Pike County Democrat, Volume 25, Number 27, Petersburg, Pike County, 16 November 1894 — Page 3

“HOME AGAIN.” Rev. Dr. Talmage Returns From His Tour Around the World. ' Th« Parable of the Prodigal's Return CboMu aa a Pitting Subject to Preseat to His Greet Reading Cougregatlou. The following sermon was selected by Rev. T. DeWitt Talmage, who has returned from his trip around the world, for publication this week. Its subject, “Home Again” is based upon the text: Bring hither the fatted calf ant hill it.—Luke xv.. n In all ages of the t^orld it has been customary to' celebrate joyful events by festivity—the signing of treaties, the proclamation of peace, the Christinas, the marriage. However much on other days of the year our table may have stinted supply, on Thanksgiving day there must be something bounteous. And all the comfortable homes of Christendom have at some time celebrated joyful events by banquet and festivity. Something has happened in the old homestead greater than anything that has ever happened before. A favorite son, whom the world supposed would become a vagabond and outlaw forever, has got tired of sightseeing and has returned ta his father’s house. The world said he never would come back. The old man always said his son would come. He had been looking for him day after day and year after v year. He knew he would come back. Now, having returned to his father’s house, the father proclaims celebration. There is a calf in the paddock that has been kept up and fed to utmost capacity, so as to be ready for some occasion of joy that might come along. Ah! ihere never will be a grander day on the old homestead than this day. Let the butchers do their work, and the housekeepers bring into, the table the smoking meat. The musicians will - take their places, and the gay groups will move up and down the floor. All

tne mends and neighbors are gathered in. and extra supply is sent out to the table of the servants. The father presides at the table, and says grace, and thanks Gjpd that his long absent boy is home strain. Oh! how they missed hiriH-bow glad they are to have him back. One brother indeed stanrs pouting at the back door, and says: “This is a great ado about nothing; this bad boy should have been chastened instead of greeted: veal is too good for him!” But the father says, “Nothing is too good: nothing is good enough.” There sits the young man, glad at the hearty reception, but a shadow of sorrow flitting across his brow at the remembrance of tho trouble he had seen. All ready now. Let the cover lift. Music. lie was dead and he is alive again! He was lost and he is found! By such bold imagery does the Bible set forth the merrymaking when a soul comes home to God. First of all, there is the new convert’s joy. It is no tame thing to become a Christian.* The most tremulous moment in-a man’s life is when he surrenders himself to God. The grandest time on the father’s homestead is when the boy comes back. Among the great throng who, in the parlors of my church, professed Christ one night was a young man, who next morning rang my door bell and said: “Sir, I can not contain myself with the joy I feel; I came here this morning to express it. I have found more joy in five minutes in serving God than in all the years of my prodigality, and I came to say so.” You have seen, perhaps, a man running for his physical liberty, ahd the 'officers of the law after him; and you saw him escape, or afterward you heard the judge had pardoned him, and how great was tlm glee of that rescued man; but it is a very tame thing that, compared with the run^ ning for one?s everlasting life—the terrors of the law after him, and Christ coming in to pardon and bless and rescue and save. You remember John Bunyan, in his great story, tell how the pilgrim tput his fingers in his ears and ran, orying: “Life, life, eternal life!” A poor car driver, after having had to struggle to support his family for years, suddenly was informed'that a large inheritance was his, and there was joy amounting to bewilderment; but that is a small thing compared with the experience of one when he has put in his hands the title deed to the joys, the raptures, the splendors of Heaven, and he can truly say: “Its mansions are mine, its temples are mine, its songs are mine, its God is

JUUIUV* Oh, it is^no tame thing to become a •Christian. \ It is a merry-making. It is the killing of the fatted calf. It is jubilee. You know the Bible never •compares it to a funeral, but always compares it to something bright. It is more apt to be compared to a banquet than anything else. It is compared in the Bible to the water—bright, flashing water; to the morning— roseate, fireworked, mountain-trans-figured morning. I wish I could to-day take all the Bible expressions about pardon and peace, and life and comfort, and hope and Heaven, and twist them into one garland, and put it on the brow of the humblest ‘“child of God in all this land, and cry: 4*Wear it, wear it now, wear it forever, eon of God, daughter of the Lord God Almighty.” Oh, the joy of the new convert! Oh, the gladness of the Christian service. You have seen sometimes a man in a religious assembly get up and give his experience. Well, Paul gave his experi•ilce. He rose in the presence of two churches—the^shurch on earth and the church in Heaven—and he said: “Now, this is my experience: ‘Sorrowful, yet always rejoicing; poor, yet making many rich; having nothing, yet possessing all things.’” If all the people who read this sermon knew the joys of the Christiau religion, they would all pass over into the kingdom of God the next moment. When Daniel San*

deman eras dying of eholera, bis at* tendant said: “Have you much pain?” “Oh,” he replied, “since 1 found the Lord I hare never had any pain except sin.” Then they said to him: “Would you like to send a message to your friends?” “Yes, 1 would—tell them that only last night the love of Jesus came rushing into my soul like the surges of the sea, and I had to cry out, ‘Stop, Lord; it is enough! Stop, Lord —enough!’ ” Oh, the joys of this Christian religion! Just pass over those tame joys in which you are indulging—joys of this world—into the raptures of the Gospel. The world cannot satisfy you; you have found out—Alexander, longing for other worlds to conquer, and yet drowned in his own bottle; Byron, whipped by disquietudes around the worlds Voltaire, cursing his own soul while all the streets of Paris were applauding him, Henry II., consuming with hatred against poor Thomas a Becket—all illustrations of the fact that this world cdn not make a man happy. The very man who poisoned the pommel of the saddle on which Queen Elisabeth rode shouted in the street: “God save the Queen!” One moment the world applauds, and the next moment the world anathematizes. Oh, come over into this greater joy, this sublime solace, this magnificent beatitude. The night after the battle of Shiloh there were thousands of wounded on the field and the auabulanceshad not come. One Christian soldier, lying there a-dying under the starlight, began to

sing: There is a land of pare delight. And when he came to the next line there were score of voices uniting— Where salats immortal reign. * The song1 was caught up all over the field among the wounded; until, it was said, there were at lea£t ten thousand wounded men uniting their voices as they came to the verse: There everlasting spring abides. And never-withering flowers: Death lijke a narrow stream divides. That Heavenly land from ours. Oh, it is a great religion to live by, and it is a great religion to die by. There is cml.v one heart throb between you and that religion this moment. Just look into the faee of your pardoning God, and surrender yourself for time and for eternity, and He is yours. Some of you, like the young man of the text, have gone far astray. I know not the history, but you know it—you know it When a young man went forth into life, the legend says, his guardian angel went forth with him, and getting him into a field, the guardian angel swept a circle clear around where ’ the young man stood., It was a circle of virtue and honor, and he must not step beyond that circle. Armed foes came down, but were obliged to halt at the circle—they could not pass. Hut one day a temptress with diamond hand stretched forth and crossed that circle with the hand, and the tempted soul took it, and by that one fell grip was brought beyond the circle, and died. Some of you have stepped beyond that circle. Would you not like this day, by the grace of God, to step back? This, I say ti> you, is your hour of salvation. There was in the closing hours of Queen Anne what is called the clock scene. Flat down on the pillow’ in helpless sickness, she could not move her head or move her hand. She was waiting for the hour when the ministers of state should gather in angry contest; and worried and worn out by the coming hour, and in momentary absence of the nurse, in the power—the strange power which delirium sometimes gives one—she arose and stood in front of the clock, and -stood there watching the clock, when the nurse returned^ The nurse said, “Do you see anything peculiar about that clock?” ShaTnade no answer, hut Soon died. There is a clock scene in every history. If some of yon

would rise irom me oeuoi leinargy and -come out of your delirium of sin, and look on the clock of your destiny this moment, you would see and hear something you have not seen or heard before, and every tick of the minute, and every stroke of the hour, and every 6wing of the pendulum, would say: “Now, now, now, now!” Oh, come home to your father’s house. Come home, ho, prodigal, from the wilderness. Come home, come home! But I notice that when the prodigal came there was the father’s joy. He did not greet him with any formal “How do you do?” He did not come out and say: “You are unfit to enter; go out and wash in the trough by the well, and then you can come in; we have had enough trouble with you.” Ah, no! When the proprietor of that estate proclaimed festival it was an outburst of a father’s love and a father’s joy. God is your father. I have not much sympathy with that description of God I sometimes hear, as though He were a Turkish sultan—hard and unsympathetic, and listening not to the cry of his subjects. A man told me he saw, in one of the eastern lands, a king riding along, and two men were in altercation, and one charged the other with having eaten his rice; and the king said, “Then slay the man, and by post-mortem examination find whether he has eaten the rice.” And he was slain. Ah! the cruelty of a scene like i that. Our God is not a Sultan, not a despot, but a father—kind, loving, forgiving, and he makes all heaven ring again when a prodigal comes back. “I have no pleasure,” he says, “in the death of him that dieth.” If a man does not get to Heaven, it is because he will not go there. No. difference the color, no difference the history, no difference the antecedents, j no difference the surroundings, no difference the sin. When the white horses of Christ’s victory are brought out to celebrate the eternal triumph, ! you may ride one of them, and as God is greater than all, His joy is greater; and j when a soul comes back there is in ! his heart the surging of an infinite ocean of gladness; and to express that gladness it lakes all the rivers of pleasure, and all the ages of eternity. It ia

t joy deeper than mil depth, mnd higher than all height, and wider than all width, and raster than all immensity. It overtops. it undergirds, it outweighs all the united splendor and joy of the unirerse. Who can tell what God's joy is? You remember reading the story of a king, who on some great day of festivity scattered silver and gold among the people, who sent valuable presents to his courtiers; but methinks when a soul comes back, God is so glad that to express His joy He flings out new worlds into place, kindles up new suns, and rolls among the white-robed anthems of the redeemed a greater hallelujah,while with a voice that reverberates among the mountains of franckincense and is echoed back from the everlasting gates. He cries: “This, my son, was dead, and is alive againr At the opening of the exposition in New Orleans I saw a Mexican flutist, and he played the solo, and then afterward the eight or ten bands of music, accompanied by the great organ, came in; but the sound of that one flute, as compared with all the orchestra, was greater than all the combined joy of the universe, when compared with the resounding heart of Almighty God. For ten years a father went three times a day to the depot. His son went off in aggravating circumstances, but the father said, “He will come back.” The strain was too much, and his mind parted; and three times a day the father went. In the early morning he watched the train—its arrival, the stepping out of the passengers and then the departure of the train. At noon he was there again, watching the advance of the train, watching the departure. At night, there again, watching the coming, watching the going, for ten years. He was sure his son would come back. God has been watching and waiting for some of you, my brothers, ten

jrcan». twenty years, nurty years, forty years, perhaps fifty years—waiting1, waiting, watching, watching; and if this morning the prodigal should come home, what a scene of gladness and festivity, and how the great Father’s heart would rejoice at your coming home. You will come some of you, will you not? You will! you will! I notice also that when a prodigal comes home there is the joy of the ministers of religion. Oh, it is a grand thing to preach this Gospel! I know there has been a great deal said about the trials and the hardships of the Christian ministry. I wish somebody would write a good, rousing book about the joys of the Christian ministry. Since I entered the profession, I have seen more of the goodnes of God than I will be able to celebrate in all eternity. I know some boast about their equilibrium, and they do not rise into enthusiasm, and they do not break down with emotion; but I confess to you plainly that when I see a man coming to God and giving up his sin, I feel in body, mind and soul a transport. When I see a man, who is bound hand and foot in evil habit, emancipated, 1 rejoice over it as though it were my own emancipation. When, in our communion service, such throngs of young and old stood up at the altars, and, in the presence of Heaven and earth and hell, attested their allegiance to Jesus Christ, I felt a joy something akin to that which the apostle describes when he says: “Whether in the body I can not tell, or out of the body I can not tell; God knoweth.” Life insurance men will all tell yo that ministers of religion as a class live longer than any other. It is confirmed by the statistics of all those who calculate upon human longevity. Why is it? There is more draft upon the nervous system than any other profession, and their toil is most exhausting. I have seen ministers kept on miserable stipends by parsimonious congregations who wondered at the dullness of the sermons, when the men of God were perplexed almost to death by questions of livelihood, and not enough nutritious food to keep any fire in their temperament. No fuel, no fire. 1 have sometimes seen the inside of the life of many of the American clergymen—never accepting their hospitality, because they can not afford it; but 1 have seen them struggle on with salaries of five hundred and six hundred dollars a year—the average less than

that—their struggle well depicted by the western missionary who says in a letter: “Thank yon for your last remittance; until it came we had not any meat in, our house for one year, and all last winter, although it was a severe winter, our children wore their summer clothes.” And these men of God I find in different parts of the land, struggling against annoyances and exasperations innumerable; some of them week after week entertaining agents who have maps to sell, and submitting themselves to all styles of annoyance, and yet without complaint, and cheerful of soul. How do you account for the fact that these life insurance men tell us that ministers as a class live longer than any others? It is because of the joy of their work, the joy of the harvest field, the joy of greeting prodigals home to their Father’s house. At the banquet of Lucullus sat Cicero the orator. At the Macedonian festival sat Phillip the conqueror. At the Grecian banquet sat Socrates the philospher; but but at our Father’s table sit all the returned prodidals, more than conquerors. The table is so wide its leaves reach across seas and across lands. Its guests are the redeemed of earth and the glorified of Heaven. The ring of God's forgiveness on every hand, the rube of the Saviour’s righteousness adroop from every shoulder. The wine that glows in the cups is from the bowls of ten thousand sacraments. Let all the redeemed of earth and all the glorified of Heaven rise, and with gleamingchalice drink to the return of a thousand prodigals. Sing! sing! sing! “Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to recei ve blessing and riches and honor and glory and power, world without end!” —Hank and riches are chains of gold, but Mill chains.—Ruffini,

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“Let me tell you, Mrs. Thomas,’’ said a happy parent to a neighbor, “my son Ernest has got a first prise.” “O, I quite understand your feelings, marm,” said Mrs. Thomas. “I felt just the same when our young pig carried off a medal at the agricultural show.” Father—“He says that he loves you, but can he support you in the style that you have been accustomed to?” Daughter— “Even better, father dear, if you will just furnish the money. That is all thatdis courages him.”—Chicago Inter Ocean. The Heathen Chinee Is not a beauty. No more are you when your complexion has an orange tint That means that you are bilious, a fact further evinced by disoomfort on the right side, sick headache, vertigo, nausea and furred tongue. Hostetter’s Stomach Bitters will take the bile out of your blood, regulateyour bowels, set your stomach in good working order—in two words, cure you. Use it and cease to be Sllow. It cures malarial, rheumatic and Iney trouble. Pat’s Objection to the Bicyole—“Begorra 1 whin I walk I prefer to have my feet on the ground.”—Boston Transcript

THE MARKETS. Nkvv York. Not. 18,: CATTLE—Native Steers...... 8 3 85 ft COTTON—Middliug. ft FLOUR—Winter Wheat. 8 85 ft WHKAT-No. 8 Red.. 88 ft CORN—No. 2. 667a® OATS-No 2.. 32y,ft PORK—New Mess. IS 60 ft ST. LOUli OOTTON-Mtddling. .t..... ® BEEVES—Shioping Steers... 5 00 ® Medium. 4 45 ft HOGS—Fair to Select.. 4 S' ft SHEEP—Fair to Choioe... 2 00 ft FLOUR—Patents.. .. 8 40 ft Fancy to Extra do.. 8 00 ft WHEAT—No.2 Red Winter. . 51 ft CORN—No. 2 Mixed. 45*ft OATS—No. 2. ft RYK-No.8. 49*@ TOBACCO-Lugs. S50 ft Leaf Ruriey.7 00 ft 1 HAY—Clear Timothy.; 9 Ml ft 1 U UTTER—Choice Dairy. 18 ft EGGS—Fresh.. .... ft PORK—Standard Mess (new).. .... ft BACON—Clear Rlh.. ft LARD—Prime Steam. ft CHICAGO CATTLE—Shipping . 4 80 HOGS—Fair to Choice . 4 40 SHEEP—Fair to Choice. . 2 65 FLOUR—Winter Patents. ... 8 50 i Spring Patents.. 3 00 < WHEAT— No.2 Spring. 58*' No. 2 Red. 64*' CORN—No.8.... i OATS—No.8... i PORK—Mesa (new). 18 12* KANSAS CITY. CATTLE—Shipping Steers.... 9 25 ft HOGS—All Grades. 4 15 ft WHEAT—No.2 Red.. ft OATS—No.2. 8»*@ CORN—No 2. 43 ft NEW ORLEANS FLOUR-Hlgh Grade. 2 40 ft CORN—No. 2. :. 51 ft OATS-Western. S5*@ HAY-Choice. 15 00 ft PORK—New Mess.. ft BACON—Sides. ft COTTON—Middling. ft LOUISVILLE WHEAT—No.2 Red. 62*ft CORN-No 2Mixed (Ear)..... 42*ft OATS—No.2 Mixed (New).... 32*ft PORK—New Mess.. 12 25 ft BACON—Clear rib. 7*@ COTTON—Middling.. ft 645 4 8» 9 40 280 SbO W* 5 * M 28* 12 25

Hypochondncal, despondent, nervous, “tired out ” men -those who ^suffer from fbackafche, weariness, loss of energy, impaired memory, dizziness, melancholy and discouragement, the result of ex

/ hausting diseases, or drains upon the system, excesses, or abuses, bad habits, or early vices, are treated through correspondence at their homes, with uniform success, by the Specialists of the Invalids’ Hotel and Surgical Institute, of Buffalo, N. Y. A book of 136 large pages, devoted to the consideration of the maladies above hinted at, may be had, mailed securely sealed from observation, in a plain envelope, by sending 10 cents in one-cent stamps (for postage on Book), to the World’s Dispensary Medical Association, at the aboVe mentioned Hotel. For more than a quarter of a century, physicians connected with this widely celebrated Institution, have made the treatment of the delicate diseases above referred to, their sole study and practice. Thousands, have consulted them. This vast experience has naturally resulted in improved methods and means of cure.

—The prevalence of baldness among youngish men of the present generation finds its latest explanation in the simple fact that men have been cutting their hair short now for some generations, with the result that its power to struggle on and be reproduced under such conditions has become weaker and weaker, until it is in danger of complete atrophy. THE TEXAS FAST MAIL. K«w and Rapid Mall and Passenger Service Between St. Loots and the Southwest. Commencing Snndav, December 2,189*, the IRON MOUNTAIN ROUTE will inaugurate a Fast Mail train between St. Louis and points in Arkansas, Louisiana, Texas and tfie Southwest. This train, yhich will be a veritable “flyer," will leave St. Louis S a. m., after the arrival of the Fast Mail from the East, and in addition to its mail complement, will carry Pullman Buffet Bleeping Cars and Tourist Sleeping Cars destined to California points. This new schedule will hasten the mails into the Southwest by from eight to fifteen hours over the present time, and keep fully abreast with the passenger service of the day. The through California cars will be placed at some quiet spot in the yards at St. Louis, and will be opened for occupancy as early as 9 o’clock in the evening. For full particulars address company’s agents, or H. C. Townsend, General Passenger Agent, SL Louis, Mo. Sailor (defiantly)—“It will take more than you to hold me, I'll tell you.” Cannibal (significantly>—“Oh, I shall invite a few friends.’’—Detroit Tribune. Ball’s Catarrh Cure Is taken internally.- Price 75c. In breaeh-of-proraise suits a man is very frequently like a boy learning the alphabet. He gets stuck on a letter.—Texas Siftings. “Garland” Stoves and Ranges are no higher in price than the worthless imitations. Ask to see them. Onlt those can forgivo who love.—Ram’s Bern. Pleasant, Wholesome, Speedy, for coughs is Hale’s Honey of Horehound and Tar. Pike’s Toothache Drops Cure in one minute. The man who loves his duty will not slight it.—Ram’s Horn.

Jasper—“Why are you roping up you* trunk) You are not going away till tp-mot* row.” Jumpuppe—“So I’ll have tune to find all the things I have forgotten to put In it. One never finds those things until after his trunk is locked and roped.’*—Harper*® Weekly.

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Rheumatism, Neuralgia, Seiatiea, Backache. ST. JACOBS OUT --- ■ ■■■■ 1 .- -- ■ ■ . -..- ■■— THE POT INSULTED THE KETTLE BECAUSE THE COOK HAD NOT USED SAPOLIO GOOD COOKING DEMANDS CLEANLINESS. SAPOLIO SHOULD be used in every KITCHEN.

BE IN TIME FOR CHRISTMAS.

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We Pay for Ideas

We need TWENTY or MORE ordinal and striking designs for Newspaper Advertisements of CLAIRETTE SOAP. The manufacturers, The N. K. Falrbank Company, an* thorize ns to pay TEN DOLLARS EACH for approved drawings with appropriate reading; or $5.00 each for designs or reading matter only. This oflfer Is open to all. The competition will close December L As soon as possible after that date we will pay for accepted designs and return the others. Remember, for complete, acceptable advertisements we pay $10 Each Directions.—Make drawings with black Ink on heavy white paper, or cardboard. Do the work lb outline. Elabonvth shading will not print well. Space in papeifwiU be four Inches square. Draw to larger scale 1 f you prefer, bu t have design square. The idea Is mostimportanL If tbatls good we can havo it redrawn and still glvo you credit Avoid poetry. Get up an ad. thatwould make you buy the article. Points.—CLAIRETTE is a pure* high-grade Soon—made for laundry and general household use—a favorite wherever known. Merits generous praise. Sold by all grocers, wholesale and retail. Do yonr best, and send results promptly. Address (only) N. W. AYER & SON, Newspaper Advertising Ag.nts* j PHILADELPHIA,