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About The commoner. (Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-1923 | View Entire Issue (Feb. 1, 1923)
many a story and the mother de serves all the praise that words can bestow. She invests her life in her child as a father cannot. Her life trembles in the balance when the child is born, and for years it is the object of her constant and tender care. The child is the mother’s treas ure and where the treasure is there will the heart be also. But the father is not indifferent to the child’s welfare and the lesson for today presents the father at his best. He did not rebuke the son with “I told yooi so,” or, “You should have known better.” He ran to meet his wandering boy. He was quick to note the boy’s changed attitude; the very manner of the son proclaimed it. He hardly gave the prodigal time to make his confession and beg for giveness. “Bring forth the best robe”—bring it quickly. And then the fatted calf was killed and the neighbors were invited in to make merry. A STRIKING CONTRAST What a contrast between this story and the story of the rich young man. The latter was .a ruler, a man ot Influence and of wealth, and he had led a blameless life, but he lacked one thing, He did not put the fol lowing of the Saviour above all other things. H's money came first. “He went away sorrowful; for he had great possessions.” He comes into the limelight for a moment, then, failing in the supreme test, he returns to obscurity. The last we see of him is his back—he turned his back upon his one great opportunity. But here is the story of a spend thrift; he wasted his substance in riotous living and squandered whai his father had earned. But*he re pents; he is born again. He returns to his father’s house and is welcome. His sins are forgiven and we leave him amid the congratulations of friends, his father exclaiming in Joy. “This my son was dead, and is alive again.” Only the elder brother refuses to share in the rejoicing. Why was this touch of sadness introduced at the very end of the story? In order to. make it natural. How can a brother know a father’s love. His heart has never been wrung by a child’s waywardness. He saw a wild boy bring sorrow upon a parent, and he had had to blush for a brother’s s'ns, and possibly the father had accepted the elder son’s service and devotion as a matter of course, without thinking to reward him with an occasional kid. The father, having passed beyond the age of merriment, blight have been at fault in not considering the social side of the elder son’s life, but nothing that the father could have done could have opened to the elder son’s understanding the father’s de- • light when the prodigal returned . And why is the story told? To emphasize the Heavenly Father’s love of every child and to give as surance of the Father’s delight when a child returns to the fold. 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As the owner calls together his friends and neighbors, saying unto them, “Rejoice with me; for I have found my sheep which was lo.st,” so, “like wise joy shall be in heaven over one sinner that repenteth, more than over ninety and nine just persons, which need no repentance.” In the second illustration a woman, having ten pieces of silver, lost one. When, after diligent search, she found it she called in her friends and neighbors, saying, “Rejoice with me: for I have found the piece which I fad lost,” and the moral, “likewise, say unto you, there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner that repenteth. Then follows the story of the Prod igal Son, which furnishes the climax. First, a sheep, then a coin and, last, a human soul. The moral of the Prodigal Son is so plain that it was not necessary to conclude the story las Christ concluded the story of tne sheep and of the coin. The impression made by this les son will linger with us. No one w 11 gather from it the thought that re pentance can justify the sin that pre cedes it. The rewards of a virtuous life are continuous. The elder son might well have weighed them against the merriment of a home coming banquet. The Prodigal would have gladly exchanged the joy of the feast for forgetfulness of his evil days and of the husks. The real joy that all can derive from the story of> the prodigal son is that God’s love is so infinite that even man’s sin cannot exhaust it. Christ's pardon is offered to all. Christianity has been called the gospel of the second chance. It is more than that. It is the gospel cf innumerable chances if the heart is truly repentant. THE RICH MAN AND LAZARUS By WILLIAM JENNINGS BRYAN BIBLE TEXT—LESSON FOR JANUARY 28 (Luke 16:19-31) There was a certain rich man, which was clothed in purple and tine linen, and fared sumptuously every day: And there was a certain beggar named Lazarus, which was laid at his gate, full of sores. And desiring to be fed with the crumbs which fell from the rich man’s table: moreover the dogs came and licked his sores. And it came to pass, that the beggar died, and was carried by the angels into Abraham’s bosom: the rich man also died, and was buried: And in hell he lifted up his eyes, being in torments, and seeth Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in his bosom. And he cried and said, Father Abra ham have m£rcy on me, and send Lazarus, that he may dip the tip of his finger in water, and cool my tongue: for I am tormented in this flame. But Abraham said,( Son, remember that thou in thy lifetime receivest thy good things, and likewise Lazarus evil things: but now he is comforted, and thou art tormented. And beside all this, between us and you there is a great gulf fixed: so that they which would pass from hence to you cannot: neither can they pass to us that would come from thence. Then he said, I pray thee therefore, Father, that thou wouldst send him to my father’s house: For I have five brethren: that he may testify unto them, lest they also come into this place of torment. Abraham saith unto him, They have Moses and the prophets; let them hear them, „ ,, ., , And he said, Nay father Abraham, but if one went unto them from the deadf they will repent. And he said unto him, If they hear not Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded, though one rose from the dead. In the story of the rich man and Lazarus, as set down in the sixteenth chapter of Luke, Christ used a strik tug contrast for the presentation of several great truths. The rich man is described as liv ing up to his means; he was clothed in purple and fine linen and fared sumptuously every day. There is no suggestion that he was sympathetic with the poor or inter ested in any one but himself. He had the money with which to buy the most costly apparel and the most expensive food, and he d d so. He was a fit representative of the class to which he belonged. Then the Master gives the other side; a beggar named Lazarus was laid at the rich man's gate, full of sores. The verb indicates that he was himself helpless and dependent on others to bring him near to the rich man’s table. He was not a vagrant, able to work but unwilling to do so; he was af flicted and dependent for subs’stence on the charity of others. To make the case more pathetic, the dogs are described as licking his sores. THE CURTAIN DRAWN ASIDE This is the picture of the two ex tremes in this world; then the cur tain is drawn aside and we behold the treatment received by those two characters in the next world. The beggar was carried away by the angels into Abraham’s bosom while the rich man, in torment, lifted up his eyes and beheld the happy state of the beggar who came to him for crumbs. Dives appeals for even a drop of water to cool his tongne. We are not told that riches are in themselves a condemnation; Christ and His apostles came into contact w th men of wealth who were also men, of faith. Neither are we told that poverty is, in itself, a thing to be commended. Shrist warned against the evils follow in the wake of wealth. “How hardly shall they that have riches enter into the kingdom of God. . . . It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for ridh man to enter into the kingdom of God.” In the parable of the sower He gave utterance to a truth—an epit ome of all history—that “the cares of this world and the deceitfulness of riches choke the truth.” INJUSTICE SURELY REMEDIED It is also true that Christ was the friend of the poor and ministered unto those who were sick. 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