a patronlZing way, as
though ordinary Christians were clear
away down below him. so he had to
talk at the top Of his voice In order to
make them hear. but at the same time
encouraging them to hope on that by
climbing many years they may after
awhile come up within sight Of the
place where he now stands. I tell you
plainly that roaring. roistering. bounc-
Ing sinner Is not so repulsive to me as
that higher life malformation. The
former may repent; the latter never
gets over his pharisaism. The youn-
ger brother Of the parable came back,
but the senior brother stands outside |
entirely oblivious to his own delinquen-
cies and deficits. pronouncing his own
eulogium. Oh. how much easier 1t is
to blame others than TO blame our
selves. Adam blamed Eve. Eve blam-
ed the serpent. the senior brother blam-
ed the younger brother, and none Of
them blamed themselves.
Few ProdiEals RetHrn.
Again. the senior brother Of my text
stands for afr iiRss who are faithless
about the reformation or ns me a,sssassaJ
and the dIssolute.a In the yerys tones
OF his voice you can hear the fact that
he has no faith that the reformation Of
the younger son Is genuine. His en-
tire manner seems to say: THAT boy
has come hack for more money. He
got a third OF the property. Now he
has come back for another third. He
will never be contented to stay on the
farm. He will fall away. | would go
In, too, and rejoice with the Others II |
thought this thing was genuine, but 1t
Is a sham. That boy is a confirmed in
ebriate and debauchee." Alas, my
friends, for the incredullty In the |
church OF Christ In regard to the recla- |
nation Of the recreant! You say q |
man has been strong drinker. | say,
"Yes. but he has reformed" "Oh,"
you say. with iugubrious face. II
hope you are not mistaken hope you
are not mistaken" You say: Don't
rejoice too much over his conversion,
for soon he will be unconverted. fear.
Don't make too big party for that re-
turned prodlgal or strike the timbrel
too loud. and II you kill n calf kill the
one that Is on the commons and not the
one that has been luxuriatlng In the
paddock" That Is the reason why
more prodigals, do not come home to
their fathers house. 1t Is the rank in
fidelity In the church Of God on this
subject. There Is not house on the
streets OF heaven that has not In 1t a
prodigal that returned and stald home.
There could be unrolled before you a
scroll of 100000 names-the names Of
prodigals who came back forever re-
formed. Who was John Bunyan? A
returned prodigal. Who was Richard
Baxter? returned prodigaL Who
was George Whitefield. the thunderer?
A returned prodlgal. And could go
out In all the aisles Of this church to-
day and find on either side those who,
once far astray for many years, have
been faithful. and their eternal saliva
ton Is as sure as though they had been
ten years heaven. And yet some Of
you have not enough faith In their re-
turn!
Need of Christian sympathy.
You do not know how to shake hands
with prodigal: you do not know how
to pray for him; you do not know how
to greet him. He wants TO sail into the
warm gulf stream Of Christian SYM
pathy. You are the iceberg against
which he strikes and shivers. You say
he has been a prodigal know 1t. but
you are the sour. unresponsive, censo-
rious. saturnine. cranky elder brother,
and II you are going to heaven one
would think some people would be
tempted to go to perditlon to get away,
from you. The hunters say that II
deer be shot the other deer shove him
out Of their company. and the general
rule Is. Away with a man that has
been wounded with sinw Now. say
the more bones a man has broken the
more need be has Of hospital and
the more man has been bruisedi
and cut with sin the more need he has
TO be carried into human and divine
sympathy. But for such men there Is
not much room In this world-the men
who want 10 come back after wander
Ing. Plenty OF room for elegant sim
ners, for sinners In velvet and satin
and lace, for sinners high salaried. for
kid gloved and patent leathered sim
ners. for sinners fixed up by haIrdress-
". pomatumed and lavendered and CO.
logned and frizzled and crimped and
banged" sinners plenty Of room
Such we meet elegantly at the door Of
our churches. and we invite them into
the best seats with Chesterfeldian gal
lantries; we usher them into the house
Of God and put soft ottomans under
their feet and put gilt edged prayer
book In their hands and pass the con-
tribution box before them with an air