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

sible that you and do not believe the omnipotent hand of Christ Is able to lift the ylest of sinners out of their sins If they will only reach up for that saving hand? Can we not have at heart as much faith in Christ's power to save re- pentant white man Robert Moffat had in Christ's power to save repentant
 black man? Would that we might all in our dealings with the prodigal son be like that great African missionary when he wrote upon the white leaf of a young girls album these suggesuve words: My album is in savage breasts
 Where passion reigns and darkness rests Without one ray of light;
 To write the name of Jesus there,
 To point to worlds. both bright and fair, And see the pagans bow in prayer
 Is all my souls delight.
 The elder brother does not realize fully
 that his Divine Father is showing more magnanimity in bearing with his respect
 able meanness than in welcoming back
 the repentent prodigal boy. I feel sorry
 for the wife who is married to a drunk-
 ard or to a gambler or to absolute clubman That must be crushing cross
 for mother to carry Tor the sake of her children-to feel that for the baby's
 welfare she must associate with man from whom the law courts Of the land
 would give her a divorce if she only pre-
 sented her evidence. But, though this
 may be true, l feel almost as sorry for a wife who has to live with one of those cross grained, sneering, irritating, fault finding jealous husbands who are wear Ing out and sapping away the life and happiness of many a home-l mean
 wife who has to live with one of these heartless, brutal men who go around with soft voices and smiling faces and yet are as merciless as a hornet thrusting a ! sting; I mean a wife who has to live with a man who considers every day
 wasted unless he is able to overreach somebody and yet will do the overreach-
 Ing in such a polite and deferential way that his victim can say nothing and have i no recourse to justice. But there is no l need of my going on and further describ- l ing this hypocritical class. You have 1 representation of that class in the char 1 acter of the elder brother. He is to be l seen everywhere. He is to be seen inside 1 the church as well as outside. And yet l the good father in the parable of the
 prodigal son was ready to speak just as l forgivingly to his elder son as to the younger.
 1 The other day a person asked me what I considered the most beautiful sentence 1 in the parable. This was my answer: l Ut is not to be found in the good fa- l ther's dealings with the younger, but
 with the elder, son. When the servant
 came In and told the good father that
 his elder boy was acting uhnlially and
 unbrotherly, the father did not lose his
 patience He did not send a peremptory
 command to his elder son to come to him
 at once. as he had a right to do. but, as
 a servant he left the banquet hall. He
 went out into the darkness of the night
 and placed his arm gently about his sim 1 ful elder sons neck, as he answered In
 a pleading, yearning voice. Son. thou art 1 ever with me. and all that I have is
 thine.' That Is much IS to say My boy, my dear boy, I am not trying to 1 do you any injustice. I shall not take
 away any of your inheritance. All mat
 1 have is yours What I long for is for | the love and the purity or my children.
 I want my two boys to be always by my
 side. Come, my child come back to
 your fathers love. Come back into the l old homestead which I have prepared for i you. Oh, that answer to me Is beauti- 1 full That answer is the sweetest, gen.
 tlest. most loving and yet most pleading
 rebuke ever spoken by the lips of any
 of the characters of the Bible. That Is 1 Chrst-love pleading for you and for me to come into the Fathers house and
 nestle as a lamb in his bosom.
 But after all. the most impressive l part of the elder brothers history is .ne