he1ut, and the eon len.ves himself to the father'e will. And how the expression of the welcome rises I The best robe is ordered out; a sonship higher than that of mere birth. "'l'he adoption of children by Jesus Christ to the FatheT" is the best robe. And the ring is to be put on the hand-the ring with the seal of the spirit of adoption. And shoes_ are provided for the tom and weary feet, that henceforth they may walk up and down ID the Name of the Lord. And hasten, complete the tokens of the rejoicin<Y- make ready the supper in which the father can rejoice over his child with joy, and ;est in his love. 3. The fulfilment of the welcome is the supper, with the slain fatted calf and the dancing and music. It denotes the free festal joy of God, of heaven, in th~ ··found, repenting sinner. It denotes also the festal blessedness of the sinner himself when the great Object of all need and longing is found, when be is at home with his God. There is a representation of the supper in Rom. v. We hear the music and dancin" in Rom. viii. They express the truth of the new existence. There had been, in th; past, a living, but not a fellowship, with the Father; henceforth it is fellowship: God is the soul's Good. and the life is lived in and out of him. Oh the swellings of harmony, of poetic triumphant raptures, now! "My son was dead; and is alive again; was lost, and is found." So much for the younger son and the father. But we must not over- look the elder son. And we must not misjudge him. He was not bad; he is not a mere churl. He is faithful, if he is not free; he is just, if be is not generous. He bad never transgressed a command ; if bis life had no heights, it bad no depths; it had been even and calm. And he had been blessed, for he had been ever with the father, and all that was the father's had been his. We need not fix on any particular repre- sentation of the elder son. The Pharisee-heart is, no doubt, castigated in the picture. But it touches many who would resent being associated with the Pharisee. Krum- macher was once asked his opinion of the elder son. He quietly said. "I well know now, for I learned it only yesterday." Being asked further, he laconically remarked. "Myself," and confessed that yesterday he bad fretted his heart to find that a very ill-conditioned person had suddenly been enriched with a remarkable visitation of grace. The sketch supplies the foil to the love of God. It brings out, also, his patience and gentleness in the dealing with the elder son. How the father bears even with the foolish wrath I How he reasons and expostulates, and invites to a share in the joy I "Meet that we should make merry, and be glad-I over my son, thou over thy brother." Two things notice. 1. The one as bearing on the elde:r son. He comes out of the fields, punctual and orderly i.o. all his ways. He cannot understand the merry-making ; he never had received a kid. That son's life had been a wholesome one. The prodigal had his ecstasies; but the elder son had had his lifetime. He is the man of habit-habit which is to us better than instinct. The danger to the man of habit is that he becomes mechanical, doing his part steadily, but without the oil of gladness. 2. The other as bearing on the younger son. Let not Christ's teaching be misapplied. Do not think that it is a higher thing to be first irreligious and then religious; to spend the best part of the life in self-gratification, and give God only the remnants. Ahl years of godlessness leave their record. They write their impression on brain and heart; and, free and full as is God's forgiveness, the impression cannot be obliterated. What a man sows, he reaps.
HOMILIES BY VARIOUS AUTHORS. Vere. 1, 2.-.A bitter charge the highest tribute. The great Teacher himself said that the things which are highly esteemed among men may be abomination in the sight of God; and we may safely assume that the converse of this proposition is true also, Certainly, in this bitter charge brought against our Lord we now perceive the \"ery highest tribute which could be paid him. L A BITTER OHARGE AGAINST THE SAVIOUR. It is not easy for us to realize the Intensity of the feeling here expressed. The Jews, arguing from the general truth that holiness shrinks from contact with guilt, supposed that the holier any man was, the more scrupulously would he avoid the sinner; and they concluded that the very last thing the holiest man of all would do was to have such fellowship with sinners as to " eat with them." Their patriotic ha~red of the publican, and their moral repugnance :i:.VJl:E,-U, :S 60 THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO ST. LUKl~. [orr. xv. 1-32,