The Pulpit Commentary — Luke — Volume 2 — Section 41

considerahlc city, or its immedi1tte vicinity, viously allotted portions to his othor sons. 88 the plaoe whe~ these fe.mous parables There was, however, no Jewish law which were> spokon. Tins pRrable, e.s it is termed required ~ny_ su~h bestowal of property in of the prodi!):Rl son completes the trilogy'. the parents hfetlme. It was a free gift on ~'itl1_out it the Me.ster's formal apofogia for the part of the father. But to the youn"' Ins hfe 1md work would be incomplete, and son it was a hapless boon. " the rebuke of the PharisRic selfishness and crnsoriousness would hRve been left un- " God answers sharp and sudden on some finish<'d: In the apoh,gia much had still prayers; to he sa1d concerning the limitless love 1tnd And flings the thing we have asked in our the boundless pity of God. In the f'ebuke face, the two first parables bad shown the Pharisee r A gauntlet-with a gift in it." party and the rulel'B of Jamel bow they (E. B. Browning.) ou~ht to have act!'d: this third st:ory shows them how thev did act. But the Church of And took hie journey into a far oonntry. CLrist-os each successive generation read The youth, who probably in the Master's this exquisite and true story-soon lost experience had suggested this part of the sight of all the temporal and national sig- story, after receiving his she.re of money nification at fir."t connected with it. The started with unformed purposes of pleasure: dweller in the cold and misty North feels perhaps of trade. The man, who was a Jew that it belongs to him as it does to the left his home for one of the great world'~ Syrian, revelling in his almost perpetual mart.s, such as Cartbaae or Alexandria summer, to whom it was first spoken. It is Antioch or Rome. And there wasted h~ a story of the nineteenth century just as it substanoe with riotoue living. This is an was a stor.v of the first. We may, with all extreme case. Few probably of the publicans reverence, think of the Divine Master, as he and sinners whose hearts the Lord touched unfolded each successive scene which por- so deeply, e.nd who are examples of the trayed human sin and 6Uffering, e.nd heavenly great class in every age to whom his gospel pity and forgiveness, man's selfish pride and appeals so lovingly, had sinned so deeply God's all-embracing love, passing into an- as the young man of the story. Indecent other e.nd broader sphere than tbat bounded haste to be free from the orderly quiet by the Arabian deserts to the south e.nd home-life, ingratitude, utter forgetfulness of the Syrian mountains to the north, forget- all duty, the wildest profligaoy,-these were ting for a moment the little Church of the the sins of the prodigal. It has been well Hebrews, and speaking to the great Church remarked that the line rnns out widely to of the future-the Church of the world, to embrace such a profligate, that every sinner which, without doubt, this Catholic para.hie may be encouraged to return to God e.nd of the prodigal, in all it.I sublime beauty live. There is a grave reticence in sparing and exquisite pathos, with all its exhaust- all details of the wicked life-a veil which less wealth of comfort, belongs. the elder son with pitiless hand would snatch Ve:rs. 12, 13.-And the yoUI1ger of them away (ver. 30). said to his father, :Father, give me the por- Ver. 14.-And when he had spent all, tion of goods that falleth to me. And he Trne of many a soul in all times, but espe- divided UI1to them his living. And not many cially in that age of excessive luxury and days after the yoUI1ger 110n gathered an splendour !Qld of unbridled passions. together. The subject of the story this "On that hard Roman world, disgust time iB not derived from humble life. The And secret loathing fell; family pictured is evidently one belonging Deep weariness e.nd se.ted lust to the wealthy clasB. There was money to Ma.de human life a hell." be distributed; there werA estates to be (Matthew Arnold.) cultivated; mee.us existed to defray the cost of fee.sting on a large scale; mention, too, is There arose a mighty fa.mine in that land; made incidentally of costly clothing and e.nd he began to be in want. The "mighty even of gems. Like other of the Lord's famine" may be understood to represent diffi- parable-teachings, the framework of the cult times. War or political convulsions, so story was moat likely founded upon fact. common in those de.ye, may have speedily The family of the father and the two sone brought about the ruin of many like the no donbt had been personally known to the prodigal of our story, and his comparatively Galil=n Teacher. This imperious demand small fortune would quickly have been of tbe younger seeme strange to us. Such swallowed up. Selfish evil-Ii ving, excesses a division, however, in the lifetime of the of various kinds, bad gained him no real father was not uncommon in the Ea.et. So friends, but he.d left him to meet the ruin Abre.he.m in his lifetime bestowed the main of his fortune wiih enfeebled powers, home- body of his po118e811i.ons on Isaac, havi.Dg pre- leBB e.nd friendless: hence the depth of the err, xv. 1-32.] THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO ST, LUKE. 43