The Pulpit Commentary — Luke — Volume 2 — Section 46

not the eight of the old roof-tree, or the remembrance of the sweet life that lies behind. '!'bore is an eager "farewell;" he rushes forward- Whither 1 "To a far country." Yes ; yield to appetite, to fleshly lust, it will take the soul on and on away from the fences _of ~eligion, avya:v: to the far-off Nod, _bidding it, as Cain did, buiid there the city of hab1tat1on, yet b1dd1ng only to mock, smce he who would put miles between him and the face of his Father in heaven must be a sorry fogitive and vagabond. "A far country I" 'fhat is wherever God is forgotten, is dishonoured as the Father. No ship is needed to bear one to the uttermost parts of the earth; the distance is measured not by oceans or continents, but by tracts of affection and sympathy. "Alienated from tb.e life of God "-this is the far country. Observe the two stages of the existence in the far country-the fulness and the famine. (1) There iJJful,ness- a season of apparently inexhaustible happiness: "riotous living." The life of the youth is like a mountain-torrent that has been pent np and bursts forth. The Greek word has the force of "prodigally." And prodigal the wanderer is in the earlier period. Fill high the bowl; loud let the _revel swell; eat, drink; there is more to follow, there is more behind. "Such is the world's gay garish feast In her first charming bowl, Infusing all that fires the breast, And cheats th-' unstable soul." But-what? 11 The substance is wasting;" literally, is "scattering abroad;" for so it is. As has well been said," All creaturely possession consumes itself in the using; all wealth must turn itself into poverty, either by its actual dissipation or in consequence of the folly of covetousness, which the more mammon increases iJJ the less satisfied by it. Thus man, in his sin, consumes first of all his earthly goods, so that he can no more find comfort or satisfaction in them; and then, alas ! the true and real posses- sions which his heavenly Father communicated to him are also consumed." What a description of substance scattered (Prov. v. 7-14) I (2) Then comes in the second stage. All which had been gathered together spent; then ariJJes the/amine. For one who has nothing there is always a famine in that land. The world will give you so long as you have to give it; when you can bring nothing, when1 you are used up ; ah, the fields which seemed golden become the bleakest of moors. There is .no sight more pitiful than a worn-out, used-up worldling. " The fire that on my bosom preys Is lone 11.B some volcanic isle : No toroh is kindled at its blaze- A funeral pile I" Alas! the p1easure 11ai. died out; the soul, the immortal self, not yet dead, is in want in a famine-stricken land. How is this want to be met? 4. Wherein 1 It is an evil and bitter thing to forsake the Lord. The son's own wickedness is correcting him, and hiJJ backslidings are reproving him. In want, but not yet in poverty blessed with. desire. Here is the witness. Hitherto the son has been the son, wicked, reckless, but still not naturalized in that far country. The day of this separation has passed; and, oh I the double degradation! "He joins himself"-"pins himself" is the word- becomes wholly, abjectly dependent on, "a citizen of that country." lie began by being his own master; he ends by being the slave of the citizen. The world uses for its pleasure the one who uses the world for his pleasure. A man's passion is his minister for a time; by-and-by it becomes his tyrant. A. very hard tyrant! The devil has no respect for the freedom of the will: "I was your companion, your :Mephis- topheles, your slave. Now I have you, you are mine; get out and feed these swine." It was an employment which conveyed the idea of utterwretchedness to a Jew. Strong, thickly laid, is the colouring; it is not one whit too strong or too thickly laid for fact. How do we behold this prince, this son of the Father? Toiling in the fields, with no shelter except the rude hut which he makes, and his only companions-the herd of swine I And all the while the hunger gnawing! Were not these swine, wallowing in the mire, picking the carobs, eating the scanty grass, happy as compared with him? They got what they wanted; he provided their food for them, but t.l.ere ii none ig"  THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO ST. LUKE. [on. xv. 1-32.