The Birmingham age-herald., 1903-02-08

Chicago, February 1.-In this sermon Pastor .Talmage while not excusing the pvodigas throws a new and searching light upon the character and conduct Of the elder brother of the famous par aole. The text is Luke xv.. 2s. And he was angry
 Who WAS the prodigafs brother? T know who he is," answers some one. T sea him almost every day Of my life. lie is the honest, upright son who stays at home and gets no credit for being good; he Is the respectable plodder of the lam fly who does most of the hard work Tn the office, in the store and on the iarni and then has the pleasure of seeing all the young girls run after his oi5soiute younger brother merely because that brother is driving fast horses and sowing his wild oats. The elder brother is the son who is always sober and yet receives he not one extra dollar from his parents as A reward, while the drunken son Of the family is continually receiving extra money to get his clothes out of pawn, so that he may have another start In life. The elder Is the good boy upon whom the mother depends to help giye bis sisters new dresses for the winter parties. yet lie never has party given for him. He never had a fatted calf killed that he might entertain his friends, though for years he has cared for the cattle by day and has seen that they were properly milked at night. He Is the good boy who never had a fine ring put on his finger. The folks laughed at his horny fingers, which were knotted from handling the blow and yielding the hoe and the ax. His feet were never measur- ed for dancing slippers because hls san dals were always soiled and dirt begrim- ed. He was always working In the nelds The drunkards, the profiigates, the mid night carousers, the libertines and the associates of lewd companions are the ones who, when they reform, have the smiles and Ire dancing parties given to them, not the elder brothers who have never done wrong"
 Some years ago young college class mate said to me: "It never pays to be good When I am good and stay at home, then father and mother merely take my goodness as a matter of course, but If l only go off on a long carousal then noth- ing is too good for me when come back home. There's lots of fun in being re- pentant prodigal. There is no fun in al- ways being a goody, goody boy. who never gets the fatted calf killed for his benefit" My syrnpathies have always been with the elder brother in the par able" once wrote John R. Paxton, the great New York preacher, and the popu- lar sympathy of the world from time immemorial has been with the elder brother of my text and not with the re- pentant herder of the swine. who return- ed in rags and as a beggar to his fa- thers house.
 Two Kinds of Faults.
 But neither of the brothers is portray ed as an example. Both were bad, though in different ways. We easily see the faults of the younger brother; they were open and scandalous; but the faults of the elder brother being decorously cov- cred up by dutiful conduct, are not so easily recognized. In estimating charac- ter on Gods lines we have to ask not only what a man has done, but what he is Meanness and unbrotherliness and cruel ty in the heart deface mans character as indelibly as open iniquity. They make men as Christ said, like swhited sepul- chers, which indeed appear beautiful out ward but are within full of dead mems bones and of all uncleanness." Therefore place my chief emphasis upon the sim fu1 life of the elder brother, to show that the so-called respectable sins of
 
 most to be dreaded and that it Is the duty of the preacher to warn his hear CTS against them.
 ; The elder brother is the modern Phar- isee, who thanks God that he Is not as other men. He complacently looks upon the drunkard and the social outcast and the pauper and says to his friends: Just look at me I never had any more ad- vantages than those people have had. .f 4rr1, str ture, yet I never would let my evil de- sires get the better of me. I have never been drunk. I have never run up bill l was unable to pay. l never was a frequenter of the clubs, nor convival associate of midnight carousers. Indeed, to be frank with you, I have just about as good opinion of my moral attainments as Prince Bismarck had of his skill in statesmanship. When some one asked the Iron Chancellor who he thought was the brainest statesman in all Europe. Bismarck replied: Modesty forbids my stating who is the brainiest. because then might have to mention my own name. But I am perfectly willing to state that Benjamin Disraeli is without doubt the second ablest statesman in all Europe Other saints" remarks the pharisaical elder brother, may be my equal in moral attainments, but I am sure there is no superior in all the world to my humble self"
 But. my pharisaical friend. though in one sense you may never have broken the criminal code of your state, yet there are more ways than one of break ing the moral and the spiritual laws. shylock, the outraged Jew may have