The Tupelo journal., 1903-11-20
! Ends In Destruction

etAaI hO a q ouulp tuOuo uOIlp, tudJ
he was clothed and warmed, and could
take his ease and fill his belly with
good things, and have a jolly good
time. He Lived to enjoy life," as
SO many people put it. Think of man
being ruled by the sole motive of self
desire and appetite. And yet how
many. many are under such thralldom!
The prodigal son wanted the gilded at
fractions and pleasures of the far
country, and he gave up home and
friends and everything that his de-
sires might be gratified. The rich
fool wanted his ease, he wanted rare
wines and rich food, and merry COM
home, and he forgot Lazarus at his
gate and the outside world and the
God Who ruled over all. And people
to-day are being dominated by the
same self-desire which lured the
prodigal % away from home and
blinded the rich man to the higher and
better part of life. The consciousness
of God and eternity is becoming less
and less in the world, and this life is
filling all the thought and plans and
desires. -
DUT not only are mere f1eshly ap-
- petites and desires holding sway
over people, but the attachments and
ambitions of this life are shutting
God out of the heart and life. When
it is declared of Israel that they
ceased not from their own doings,"
| do not imagine we are to understand
that all were ruled by the lower ami
NAL nature of the appetites and lusts.
Doubtless there were many against
whom the indictment of God held true,
because they were ambitious for
worldly wealth, or power, or learn
ing or culture. Here were some who
ceased not from their struggle after
riches, sacrificing everything else
that they might pile up the yellow
gold. Others ceased not to covet pow
er, world power. To be a leader, to
dominate in the affairs of the COM
munity or the state, was the ambition
of the life, and by fair means or foul
it was to be gratified. Others ceased
not to drink at the fountain of the
worlds so-called wisdom and culture.
Their brains were SO busy with the
thoughts of man, with mans wisdom
and learning, that the wisdom of God
appeared as foolishness unto them.
And 1t is true to-day that the plans,
ambitions. purposes of this life ap-
pear all important. Man and his do
inpS Cppm ca nopQcCarv that which this
life has to offer appears SO tangible
and a%ttainable, and God and eternity
seem so vague and uncertain, that
man forgets God, and the words of His
Son: What shall it profit a man il
he gain the whole world and lose his
W soul?" And so man ceases not
from his own doings. His ways seem
to him easiest, most pleasant, most
profitable. There is a way which
Seemeth right unto a man." and he
walks heedlessly and blindly in that
way, and will not see the sign posts
which God has placed all along the
route, which warn the soul that the
end thereof are the ways of death"
Blind leaders of the blind" Ever
learning" as Paul says, and never
able to come to the knowledge OF the
truth" Cardinal Wolsey said of Hen
ry VIII. when on his deathbed:
Rather than he will miss or want any
part of his will or appetite, he will
put the loss of one-half his realm in
danger" And man is stalking his pre-
cious soul against the pleasures and
ambitions and purposes of the pres
ent life. This life first, let the soul
take its own chances! is what man ex-
claims.
MANS will is raised against Gods
4V4 will. StubbOrnness shuts out the
beneficent influence of God from the
life, and the soul is barren and dead.
1t is said the reason there are such
barren wastes on the east of the Rocky
mountains is because these rocky
heights prevent the clouds from the
Pacific, with their ~life-giying moisture,
passing to the dry and parched deserts
beyond, and the reason the soul in
man is dead and barren is because
st~ubbOrnness like a high mountain
rears itself between the souls need
and God. God is shut out. Israel was
stubborn. She would go her own way
and do her own deeds. The prodigal
son was determined to go into the far
country. He would not be turned.
The rich man in his palace would see
nothing but his bursting %granaries; he
y@,,l n1t lot h;ra-~1f f4n1 49,, -A-l
but that of the body and the present
life. But the prodigal son did not
leave for the far country before his
father had pleaded with him to stay
at home, until he had tried to show
him that he was going to ruin. The
rich man wa warned by God of the
awful destruction and torment into
which he was %plunging his soul; Laza-
rus, who lay at his gate, and whom he
passed many times each day as he
came and went in his ease and lux
ury, was a perpetual sermon and
warning to him, but he would not
hear, or see, or heed. Henry VIII. did
not rush headlong into his reckless
indulgences without words of warning
and pleading being spoken to him
Lord Wolsey says: Il have Otter
kneeled before him in his privy cham
Der on my knees, the space of an hour
or two, to persuade him from his will
and appetite, but | could never brins
to pass to dissuade him therefrom.'
And how God pleads, and warns man!
He does not leave man until He has