Orange County observer., 1903-07-16

GRACE TOWARDS THE LOST ONES

GRACE TOWARDS THE LOST ONES
Discourse on the Parable In St. Luke
Which Deals With Those Who Are
Astray.
New YORK CITY.-sLost At Home was
the subject Of the sermon preached Sunday
evening by the Rev. Francis }. McConnelI,
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 sheep lost,
another of coin lost and another Of two
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 tWen-
ty-fifth verse. We rejoice in the sound Of
music and dancing which welcomes home
the Prodlgal, and d prefer that the story
.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
Of the lost; He is justifying His dealing
with publlcans and sinners. These are lost
sheep which have wandered away from the
shepherd; lost coins which have eiuded the
fingers of the hovsekeeper 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. 1t requires but a
moments glance to see that in the Masters
thought the Pharisee is lost-lost not in
! open prodigality and outbrealzing 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
| 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
If the steeple-clilnber loses his hold the
onlookers cry out "I1ost," not because the
death-dealing shock has already come, but
because the steeple-clim is in the grasp
of a, force which will inevitably bring him
to destruction. If 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 force that must, if left to itself,
bring her to doom. The sheep out in 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
nsh @ be ound rdooS Tbe RS
had not vet 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 o. 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-l looking
pharlsee certainly does not seem so bad
as dissoute 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 o1
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 tc
do with spatial relations The father could
not have saved the younger son by fasten
ing chains upon him and keeping him al
home. The son was already far away
when he clasped his fathers hand to say
goodby. Nearness III a spiritual sense l:
not at all matter Of physical distance
spiritual sense as truly lost as the son who
wandered into the far country. Spiritua
lostrcss consists in false ways of loolzin:
. at and feeling about spiritual things.
! It may be that some will object that tht
Pharisees were q particular class of reop,t
history; that they have long since passee
, on, carrying all their frailties with them
OF what use to speak of Pharisees to-day
It must be responded that this view i
| wholly superical-that Jesus spoke for al
ages; that in Pharisaism were certain fun
damental traits that appear over and owe
again. Pharlsaism is not yet dead; tn
: name is changed, but the characteristic
reappear. Few men are far enough beyons
Pharisaism to make protest against th
dlscussiOn OF the lOSCnesS OF tharlSalSn
especially relevant.
. First of ALL the St y-at-home was lost il
his thought of himself ..Lo, these. mar
e years do serve thee" The word ':serve
is not at all accidental; it is yery essen
tial part Of the picture; it strikes at on
> deep faults Of Pharisaisn,-the inability Q
the Pharisze to rise above the idea of sez
: vantship in his thought Of mans relation
, to Cod The elder brother did not tax
l himself as o soz, but as a servant, an
: therefore was lost in his thought of hin
$ self. After the prodigal among the swim
y came to himself he said, q am 10 nor
;. worthy to be called thy son; make me a
/ one Of thy hired servants" The prodigs
l thought Of himself as lost forever to So
q ship and hoped only for servantshlp; an
yet the great redeerning fact in the recl
: less sinners case was that he had come t
d the point where he could appreciate sor
! ship. Upon that fact the father restore
- him. The prodigal had learned somethin
) in his disgrace. He, had learned to thin
It Of himself as one who had sinned agains
I sonshiD. With that lesson there followe
=. 81 viii arise and go to my father So IA