Lincoln County leader. [volume] (Toledo, Lincoln County, Or.) 1893-1987, 1906-03-23
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81 E?lgga[Pl11 .

TIERS rejoicing when the prodigal re-
turned. But the average man or wom-
an cannot but feel a good deal more
liking for the reckless wanderer than
for the respectable stay-at-home.
This would be a mad world with
nothing but prOdigals of the wild,
loose type in it; but it would be a
sad, bleak world if filled with these
elder brothers. They are the cold
blooded, stee[eyed, respectable young
men, the ideals of the banker, the am
bilious mother and the wise young
woman. They save their money, walk
decorously, speak softly and acquire
reputation for responsibility.
But somehow children will have
nothing to do with that type Of man.
Hearts turn from him because his
heart is paraIyzed This is the con.
stant danger to this model young man.
THIS fawless specimen of the ideal ac-
cording to the cold cash world. He is
as fawless as artificial Ice, as correct
as an automatic model His life Is
but a negation, its whole object be.
ing not to do what others might disap.
prove.
If the one lad had wandered far
away in wild lusts, the other was
equally a prodigal wandering In the
desert of cold greed and selfshness.
Inc man who seems to sit at home
may wander farthest from the fa
TIERS heart. No matter how precisely
a man may appear to conform to the
external laws of religion, he is far
away, lost and alone, if he has spent
IN selhshness or lost through disuse
the power to love his brother, if in
this he has departed from the essen
tlal and eternal law of religion.
Full many a man preserves his re-
spectability at the price Of his real re-
llgion. No matter how nearly ideal
the lie may seem to be, man is far
from the kingdom if love be not the
great law Of his life. And when he
gets so holy that he would rather see
his sin-stained brother go down in the
mire than soil his immaculate hands
by helping him up, he is not likely to
realize that the voice which whispers
approval in his ear is not that of the
Most High, but of another
The hardest sinners to reach are the
ones who are enswathed in their own
Snug self-satisfaction, the very ones
for whom the sting in the end of this
parable was intended. In rapt con-
temptation Of their own perfections
they have lost all sense of others, or
at best they have thought of them only
as a fitting foil and background
against which to display their own
well-tended virtues. The way of the
prodigal is dark and to be avoided;
but when he came to know his sins,
with broken heart he hated them,
while the Pharisee cannot repent, for
his heart is atrophied with self-appro-
baton.
The man who thinks only Of himself.
even though his thought be the noble
one Of the perfection of life and char
acter, is taking the way that leads far
from perfection. The development of
the most perfect life, the attaining of
the highest and most worthy selfhood
comes only through forgetting self In
service for our fellows. They only
find life who are willing to lose it;
they find character who are willing to
lose it if only they may do some good
and help some other one.
He who in his desire for rectitude
loses his interest in his fellows, his
love for his wandering brother, is him
self prodigal, wanderer from
brotherhood, and therefore from his
father. He is out Of all sympathy with
his fathers longing for the return of
the lost and shut out from His plans
for bringing even the worst ones back
to Himself. 1t is self that takes us
away from the good, whether we wan
der afar or abide at home; it is love.
love for the Father, for the old home
where the best things and the best
thoughts are, and love for one another
that brings us back to the Fathers
face and the sons rightful place.