But we are interested in the wanderer tonight. It would have been useless to have held him against his will, and the wise father gives him his way. Off he goes into the far country, where he spends his substi ance in riotous living.. There he finds by a strange but universal experience, that the boasted freedom of the world soon becomes the most degrading slavery. He who would use the world to minister to his pleasure submits in the end to a reversing of the relations that exist between them, and becomes the drudge and slave of the world. But thank God the story does not stop there. Before it's too late, before the chains of sin are rivetted upon him, the prodigal comes to himself. He comes to a realization of his foolishness, He remembers his father's house, and he remembers how much better off the servants there are, than the son now is in the far country.
He decides to return. And now comes the climax of the arable, that for which in fact all the rest is mere scaffolding.—The father's welcome. The reper was not much. The son was on his last legs. He was at the end of his resources. He was hungry engi uncared for, and so he came home. But the reasons are not called into question. One feels the story rather emphasises the insufü- ciency of them. But that does not matter. Low as was the prodigal's motive for return—he did return, and that was enough. But oh what wonderful love he finds waiting for him! Even the story is tremendous. It is told how the poet, William Blake, dwelling one day on the beauty of it, began to repeat it aloud, but when he came to the words of our text, his voice broke, he could not go on.
God is love. And this is the picture of our loving Heavenly Father. Waiting and watching, His forgiving love, goes out to meet his returning prodigal. And then notice further that not only is god's love forgiving love, but it is love that loads the pardoned with gifts. God gives when he forgives. How unlike our grudge ing forgiveness. Our pardon is at best the remission of the penalty, but his is full and complete and forever, and is accompanied with the outflowing of his love. It is the love of which Oxenham has written with such insight:—
Love ever gives, forgives, outlives And ever stands with open hands And while it lives it gives For this is love's prerogative.
Now of course it is not always wise to seek for a spiritual interpretation of every point in a parable; some are merely drapery. But on the other hand, we may easily fall into the error of treating as insignificant some detail which is really meant to be full of instruction. Let us look ay the enumerated gifts to the pro-dial, bearing this thought in mind. I would suggest that th be interpreted to indicate God which accompany forgiveness, First there is the robe. "Bring forth the best robe and put it on him," That is the command, Now I would suggest that this detail like the others, refers back and casts light on the condition of the spendthrift when he returned. There he stood, ragged, with the stains of travel, and marks of his herdsman duties, when he had kept the pigs, still upon him. His ragged garments, remnants, perhaps of the tawdry finery he had worn in the early days of his wandering. The Father says, "Take them off and put the best robe upon him." What does that mean? We shall perhaps understand if we remilld ourselves of how frequently in the Bible, qualities of mind, traits of character, and the like, are described as the dress of the spirit We read of being arrayed in purity, clad with zeal, clothed with humility, ete. Scripture is full of instances of this use of the metaphor. Zecheriah saw in a vision, one standing before the heavenly tribunal, clad all in filthy garments. He heard a voice say, "Take away the filthy garments from him." And the interpretation is added, "Behold I have caused thine iniquity to pass from thee, and I will clothe thee with new: raiment."
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.