TI Our chemists liquefy atmospheric air by applying portent- ously cold temperatures, two or three hundred degrees below freezing-point, and it has been found that under these ultra- Arctic conditions chemical reactions are no longer possible. The sun's rays lose their actinic power. A lecturer at the Eoyal Institution several years ago exposed to the light sensitized paper, parts of which had been sponged with liquid air. The parts untouched were changed in tint, as in the ordinary processes of photography, but the sponged parts were proof against the action of the sun- beams. In these phenomenally low temperatures substances, which have the most violent chemical affinity for each other, refuse to combine. And is there not a corresponding fact in the * T. G. Selby, The Strenwm9 Gospel, 195. ^ Qeorge Eliot.
286 THE NARROW DOOR
sphere of religion ? Whilst our natures are abnormally cold the intensest emanations from the Light of the World cannot trans- form us; the likeness of His death and resurrection fails to imprint itself on our natures.^
* T. G. Selby, The Strenuous Gosyel, 19S.
The Return to the Father.
Literature.
Blunt (J. J.), Plain Sermons, i. 292. Buxton (W.), The Battle of Life, 121. Clarke (G.), True Manhood, 80. "Dods (M.), The Parables of our Lord, ii. 127. Farrar (F. W.), Li the Bays of thy Youth, 376. Greenhough (J. G,), The Parables of Jesus, 393. Hamilton (J.), Works, ii. 338 Hancock (T.), The Return to the Father, Qii. Inge (W. R.), Practical Questions^ 2. Johnstone (V. L.), <Souri/ap, 55. Jones (S.), Revival Sermons, 154. Kelman (J.), Ejjhemera Eternitatis, 275. Macmillan (H.), The Gate Beautiful, 22. Marten (C. H.), Plain Bible Addresses, 125. Morrison (G. H.), The Wings of the Morning, 246. Punshon (W. M.), Sermons, 153. Purves (G. C), The Gospel according to Hosea, 121. Rutherford (W. G.), The Key of Knowledge, 264. Simpson (J. G.), Christus Grucifixus, 188. Smith (W. M.), Giving a Man another Chance, 167. Sod en (J. J.)> Sermons on Social Subjects, 71. Talmage (T. de W.), Sermons, vi. 163. Whittuck (C.), Learning and Working, 41.
Christian World Pulpit, li. 182 (G. Body) ; Ixviii. 228 (T. Phillips). Church of England Pulpit, Ivii. 74 (F. R. M. Hitchcock). Churchman's Pulpit : The Lenten Season, v. 163 (J. Keble). Ckrgyman's Magazine, 3rd Ser., ix. 103 (H. G. Youard). Homiletic Review, xliv. 334 (T. Kelly).
The Return to the Father.
But when he came to himself he said, How many hired servants of my father's have bread enough and to spare, and I perish here with hunger 1 I will arise and go to my father, and will say unto him, Father, I have sinned against heaven, and in thy sight : I am no more worthy to be called thy son : make me as one of thy hired servants. And he arose, and came to his father.— Luke xv. 17-20.
1. This is one of a group of three parables which our Lord delivered at one time, for one purpose, while He sat surrounded by representatives of three great classes of listeners.
First, Jesus had of course close around Him the circle of His chosen Apostles. To them it was a parable oi faith — of the faith they were about to be sent forth to preach to all the children of God scattered abroad. Secondly, pressing eagerly through the disciples, who had been taught by the Lord not to repel them, there " drew unto him all the publicans and sinners for to hear him " ; that is, the great world of sinners, who knew themselves to be sinners, but in whom (because they are not self-righteous) the Incarnate Word discerned a readiness for repentance and faith. To them — despairing of themselves, and encouraged in their despair by their teachers — it was, above everything, a parable of h(ype. Thirdly, this parable was heard by those who counted themselves righteous and despised others. Present as critics, not as hungering and thirsting learners, the group of Pharisees stood aloof. Having no sympathy with humanity at large, they mur- mured at the Son of Man for giving welcome to an audience which included prostitutes and cheats. To them lo was certainly a parable of charity.
2. The parable has been aptly and beautifully called "the evangel within the evangel" — the heart of the Gospel of Jesus. If our Lord had only appeared on earth and given utterance to ST. LUKE — 19
290 THE RETURN TO THE FATHER
this one gracious story, He would have conferred on humanity an unspeakable boon and completely altered our views of God and man, of sin and of destiny. The salient message of the parable is unmistakable. The hunger at the heart of God for the return of the prodigal and the hunger at the heart of the prodigal for God and home — that is the broad, patent, outstanding truth.
The thoughts suggested by the passage may be grouped under three titles —
I. Reflection.
II. Eepentance.
III. Restoration.
I.
Reflection.
"When he came to himself." The prodigal had not been himself when he begged his father to advance him his patrimony, nor when he wasted his substance in riotous living. During that unhappy time, when he wandered into a far country, and con- sojfced with swine, and human beings who lived like swine, he had lost or forgotten himself. As soon as he came to himself, he rose and went to his father. So then, according to our Lord's parable, a man turns to God at once when his mind is in a healthy state. It is natural for man to be religious ; and if he is not, there is probably something wrong with him.