treated so well as his merits deserved. He shows him utterly unable to share in the joy which prevaLled when his younger brother came home, and giving way to ill- natured and envious thoughts. It is a painful picture, but a very instructive one.
For one thing, this elder brother is an exact picture of the Jews of our Lord's times. They could not bear the idea of their Gentile younger brother being made partaker of their privileges. They would fain have excluded him from God's favour. They steadily refused to see that the Gentiles were to be fellow-heirs and partakers of Christ with themselves. In all this they were precisely acting the part of the " elder brother."
For another thiag, the elder brother is an exact type of the Scribes and Pharisees of our Lord's times. They objected that our Lord received sinners and ate with them. They murmured because He opened the door of salvation to publicans and harlots. They would have been better pleased if our Lord had confined His ministry to them and their party, and had left the ignorant fnd sinful entirely alone. Our Lord saw this state of things clearly ; and never did He paint it with such graphic power as in the picture of the " elder brother."
Last, but not least, the elder brother is an exact type of a large class in the Church of Christ in the preaeoi day. There are thousands on every side who dislike a free, full, unfettered gospel to be preached. They are always complaining that ministers throw the door too wide open, and that the doctrine of grace tends to pro* mote licentiousness. Whenever we come across siuih persons, let us remember the passage we are now oob-