recorded in the Gospel by Luke: (chap. xv.) In his tender love to the souls of men, it was his custom to converse with the most wicked and degraded, in order that he might soften their hard hearts into penitence, and rescue them from eternal death. The proud Pharisees were much displeased at this; and as if they thought that he was encouraging the ungodly in their wickedness, and was himself unholy, they said, "This man receiveth sinners, and eateth with them." Our Lord, however, showed them that his real object was like that of a shepherd who goes out into the wilderness to bring back a stray sheep; like that of a woman who sweeps her house carefully till she has found her lost piece of money, and like that of a loving father who gladly welcomes back to his house and to his heart a long-lost son.

We see clearly in the history of the prodigal, the folly and misery of every one who is an alien from God. As he said to his father, "Give me the portion of goods that falleth to me," so there is many a youth now who wishes to be free from all the restraints of conscience and of duty, and whose heart rebels against the Divine authority. God is his Father, because he has created him. "Have we not all one Father? hath not one God created us?" Mal. ii. 10. But alas! has He not reason to complain, "If then I be a father, where is mine honour? Mal. i. 6. And so it comes to pass, from the temptations of the devil, from the influence of bad company, and a desire to gratify "the desires of the flesh and of the mind," many young people throw off the control of earthly parents altogether.

Does this paper meet the eye of one who has been a prodigal son? You perhaps remember the time when the strictness of a religious home became intolerable. You wished to get away from a place where God and Christ, and religion and eternity, were often spoken of, and where a pious father like Abraham commanded his children and his household after him to walk in the ways of the Lord, Gen. xviii. 19. And so you resolved to bear this restraint no longer. You would spend your Sundays as you liked; you would keep what company you pleased; you would frequent the places of amusement where other gay young people went, and you would have your fill of pleasure. There should be no more moping and melancholy, no more reading of the Bible or going to worship. You would be a slave no longer, you were old enough and wise enough to take care of yourself. You would be your own master. Then you left home, you went, so to speak, into a far country where you were free from all parental and religious restraint. You soon learned, perhaps, to curse and swear; you frequented the haunts of gamblers and drunkards, and "wasted your substance," your time and money and health,

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THE PRODIGAL SON.

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to a citizen of the "far country," and who was sent into the field to feed swine, you plunged deeper and deeper into sin, and you became the bond-slave of the devil, giving yourself over to work all uncleanness with greediness." Perhaps that is your present condition. Oh! how fallen and debased! What a degrading slavery! What a cruel master is he whom you have hitherto been serving! What misery, too, is yours! The prodigal having spent all, "there arose a mighty famine in that land, and he began to be in want. And he would fain have filled his belly with the husks that the swine did eat; and no man gave unto him." Ab! is it thus with you? In ruined health, with a shattered onstitution, without money, without employment, without friends, your character blasted, oh, how miserable your condition! How true do you now find the Divine declaration, "The way of transgressors is hard;" and they "mourn at the last," Prov. xiii. 15; v. 11. "There is no peace, saith my God, to the wicked," Isa. lvii. 21.

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How impressively do we learn from the history of the prodigal, the character of a real penitent, and the true way of returning to God even for the greatest transgressors! True conversion is returning of the soul to God; so the prodigal canie to himself." Every sinner is "beside himself." "The gol of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe noc, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them," 2 Cor. iv. 4. When a man is under the power of evil passions and sensual appetites, he does not see the difference between good and evil; or if he do so, it is only like the lunatic, when but for a few moments he seems to be rational, but speedily his madness comes on.

Reader! have you come to yourself? Are you convinced that the meanest of God's servants whom perhaps you once despised, are happy compared with you? Then be encouraged; you are like the prodigal, who, "when he came to himself, said, "How many hired servants of my father's have bread enough and to spare, and I perish with hunger!" Oh! be like him too, in resolving to arise and go to your Father. It will be a joyful day in your history, if while you read these lines you should return to God, confessing your sins and crying for mercy. blessed Jesus himself has put a suitable confession into your lips. Will you not make it your own and say, "Father, I have sinned against Heaven, and in thy sight, and am no more worthy to be called thy son?"

The

Perhaps some reader is saying "I acknowledge myself to have acted the part of a madman, as well as that of an ungrateful rebel. But my case is desperate. I have sinned with a high hand, against light and love and warnings. I have resisted

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as I am. Now this is the teaching and temptation of your taskmaster Satan. He would like to drive you to despair, in order that you might recklessly plunge again into riotous excess. He desires that you should be like Israel, when he said, "There is no hope: no; for I have loved strangers, and after them will I go," Jer. ii. 25. But does the gospel of Jesus Christ, does God's word, does the history of the prodigal son, say that there is no hope? Or does it teach you that you dare not go back to God, till you have done something to wipe out the stains of sins, and to make him willing to receive you? Did the prodigal despair? No! Did he wait till he had tried to make himself better? No! "He arose, and came to his father! Look at him as he comes. His wasted body is covered with filthy rags, his flesh is torn with thorns, his naked feet are wounded by the sharp stones, his eyes are hollow, his cheeks are wan, he is faint with hunger, he is filled with fear and trembling: will not his father now drive him away with angry frowns and harsh upbraidings from his presence? At all events, he will throw himself at his feet. He says, "If I perish, I perish." Why should you not do the same to your offended Father? Surely it is worth the trial. At all events it can make your case no worse, perhaps it will relieve you from all your miseries. Perhaps! Nay, certainly it will. For as surely and as lovingly (forgetting all his son's multiplied offences) as the prodigal's father, "when he was yet a great way off,―ran, and fell on his neck, and kissed him," so will a God of mercy welcome you. For thus saith the Lord: "Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts: and let him return unto the Lord, and he will have mercy upon him; and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon. For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord; "I, even I, am He that blotteth out thy transgressions, and will not remember thy sins;" Isa. lv. 7, 8; xliii. 25. Christ himself declares, "Him that cometh to me I will in NO WISE CAST OUT," John vi. 37. Doctor Doddridge, more than a hundred years ago, said that this one verse had been the means of salvation to thousands. Doubtless since his time, it has, by the teaching of the Holy Spirit, encouraged thousands more to take Jesus at his word, and to rejoice in his mercy. Let every one who has been hitherto ready to despair go to him NOW. "Behold, Now is the accepted time; behold, Now is the day of salvation!" "To-day if ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts," 2 Cor. vi. 2; Heb. iii. 7, 8. Come to God through Christ, penitent and believing, and then you shall be no longer Satan's slave, but God's Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God," 1 John iii. 1.

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THE FREE MAN IN BONDAGE. JOHN В was born a slave in one of the West India islands. In course of time he was emancipated, and became a free man. Such he was when he began to attend the ministry of God's word. The very first sermon which he heard was the means of awakening his mind to a sense of his spiritual state and danger. The minister in his discourse made use of these words, "He that lives in sin is the slave of the devil." This short sentence was like an arrow in John's heart. He said to himself, Ah, it is I! I live in sin, and am the slave of the devil! I thought I was free. I am free from man, but I am the slave of the devil. He stated to the minister whom he had heard preach, that this conviction had produced in him inexpressible pain of mind and restlessness of soul. He felt like a man who wanted something that he could not find. This feeling of want followed him, he said, continually. When he got up in the morning he thought of it, when he went out to his work he thought of it, when he sat down to his meals he thought of it, and when he lay down at night he thought of it. He begged the minister to tell him what he must do to be saved; assuring him that he was willing to do anything the word of God said he must do, and to forsake anything the word of God said he must forsake. The minister pointed him to the Saviour, teaching him the way of salvation by faith in Christ. He became a professing Christian, living in

the enjoyment of peace and hope through believing. Having himself "tasted the good word of God," he invited the minister to come and preach to his neighbours, that they might become partakers of the like precious faith; and his humble dwelling became a sanctuary of God, where many poor negroes heard the gospel of our salvation.

In considering this short narrative, it may be profitable to mark the beginning and the progress of the work of God's grace in the soul of this simple-minded negro. We perceive evidently at the outset that his eyes were opened, and he saw himself a sinner. He said, "It is I; I live in sin." This is usually the first discovery made, when the Holy Spirit opens our eyes to see our real state and condition before God. Thus David, after his fall, said, "I acknowledge my transgressions; and my sin is ever before me. Against thee, thee only, have I sinned, and done this evil in thy sight," Psa. li. 2, 3. The prodigal son said, "I will arise and go to my father, and say unto him, Father, I have sinned against heaven, and before thee," Luke xv. 18. The penitent publican in the temple describes himself in these words, "Me a sinner," Luke xviii. 13. Reader, do you see yourself a sinner in the sight of God? Do you feel that you are guilty before him? Are you conscious that your heart and life are polluted with iniquity and sins against that holy Being who is perfectly holy, and knows you altogether? If you do not see yourself a sinner it is because you are still spiritually blind. Pray to the Lord to open the eyes of your understanding, to see yourself in the light of Divine truth, and with the prospect of eternity before you.

John B- was conscious of his miserable and unhappy condition. "I am," he said, "the slave of the devil." In this are both degradation and misery: what can be so degrading to man as to be doing the work of the devil-to be his slave? Many think that sin is the means of happiness, but they are deceived. "The way of transgressors is hard," Prov. xiii. 15. "There is no peace, saith my God, to the wicked," Is. lvii. 21. Reader, what are you? Are you still the slave of the devil? The word of God says, "His servants ye are to whom ye obey," Rom. vi. 16. If you obey Satan by living in sin, you are his servants, his slaves. Oh! think of the awful condition in which you are placed by sin. Bodily slavery is a dreadful condition, but it is as nothing compared to spiritual bondage. To be tied and bound by the chain of our sins is misery indeed. That bondage does not end with this life; to those who, in impenitence and unbelief, die in their sins, it extends to all eternity -they are bound in everlasting chains. And this, reader,