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I will tell you of two prodigals — the one that got back, and the other that did not get back. In Richmond there is a very prosperous and beautiful home in many respects. A young man wandered off from that home. He wandered very far into sin. They heard of him after, but he was always on the wrong track. He would not go home. At the door of that beautiful home one night there was a great outcry. The young man of the house ran down and opened the door to see what was the matter. It was midnight. The rest of the family were asleep. There were the wife and the children of this prodigal young man. The fact was he had come home and driven them out. He said, "Out of this house. Away with these children; I will dash their brains out. Out into the storm!" The mother gathered them up and fled. The next morning the brother, the young man who had stayed at home, went out to find this prodigal brother and son, and he came where he was, and saw the young man wandering up and down in front of the place where he had been staying, and the young man who had kept his integrity said to the older brother: "Here, what does all this mean? What is the matter with you? Why do you act in this way?" The prodigal looked at him and said: "Who am I? Who do you take me to be?" He said: "You are my brother?" "No, I am not. I am a brute. Have you seen anything of my wife and children? Are they dead? I drove them out last night in the storm. I am a brute, John, do you think there is any help for me? Do you think I will ever get over this life of dissipation?" He said: "John, there is just one thing that will stop this." The prodigal ran his fingers across his throat and said: "That will stop it, and I'll stop it before night. Oh! my brain; I can stand it no longer." That prodigal never got home. But I will tell you of a prodigal that did get home. In England two young men started from their fathers' house and went down to Portsmouth — I have been there — a beautiful seaport. Some of you have been there. The father could not pursue his children — for some reason he could not leave home — and so he wrote a letter down to Mr. Griffin, saying: — "Mr. Griffin, — I wish you would go and see my two sons. They have arrived in Portsmouth, and there they are going to take ship, and going away from home. I wish you would persuade them back." Mr. Griffin went and tried to persuade them back. He persuaded one to go; he went with very easy persuasion, because he was very homesick already. The other young man said: "I will not go. I have had enough of home; I'll never go home." "Well," said Mr. Griffin, "then, if you won't go home, I'll get you a respectable position on a respectable ship." "No, you won't," said the prodigal; "no, you won't. I am going as a private sailor, as a common sailor — that will plague my father most; and what will do most to tantalize and worry him will please me best." Years passed on, and Mr. Griffin was seated in his study one day, when a messenger cams to him saying there was a young man in irons on a ship at the dock — a young man condemned to death — who wished to see this clergyman. Mr. Griffin went down to the dock and went on shipboard. The young man said to him, "You don't know me, do you?" "No," he said, "I don't know you." "Why, don't you remember that young man you tried to persuade to go home, and he wouldn't go?" "Oh, yes!" said Mr. Griffin; "are you that man?" "Yes, I am that man," said the other. "I would like to have you pray for me. I have committed murder, and I must die; but I don't want to go out of this world until some one prays for me. You are my father's friend, and I would like to have you pray for me." Mr. Griffin went from judicial authority to judicial authority to get that young man's pardon. He slept not night nor day. He went from influential person to influential person, until in some way he got that young man's pardon. He came down on the dock, and as he arrived on the dock with the pardon, the father came. He had heard that his son, under a disguised name, had been committing crime, and was going to be put to death. So Mr. Griffin and the father went on the ship's deck, and at the very moment Mr. Griffin offered the pardon to the young man, the old father threw his arms around the son's neck, and the son said, "Father, I have done very wrong, and I am very sorry. I wish I had never broken your heart. I am very sorry." "Oh!" said the father, "don't mention it. It won't make any difference now. It is all over. I forgive you, my son," and he kissed him and kissed.him and kissed him. To-day I offer you the pardon of the gospel — full pardon, free pardon. I do not care what your crime has been. Though you say you have committed a crime against God, against your own soul, against your fellow-man, against your family, against the day of judgment, against the Cross of Christ — whatever your crime has been here is pardon, full pardon, and the very moment you take that pardon your heavenly Father throws His arms around about you and says, "My son, I forgive you. It is all right. You are as much in my favour now as if you had never sinned." Oh! there is joy on earth and joy in heaven.

(De W. Talmage, D. D.)

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KJV: And he said, A certain man had two sons:

WEB: He said, "A certain man had two sons.