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fold. They would have been thankful to see them plucked as brands from the burning, and not cast away for ever. Of all these feelings, unhappily, they knew nothing. Wrapped in their own self-righteousness they murmured and found fault, when in reality they ought to have thanked God and rejoiced.

The lesson is one which we shall all do well to lay to heart. Nothing ought to give us such true pleasure as the conversion of souls. It makes angels rejoice in heaven. It ought to make Christians rejoice on earth. What if those who are converted were lately the vilest of the vile? What if they have served sin and Satan for many long years, and wasted their substance in riotous living. It matters nothing. Has grace come into their hearts? Are they truly penitent? Have they come back to their father's house? Are they new creatures in Christ Jesus? Are the dead made alive and the lost found?'-These are the only questions we have any right to ask. If they can be answered satisfactorily we ought to rejoice and be glad. Let the worldly, if they please, mock and sneer at such conversions. Let the selfrighteous, if they will, murmur and find fault, and deny the reality of all great and sudden changes. But let the Christian who reads the words of Christ in this chapter, remember them and act upon them. Let him thank God and be merry. Let him praise God that one more soul is saved. Let him say, "this my brother was dead and is alive again; and was lost, and is found."

What are our own feelings on the subject? This after all is the question that concerns us most. The man who can take deep interest in politics, or field-sports, or

money-making, or farming, but none in the conversion of souls, is no true Christian. He is himself "dead" and must be made “alive again." He is himself "lost" and must be "found."

NOTES. LUKE XV. 25-32.

25.-[His elder son. The part of the parable which begins here was evidently intended to apply to the Scribes and Pharisees who "murmured" at our Lord because He "received sinners." The unkindness, moroseness, and self-sufficiency of the elder son, are an exact type of the spirit manifested by those who found fault with our Lord for showing kindness to publicans and sinners.

It is important to keep this point clearly in view. It furnishes a clue to a right understanding of the whole passage. The elder son represents the Pharisee.

[Music and dancing.] Some commentators have carefully dwelt on this expression, and have hinted, not obscurely, that it sanctions recreations and amusements from which many Chris tians think it better to abstain. Stier exclaims, "A Note for the Pietists!" Alford says more gravely, "Would these festal employments have been mentioned by our Lord on so solemn and blessed an occasion, if they really come among those works of the devil which He came into the world to destroy?"

I can see no force in arguments of this kind. There is not the slightest proof that the dancing referred to in this place was at all like the dancing of modern times. There is no proof that it was at night, or that it was a dance of men and women mingled together. Until these things can be proved, such comments on the verse before us are much to be regretted. I am not aware of any Christian objecting to music. Dancing, as it is conducted in modern times, many excellent Christians object to, and, I frankly say, I think with good reason. 28.-[He was angry.] Let those who think the elder son was a good man notice this expression, as well as those in the following verse. It is just the counterpart of the "murmuring" of the Scribes and Pharisees at the beginning of the chapter.

[Entreated.] The kindness of the father's character appears once more in this expression. He might have rebuked his ill-natured son. He only entreats him.

29.-[Neither transgressed...at any time.]—Let this expression be carefully noted. It is precisely the spirit of the Pharisee, "I am not as other men, or even as this publican." It shows clearly that the elder son cannot fairly be regarded as a weak

believer. He is a type of the self-righteous, ignorant moralist, who cannot bear the doctrine of salvation by grace, or endure the idea of great sinners being completely pardoned and put on a level with himself.

[Thou never gavest me a kid, &c.] The spirit of this expression should be noted. It is the thanklessness of a proud, conceited person, who thinks that nothing is too good for him, and that he is never treated so well as he really deserves.

30.-This thy son.] Mark the ill-natured tone of these words. He is speaking of his own brother. He calls him "this thy son." It is an expression of scorn and contempt, like "this publican" in Luke xviii. 11.

[With harlots.] Let this expression be noted. The fact asserted is an addition to the younger son's unhappy profligacy, which we hear of for the first time. It may possibly have been true, but it is evidently brought forward here with an uncharitable intention, and in a contemptuous manner.

[Thou hast killed the fatted calf.] This expression should be compared with the beginning of the chapter. The Pharisee said, "This man receiveth sinners and eateth with them." The elder son's words here are an exact counterpart to this charge. Thou hast not only received thy sinful son, but hast even made a feast for him, and eaten with him."

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31.- Son thou art ever with me, and all...thine.] These words have made some persons suppose that the elder son is the type of an erring believer, who is stumbled by seeing great sinners pardoned, but who has never departed from grace himself. This idea is untenable. We are not reading a conversation between a child of God and his heavenly Father. We are simply reading an incident in a story which is intended to show Christ's love towards sinners, and the ignorance of those who are stumbled by it. The words show us no doubt that the elder son had always lived a steady life compared to his brother's, and that his father had never denied him anything. But they entirely fail to show that he was humble, charitable, or acquainted with his own heart, notwithstanding all the privileges he enjoyed. The words in short show that the elder son had no right to complain of his father, but they do not show that the father had no right to complain of him.

32.—[It was meet, &c.] This verse concludes the argument of the other chapter, and sums up the case between our Lord and His self-righteous enemies, the Scribes and Pharisees. Whatever the elder son might say, he could not deny these two great facts. His brother, who a short time ago had been as one dead, was alive again. He was lost: he was now found. Before these facts all envious and murmuring feelings ought to go down. It was meet to make merry and be glad.

The application of the words to the case of our Lord's hearers is clear and plain. However much the Pharisees might murmur at Him for receiving sinners, they must confess it was better for sinners to be saved than lost. If publicans and sinners were made alive unto God through His ministry, the Pharisees, if they had had a right spirit, would have been glad. Instead of finding fault they would have been thankful. Instead of murmuring they would have rejoiced.

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Let us observe the difference between the way in which the elder brother and the father speak of the prodigal son. elder brother says, "this thy son," as if he was not his own brother. The father says, "this thy brother," to remind him of his relationship.

If we take the secondary, or national view, of the parable, the application of it is not difficult. It rebukes the Jews for their unwillingness to see the Gentiles brought into the Church of Christ, and made partakers of the Gospel. The elder brother is a picture of the Jews of St. Paul's time, disliking the conversion of the Gentiles, and "forbidding him to speak to them." (1 Thess. ii. 16.) In this point of view, unhappily, the parable is again a prophecy. Our Jewish elder brother still stands without and refuses to come in.

LUKE XVI. 1–12.

1 And he said also unto his disciples, There was a certain rich man, which had a steward; and the same was accused unto him that he had wasted his goods.

2 And he called him, and said unto him, How is it that I hear this of thee? give an account of thy stewardship; for thou mayest be no longer steward.

3 Then the steward said within himself, What shall I do? for my lord taketh away from me the stewardship: I cannot dig; to beg I am ashamed.

4 I am resolved what to do, that, when I am put out of the stewardship, they may receive me into their houses. 5 So he called every one of his lord's debtors unto him, and said unto the first, How much owest thou unto my lord?

6 And he said, An hundred measures of oil. And he said unto him, Take thy bill, and sit down quickly, and write fifty.

7 Then said he to another, And how

much owest thou? And he said, An hundred measures of wheat. And he said unto him, Take thy bill, and write fourscore.

8 And the lord commended the unjust steward, because he had done wisely: for the children of this world are in their generation wiser than the children of light.

9 And I say unto you, Make to yourselves friends of the mammon of unrighteousness; that, when ye fail, they may receive you into everlasting habitations.

10 He that is faithful in that which is least is faithful also in much and he that is unjust in the least is unjust also in much.

11 If therefore ye have not been faithful in the unrighteous mammon, who will commit to your trust the true riches?

12 And if ye have not been faithful in that which is another man's, who shall give you that which is your own?

THE passage we have now read is a difficult one. There are knots in it which perhaps will never be untied, until the Lord comes again. We might reasonably expect that a book written by inspiration, as the Bible is, would contain things hard to be understood. The fault lies not in the book, but in our own feeble understandings. If we learn nothing else from the passage before us, let us learn humility.

Let us beware, in the first place, that we do not draw from these verses lessons which they were never meant to teach.

The steward, whom our Lord describes, is not set before us as a pattern of morality. He is distinctly called the " unjust steward." The Lord Jesus never meant to sanction dishonesty, and unfair dealing between man and man. This steward cheated his master, and broke the eighth commandment.-His master was struck with his cunning and forethought, when he heard of it, and “ mended" him, as a shrewd and far-seeing man. But there is no proof that his master was pleased with his conduct. Above all, there is not a word to show that the man was praised by Christ. In short, in his treatment of his master, the steward is a beacon to be avoided, and not a pattern to be followed.

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The caution, now laid down, is very necessary. Commercial dishonesty is unhappily very common in these latter days. Fair dealing between man and man is increasingly rare. Men do things in the way of business, which will not stand the test of the Bible. In "making haste to be rich," thousands are continually committing actions which are not strictly innocent. (Prov. xxviii. 20.)

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