soon began to feel, in this way, the consequences of his folly. His property was dissipated; and not only so, but a very grievous famine prevailed, at the same time, in the country where he was sojourning, which aggravated the straits to which his own extravagance had reduced him; so that he began to be in absolute want. Famished and wretched, however, as his condition was, he did not think of retracing his steps. He was not yet penitent; he was not yet humbled. He was too proud to confess his error. He still wished to linger in the distant land. He would do any thing, and submit to any thing, rather than return to his father. Not being able to obtain any other situation, he went and engaged himself as a servant “to a citizen of that country," who, judging so despicable a being fit for nothing better, “sent him into his fields to feed swine." Among the ancient Greeks, indeed, the chief swine-herd was sometimes a person of some note, as appears from what is said of Eumæus, in the Odyssey of Homer: but that circumstance was both uncommon, and demonstrative of a very low state of civilisation. According to Herodotus, the Egyptians did not allow swine-herds to join in general society, or to be present at the worship of the gods, nor would the lowest of the people form any matrimonial alliances with them. But especially must this employment have been despicable and odious in the estimation of the Jews, as swine were legally unclean animals, which, as it was absolutely forbidden to them to eat, it must have been at least disrespectful to the law to own, or to herd, This circumstance, then, appears to have been fixed on by our Lord, as suggesting to the Jewish mind the idea of the deepest worthlessness and degradation.

Poor and despicable as the employment was in itself, it was peculiarly wretched in this man's case, because of the total inadequacy of the allowance made to him for his labour. It did not afford him enough of the cheapest food of man, so that, in the cravings of his hunger, he had a strong desire to try, if indeed he did not actually try, the food of beasts-" He would fain have filled his belly with the husks that the swine did eat." Nay, so very wretched was his plight, so careful had the famine made people, so completely was he deserted by his former companions, who had courted him and shared in his gaiety, at his expense, in the

*Herodotus, ii. 47.

The fruit of the charub tree, or a kind of pulse, say some: wild chestnuts. sav others. Grotius, Bochart, Drusius.

days of his plenty, and so thoroughly and so universally was he despised, that "no man gave him" the smallest portion of food, or of any other kind of help. Thus, our Lord supposes a case which might happen, and which, in substance, does sometimes happen, in a family, and then leaves us to make the spiritual application of it. Nor is this

application difficult.

How deplorable was this prodigal's-this worthless and spendthrift son's, condition! and yet it is, though a very apt, but a faint emblem, of the state of fallen and offending man, in his departure and distance from the Lord God, his Father who created him. It would, indeed, both impair the beauty and dignity of this parable, and lead to sentiments questionable, if not erroneous, to attempt to find a close parallel for all its circumstances, some of which are, doubtless, introduced, rather to render the relation full and finished, than to be made the foundation of particular doctrines: at the same time, not only the great outline, but several of the particular features, of this case, are obviously intended to be marked in its religious application, and are too striking and important to be overlooked. Be it remembered, too, in order that none of us may endeavour to shift the humbling truth from himself to others, that this is a representation, not only of those who, in the judgment of worldly men, are uncommonly profligate and degraded, but of every fallen human being in his natural, unrenewed, and unconverted state. The situation of this youth, before he left his father's house, corresponds most closely with the situation of man before the fall, when in paradise he was happy in the love, favour, and communion of his heavenly Father, and enjoyed God in all, and all in God. It may also be considered as corresponding, in some degree, to the state of those who are again restored to the divine favour; though the comparison cannot be run exactly through the whole of the parable, on either of these two principles. Of course, men's departure from God, as here described, may properly be considered in respect both of their first fall in their covenant head, and of their own subsequent wandering disposition and conduct.

The prodigal was dissatisfied with the quiet life he had to lead at home; and so are sinners with the steady and holy demeanour which characterizes all God's dutiful children. The prodigal sighed for independence on his father; and so man sighs for independence on his God. Our first

parents were allured to transgression by the desire of being as gods:" and every sinner still affects to think and act for himself, and to take his own way. Let us beware of this spirit: let us value the peace and good order of true piety; and let us believe that we never can be truly free or happy, but when we are living in a feeling of dependence on the Lord of all. The prodigal sought what he called his portion of goods immediately, that he might enjoy it by himself, and in a separate establishment, so to speak, from his father's; so, men are naturally inclined to seek a portion in hand, rather than a portion in reversion-a portion in this life, that they may make themselves happy with it, as their own, and not their Creator's. And, though God is not the poorer for all that he bestows, he does confer many favours on men; he gives them "life and breath, and all things," to be improved for his own glory; which gifts, however, they too often spend without him. Let us beware of this: let us seek our portion in God himself; and let us desire to enjoy it with him. Happy every one of us who can, in truth, say, "The Lord is the portion of mine inheritance, and of my cup: thou maintainest my lot. The lines are fallen unto me in pleasant places; yea, I have a goodly heritage." "God is the strength of my heart, and my portion for ever."

As the prodigal left his father, so also do sinners forsake God. They break away from his favour, and from his service; they depart from him in affection and conduct. "They say unto God, Depart from us; for we desire not the knowledge of thy ways. What is the Almighty, that we should serve him? and what profit should we have if we pray unto him?" They not only leave the Lord, in this sense, but wander very far away from him. They deem it happiness to be at the greatest distance from the source and centre of all true happiness; and can there be a more gross, or more fatal delusion? What is heaven, but his immediate and endless presence? What is hell, but everlasting distance and banishment from his face? "Lo, they that are far from thee shall perish: thou hast destroyed all them that go a whoring from thee. But it is good for me to draw near to God." As the prodigal "wasted his substance with riotous living," so do many sinners, in their state of distance from God, give loose reins to extravagance, immorality, and profligacy. "Come ye, say they, I will fetch wine, and we will fill ourselves with strong drink; and to-morrow shall be as this day, and much more abundant." Their maxim

is, "Let us eat and drink, for to-morrow we die." Or, if they are not so openly profligate, they still waste their substance, they abuse the gifts bestowed on them-they waste and abuse, by misapplying their reason, their education, their time, their property, their talents, their opportunities. Let us beware of this, both in its most offensive, and in its least scandalous forms. "Let us walk honestly" (becomingly), "as in the day; not in rioting and drunkenness, not in chambering and wantonness, not in strife and envying: but let us put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and not make provision for the flesh to fulfil the lusts thereof."

As the prodigal was beset with want and famine, so, impenitent transgressors are in spiritual destitution, and are overtaken by various troubles, especially if they are ever to be reclaimed. They are in absolute poverty-they are in want of necessaries for the soul-they are 66 wretched, and poor, and miserable, and blind, and naked"—they have neither the bread of life, nor the white raiment. Let us think of this, and deprecate, more than "dungeon beggary," this miserable state of spiritual indigence. For men thus voluntarily to reduce themselves to the worst kind of poverty and misery, under pretence of seeking pleasure, is most unreasonable, as well as most sinful. This is indeed "to forsake the fountain of living waters, and to hew out to themselves cisterns, broken cisterns, which can hold no water."

"O Lord, the hope of Israel, all that forsake thee shall be ashamed, and they that depart from thee shall be written in the earth, because they have forsaken the Lord, the fountain of living waters." When the means of sinful gratification are gone, they feel a want, a void, which is most distressing; nay, they are left a prey to positive misery. For all this, too, they have to accuse themselves—which is the most bitter ingredient in the cup of their suffering. "Hast thou not procured this unto thyself, in that thou hast forsaken the Lord thy God?"-" And now, what hast thou to do in the way of Egypt, to drink the waters of Sihor? or what hast thou to do in the way of Assyria, to drink the waters of the river? Thine own wickedness shall correct thee, and thy backslidings shall reprove thee; know, therefore, and see, that it is an evil thing and bitter, that thou hast forsaken the Lord thy God, and that my fear is not in thee, saith the Lord God of hosts."

But, as this prodigal would not return to his father for a long time, so sinners often harden their necks when they are

reproved, and instead of turning to the Lord in their trouble, plunge deeper into depravity and spiritual degradation. Ahaz, "in the time of his distress, did trespass yet more against the Lord."- "Thou hast stricken them," said Jeremiah to the Lord, concerning the impenitent Jews, "but they have not grieved; thou hast consumed them, but they have refused to receive correction; they have made their faces harder than a rock; they have refused to return." Sinners, stripped of their enjoyment, and even convinced of their folly, in some degree, still have recourse to a variety of carnal expedients for relief. They voluntarily hire themselves to sin and baseness. They give themselves up to a state of slavery, far more degrading than the work to which this prodigal was set in the fields. They feed on husks. "He feedeth on ashes, a deceived heart hath turned" the sinner "aside, that he cannot deliver his soul, nor say, Is there not a lie in my right hand?" He "feedeth on wind, and followeth after the east wind: he daily increaseth lies and desolation." In this way, sinners become worse and worse, and "give themselves over to work all manner of uncleanness with greediness." How should every rational being shudder at the idea of such depravity! In such base indulgences, or (if they are not so far gone in profligacy) in some more decent earthly pursuits, do unconverted men seek for satisfaction, but seek in vain. Husks may be food for swine, but they are not food for men. Worldly goods may feed the body, but cannot keep the soul from famishing; and, as for sin, it ruins both. God alone can "satisfy the longing soul, and fill the hungry soul with goodness." The prodigal found no man to help him in his penury; neither do sinners. The world seeks not to help them; Satan does not help them; nay, the world and Satan seek to plunge them deeper in misery, and to detain them in it for ever. Indeed, no creature can effectually help, or deliver their souls. Their afflictions, of themselves, cannot mend them; yet they are useful to them, in the hand of God, who often multiplies troubles upon them, and then, imparting the special influences of his Holy Spirit, accomplishes the work of their conversion, and, by his providence and grace united, constrains them to return to himself. "For his iniquity"—" was I wroth and smote him," saith the Lord; “I hid me, and was wroth, and he went on frowardly in the way of his heart. I have seen his ways, and will heal him.” But this leads us to consider,