The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1903-08-03
STUDY OF PRODIGAL SON
HE WAS NOT HIMSELF WHILE A
vAGRANT PAUPER.
Rev. j. Cumming Smith Says He Dis
covered His Soul Like Diamond
Flashing I'm a Pile OF Rubbish.

"Self-discovery in the Abysm," Luke XIV,
Ills, the subjsct of the Rev. j. Cum
ming Smiths sermon yesterday morning at
the Tabernacle Presbyterian Church. He
said in part:
when he came to himself he said. 1 will
arise and go unto my father. In other
words, when he had sunk so low as almost
to loathe his own life he suddenly discov-
cred his soul as If he had seen diamond
flash out suddenly in pile of rubbish This
revelation of his true self stung mis- pride,
and his pride was the turning point IN mis-
destiny. Pride Is always divine quality
when IL spurs to something better; price As
vice when 1t tempts man TO rest on his
oars.
THE prodigaI was not himself while a
vagrant pauper. Bird, or beast, or plant,
or man, transfer any organism from its
natural environment and 1T quickly loses
its essential function. Our natural en-
vironment is God until the soul ceases to be
a soul If such death ever comes ii Is the
doctrine of humiliation and whitening by
degrees. There lay the germs of the divine
In the rowing, riotous youth or he would
nave had no pride TO be cut at the recollec-
ton OF his OLD home and a mourning father
VINO Kept the latchstring forever out. This
means the essential fatherhood and SON
ship or God and man. no matter how lar
man may 1all No truth can be profounder.
Sometimes thinkers are so loyal 10 the doc
trlne OF our depravity that they press IL TO
bitter and abrupt extreme and thereby
truth. "A man can DC 50
in MS own estimation as 10 shipwreck faith
ana. blackball the Bible. Egotism is the
standard OF orthodoxy. WHAT L think is
orthodoxy, and what the other fellow at
variance with me thinks is heterodoXy-
each mind thus constituting itself the SUI
preme court of appeals-this is the queer
twist in all. Suil, III you can persuade
a few fellow millions of egotism TO echo
your views with true sense and force, the
iinelyhood is that your egotism is not Tar
astray.
However, the doctrine of our sinfulness,
though exceedingly desperate, must not be
stretched so far as to cloud the other doc
trine that We are souls made like unto
the soul of God and that while the smirch
OF dehlement may rest on the white gar
ments the texture of the garments never
fails to prove the high quarters Of their
manufacture.
THE PRODIGAL.
1.-THE prodigal in his squalor and criminal
poverty and swinish surroundings was
nevertheless a son; an open door and an
unstinted welcome awaited his return. Or
thodox theology that has capitalized our
depravity must not overlook the divinity
attempted within the erring breast. Still
the mere possibility of the divine is far
from sufficient. The possibility of
an angel form in a block of marble is not
enough: the sculptor must carve out that
form to make a real work of art. The
not enough; human ingenuity must drain
the swamps and cart away the excess Of
rank underbrush and artistically lay out
avenues and fountains and mystic groves
before you can say ii is a park for the
weary masses to enjoy. The mere posi-
bility of watch is not enough; you might
have such an excuse and miss every train.
The mere possibility Of a dinner is worse
than none; 1t is torture to "A hungry man.
The mere possibility of man with grow
ing soul is not enough. 1t must effervesce.
1t must develop in actual power and
life of Jesus? He was more than posi-
bility. He grew in grace. He learned
obedience by the things which He suffered.
Paul rose TO the meridian height because
he exercised himself that he might be void
of ofrense toward God and toward men,
And II most of our luscious, self-compla-
cent talk of the divine in the soul could
be changed to the loftier eloquence of ap-
peal to the sleeping conscience. not to
f1atter itself with its own divinity, but to
iatency of talent or it's guilty disobedience.
perhaps more conversions to God would
occur.
SCORCHING SECRET.
1.-The scorching secret with the repenting
prodigal was the contrast between two
pictures-that of a brilliant past and that
of stenchful present. that Of proud.
gifted magnate's son and that of de-
bauchee exhausted and scorned. This con-
trast seldom fails to provoke self-reproach.
Notice its exact nature. 1t was not a
comparison between himself and his neigh
bors. A man may use his neighbor as
model and be perfectly satisfied with him
self Paul speaks scathingly of those
mediocre Christians who measure them
selves among themselves, with stagnancy
as a result Such a method involves a
fallacy at its root 1t forgets that, so far
as ideals go, man has no neighbOr. No
two men are alike. No two men have en-
joyed the same heritage drawn from
the breasts of the same environment. No
two shells are penciled the same, and
no two bird notes are the same. To COM
pare obligations, therefore. is utterly out
of the question. What then? Compare
yourself with your higher self, yourself
you are with yourself you ought to be.
That is the only common-sense method
Chain an eagle In the barnyard and soon it
will droop and deteriorate and after while
IL may soothe itself by saying that il COM
cackling hens around it. is Ii a just stand
ard of measurement? If America should
compare itself with China it would show
its dotage. If even America should at
the present moment compare itself with
Germany or England 1t would not stultify
itself, but il would not glorify itself. Be
cause America has sprung from the loins
of these older civilizations and is rich with
thousand ancestral virtues and, more
over, has a unique and august duty to the
world TO raise the ideals of national great
HESS I1cnCt, liluSl always ask not
whether she is the peer of other empires,
but whether she shines forth Respondent
the sun for nobler progress than the
world has yet seen. If your neighbors were
our ideals Livingstone would have been
justified in sinking to the level of Africa,
and Burns to the level of China, and Jesus
to the level of Jerusalem.
SELF-ACCUSATION BEGAN.
1.-THE prodigal in the stye turned for a
bitter moment to the two contrasting pic
lures of what he was and what he should
have been and a self-accusation began
which was the starting-point of his re-
trieval. And not till that luminous mo-
ment, in the sharp sword-thrust of con-
science, was he really himself. We are
never normal until we are aiming to real
ize our ideals.
Just take a glance at the millions of peo-
pie i'm our cities. Hackneyed, tired, selling
their souls cheap in the pawnshop of in
diligence, wallowing In nameless pleasures,
frightened stiff with avarice, chasing phan-
toms that will cheat and mock their pur-
suers Think of these thousands crazed
with such infatuations and then ask il
these apologies can be called normal men.
sane souls, splendid human beings? Are
they not mere semblances. mere fugitives
dumb with a strange fear? If God ever
meant such a fever hospital or pesthouse
to be an ideal world and such warped
human beings to be fine types of humani-
Nv would not his ideals be lower than ours?
Let us be saved by pride. Let us what