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Show F I ELMER! L GOSHEN'S f H yrarT,- SUNDAY, SERMON- I cwt' said: "You bin rut1 to me. Mr. Lieutenant: Lieu-tenant: I wish I was your father. I fl bo bad; you not knowv how bad I feei; only the fader, he know. I guess I go now. Please excuse me, Mr. Lieutenant; Lieu-tenant; my boy la dead." -. Outside the bird were singing and the air la resonant with the aweetnens of spring; but thla young man Is unmindful un-mindful of alL He can only see a little Tillage far away; the old church lifts Its spire to the sky; a little home with two dear 'faces nestles In the hills. The youth finds a Testament, long1 since unused. un-used. He read the fifteenth chapter of Luke's Gospel. He sees the prodigal wandering back with broken heart; he sees the father hastening out to meet and welcome him. As be reads, the song of the birds fill the air. the perfume per-fume of the blossoms floats In through the window, and, closing the book, fthe young Lieutenant says: "I will arise and go unto my father." And the problem of his life is solved.- And the problem of your life and mine find solution when out of our bondage, sorrow and night we say: "I will arts and go unto my Father." rian littleness would enforce; but when you find Jesus the Christ, when you find his- gospel of universal fatherhood, and universal brotherhood, when you find his love that melts the Icy chains of selfishness, then to him give devotion and love, and led by his spirit say: "I will arise and go unto my Father." - Dr. Barnard tells of a girl who strayed from the home circle and gave herself to the dissipation of the great city. The mother of the girl was crazed with grief, and when all her efforts to find her girl had failed, then she sought the aid of friends. One advised her to have her picture taken, frame a great number of copies and write under the picture, "Come home." These pictures were hung In the music halls and the dives where outcasts gather. One night the girl saw her mother's picture. Looking Look-ing closely she saw the Invitation written writ-ten - beneath. She knew that it was meant for her. ' The pathetic appeal softened her heart and she went back to the old home and to the mother love to creep within the folds of virtue and honor. And to man wandering in darkness dark-ness and sin, God send that same invitation. invi-tation. Over all the earth, in the tenderness ten-derness of the spring scene. In the land-scape, land-scape, aflame with autumnal glory. In sunrise and In sunset. In the peaceful valley and In the craggy niche of the mountain, be has spread the beauty of his countenance, and through It all he speaks the Invitation to his children, "Come home." Consider that Invitation Invita-tion that love extends; then say: "I will arise and go to my Father." Let us confess today that there Is nothing that can satisfy the spirit's cry; nothing that can give full-orbed manhood and womanhood except God and his truth. For ten years George Romanes tried to satisfy- soul needs with Intellectual concepts-. For ten years he waved aside the supreme truth. He burled himself In scientific pursujts, and enriched this world with his genius. But science had no food for a hungry soul. One day. In his despair, de-spair, he cried: "Jesus, thou Son of David, have mercy on me." He arose and went to his Father, and In that hour the great scientist became a follower fol-lower of the man of Galilee. Are we willing to do Just that today? God asks no hard things of us. He seeks not to rob our life of any Joy, but to crown It with a benediction of his love. He only asks us to be filled with the spirit of our Master, to accept his friendship and to be led by his truth. Today, conscious of our need, responsive respon-sive to the divine prompting, obedient to our own best desire, let us all say: "I will arise and go unto my Father." Some of you have read In one of the Christmas magaxines this old, old story In modern phrase. An old minister has a boy who he loves more than he loves his life. One night the boy came home tainted with sin and dissipation. The old father reasons with him, pleads with him and then, forgetting himself for a moment says: "Oh! my son, rather than this I could see you dead." In his Impetuosity the young man determines de-termines that henceforth he shall be dead so far as that house is concerned. He writes a note, takes a little bundle of clothes and slips away in the night. Changing his name, he enters the army. One day the villagers where the old father lived saw him open a letter bearing bear-ing the mark of the War Department. As he read his old face grew white, and as he passed along he faintly whispered, whis-pered, "My boy is dead; my boy is dead." And the years sped away. One day the son, now a Lieutenant, had a "call from an old German, who asked him to read a letter to him from the War Department. The old German's boy was dead.. And when the old man broken with his grief turned to go he 1 Luke 15:17-18. , And when he came to himself he said, I will arise and go to my father. Of all the wonderful things that God" , . has created the most wonderful Is man. Of all the faculties and powers that man . has been given the most wonderful and altogether the most valuable val-uable is mind. Because of mind man Is a citizen of the ages. Through the action ac-tion of mind man explores the oceans and finds all about the life that lived , there a thousand years ago. He reads the secrets of the rocks and the doings of the ancient world Is plain before him. ' - ' He studies the plant life and the fauna of the first century and tells us how man lived before history was born. Through mind he reaches out to planets hung far off In space, he steps from star to star, and searches the mysteries of the heavenly world. But mind knows no limit and will not be content with facts that have been or with things that are. Through Imagination it lives In a world that might be. It turns pigments to pictures and makes the canvas live with beauty. It fashions the rough heavy rock until from templed niche It all but breathes with life. Truly has . the philosopher exclaimed: "Man, thou palace of sight and .sound carrying in thy senses the nights and mornings, the Summers and winters; carrying iiv thy brain the geometry of the city of God, in they heart all the powers of love, and all the realms of right and wrong." In harmony with Itself, growing and unfolding nothing is so altogether beau-' beau-' tlful as the human mind; but out of harmony unstrung and untuned,, what a desolation! It is like pome casket made to hold gems and sparkling Jewels, Jew-els, but all empty its treasures scattered; scat-tered; It is like some great banquet room after the night of fei sting with chairs upturned, with glasses broken with flowers faded. It is like' some great gallery through which fire had swept leaving only charred remains of the glories that once were. It Is like a harp whose, strings are torn and twisted, Its key board broken Its harmony har-mony destroyed. . 1 Now when the harmonious workings Jf the faculties Is impaired, when the rowth and symmetrical development of .he mind Is seriously arrested then there is a condition which is called Insanity. In-sanity. For I find insanity to be defined de-fined as "a seriously Impaired condition condi-tion of the mental functions, involving the Intellect, emotions or will, or one or more of these faculties." George III. refused to follow the dic-N dic-N tates of conscience, refused to allow all the faculties of his mind their legitimate legiti-mate development and insanity was the certain result. At the moment of the passing of the Stamp Act he was crazed. He had taught the world that a bit of parchment bearing the sign of his hand . scrawled In the flickering light of cloud-' cloud-' ed reason, could, under the British Constitution, Con-stitution, do the full legislative office of the King. Had he been a private man his signature could have given val-' val-' ldlty to no commission whatever. The twin evils oppressions and greed, blinded him to the laws of right and Justice,, and for the last nine years of his life he was in a demented condition. con-dition. Up. the rugged crags at Sandy wealth and plenty. Two young men shared with the father and mother Joys of that home. They delighted to see the husbandry prosper. They enjoyed the flocks and the herds. Tfcy took pleasure in the wealth that tft farm produced. But one of them became dissatisfied with the quiet of a pastoral life. The old farm-house seemed tame. The father fa-ther and mother no longer pleased him they were so simple In their customs. He wanted to see the world and to be a man of affairs. And so he went to his father and said: "Father, I don't want to be a farmer. I am going out to see life give me my share of the estate and I will go my way." The young man "was weary o( his father's home;' he dealred his goods, but not his presence; he wishes to be his own master, believing that he is cramped and straightened- by goodness, and that liberty to do evil Is the true compensation." And so he takes his share of money and goes to enjoy his freedom. And how good it seems to him. No more getting up at five in the morning no burdensome chores to bother him. no flocks to tend no cows to milk. How pleased to be waited upon. What good fellows he finds and how short the nights seem when in their presence. How the wine sparkles and how its cheers him ah, this Is betn ter than the quiet farm routine he is finding life. . Without restraint of fear of censure he throws himself into the whirl of social so-cial excess. He makes pleasure a business busi-ness father than a recreation and never thinks of the misery he is courting. How soon the scene shifts and how utterly! The gay youth who was foremost fore-most in every revel, whose bright face and confident bearing seemed the very emDodiment of the pride of life, whose wealth gave him command of every form of luxuriant living, and to whom no earthly pleasure was unfamiliar-look unfamiliar-look at him now, blackened with starvation star-vation and filth, clothed in the rags that others have thrown away, noticed only by those who gaze with astonishment astonish-ment at him as one who Is too sunken to be helped. But to none does he look so miserable as to himself. In his mind alone Is there visible the full contrast between uhat ke is and what he was; between what he Is and what he might have been. The love he might have en-Joyed, en-Joyed, the noble uses he might have served, the expansion of his life under the wise enterprise of his father, the growing Influence and respect; the share In the real work and permanent rewards of life that might have been his all this gone beyond his reach and in its place cold and filth, hunger and nakedness, neglect and desolate bitterness bitter-ness of soul. The bubble has bursted the plate has worn off and only the cheap alloy remains. And as he thinks It all over reason seeks to assert itself. He remembers the pleasant home. The fireslde-rthe good father the Joys of an honest life. Reason is returning, impulse im-pulse is steadying to strength. And when he came to himself he said, "I will arise and go unto my father." Now what a picture is all this of man In all his life workings and his relations rela-tions to his Father God. This young prodigal of the story had all good things all legitimate pleasures were open to Mm hut he imagined that goodness gies upon things material, then the glory and the power of life departs; its beauty fades, its perfume vanishes. Its incentive withers when surrounded by strife, and passion, and cupidity,- then man needs the clarified vision of which we studied last Sunday; he needs to see how far he is from his best self; how far he is from the goal that he was intended in-tended to reach, and some see all this and go on starving the higher and better bet-ter self, and then comes discontent and pessimism shrouds the soul. In that hour know that this is not the Father's plan; know that man was made to win in all of life's struggles, and to triumph tri-umph over every foe that assails his higher nature; know, also, that never will he come unto his heritage until in some supreme hour he follows the higher promptings and says: "I will arise and go unto my Father." When a man or woman doggedly refuses re-fuses to accept as their standard of life the purest character of the ages, what is he but insane? The prodigal would have died had he not gone to his father. We will die are dying unless we come to our Father, who alone can give us life. The insanity of unbelief can never cure Itself. The Christ came with healing, heal-ing, with complete cure, and pleads to set you right. And notice it is the testimony testi-mony of the ages that when men come to him they never fail. How many men have tried all else and made a wreefc of their lives. ' But when they let him into their lives they found Joy and life. For five years John B. Gough tried honestly tried in his own struggle to overcome the liquor habit, but every time It triumphed over him. One night he walked the street in desperation. Cold and wet, he was almost ready to give up the fight. But he remembered the message of the Christ, "He that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out." John B. Gough said, I will arise and go to my Father. He trusted in the unseen one and that night was born John B. Gough, the greatest apostle of temperance that the world has known. There are many things that one may disbelieve and still be a true man; and there are some things that he cannot disbelieve and maintain his manhood. He may disbelieve in all existing political polit-ical theories, but he cannot refuse to believe in national honor and good citizenship. citi-zenship. He may refuse to believe in the theories that men spin about household house-hold economics, and be no whit the worse, but he cannot hope to maintain the integrity of his manhood and disbelieve dis-believe in home, and love, and purity, and devotion. He may disbelieve in all the creeds that men have fashioned, and still be regnant in his I manhood; but when he refuses to believe in faith, and God, and love that reaches out to save sinful man, then he is untrue to highest manhood, for he has denied the "central realities of existence and reduced re-duced life to confusion and delirium." To disbelieve the gTeat universal truths, which give meaning and foundation to life, is to rob life of all Its sanctity and purpose, and Is, therefore, immoral. And Just because of all this I am never able to understand how any one who knows anything of the Christ can refuse to believe in him. Disbelief in all the bigoted systems to which men have attached at-tached his name; deny all that secta- Knowe. near the ruined tower of Small-holm, Small-holm, one day climbed a woman carrying car-rying an infant boy. She was his nurse and went there with an insane desire t to throw him from the cliffs. But she was surprised and her purpose foiled. Had she succeeded the world would have been robbed of the- genius and the songs of Sir Walter Scott. Because of insanity Cambyses, the Persian monarch, brought untold suffering suf-fering to men. He caused 50.000 men to perish in the deserts of Ammoy. He had the magnificent temple of Thebes ' pillaged and burned. He put to death his brother Smerdis and when Mereo lamented the death of . her brother he killed her with a stroke of his foot. His was called moral insanity. Insanity is sometimes caused by some sihy8lcal disorder over which one has no immediate control and for which he may not be responsible. One medical writer says that "insanity is an expression expres-sion only of functional and organic disorder; dis-order; remove the disorder upon which ts- insanity depends and the return to sTental soundness Is secured." But now today I ask you to think of insanity that is solely the fault of the one possessing it, that can not be present pres-ent if one desires to escape it an in- sanity that robs life of its sweetest Joys and is in the end absolutely fatal. I ask yoii to consider the insanity of unbelief. un-belief. The parable of which we study a few words today treats of this ln concrete form. It tells'us of a farm home where was was weakness and that' evil could afford af-ford more pleasure than could right. How soon he found that evil has naught but suffering and sorrow and loss to offer and that right living has everything every-thing because it is right. How many a one imagines that to serve God is to lose the Joy of life when ln fact it is to find all Joy and to be supremely happy. Never yet did a soul take its goods and depart from the father but In the end it found sorrow end lo3s and unless it returns a death, that knows no end. How good is God to us; how he fills the world that he has given us with everything tomin-Uter tomin-Uter to our good. Surely he means us to be happy else he wouldn't have given us all this to make us happy. What possibilities pos-sibilities has he given us ln mind and soul culture! How great is the ideal 'that he holds before us to lead us to the noblest life. What Is it other than insanity to refuse re-fuse his love while accepting his bounty? boun-ty? . In his medical works Kraft Ebing says that insanity is "a want of the coordination co-ordination of the faculties of the mind which leads the subject to erroneous conclusions and the formations therefore there-fore of false data." What a false conclusion Is that which unbelief induces. It would make men imagine that they can satisfy their natures na-tures without God satisfy a soul without with-out giving to it the only food that the soul can use. Men have tried pleasure of body and failed as did the prodigal. They have tried materialism and its dark philosophy philo-sophy and failed as did Schaupennaur. They have tried mind culture and found with Darwin that it is not enough. He has a mind and great is the way that it will lead him, but if it stops short of God and his Christ it Is a barrenness bar-renness that defeats its own ends. Man has a soul and it will not be satisfied and no happiness worthy the name can be till he finds his father and his God. Proof this, beyond all lingering doubt, That not with natural or mental wealth Was God delighted, or his peace secured; se-cured; That not in natural or mental wealth Was human,' happiness or grandeur found. Attempt how monstrous and how surely sure-ly vain. With things of earthly sort, with ought but God. To satisfy and fill the Immortal soul. Attempt Inconceivably! Attempt To satisfy the ocean with a drop. To marry immortality to death. And with the unsubstantial shade of time To fill the embrace of all eternity." But now God does not force men to live with him. He treats them always as those who can choose. He does not save us whether we will or not. But, oh! how he strives to have us choose nobly and truly. The erring boy in the parable went back and the father saw him coming; saw him in all his rags and filth, but ran to meet him. And so God sees us, sin-cursed, besprent with mire, without a single thing of value, but when we come to ourselves and resolve to return to the Father he runs to meet us and gives us pardon and peace forever. He holds out his arms and says: "Son, thy slas be forgiven for-given thee." Is there anything hard about this is there anything narrow ln this is it anything short of insanity to refuse his love and his tender yffer? Where men know only the lower things; when they spend all their ener- |