his servant, to say to those who had been invited, Come; for all things are now ready?'

18. And they all began with one mind and spirit, to excuse themselves. The first said unto him, 'I have just bought a field, and I am under the necessity of going to see it: I pray thee to make my excuse.'

19. And another said, 'I have just bought five yoke of oxen, and I am now going to examine them whether suitable for the plough: I pray thee to make my excuse.'

20. And another said, 'I have married a wife: and therefore, as I have company to entertain, I cannot come.'

21. So that servant returned, and told his lord these things. Then the master of the house was angry, and said to his servant,

Go out quickly into the broad streets and lanes of the city; and bring in hither the poor, and the disabled, and the lame, and the blind.

22. And the servant came back, and said, 'Sir, it is done as thou hast commanded; and yet there is room.'

23. And the lord said to the servant, Go out into the highways, and seek for strangers whether journeying or resting in the shade of hedges, and urgently persuade them to come in, that my house may be filled: 24. For I say unto you, that none of those persons who have been invited, shall taste of my supper.

v. 23: "The sheikh of an Arab village, on being informed of the approach of strangers, was wont to meet and conduct them to a lodging: or if urgent business prevented them from staying in the village, he sent them refreshments, of which they hastily partook under the shade of the trees and hedges." (Dr. A. CLARKE.)

v. 21: gaymous: those camping as gypsies, now-a-days, under the hedges:' TRENCH. The mean and indigent, who have no shelter but the walls or fences which bound the highways:' GRESWELL. 'The enclosures:' BURTON. Fenced paths or foot-roads across vineyards, orchards, &c.; bye-paths :' BLOOMFIELD.Poor helpless travellers who are sheltering themselves under trees and hedges:' DODDRIDGE. 'Hedges where beggars usually have their stations:' MACKNIGHT. Narrow ways among the vineyards' ROBINSON.

THE Great Supper is an emblem of the preparation made in the Gospel, for sinners. Whatever could be prepared by an Eastern monarch for his most favoured guests, are feeble types of the richer provision for the souls which hunger and thirst after righteousness. He that eateth of this bread, shall live for

ever.

If an earthly prince require our presence, we promptly testify our sense of the honour. But far less is the distance between the poorest beggar and the mightiest earthly monarch, than between the mightiest earthly monarch and Jehovah, the King of Kings. Yet this Sovereign Lord condescends to invite us; the hungry, poor, and naked.

The hospitality should be estimated by its extent. The host bids many. Christ tasted death for every man. The King is anxious that his house may be full.

The excuses, made for declining the invitation, admonish us, that the most lawful employments and even domestic attachments, may cease to be innocent, if they intrude upon spiritual affairs. We incur the danger of supposing, that when we have, first and above all, secured our worldly connexions and transacted our temporal matters, then, and not until then, is the season for examining into the state of our souls. By this means, not only do men destroy their souls for great secular advantages or by gross outward sins; but they so misplace even lawful things, and act so carnally even in the ordinary affairs of life, that they perish by such matters, as might have been attended to with greater advantage, had they sought first the kingdom of God and his righteousness. To be wholly taken up by the lawful or even necessary business of life, will as effectually hinder a man from tasting of the supper which God has prepared, as to fall into more flagrant sin.

The two excuses relating to the purchase of the field and oxen, belonged to bargains already made: so that going to see the farm and to prove the oxen, that evening rather than the next morning, was merely the effect of rudeness on the one hand, and of a foolish impatient humour on the other; and never could have been urged, had they esteemed the inviter or his entertainment. Accordingly it is commonly founded in fact, that men neglect the blessings and demands of the Gospel, not

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for the most important affairs in life with which they seldom interfere, but to indulge the caprice and folly of their own tempers, and to gratify the impulse of present passions, sometimes excited on very low occasions.

What was the result of neglecting the invitation? The host was angry. The forbearance of God had limits. The children of Abraham are rejected from his table; and the Gentiles, aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, supply their place.

In this mirror we may contemplate ourselves. Blindness to Gospel-mercies is a dangerous malady. If the natural vine be rooted out, shall the engrafted olive be spared, if barren?

The preceding inferences from the parable belong, in part, to the parable recorded by St. Matthew but in St. Luke's record, there is an expression which is dangerous to be misunderstood: "compel them to come in."

This phrase, in reference to the circumstances of the parable, cannot imply a threat, coercion, or punishment: but, in truth, it is an expression of courtesy and of invitation to a banquet. There are many ways of compelling, in the figurative and moral sense, very different from compulsion by force of arms. In the sacred writings, men are said to be compelled by importunity (Gen. xxxiii. 11; 1 Sam. xxviii. 23; Luke, xxiv. 29); sometimes by what men deem necessary business, as in the present parable; sometimes, by a sense of duty (1 Pet. v. 2); sometimes, by the impulse of love and gratitude (2 Cor. v. 14). From these and numerous like expressions in Scripture, it is evident that when the preachers of the Gospel are enjoined to compel men to come in, the meaning is, 'Compel them by irresistible clearness of reason, by strength of argument, and affectionate admonition; convince, persuade, entreat them; set before them the certainty of a future judgment, the promises and the threatenings of the Lord: prevail with them by your own good example: urge, press, inculcate upon them the necessity of religion.'

A right sense of religion cannot be put into men's minds by force of arms. The heart is the seat of religion: and where that concurs not, the outward action is of no consideration in the sight of God. To what, then, can men be compelled by force, in matters of religion? to nothing but a mocking of God; to nothing but hypocrisy.

Force is most opposite to the spirit of Christianity. Our Saviour's whole life and character were, that he went about, doing good. He was meek and merciful. "Will ye be my disciples," was his mode of inviting; "will ye go away," was his mode of expostulation. He rebuked his intemperate disciples for not knowing what manner of spirit they were of. He foretells persecution as the character of apostasy from his true Church. "The time cometh that whosoever KILLETH you, will think that he doeth God service; and these things will they do, because they have known neither me nor my Father." If then there be a Church who compels converts to come in, by racks and tortures, by dragoons and inquisitions, by fire and sword; if in that Church be found the blood of prophets and of saints and of all that are slain upon the earth (Rev. xvii. 6; xviii. 24), there cannot be on that Church a more certain mark of anti-Christian corruption. In reference to such a Church, the Holy Spirit exclaims, "Come out of her, my people; that ye be not partakers of her sins; and that ye receive not of her plagues." (DEAN STANHOPE. Dr. S. CLARKE.)

Our Lord with the design of reproving the pride of the Pharisees, of vindicating his kind reception of sinners for their amendment, and of encouraging the penitent, utters the parable of the Prodigal Son. LUKE, xv. 11-32.

11. A certain man had two adult sons: 12, and the younger of them said to his father, ' Father, give me now that portion of the patrimony, which, at some time or other, falls to my legal share.' And he divided between them his property.

allowed a father the

Among the Jews, a

[Neither the Jewish nor Roman law voluntary distribution of his whole estate. double portion was allotted to the first-born; and the remainder was divided equally among the rest of the children: nor was it unusual for a father to settle during his life, the patrimony upon a son, reserving for himself (as in the parable) so much of the estate as was sufficient for the support of the rest of the family.]

13. And not many days after, the younger son, turning all into money, went abroad into a distant country; and there living in-dissolute-debauchery, he dissipated his substance.

14. And when he had spent all, a vehement famine took place in that country, and he himself began to be in want: 15, and he went, and attached himself as a servant, to one of the citizens of that country. And he sent him into his grounds to feed swine; an employment deemed contemptible among all heathen nations, and especially among the Jews. 16. And he would have been glad to have filled his belly with the pods of the carob-tree, the food of the swine; and so great was the famine, that no man gave unto him better food.

[The fruit of the carob-tree is still used in the East for feeding swine; and is eaten by the poorer people.]

17. And when he came to himself with serious reflection, he said in his own mind, 'How many hired slaves of my father have a superfluity of bread; but I, his son, am perishing with famine. 18. I will arise, and go to my father, and will say unto him, 'Father, I have sinned against heaven and against thee; 19, and I am no more worthy to be thy son: treat and esteem me as one of thy hired slaves. 20. And he arose, and went to his father.

20. But while he was yet at a considerable distance, his father recognised him; and his bowels yearned over him, and he ran and fell on his neck, and affectionately-kissed him.

21. And the son said to him, Father, I have sinned against heaven and against thee; and am no more worthy to be thy son.' 22. But the tender father, not waiting to reply to his son, said to his servants, Bring out that principal robe, reserved for festivals, and put it on him; and put a ring on his hand, and sandals on his feet.

[Fine robes and rings were considered in the East as marks of distinction: Esther, viii. 2; Isa. iii. 21; James, ii. 2. Slaves were accustomed to go barefoot.]

23. And bring hither that fatted calf, and sacrifice it; and let us eat, and make merry: 24, for this my son was dead to me, and is alive again: he was lost, and is found.' And they began to be merry.

25. Now his son, the elder son, was in the field, attending the concerns of the farm and as, on his return, he approached the house, he heard music and dancing: 26, and calling to him one of the servants, he enquired what was the meaning of these things. 27. And he said to him, Thy brother hath arrived; and thy