— TE RU. DR. TAMAGE The Brooklyn Divine's Sunday Sermon. Subject : “The Prodigal Son." TEXT: “When he wasyel a great way oft his rather saw him, ai had compassion on him, and ran, and fell on his neck, and Hissed him.”"—Luke xv,, 20 One of the deepest wells that inspiration ever opened is this well of a parable which wre can never exhaust, The parable, I sup- we, was founded om facts, 1 have de- scribed to you the going away of this prodi- &al sop from his father's house, and I have shown you what a hard timed had down in; the wilderness, and what a very gréat mistake it was for him tw leave so beautid ful a home for such a miserable desert. But he did not always stay in the wilder ness; he came back after a while We da not read that his mother came to.greet him. i suppose she was dead. Bhe would have Deen the first to come out. The father anuld have given the second kiss to the re- turning prodigal; the mother the first. It may have been for the lack of her example and prayers that he became a prodigal. Sometimes the fathar does not know how’ tO manage the children of the household. { The chief work comes upon the mother. Indeed, noone ever gets over the calamity of losing a mother in early life, Still this Fou man was not ungreeted when he came CK. However well appareled we may be in the morning when we start outon a journey, be- fore night, what with the dust and ths Jostling, we have lost all cleanliness of ap rom the swine trough, was ragged and wretched, and his appearance, after he had gone through days of journeying and ex- posure, you can more easily imagine than describe, As the people see this prodigal coming on homeward, they wonder ain is. They say: *‘I wonder what prison he has broken out of. I wonder what lazaretto he has escaped from. I wonder with what plague be will smite the air.” Although these people may have been well acquainted that this is the very young man who wentoff only a little while ago with quick step, and ruddy cheek, and beautiful apparel. The voung man, I think walks very fast. Hs The thing very important. wonder where They look at him. They came from, ing to. fou have heard of a son who went off to sea and never returned. such conclusion, They would go by the is off upon the water, expecting to see the sail that would bring home the long absent boy. And so I think this father of my text sat upon the wine looking out toward the the father has changed very we saw him last. His hair has white, his cheeks are furrowed, his heart is broken. What is all his bountiful table have a decent coat? What ars all the sheep on that hillside to that father when his pet lamb is gone? looking out on the road, and one day he be- the hill; lance of him he knows it is his recreant son. o forgets the crutch, and the cane, and the stiffness of the joints, and bounds away. I think the sie all around are They said: “Te is only a footpad. somes old tramp of the road. meet him.” he father knew better, The change in the son's appearance could nod hide knew the boy. You know that persons of a apt to indicates it in their walk. reason the sailor always has a peculiar step, amid the rocking in his gait, even if he never went on the sea; and we know from what transpired after- ward, and from what transpired before, that this prodigal son was of an independent and frank wttire; and I suppose that the char- characteristics of his walk. father know him. arms toward him; he brings his withered And so the long agony is over. great way off, his father saw him, and had com jon, and ran, and fell on his neck, and kissed him." Oh, do you not recognize that Father? Who was it? It is God! I have no sym- pathy with that cast-iron theology which represents God as hard, severs and vindie- Wve ood is i Bu shop yin loving, lenieat, gentle, . , patient, an e flies to our immortal rescue. Oh, that we might realizes it. A wealthy lady in one of the eastern countries was going off for some time, and she asked her daughters for soma memento to carry with har One of the Saughtirs bicughs a marble tablet, beauti- fully , and another daughter Ino a beautiful wreath of flowers I brought here 1s fay heart, I haveinscribed it with and wherever you go with you.” The mother it as the best of all the mementoss. Oh, that our! souls might go out toward our Father; that our hearts might be written all over with the evidences of His kindness, and that we might never again forsaks Him. In the first place, I notice in this text the father's eyesight; {n the second place, I no- tice the father's haste; and, in the third place, I notice the father's kiss, To begin: The father's eyesight. “When he was a great way off his father saw him.” You have noticed how old : 1t a book off on the other than they can close by. whether this father could see well that which. was near by, but I do know he could see eat way off. *‘His father saw him.” Per, ps he had been looking for the return of that boy especially that day. 1 donot know. but that he had been in prayer, and that had told him that that day the recreant boy would come home. ‘The father saw him a Omir of Gols Sywight aan descry w 's t can we are coming Tk to Him?’ rhe but over it will iW i i & JHE SI A wward Him, Oh, no! Seelng you a greay way off He would fly to the rescue, How long does it take a father to leap into the middie of the highway if his child be there nds swift vehicle is coming and may destroy him? Five hundred times longer than is takes our heavenly Father to spring to the deliverance of a lost child. “When he wae & great way off his father saw him.” And this brings me to notice the father's haste. The Bible says he ran. No wonder | He did not know but that the youug man would change his mind and go back, o did not know but that he would drop down from exhaustion. He did not know but that ssfiee thing fatal might overtake him before he gos up to thedoorsill; and so the father ran. He Bible, for the most part, ks of God as walking. “In the fourth watch of the night,” it says, ‘Jesus came unto them walking oe the sea.” ‘He walketh upon the wings of the wind.” Our first parents heard the voice of the Lord, walking in the garden in the cool of the day; but when a sinner starts out for God the father runs to meet him, Oh! if a man ever wants help it is when he tries to become a Christian. The world says to him: “Back with you. Have more spirit. Don't bs hampered with religion. me enough yet, Vait until you get sick. Wait until you getold.” Satansays: “Back with you: you are so bad that God will have noth- ing todo with you;” or, “You are good enoughand need no Redeemer, Take shine ease, eat, drink and be merry.” Tea thon. sand voices say: ‘‘Back withyou. God iss hard master. The church is a collection ef hypocrites. Back into your sims; back te our evil indulgences; back to your prayer. oss pillow, The silliest thing that a young man ever does is to come home after he has been wandering.” Oh, how much help a man does want when ha tries to becomes a Chris tian! Indeed, the prodigal cannot find his way home to his father’s house alone. Un. less some one comes to meet him he had bet. ter have stayed by the swine troughs. i - When the tide comes in you might more easily with your broom sweep back the surges than you could drive back the ocean of your unforgiven transgressions. What Are we to fight the battle alone, and trudge on with no ons to ald us and no rock to shelter us and no word of encouragement to cheer us! Glory be to a ——— — GLORIOUS SUMMER. Nature's Babes in the Wood. On the trees, the bushes, and under the ground at this season are flowers and leaves asleep, aud almost ready to awaken, Dane Nature is nurse to them all, and while they slept she has kept them dry and warin. If you pick a short branch from a tree or shrub, you will see upon it, at regular distances apart, little knobs or humps, These are the buds of leaves and blossoms which will soon awaken, and unfold, and fill the earth with per- fume and beau y. If Jack Frost had got at them, or if the cold rain had beaten on them, they would have been blignted. So the buds have been carefully protected all winter from the cold, the damp, and the fierce winds. Each bud is wrapped up in a number of little stiff scales, Often these scales are coated with a sort of varnish which keeps out the wet, The buds of the horse chestnut are “pitched without the piteh,” like the floating cradle of the infant Moses. They are quite sticky to the touch, and shed water like the rubber coat. Indeed, we may say horse chestnut leaves waterproof coats, for wear fur-hned the scales which RRR and bent merely upon using work as a stop gap until marriage comes to re- lieve her, If, on the other hand, she latter almost morbidly developed in most of our educated women, she may in the beginning make the mistakes of inexpericnce, but according to the testi: mony of many employers learns with extraordinary speed and works with a steady patience and fidelity that are un- questioned. COMPARATIVE MERITS, of the same order among men, methods which resuits from many cen- ground. In spite of this difference, the number of women in business for among them, save in As a rule they do not there failure nature, i lined with soft white down. Many other buds are protected from wet and cold In the same manner, The tiny locust and sumach leaves in yet another way, They are hid so cleverly that Jack Frost cannot find them, and it would puzzle us, also, to find ‘hem unless we knew just where to God, we have in the text the announcement: “When ho was yet a great way off his fathes | ran.” When the sinner starts for God, God | starts for the sinner. God does not coms | out with a slow and hesitating pace. The | infinite spaces slip beneath His feet and He | takes worlds at a bound. “The father ran.” | Oh, wonderful meeting, when God and the soul come together. “The father ran” | You start for God and God starts for youn, | and you meet; and while ths angels rejoice | over the meeting your long injured Father | passion and pardon. Your poor, wandering sinful, polluted soul and the loving, etern Father have met. I remark upon the father's kiss. “He fall ‘on his neck,” my text says “and kissed him.” Itis not every father that would | ‘have done that way. Some would have | scolded him, and said: “Here, you went of | with beautiful clothes, but now you are all | in tatters. You went off healthy, and coms | back sick and wasted with your dissipations™ He did pot say that, The son all haggard and | ragged and flithy and wretched, stood before | his father, The father charged him with | none of his wanderings. He just received | him. He just kissed him. His wretched ness was a recornmendation to that father love, Oh, that father's kiss! | of Godd—the ardor with receives a sinner back again | tiveme a plummet, with which I may fathom this sea. Give me a ladder with | hich I can scale this height. Give me words with which I can describe this } Iho apostles say in one place “unsearci shle;” in another, ‘past flading Height overtopping all height: depth plung- | ng beneath all depth; breadth compassing | sll immensity ! | Oh, this love! woves you. Don't you believe 1? not done everything tw ideo has given you aome--the use i love Ve, ou God 20 loved the world, He | Has He » make you think sof | life, health, friends | of your hand the sight of ! Ho has | strewn your path with mercies. Hoe has fod you, clothed you, sheltered you, defended u all your fife long. Don't you believe He loves you? {Why, {f now you should start up from the wilderness of your sin He would throw both arms around Be. To make you believe that ie stooped to manger and cross With all the passions of His holy nature roused He stands befors you to- day, and would coax you to happiness and heaven. Ob, this Father's kis! is so much meaning and love and compassion in i%; wo much pardon in it; so much heaven in it. I proclaim Him the Lord God, merciful oodness and truth. Lest you would not be- ove Him He gues up Golgotha and while the rocks are rending, and the graves are open. ing. and the mobs are howling, and the sun is hiding, He dies for you Ses Him! Bes Him on*the Mount of Crucifixion, the sweat