The Penn's Grove record., 1903-07-10
SERMON FOR SUNDAY
AN ELOQUENT AND HELPFUL DIS.
COURSE ENTITLED LOST At HOME"

COURSE ENTITLED LOST At HOME"
The Rev. Francis J. Mcconnell breaches
Instructively 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 j. Mcconnell,
pastor of the New York Avenue M. Z.
Church. The sermon was based on Luke
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-ffth verse. We rejoice in the sound of
music and dancing which welcomes home
should end with the happiness of the ban
quet. The remaining verses, perhaps, seem
to us somewhat out of place. The beautiful
narrative is marred by reference to the
~ugliness of the elder brother, but if we
leave the elder brother out of the parable
we have lost in large part the Masters
point. Remember that Jesus is speaking
VI liz lOSty 4 Ii justify INK LIS dCdlluk
with publieans 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 all in riotous liv-
ing. The parable was spoken in response
to the murmurs of Pharisees 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. It requires but a
moments glance to see that in the Masters
thought the Pharisee is lost-lost not in
open prsodigality and outbreaking vice, but
lost in false conceptions and false feelings.
Jesus does not say, indeed, that the Phari-
see is lost, but He implies as much. When
we look at the parable in the light of the
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
s'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, win sooner or later bring disaster.
If 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
s1ostness' consists in her being in the
grasp of a 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. 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 death-bringing forces, the elder brother
was lost as truly as the younger.
Of course, there may be degrees in "lost-
ness" One man may be further from the
right road than another, though any man
off the road is lost. A respectable-looking
Pharisee certainly does not seem so bad
as a dissolute 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
because he remained at home. We are very
apt to think of ~lostness as spatial. The
younger son was in a far country, and
whether we realize it or not, something OF
our thought 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 have saved the younger son by fasten-
ing chains upon him and keeping him at
home. hi 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.
b son who remained at home was in a
spiritual sense as truly lost as the son who
wandered into the far country. Spiritual
lostness consists in false ways of looking
at and feeling about spiritual things.
It may be that some will object that the
Pharisees were a particular class of people
living at a particular date in the worlds
history; that they have long since passed
on, carrying all their f~railties with them.
vi what use to speak of Pharisees to-day?
1t must be responded that this view is
wholly superfieial-that Jesus spoke for all
ages; that in Pharisaism were certain fun,
damenta1 traits that appear over and over
again. Pharisaism is not yet dead; the
name is changed, but the characteristics
reappear, Few men are far enough beyond
Pharisaism to make a 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. so, these many
years do I serve thee" The word serve
is not at all accidental; it is a very essen
tai part of the picture; it strikes at one
deep faults of Pharisaism-the inability Of
vantship in his thought of man relation
to God. Thu elder brother did not take
himself as a son. but as a servant. ano
therefore was lost in his thought of him
self. After the prodigal among the swine
came to himself he said, Il am no more
worthy to be called thy son; make me al
one OF thy hired servants" The prodiga
thought Of himself as lost forever to son
ship and hoped only for stewardship; anG
yet the great redeeming fact in the reek
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 thins
sonship. With 4 that an lesson ason t there fo GLOVES :
Il will arise and go to my father" So fan
as this essential realization of sonship wa:
concerned the elder brother was as lost a:
the wanderer who had gone to the fan
country.
Looking at the parable in the light of it:
eternal spiritual significance, this must bt
said, the man who strives to serve Goo
as a servant and not as a son is lost. No
that he is a villain or given to outbreakinl
transgression, but SO long as he merely
serves God he is lost to all joy for himsel
and is a dead loss to God. l say lost t.
JOY, because there is no joy in merely
serving God-that is, if we take the WORK
seriously. If we look upon God as a greai
taskmaster, a great lord over servants, W.
are lost in misery; for we make so man,
mistakes and we leave SO much undone anc
we absolutely fail so many times that W.
get bnt-ittle satisfaction out OF the worf
itself. If we really look upon Coo as
taskmaster we must honestly confess thai
we can never please Him. With our limit
ed insight and our laundering faculties We
are lost to the happiness of successful ser
vice. The more we strive the more W.
hlunder, and the more we blunder the NOR.
lost we feel. As evening comes on ant
the hour draws near when we shall fac'
1 L. 44A - ~ 800 all ~.