"In all the cruel catalogue of pains, As an unnatural child." Was he sure that he should not bring down his father's grey hairs with sorrow to the grave? Did he perceive him looking after him with parental eagerness, and with uplifted hands ejaculating, O! my son! my son! No; he was impatient to be away. He journeyed on, where no friend or relation could controul his habits, and there he gave himself up to unbounded licentiousness;-wine, and harlots, formed his element, until he had wasted the substance he brought with him, then he came to beggary. Then, when all his means were exhausted in previous excesses, just then a mighty famine arose in the country, and the partners of his revels forsook him, each finding it enough to provide for himself. Behold him now, abject want stares him in the face, and he goes and hires himself to a citizen, to feed swine. What! a Jew come to that! to get his bread by feeding an animal loathed and detested by his nation, the very approach to which would be considered sufficient to defile a man!-Yes, not only this, he would have eaten of the husks on which they feed-what a situation!and no one gave him to eat. Deserved degradation!-proper issue of such conduct, due reward of so bad a course. What, however, must have been his mental distress? But why do we confine ourselves to the per son in the parable, let us remember, my brethren, that our Lord was here not so much relating an actual case, as supposing one for a spiritual purpose, to show the conduct of a sinner towards his God. Which of us has not been the prodigal son? Look at the first sin committed on this earth, -the temptation of the devil, to which our first progenitors yielded, and the experience of which they were the subjects immediately after, and we see a likeness of the prodigal son: ye shall be independent, ye shall be as gods, this was the inducement held out; admitting its force, they left the Father of spirits, took their journey into a far country, their actions speaking that language which Milton has put into the mouth of Satan respecting God," farthest from him is best." We all have followed in the same track,-in enlarging upon the prodigal's folly we condemn ourselves; but those are especially implicated who are now alienated from God by wicked works. Look! look at the multitudes who in early years frequented the ordinances of God, and appeared to delight themselves in reading and hearing the word, that have gone back into the world. Men cannot, with religious profession, and the warnings of the pulpit, and the conversation of pious friends, give the reins to their evil appetites to the extent they could wish. Some check is afforded, hence the irksomeness of mere nominal disciplineship, make the name of religion hateful; they break away, happy in their supposed emancipation, and the theatre, and ball-room, and dances, and other sinful amusements are more fully enjoyed. It is the same with the covetous and the earthly-minded, and the worldly ambitious, it matters not what the propensity be, it is fettered, rebuked, and scourged by the truths of revelation, every time a man hears. Hence thousands, once professors, find the name of Christian inconvenient, and having nothing but the name, easily throw it off. But, says Jehovah, What will ye do in the end thereof!-what, when sickness invades, and death stalks abroad!-famine comes at last!-they become like the prodigal, fellow commoners with swine. There is something too capacious in the desires of the soul, something too unearthly in her nature, to suppose that fleshly pleasures can always satisfy. The approach of that period when the body must be resigned to the grave, and the spirit wing its way to judgment, and live for ever in heaven or in hell, cries, For this endless duration what provision is made! As such scenes approach a man, in the former part of the prodigal's career, his conscience shrinks in the anticipation and prospect, his madness in departing from the ways of God are manifest. "A dark importance saddens every day; Seems, as it is, the fountain whence alone Must spring that hope he pants to make his own." But will the God, so much rebelled against, and of power to destroy, receive the sinner to his embrace? Do not doubt it, my friends. If one desires this night to return to the arms of infinite love, he shall be received: see how encouraging the sequel of this paragraph. Jesus assures the returning backslider of forgiveness, and he speaks from the most intimate acquaintance with his Heavenly Father. "No man hath seen God at any time," says the Scripture, "but the Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, hath declared him; the Father loveth the Son, and hath told him all things whatsoever he doeth."-" Ye believe in God," says our Lord, "believe also in me." He is the brightness of his glory, the express image of his person; what the Son therefore declares, is what God declares, and is the manifestation of the Father: who then can doubt? Again, the Saviour speaks of his own redemption;-he came to reclaim the outcasts; he came to call the wanderer home; in virtue of his death and sufferings God bestows pardon and salvation. But say, was not the price infinite? Where then is the person of crimson sins, and crimes of scarlet dye, who desires to be saved, for whom such merits cannot plead, and warrant the Father of mercies in receiving him to his church, his bosom, and his heaven? No such hopeless character can be found who is the subject of repentance, unquestionably none. Mark the prodigal. We have followed him in his degradation and want: there he comes to himself. In the height of a licentious or earthly career, whilst all things favour, and no terrors present themselves, discourses are lost upon our fellow-creatures; they are as ungovernable as the man who tore off all the fetters with which they bound him, and strayed wild among the tombs, a terror to every one that passed that way; but afflictions under the management of the Holy Spirit are an exorcist that cast out the devil, induce reflection, and bring them to the feet of Jesus clothed, and in their right mind. In the pinchings of want he thinks of home, cries, "How many hired servants of my father have bread enough, and to spare, whilst I perish with hunger! I will arise and go to my father, and will say unto him, Father, I have sinned against heaven and before thee, and am no more worthy to be called thy son, make me as as one of thy hired servants." He went,-how surprizing is the interview! How far beyond what he expected! A miserable wretched appearance he must have made, disgraceful even for any of the servants to behold, scarcely to be recognized as he who went away clothed in distinguished apparel, and laden with plenty. Yet his father saw him a great way off, perhaps in his shame and distress, fearful to approach, and slowly drawing near as by stealth, recognized in the forlorn object his son, was seized with compassion, "and ran and fell on his neck and kissed him." How pathetic is the scene here painted! How strikingly it exhibits the emotions of parental feeling! Words |