Lincoln County leader. [volume] (Toledo, Lincoln County, Or.) 1893-1987, 1903-09-25
nur SOULS RETURN.

Luke Xv., 10.
Tho sweetest of stories told in any
.oncue among men Is this beautiful
nsrable Of the prodigal son. Every
where is it attentively heard. Simple
oven to plainness, told ten thousand
limos IT never loses its marvellous
charm.
What is perhaps most wonderful
about It is that, while the quiet of the
. vanderer is never for moment hid
deli. while his transgression Is set be-
4 fore us in characters SO distinct as
never to be mistaken, we do not for
h a moment lose our sympathy for the
vanderer himself. So the Master wish
J cd IT For so He opens the ineXhaust-
ible fountains of the divine love to our
vision; so He shows. US how He re-
ceiyes sinners and eats with them;
how He welcomes the guilt to the
feast of His love and rejoices over
them as father over a child that
was lost.
And yet this sympathy turns alto
gether upon the incident to which this
scripture directs us. Let the nara
tive have another termination and our
pity turns to disgust. Let it read:
"But he was besotted and rejoiced in
the husks with the swine; he longed
moi for his fathers home; he ignored
its plenty and died in his wretched-
ness" We should then say: "Miser-
able brute, he lived and died as he de-
served"
Iii the strange land to which we
have come, whether our feet 20 into
flower gardens or deserts, we are apt
to lose knowledge of the fatherhood
that is over us. The material advan-
tages Of the world, all its profits, hon
ors and emoluments, can never satisfy
the highest aspirations of the human
soul. We want something more endur-
Ing and profound. Nor win art, litera-
ture or sentiment satisfy the craving.
Not anything that exhausts itself in
the realm Of the intellect or the emo
tons alone responds to the soul high
est aspirations. The leverage by
which 1t is to be lifted must be out
Side itself. 1t wants God.
The burden Of sorrow, care and an
1ety that oppresses us requires a
higher ministry than this strange
land' affords. Its comforts are but
"husks." Many a business man who
reads these words to-day shudders as
he recollects that the Sunday rest is
already half gone and that tomorrow
ne must resume the grind Of yester-
Gay and take up the agonies that had
only been laid aside during his rest
ing spell. The mother who LEFT the
oody OF her child in the cemetery
lew days ago is not relieved by the
thought that she shares only the COM
mon lot Of mortals. A tenderer hand
than that Of philosophy is needed to
stay the rush Of her tears.
No, 1t is not satisfying, this "far
country" Many of its gifts are high
and noble; indeed they are all of them
OF the Fathers bestowal-we must not
forget this when we are tempted to
peiitue the worlds favors-but they
are only the media and not the sub
stance OF a divine affection. We need
70 get beyond and above them all to
the perennial fountain from which all
oenehcence flows If the soul is to be
satlsfied with perfect refreshment. II
VIII arise and go to my Father Let
every reader say this to his own soul
today. Beyond and above all songs
and psalms, beyond and above all rites
ana ceremonials to the loving heart of
the Father!
Ihere is no room for doubt as to
my welcome, for His arms are always
open to receiTe His sorrowing, suffer
ing' penitent children. They are His
very own. He gives them n peace
winch this world can neither bestow
nor despoil.
My Father! When every soul shall
come to the sense of proprietorship
winch this pronoun suggests, then
snail men cease 20 tremble before an
aWful tyrant, and that sense of des-
pair which accompanies the idea of
an impersonal or absent power that
10 ABOVE us perishes. The vague yearn-
ing that had its birth in our early
cniidhood when ut a mothers knee we
learned to say, "Our Father, which
art In heaven" finds higher realiza-
uon than was then possible to our
dreams, for the heavenly gates have
opened and the Father has come down
10 meet his returning child in an in
enable ministry Of comfort, peace and
love. r.,sl.0A
THE RENEWAL, OF yOJTH.