The Pulpit Commentary — Luke — Volume 2 — Section 47

give him. He he.d rejected his father's hand, and there is no hand In all the world outstret.ched to him. In Oriental lands there grows a tree whose fruit is like the bean-pod, though larger than it, with a dull, sweet taste; the swine would take of it• and the l?nging eye of the swine\1erd is c~st on it. It is all he can get, for there i~ no food m th&t far country smted to him. The soul starves, whether in riotous living or in want, until it looks upwards and learns the old home-cry "Father give me!" ' ' II. Fomm. Consider the return, the welcome, the supper. "It is meet," says the father, "that we should make merry and be glad." 1. Mark the steps of the return. The hopeful feature about the poor swineherd is that, although pinned to the citizen of the country, he is yet a person distinct. He has sold himself; but himself is more than, other than, the citizen. There is an inalienable nobility which even "riotous living" cannot stamp out. There a.re "obstinate questionings," "blank misgivincrs" '' fugitive recollections of the imperial palace whence he came.'' Ponder the record ~f the finding of the conscience, and the Litany first, and the J ubila.te afterwards which followed the finding. "He comes to himself." He has never been the ricrht t::ue self from the ~oment whe~ he ~eman~ed the portion. The right self_ is so~hip. This wallowmg m the sty with swine, thlS bound-ovemess to tyrant appetite and earthliness 1 ah! a.s one awaking from a horrid dream he recognizes the reality. And wherein does the conscience, now awakened, become articulate? (1) There is the sense of an awful discord and wrong. The menial of that citizen left to starve. How different a.re the menials in bis father's house I They have bread enough and to spa.re. "Whatever is orderly is blest. I, the disorderly, the one out of place, out of my right mind, am the unblest, the one perishing with hunger." It was this feeling which came over the wild student when. in the solemn sweet moonlight, he gazed from the height on one of the fairest scenes of nature. And the cry was evoked, "All lovely, all peaceful, except myself! "-a cry that bade him ha.ck to another and nobler life. Who is there that in caimer moments does not understand the inward glance of the vision-the peaceful father's house, and the misrule, unrule, of the self-willed and undutiful ? (2) There succeeds a higher thought: "The menial in that house, and I, the son I" Gradually there emerges the feeling of the heaven-the authority from which the soul has broken, the order it bas contravened, and more still, "against heaven, and before thee." The recol- lection of the father rnshes in, bringing tides of holy ardour. His eye, the son feels, has been following him in the journey, in the wasting of the substance ; it has been all "before hirr•. " "0 my father, my father! to have grieved and wounded thee I I will weep no longer. I will arise and go. I will throw myself on thee. I will ask for a place anywhere, if only it is near thee ; if I may be again in thy eight, and no longer the sinner ! " It is a repentance not to be repented of. The matter of it is not, '' I have played the fool exceedingly;" it is ever and throughout "I have sinned.'' What causes the will to a.rise is the longing to be again with the father, to pour out the broken and contrite spirit on his bosom. And he arises and goes. " The best and most blessed said and done" that can be in heaven or on earth. 2. And now for the welcome. 'l'he love that descends is always greater than the love that ascends. The love of the child is only a response to the love of the parent. And as to this father I Most touch- ingly explicit is the word of Jesus. "When yet a great way off, the father saw him.'' A very great way off! Even in the far country he had been near. The seeing expresses the knowing all about the misery, and the earnestness of the return-a seeing that is a drawing also, a drawing through the need, and all along the journey forming an atmosphere of love that compassed him about. To come to the love of God is to ~ealize that be was first; it is to find that which found 11B when yet a great way apart. What more? A reproach? A reproof? The arms a.re at once thrown around the neck, and the kiss of reconciling fatherlinees is printed on the cheek. The forgiveness, observe, comes before all confession. In confessing the sin we meet the blessing that bas already covered us. But there is a confession. "The truest and best repentance," as it bas been said, "follows, and does not precede, the sense of forgiveness; and thus too, repentance will be a thing of the whole life long, for every new insight into that forgiving love is as a new reason why the sinner should mourn that he ever sinned against it.'' Only, note, beneath the pressure of that fatherly heart there is no mention of the hired servant's place. 'l'he "Father, I have sinned," is sobbed forth on the father's OH. xv. 1-32.] THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO ST. LUKE. 49