The county record. [volume] (Kingstree, S.C.) 1885-1975, 1903-07-09
A SERMON FOR SUNDAY
AN ELOQUENT AND HELPFUL DIS.
COURSE ENTITLED LOST AT HOME"

The Rev. Francis J. Mcconnell breaches
I]nstructiyely 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. McConneii,
pastor of the New York Avenue NJ T.
| Church. The sermon was based OIL Luxe
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 4 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.tifth verse. We rejoice in the sound OF
music and dancing which welcomes home
the prodigal. and prefer tina: the story
should end with the happiness or the BAN
luet. The remaining verses, perhaps, seem
! to US somewhat out OF place. The beautiful
narrative is marred by reference to the
u~ciiness of the elder brother, but II 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 jrstlTying his dealing
with publicans and sinners. These are lost
sheep which have wandered away from the
sbepherd: lost coins which have e.uded the
fingers OF the housekeeper and fallen into
the cracks; lost sons who have wandered
far from home to spend all In rlotous Nv
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. 1t requires but a
moments glance to see that IN the Master 5
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 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
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-c!imber loses his hold the
onlookers cry out Lost" not because the
| death-deaiing shock has already come, bat
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
| shore cry Lost" At the moment Of the
cry the ship is as staunch as ever. The
"lostness" 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 haa not been killed when the
shepherd found it. It, however, was lost
because wandering aimlessiy 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
| 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 cider brother
was lost as truly as the younger.
OF course. there may be degrees in lost
| ness" One man may Ee further from the
| right road than another. though any man
off the road is lost. A respectab!e-looking
Pharisee certainly does not seem so bad
| as a dissoluse %spendthrift reduced to the
| company of swine. Bat when ~iostness Is
under consideration. nothing is so decep.
tive as outward appearances. Physical
vices LnII UluUliSSL lutUlSSlNCs III
signs are no more deadly than some subtle
spiritual vices that work duiet.y within.
Not all vices are rough and bo:sterous.
| 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 lost2ess as sDatial. 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 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 jim 4
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;
1t 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 ~frailties with them.
OF 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
damental traits that appear over and oyer
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 Pharisalsm
especially relevant.
First of all, the stay-at-home was lost in
bis thought Of himself. 10, these many
years do / serve thee" The word serve"
Is not at all accidental; it is a very essen
tial part of the picture; it strikes at one
deep faults Of Pharisaism-the inability of
the Pharisee to rise above the idea Of ser
vantship in his thought Of mans relation
to God. The elder brother did not take
himself as a son. but as a 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.
shin Tnon that fact the father restored