The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1900-05-18

QOQY mOuTnS nlS departure Int Oln-
er higher life man goes around with
a Bible conspicuously under his arm,
goes from church to church. a sort OF
general evangelist, is a nuisance to his
own pastor when he is at home and
a nuisance to other pastors when he Is
away from home, runs up to some man
who is counting out a roll of bank bills
or running up a difficult line OF figures
and asks him how his soul is, makes
religion a dose Of ipecacuanha- Stand
ing in a religious meeting making an
address, he has a patroniZing way. as
though ordinary Christians were clear
away down below him, so he had to
talk at the top Of his voice in orCc-
to make him hear, but at the same
time encouraging them to hope on that
by climbing many years they may af-
ter awhile come up within sight Of TIE
place where he now stands tell you
plainly that a roaring, roistering,
bouncing sinner is not so repulsive to
me as that higher life malformation.
The former may repent; n latter
never gets over his pharisaism. p
brother of the parable came
back, but the senior brother stands
outside entirely oblivious of his own
delinquincies and deficits, p~ronouncing
his own cologium. Oh, how much easier
it is to blame others than to blame
~ourselvesi 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 ext
stands for all those who are faithlesS
about the reformation of the dissipated
and the dissolute. In the very tones Of
his voice you can e a the fact that he
has no faith that the reformation of
the younger son is genuine. His entire
manner seems to say, That boy has
come back for more money. He got a
third of the property; now he has com
back for another third. He will never
be contented to stay on the farm. He
will fall away 1 would go In too and
this thing were G, ne but it is a
sham. That boy is a confirmed inc
briate and debauchee." Alas, my
friends, for the incredulity in the
church of Christ in regard to the re-
clamation of the recreant! o say a
man has been strong tinker. L say,
Yes, but he has reformed" oh" you
say, with a lugubrious face, II hope
you are not mistaken; 1 hope you are
not mistaken" You say Don't rejoice
too much over mis- conversion, for soon
ne will De unconverted, / fear. Don't
make too big a party for hat return
ed prodigal or strike the timbrel too
loud; and, if you kill a calf, kill the
n that is on the m and not
the n hat has been luxuriating in
the paddock" nat is the reason why
more prodigals do not come home to
their fathers house, it is the rank in
fidelity in the church of God on this
subject. There is not a house on the
streets of heaven that has not in it a
prodigal that returned n staid home.
There could be unrolled before you a
scroll of a hundred thousand names
the names of prodigals who came back
forever reformed. Who was John Bum
yam? A returned prodigal. Who was
Richard Baxter? A returned prodigal.
Who was George Whitfield, the thun-
derer? A returned prodigal. And 1
could go out in all the aisleS of this
church today and find on either side
those who, once far astray for many
years, lave been faithful, and their
eternal salvation is as sure Is though
they had been ten years in heaven.
And yet some of you have not enough
faith in their return.
GREETING THE PRODIGAL.
You do not know how to shake hands
with a prodigal. You do not know how
to pray for him. He wants to sail into
the warm gulf stream of Christian
sympathy. You are the iceberg against
which he strikes and Shivers. You say
he has been a prodigal. I know it, but
you are the sour, ~unreSponSive, CEN
serious, saturnine, cranky elder brother
and If you are going to heaven one
would think some people would be
tempted to go to perdition to get away
from you. The hunters say that if a
deer be shot the other deer shove him
u OF their company, and the general
rule is-away with a man that has been
wounded with sin. Now, I Say, the more
bones a man has broken the more need
he has of a hospital, and the more a
man has been bruised and cut with sin
the more need he has to be carried in
to human and divine sympathy. But
for such men there is not much room
in this world-the men who want to
come back after wandering. Plenty of
room for elegant sinners, for sinners
in velvet and satin and lace, for sim
nerS high salaried, for kid gloved and
patent leathered sinners, for sinners
fixed up by hairdresSer, pomatumed
lavendered and cologned and friz-
zled and crimped and banged sin
~ners-plenty of room! Such we meet
elegantly at the door of our churches,
and we invite them into the best seats
with Chesterf1eldian ~gallantries; we
usher them into the house Of God and
put soft ottomans under their feet and
put a gilt edged prayer book into their
hands and pass the contribution box
before them with an air Of apology,
while they, III generous souls, take
out the exquisite ~portmonnaie and open
it, and with a diamonded finger push
dOMh DeyOnu the SlV gold pieces and
delicately pick out as an expression of
gratitude their offering to the Lord
OF 1 cent? For such sinners plenty of
room, plenty of room. But for the man
who has been drinking until his coat
is threadbare, and his face is erysip-
elased, and his wife's wedding dress is
in the pawnbroker's shop, and his chill
dren, instead of being at school, are
out begging broken bread at the base
ment doors of the city-the man, body
mind and soul on fire with the flames
that have leaped from the scathing,
seorching, blasting, blistering, con-
Stunning cup which the drunkard takes
trembling n agonized and affrighted
and presses to his parched lip, and his
cracked tongue nj his shrieking yet
immortal spirit-no room.
Oh, if this younger SON of the parable
had not gone so far off, if he had not
dropped 81 low in wassail, the protest
would not have been so severei But
going clear over the precipice, as the
younger son did, the eide SON is angry
and will not go in
SYMPATHY FOR THE FALLEN.