parable," and came to his Father. But "while he was yet a great way off, his father saw him, and had compassion, "and ran, and fell upon his neck, and "kissed him. And the son said unto 66 him, Father, I have sinned against Hea"ven and before thee, and am no more 66 66 worthy to be called thy son; make me as one of thy hired servants. But the "father said unto his servants, Bring the "best robe, and put it on him, and put "a ring on his hand, and shoes on his "feet. It is meet that we should rejoice; for this my son was dead, and is "alive again, he was lost, and is found." 66 May these words, which no human imagination could have conceived, and which no human tongue could frame, be verified to you, my brethren, and to every penitent heart that now beats amid this wide and dangerous world! May the Spirit of that tender and compassion ate Saviour who pronounced them, descend upon all your souls, and visit you with all his consolations, and strengthen you with all his grace! And in these hours. of religious preparation, may the circumstances of this invaluable parable teach you what is the Mercy of GOD, and what are the Duties of MAN! SERMON XX. ON THE PARABLE OF THE PRODIGAL SON. LUKE, XV. 11. "And he said, A certain man had two OUR UR meetings at this season, my brethren, are the most solemn and the most affecting which our religion prescribes, We come from all the secret chambers of pious meditation, where we have been communing in sadness with our hearts; where memory and conscience have visit ed us with tidings of sorrow and of shame; and when, in looking back upon the days which are past, the best of us must feel how imperfectly they have corresponded with the hopes and the views with which they began. And we now enter this house with no sentiments but those of humiliation,-to confess before God the errors of our ways,-to implore his forgiveness for all that is past,-to express our wishes and our purposes of amendment,—and to pray for that assistance from Heaven which cannot be given us by men. It is in these moments, humble and contrite as they are, and gloomy as they appear to a superficial world, that Heaven most peculiarly descends to meet us.—It is at this sacred season that the Son of God comes as it were again, with all the promises of his Gospel upon his lips, to tell us to be" of good cheer, for that he "can make us whole;"-to point to that sacrifice which has made a " final atone"ment for the sins of all them that are penitent;" and to display to our grateful view the mighty Father, whose paternal eye has never left us amid all our wanderings, and who now comes forward, as it were, with extended arms, to animate us to pursue our journey to our real home. Amid the melancholy and the contrition of the past season, it is a moment that meets us like the dream of the Patriarch in the Wilderness, when, amid the darkness of the night," he saw a ladder as it were let 66 down from Heaven, and angels of mer cy descending upon it," to cheer him amid all his doubts and his fears; and to open to him the lofty scene where faith and obedience were finally to close. May this be the effect of these sacred moments upon all our souls! and may we so gather around the altar where the human na |