The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1906-08-11
- WILLIAM q. ELLIs.

the Lord" Nal. 81.
BY WILLIAM T. ELLIS.
aWO continents have lately
been ringing with the vile
scandals associated with a
recent murder in the fast set
Of New York city. Thus is
@3 the world ever freshly remind
ed Of the unchanging verify OF the
most familiar story in all literature,
that Of the ProdigaI Son, which the
Sunday schools are this week studying.
THE tale is no mere fable. 1t is a
transcript OF actual life; and almost
every observer of wide experience can
furnish an astonishing present-day
parallel from his own knowledge. It
Inaa happened more than once that
when preacher has spoken upon this
story some prodigal has arisen to
charge him with making public the
story of the latter's life
The prodigaI is a factor in the life
of today. Hidden from the gaze of
the many by a dress suit, or lurking
In the shadow OF q great fortune or of
eminent respecta bility, Is many a son
who has broken his fathers heart by
burning his back upon home and by
lconsorting with the swine. This may
BIZ be SO without the worlds knoWl-
edge; the startling double life of the
giBttm of the New York tragedy re-
calls the sober truth that everybody
of routine habit and external condi-
fions and actions. and the other with
I'm his own breast. II is possible for
Dne to be a prodigal without ever ap-
bearing in the company Of the base
and the vile. The glimpses occa-
sionally to be caught Of the putrid
lmaginations Of outwardly respectable
persons are disturbingly suggestive.
The Nub Of 1t All.
e1y,11T 1s+--- +,,--.
dction without a moral teaching. Not
30 the present story. It is told to
illustrate a great truth. The reason
for it's relation lies in the two SEN
fences which introduce these three
parallels OF grace. These are the key
TO the narrative; without them its
meaning may not certainly be IN
locked. Here is the significant intro
duction; Nov all the publicans and
sinners were drawing near unto him
20 hear him. And both the Pharisees
and the scribes murmured, saying:
This man receiveth sinners, and eateth
with them"
That was the reproach of Jesus then:
1t is his praise now He cares for the
common people once heard a blatant
Ounce declare, Christ came to found an
Intellectual aristocracy." Jesus came
TO found no aristocracy, except of holi-
ness, and that by its very nature is no
aristocracy, but humble, self-effacing
DAg+AELLuOQ people unaware or their
own goodness. His kingdom is not a
selection of the self-righteous but a
reunion of the Iowiy, sincere, .penitent
and heart-hungry. A sinner, sorry for
his sin, is surer Of a welcome with God
than tn proud and self-assertive Phari-
see This is the meaning of this para Bile,
which F'arrar calls a divine epitOme
of the wandering of man, and the love
OF God. such as no literature has ever
equalled- Put in one scale all
rooster or Socrates ever wrote or said
ana they wrote and said many beautiful
anda holy words-and put in the other
the Parable of the PrOdigal Son.
and can any candid spirit doubt which
scale would outweigh the other in eter-
nal preciousness2' %
A Sons Folly
The central figure of this story is a
green" youth; he was an unripe soul
He thought that the old man was
-slow," that the home life was dead, "
and that he knew it all,' which last
was a sure proof of his immaturity
Nobody is so distrustfu1 Of his own in
Sallibility as the man of knowledge and
wisdom This youth was still in the
veal period.
So he got his share Of the family for
tune, and played the fool with it in "the
FAR country" until 1t was gone and he
was reduced to the lot particularly loath
some to a Jew, that of a swineherd. Al
last so hungry that he was minded t.
eat the very food of the swine, he ''camt
20 himself and went home. This ex-
perience, bitter and deep, made a mar
Of him True, it perpetuaIly saddene6
his life, and left ineffaceable scars and
Robbed him OF the purity which is ths
FWeetest fountain of Joy; but this was
the price he paid for his folly. The mar
who ''sows Wild oats" in his youth vii
reap tares in his old age. THE lark witt
she broken pinion never scared as higl
again." Ask any man of the world
who has repented of youthful folly and
he viii bid boys to preserve their frs
sincerity and purity, as they would pre-
serve their lives.
Living with the pigs. the Prodiga