1900 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



697 



theological education. In fact, I am not sure 

 lie has ever spoken in any meeting nor even 

 in prayer meeting. I am afraid he is not even 

 a teacher in Sunday-school. He has his pe- 

 culiarities, like the most of us ; Vjut, notwith- 

 standing, he has the spirit of Christ in his 

 heart, and has read his Bible, I am forced to 

 believe, more understandingly than some of 

 the theological students, and may be gradu- 

 ates. He replied very quietly, and, as nearly 

 as I can get it at second hand, son;ething as 

 follows : 



" My dear brother, if you will permit me to 

 answer your question by telling another story 

 about two men as you have done, I think I 

 can help clear the matter up — that is, if you 

 are really anxious for light on the subject. 

 As you said, let us bring forward two men. 

 In my case the two men will be brothers. The 

 elder brother was a good man. He had been 

 upright, straight, honest, and industrious all 

 his life. He was a model son. The other 

 turned out to be a shameless scapegrace. The 

 parent?, however, kept him under restraint as 

 long as they could. But he finally broke away 

 from all parental authority, scraped up what 

 lie could by fair means or foul, persuaded 

 his good old father to give him his share of 

 what would be likely to come to him, that he 

 might get out of their sight and hearing, and 

 go off where he would never be heard of again. 

 This youngster was thoroughly bad. As nearly 

 as we know he was about as bad in every re- 

 spect as the man you have pictured. Stricken 

 with grief, and with almost broken hearts, the 

 parents handed over the money to this way- 

 ward son, and bade him good-by. He went 

 off and plunged into all sorts of debauchery. 

 We do not know exactly what crimes he com- 

 mitted ; but it is very fair to infer he broke 

 every law, leaped over every barrier that re- 

 strains decent society, went down and down un- 

 til he was hardly fit to be the companion of the 

 filthy swine it was his duty to care for. His 

 wicked life may have been near its end. He 

 was a wreck in both body and soul. But this 

 man, bad as he was, repented. Slowly and 

 painfully he worked his way, and in the course 

 of time he got back to that old home. The 

 poor father had been watching, waiting, and 

 hoping, through all these long years." 



I hardly need mention to any of the readers 

 of Gleanings the words this poor lost son 

 used when he caught sight of that father. 

 You, my readers, may each place them at the 

 "head of my talk for to day, for an opening 

 text. Now, this elder son, when he came in 

 from the fields, where he had been at his ac- 

 customed honest labor, grumbled at the course 

 his father had chosen. My good friends, this 

 story has been before the world ages upon 

 ages ; and I do not know that I ever yet heard 

 of a man who said the fa/her did wrong in 

 killing the fatted calf, and putting the ring 

 on the hand of the son who was dead and is 

 now alive again — the son who was lost and is 

 found. 



The parable of the prodigal son touches the 

 matter in question from another point of view; 

 and I confess that I myself never saw the con- 

 nection until I heard this little story. Unbe- 



lievers, and perhaps others, reject the doctrine 

 of free pardon and forgiveness of sin because 

 they do not believe penitence is genuine. All 

 such should consider that the great God him- 

 self has to be judge in such matters. Surely 

 he knows whether the penitence is honest and 

 sincere or not. I once called to see a man 

 who was near death, who had been all his life 

 intemperate and profane. He was in great 

 agony of mind. He kept insisting that it 

 would be a shame and a miserable farce for 

 him at that late hour to talk about repentance. 

 I turned to John 3:16 and read the familiar 

 words. He became so excited and disturbed 

 that he raised up in bed, and with tears and 

 sobs choking his utterance he said, " Mr. Root, 

 I have taken God's name in vain almost every 

 day of my life. I have never tried to be any 

 better. It is too late, too late. The idea is 

 absurd that I can at this late hour become a 

 Christian and have my sins forgiven." 



I read different passages in the Bible ; but, 

 may God forgive me, it did not even occur to 

 me to read that little story of the prodigal son. 

 Finally he would calm himself a little, and 

 ask me to read the promises over. He asked 

 me to read them more slowly. I explained 

 them to him again and again. I told him of 

 the thief on the cross. Then he would bright- 

 en up at times, but Satan would then get hold 

 of him again, and he would declare that a 

 just and righteous God ro/^/rf wc/" consistently 

 forget and forgive, and wipe away his sins. I 

 was obliged to leave him. Next day I was 

 told he was dead. 



When I first studied geometry I was amused 

 at the way in which they discussed problems 

 by accepting an absurdity for the time being. 

 I think my book re?.d, " Let us suppose for 

 the time being that a straight line is not the 

 shortest distance between two points;" and 

 with this basis they went on with the demon- 

 stration. Let us now suppose, for instance, 

 that the Bible is not true, especially in regard 

 to the prodigal son. Let us suppose that there 

 is no pardon or help for the sinner who has 

 been exceedingly bad. In that case, every 

 last man and woman would give up after go- 

 ing a certain length. The down-hill road of 

 vice would be easy, as it is now, but the up- 

 hill road back to virtue would be cut off. 

 The gospel of Jesus Christ would be virtually 

 ruled out. There would be no such thing as 

 exhorting sinful humanity to repent, and " sin 

 no more." And yet how many there are who 

 say sometimes, with a lofty toss of the head, 

 " None of that kind of religion for me, if you 

 please. I ask for simple justice." And some 

 may say the elder son had it about right ; and 

 they may say with him, "What encourage- 

 ment is held out to live honest and virtuous 

 lives?" Yes, I have heard something like 

 this : " You preachers would almost make out 

 that it is better for a boy to sow his wild oats 

 — get drunk rjd swear, and maybe get into 

 prison, so l^e can pose as a reformer, and be 

 lionized." God forbid. While we do some- 

 times make a great adoo over a penitent thief 

 or a reformed man, all the world recognizes 

 that it is better to lead a clean, pure life from 

 the start. All sin leaves its scars, and a cer- 



