fold. They would have been thankful to see them plucked as brands from the burning, and not cast away for ever. Of all these feelings, unhappily, they knew nothing. Wrapped in their own self-righteousness they murmured and found fault, when in reality they ought to haye thanked God and rejoiced.
The lesson is one which we shall all do well to lay to heart. Nothing ought to give us such true pleasure as the conversion of souls. It makes angels rejoice in heaven. It ought to make Christians rejoice on earth. What if those who are converted were lately the vilest of the vile ? What if they have served sin and Satan for many long years, and wasted their substance in riotous living. It matters nothing. — ' Has grace come into their hearts? Are they truly penitent? Have they come back to their father's house ? Are they new creatures in Christ Jesus? Are the dead made alive and the lost found ?' — These are the only questions we have any right to ask. If they can be answered satisfactorily we ought to rejoice and be glad. Let the worldly, if they please, mock and sneer at such conversions. Let the self- righteous, if they will, murmur and find fault, and deny the reality of all great and sudden changes. But let the Christian who reads the words of Christ in this chapter, remember them and act upon them. Let him thank God and be merry. Let him praise God that one more soul is saved. Let him say, " this my brother was dead and is alive again.; and was lost, and is found."
What are our own feeling on the subject? This after all is the question that concerns us most. The man who can take deep interest in politics, or field-sports, or
lxjkb;'Chap. xv. ver. 26 — 32. 193
money-making, or farming, but none in the conversion of souls, is no true Christian. He is himself ''dead" and must be made " alive again." He is himself " lost " and must be " found."
Notes. Luke XV. 25—32.
25. — [His elder sonP The part of the parable which begins here was evidently intended to apply to the Scribes and Pharisees who "murmured" at our Lord because He " received sinners." The unkind ness, moroseness, and self-sufficiency of the elder son, are an exact type of the spirit manifested by those who found fault with our Lord for showing kindness to publicans and sinners.
It is important to keep this point clearly in view. It furnishes a clue to a right understanding of the whole passage. The elder son represents the Phctrisee.
[Music and dancing.] Some commentators have carefully dwelt on this expression, and have hinted, not obscurely, that it sanctions recreations and amusements from which many Chris tians think it better to abstain. Stier exclaims, " A Note for the Pietists ! " Alford says more gravely, " Would these festal em- ployments have been mentioned by our Lord on so solemn and blessed an occasion, if they really come among those works of the devil which He came into the world to destroy ? "
I can see no force in arguments of this kind. There is not the slightest' proof that the dancing referred to in this place was at all like the dancing of modem times. There iis no proof that it was at night, or that it was a dance of men and women mingled together. Until these things can be proved, such comments on the verse before us are much to be regretted. I am not aware of any Christian objecting to music. Dancing, as it is conducted in modem times, many excellent Christians object to, and, I frankly say, I think with good reason.
28. — [He was angry.] Let those who think the elder son was a good man notice this expression, as well as those in the following verse. It is just the counterpart of the " murmuring '* of the Scribes and Pharisees at the beginning of the chapter.
[Entreated.] The kindness of the father's character appears once more in this expression. He might have rebuked his ill-natured son. He only entreats him.
ft9, — [Neither transgressed. ..at any time.] — Let this expression be carefully noted. It is precisely the spirit of the Pharisee, '* I am not as other men, — or even as this publican." It shows clearly that the elder son cannot fairly be regarded as a weak
194 sxposnoBY thoughts.
believer. He is a type of * the self-'nghteoiis, ignorant 'morslist, who cannot bear tbe doctrine of salvation by grace, or endure the idea of great sinners being completely pardoned and put on a level with himself.
[Thou never gavest me a Md, dc] The spirit of this expression should be noted. It is the thanklessness of a proud, conceited person, who thinks that nothing is too good for him, and that he is never treated so well as he really deserves.
30. — [This thy son.] Mark the ill-natured tone of these words. He is speaking of his own brother. He calls him " this thy son.'* It is an. expression of scorn and contempt, like "this publican " in Luke xviii. 11.
[With harlots.] Let this expression be noted. The fact asserted is an addition to the younger son's unhappy profligacy, whifch we hear of for the first time. It may possibly have been true, but it is evidently brought forward here with an uncharit- able intention, and in a contemptuous manner.
[Thou hast killed the fatted ealf.] This expression should be compared with the beginning of the chapter. The Pharisee said, " This man receiveth sinners and eateth with them." The elder son's words here are an exact counterpart to this charge. "Thou hast not only received thy sinful son, but hast even made a feast for him, and eaten with him."
3 1 . — I Son thou art ever withmey and all.,, thine.] These words have made some persons suppose that the elder son is the type of an erring believer, who is stumbled by seeing great sinners par- doned, but who has never departed from grace himself. This idea is untenable. We are not reading a conversation between a child of God and his heavenly Father. We are simply read- ing an incident in a story which is intended to show Chiist's love towards sinners, and the ignorance of those who are stum- bled by it. The words show us no doubtthat the elder son had always lived a steady life compared to his brother's, and that his father had never denied him anything. But they entirely fail to show that he was humble, charitable, or acquainted with his own heart, notwithstanding all tbe privileges he enjoyed. The words in short show that the elder son had no right to complain of his father, but they do not show that the father had no right to complain of him.
32. — [It was meet, dc] This verse concludes the argument of the other chapter, and sums up the case between our Lord and His self-righteous enemies, the Scribes and Pharisees. Whatever the elder son might say, he could not deny these two great facts. His brother, who a short time ago bad been as one dead, was alive again. He was lost : he was now found. Before these facts all eiivious and murmuring feelings ought to go down. It was meet to -make merry and be glad.
LinECE, CHAP. XVI. VBR. 1 — 12.
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The application of the words to the case of our Lord's hearets IB clear and plain. However much the Pharisees might murmur at Him for receiving sinners, they must confess it was hotter for sinners to he saved than lost. If puhlicans and sinners were made alive unto God through His ministry, the Pharisees, if they had had a right spirit, would have heen glad. Instead of finding fault they would have heen thankful. Instead of mur- muring they would have rejoiced.
Let us ohserve the difference hetween the way in which the elder brother and the father speak of the prodigal son. The elder hrothej says, " this thy son," as if he was not his own brother. The father says, " this thy brother," to remind him of his relationship.
If we take the secondary, or national view, of the parable, the application of it is not difficult. It rebukes the Jews for their unwillingness to see the Gentiles brought into the Church of Christ, and made partakers of the Gospel. The elder brother ifi a picture of the Jews of St. Paul's time, disliking the conver- sion of the Gentiles, and *' forbidding him to speak to them." (1 Thess. ii. 16.) In this point of view, unhappily, the parable is again a prophecy. Our Jewish elder brother still stands without and refuses to come in.