The Brandon news. (Brandon, Miss.) 1892-1961, 1903-07-16
A SERMON FOR SUNDAY
AN ELOQUENT AND HELPFUL DIE.
COURSE ENTITLED "LOSTAT HOME"
The Rev. Francis J. Mcdonnell Prea ches
1nstructively on the Parable In Luke,
Which Deals With the Grace of God
Toward the Lost.


1nstrucrively on the Parable In Luke
Which Deals With the Grace of God
Toward the Lost.
New YORK CITY.-"Lost At Home" was
the subject of the sermon preached Sunday
evening by the Rev. Francis b. Mcconnell
pastor of the New York Avenue M E.
XIV. Mr.. Mcconnell said:
All the, parallels of this fifteenth chapter
OF Luke deal with the grace of God toward
the lost. There is the story of a sheep lost
another of a coin lost and another of two
sons lost. The parable from which the text
OF the evening is taken is not the parable
OF the lost son, but the parable of the lost
sons. A great many of us stop at the TWEEN
ty-htth verse. We rejoice in the sound of
music and dancing which welcomes home
the prodlgal, and prefer that the story
should end with the happiness of the ban
quet. The remaining verses, perhaps, seem
to Us somewhat out of place. The beautiful
uginess of the elder brother, but if we
leave the elder brother out of the parable
we have lost in large part the Master $
point. Remember that Jesus is speaking
of the lost; He is justifying His dealing
with pubhcans and sinners. These are lost
sheep which have wandered away from the
| shepherd; lost coins which have eluded the
fingers of the housekeeper and fallen into
the cracks; lost sons who have wandered
| far from home to spend al in riotous lv-
| ing. Ihe parable was spoken i'll response
to the murmurs of Phafssees and Scribes.
| With wonderful exquisiteness Jesus puts
the Pharisees and Scribes into the parable.
The elder brother is the Scribe who can
not understand the love of the Master for
publicans and sinners. 1t requires but a
| moments glance to see that in the Masters
| thought the Pharisee is lost-lost not in
open prodigality and outbreaking vice, but
lost in false conceptions and false feelings
Jesus does not say, indeed, that the 2hari
see is lost, but He implies as much. When
whole teaching of Jesus, we can see clearly
| the "lostness" of the elder brother.
Possibly it would be well to say just a
| word about the sense in which the word
"lost" is here used. lost" in the gospel
means not that destruction has already
come upon the soul, but that the soul is in
the grip OF forces which, if left to them
selves, will sooner or later bring disaster
Ii the steeple-climber loses his hold the
onlookers cry out Lost" not because the
death-deaiing shock has already come but
because the steeple-climber is in the grasp
of a force which will inevitably bring him
to destruction. If a ship falls into the
clutches of an irresistible current running
upon the rocks the watchers upon the
cry the ship is as staunch as ever The
"lostness" consists Ia her being in the
grasp of force that must, if left to itself,
bring her to doom. The sheep out in the
wilderness had not been killed when the
shepherd found it. 1t, however, was lost
because wandering aimlessly in the pres
ence of danger that must, sooner or later,
bring the end The coin in the dust was
as good as ever, but in danger of being
swept out upon the rubbish heap, where
it might never be found.s The younger son
had not yet lost his life, but his days were
short If they were to be left to the forces
preying upon them. Now, in this sense of
the word, in the sense of being in the grasp
OF eath-bringing forces, the elder brother
was lost as truly as the younger
Vi course, there may be degrees in Cost
ness" One man may be further from the
right road than another, though any man
off the road is lost. A respectful le-loolSing
Pharisee certainly does not seem so bad
as dlssolute spendthrift reduced to the
company Of swine. But when lostness is
under consideration, nothing is so decep-
tive as outward appearances. Physical
vices that manifest themselves in outward
signs are no more deadly than some subtle
spiritual vices that work quietly within.
Not all vices are rough and boisterous
Again, IN the parable before us we may
fail to see the lostness of the elder brother
apt to think of lostness as spatial. The
younger son was IN a far country, and
whether we realize it or not, something of
oursthought of his lostness has to do with
his geographical position. The elder son
was at home and, therefore, safe; but the
lostness of the parable has very little to
do with spatial relations. The father could
not nave saved the younger son by fasten-
ing chains upon him and keeping him at
home. The son was already far away
when he clasped his fathers hand to say
goodby. .Nearness IN a spiritual sense is
not at all a matter of physical distance
The son who remained at home was in
spiritual sense as truly lost as the son who
wandered into the fer country. Spiritual
lostness consists in false ways of looking
at and feeling about spiritual things.
1t may be that some will object that the
Pharlsees were a particular class of people
living at particular date in the worlds
history; that they have long since passed
on, carrying all their frailties with them.
Vi what use to speak of Pharisees to-day?
1t must be responded that this view is
wholly superfcial-that Jesus spoke for all
ages; that In Pharisaism We're certain fun
damentaI traits that appear over and over
again. Pharlsalsm is not yet dead: the
name is changed, but the characteristics
reappear. Few men are far enough beyond
Pharisaism to make protest against the
discussion of the lostness Of Pharisaism
especially relevant.
First of all, the stay-at- home was lost in
his thought of himself. "Lo, these many
years do I serve thee" The word sserve'
is not at all accidental; it is very essen
tlal part Of the picture; it strikes at one
deep faults Of Pharisaism-the inability of
the Pharisee to rise above the idea of SER
vantshiip in his thought of mans relation
to God. The elder brother did not take
himself as son. but az servant. and
therefore was lost in his thought of him
self. After the prodigal among the SWINE
came to himself he said, 81 am no more
worthy to be called thy son; make me as
one of thy hired servants" The prodigal
thought of himself as lost forever to SON
ship and hoped only for stewardship; and
yet the great redeeming fact in the reck-
less sinners case was that he had come to
the point where he could appreciate SON.
ship. Upon that fact the father restored
him.. The prodigal had learned something
in his disgrace. He had learned to think
of himself as one who had sinned against
sonship. With that lesson there followed
Il will arise and go to my father" So far
as this essential realization of sonship was
concerned the elder brother was as lost as
the wanderer who had gone to the far
country.
Looking at the parable in the light of its
| eternal ,a1 1,o