14. And when he had spent all, there arose a mighty famine in that land; and he began to be in want.

15. And he went and joined himself to a citizen of that country; and he sent him into his fields to feed swine. 16. And he would fain have filled his belly with the husks that the swine did eat and no man gave unto him.

17. And when he came to himself, he said, How many hired servants of my father's have bread enough and to spare, and I perish with hunger!

He "had spent all, and there arose a mighty famine in that land." It is not necessary, as I have before observed, that the prodigal in these times should have squandered all his fortune. Suppose his riches still to remain, he yet may have spent all his power of enjoyment; he has spent the inheritance of his soul! What happens outwardly to our bodies, is but a type of what happens inwardly to our spirits, and when that

wealth is gone, there arises a mighty famine in the soul, and it begins to be in want,-in want of purity, of hope, of love, of GOD!

In this extremity, the parable tells us, the prodigal "went and joined himself to a citizen of that country." He who had gone forth from his father's house in the pride of his youth to enjoy himself to conquer the world for his pleasure, is now conquered by it; his sole ambition is to become a servant, his highest aim to have food to keep him alive; instead of a conqueror he is a slave to the lowest wants of his body.

And the citizen to whom he had joined himself, "sent him into his fields to feed swine." In the mouth of our Lord this was intended to express the very lowest depth to which a man can fall-he had to become as it were a servant to those degraded animals, the touch of whose flesh is defilement to the Jews.

"And he would fain have filled his belly with the husks that the swine did eat: and no man

gave unto him." In the cravings of his hunger he would have mingled with the herd to eat of their husks, yet even of these "no man gave unto him." Thus it is in this world: as long as a man is young and rich and joyous, as long as he can serve the pleasure of his worldly friends, so long will he be courted and welcomed and feasted among them. But as soon as sad thoughts come into his mind, when he begins to feel that he has "spent all," and hunger arises in his heart, they forsake him. He would fain in his loneliness and desolation endeavour still to satiate himself with their husks-the empty pleasures which pass with the moment and leave nothing but void behind-but "no man gives unto him." His former friends avoid him, they see in him an example of what they fear may happen also to them, and they had rather not be reminded that to them also must come an end of pleasure; that they also will one day have spent all and be left hungry and desolate.

"And when he came to himself." The prodi

gal had wandered far away from himself, from that Divine Image in which he had been created. The life and pleasures he had been pursuing were all outward, and when they failed him, when he was forced back upon him self, when thoughts, sweet and bitter, came over him of his father's home, and of what he had been when he was living there in his happy and innocent youth, cared for and loved, he felt how different it was with him now, and he said, "How many hired servants of my father's have bread enough and to spare, and I perish with hunger!" The very sound of his father's name pronounced by his own lips, brought tender recollections and yearnings over his soul. He felt how he had been labouring for that which was not bread; he had eaten his fill, and yet he exclaimed, “I perish with hunger." How striking an illustra tion of our Lord's words, "Whosoever drinketh of this water shall thirst again," and whosoever eats of that bread shall hunger again.

That hunger is a proof of the Divine nature

within us. In the depths of degradation we see it still in the soul that cannot be satisfied with the husks of earth. Low as he has fallen, his Father's eye is still upon him, his Father's hand is stretched out to save him. Oh! happy if he arises to go to his Father; Oh! blessed if he hungers and thirsts after righteousness, for he shall be filled! The Lord calls to such: Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters, and he that hath no money; come ye, buy and eat; yea, come buy wine and milk without money, and without price." (Isa. lv. 1.) But to those who refuse this loving invitation, He says, "Behold, my servants shall eat, but ye shall be hungry: behold, my servants shall drink, but ye shall be thirsty: behold, my servants shall rejoice, but ye shall be ashamed." Isa. lxv. 13.

It is not in the pleasures of this world, not even in the higher and more refined pleasures of the intellect, that the soul can find satisfaction; they all pass away! The soul, created in the image of God, can only find rest and satisfaction