say a single word to bis son about bis profligacy and wickedness. There is neither rebuke nor reproof for the past, nor galling admonitions for the present, nor irritating advice for the future. The one idea that is represented as filling bis mind, is joy that his son has come home. This is a striking fact.
[The best robe,'] Some try to prove that this means that first old robe which the younger son used to wear, before he left his father's house. This is the view of Theophylact and Calovius. The idea is untenable. Oui' translators have given the true sense.
[A ring.] This was a mark of honour, and confidence, and distinction. See Gen. xli. 42: Ex. iii. 10 ; James ii. 2.
[Shoes on his feet.] This probably indicated that he was to be regarded not as a servant, as he hai thought once he might be, but as a free man and a son. Prisoners and slaves were evidently barefooted. (Isa. xx. 4.)
23. — {Ths fatted calf.] This expression means literally, "the calf — that fatted one," — one kept for a special occasion, a sacrifice or a feast.
Stella, the Spanish Commentator, seems to have been much annoyed by allegoiical Commentators, in his day. Ue says on this expression, with much quaint bluntness, ''If you ask me what the fatted calf means, I reply that it means a calf, and nothing but a calf."
24. — [Was dead and is alive again.] Let this expression be care- fully noted. Though part of a parable, it is worthy of remark as our Lord's language in describing the life of the prodigal son before his repentance, and the change when he repented. The one state was death. The other was hie.
[T?iey began to be merry.] The strong contrast between this expression and the one at the end of the 14th verse ought not to be overlooked. Unconverted, man begins to be "in want." Converted, he begins to be " happy."
In leaving this part of the parable, I feel it right to say, that I fully admit that it may be taken in a national sense, and that in that sense it makes excellent divinity. The Gentile nations who departed from God after the flood, and reaped darkness, misery, and hard bondage under Satan, by their departure, may un- doubtedly be typified by the younger son.
Their repentance and return to God, through the preaching of the Gospel after our Lord's ascension, may be typified by the prodigal son's return to his father's house. The envy with which the believing Gentiles were regarded by the Jews, may be typified by the conduct of the elder son. The parable would then, as is often the case, be a prophecy.