Lord came and go.thered in that great har- duced the spirit, almost the very wordR, of vest of sinners, those firetfruite of hie the well-known a.Mwer of the young man mighty work-they too were "in the field" in the gospel story, who we.a no doubt a at work with their titbinge and obeervo.ncce, promising scion of the Pharisee party : "All making hedge after hedge round the old these things have I kept from my youth sacred Hebrew Lo.w, uselessly fretting their up." The same thought we.a in the mind, lives away in a dull round of meaningless too, of him who thus prayed in the temple: ritual observances. They-the Pharisee "God, I thank thee that I um not a.a other party-when they became aware of the great men are," etc. ( eh. xvi ii. 11, 12). Yet orowde of men, whom they looked on as lost thou never gaveet me a. kid . ... All that I sinners, listening to the new fa.moue Teacher, have is thine. Thy brother be.a the shoes, who we.a showing them how men who bad the ring, the robe, the banquet; thou the lived their lives too could win eternal life- inheritance, for a.II that I have ie thine. they, the Pharisees, flamed out with bitter Why grudge to thy brother an hour of the wrath against the bold and daring Preacher gladness which ha.a been thine these many of glad tidings to euoh a worthle.'ls crew. years? As eoou a.a this thy son was come, In the vivid parable-story these indignant . . . For this thy brother wa.s dead. The Pharisees and rulers saw themselves clearly angry elder son will not even acknowledge imaged. the prodigal a.a hu brother; with bitter Ver. 28.-Therefore ea.me his father out, scorn and some disrespect he speaks of him and entreated him. The disapprobation of to his father as " thy son." The father Jesus for Pharisee opinions was very marked, throughout the scene ie never incensed. yet here and elsewhere his treatment of He pleads rather than reproaches, and to them, with a few exceptional cases, was this insolence be simply retort.a, " Thy generelly very gentle and loving. There brother was dead to ns, but now-It wa.e was something in their excessive devotion meet that we should make merry, and be to the letter of the Divine Law, to the holy glad." What was the end of this strange temple, to the proud traditions of their race, scene? The last words, breathing forgive- that was admirable. It was a love to God, ness and joy, leave a. sweet sense of hope but a love all marred and blurred. It was upon the render that a.11 would yet be well a patriotism, but a patriotism utterly mis- in that divided household, and that the taken. The elder brother here was a repre• brothers, friends again, would cla,p bands senta.tive of. the great and le.moue sect, both before the loving father's eyes. But in its fair and repulsive aspect, in its moral when J eeus told the parable to the severity and correctness, in its ha.l'Bhness and crowds, the story was not yet played out. exclusive pride. The father condescended It depended on the Pharisees and rulers to entreat this angry elder son ; and Jesus how the scene was to end. What happened longed to win these proud mistaken Phari- at Jerusalem a few wuks later, when the sees. Passion-drama WBB acted, and some forty Vera. 29--32.-Lo, these many years do years later, when the city was secked, tells I serve thee. Bengel quaintly comments us something ofwbo.t subsequently happened here, " Servus erat." 'l'his was the true to the elder son of the Lord's parable. But nature of this later Jewish service of the the end has yet to come. We shall yet see Eternal. To them the eternal God was the brothers, Jew and Gentile, clasp hands simply a. Master. They were slaves who in loving friendship before the father, when had a hard and difficult task to perform, and the long-lost elder son comes home. There for which they looked for a. definite pay- will be joy then indeed in the presence of ment. Neither transgressed I at any time the angels of God. thy oommandment. We have here repro-
HOMILETICS. Vere. 11-32.-7he parable of the prodigal son. This parable is at once a history, a poem, a.nd a prophecy. A history of man in innocence, in sin, in redemption, in glory. A poem-the song of salvation, whose refrain, "My son was dead, and is alive again, was lost, and is found," is ringing through the courts of the Zion of God. A prophecy, speaking most directly and solemnly, in warning and meditation, emphasis of reproof or of encouragement, to each of us. It is beyond the reach of the scalpel of criticism. Its thoughts, its very words, have enriched every speech aud language in which lts voice bas been heard. It stands before us "the pearl of parables," "the gospel in the gospel" of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. It is the last of three stories, illustrative of Divine grace, which were spoken especially to the Pharisees, 46 THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO ST. LUKE, [cu. xv. 1-32.