A Program Never Carried Out
(No. 2520)
INTENDED FOR READING ON LORD'S-DAY JUNE 6, 1897.
BY C. H. SPURGEON,
AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON, ON LORD'S-DAY EVENING,
OCTTOBER. 25, 1885.
"And he arose, and came to his father. But when he was yet a great way
off, his father saw him, and had compassion, and ran, and fell on his
neck, and kissed him. And the son said unto him, Father, Ihave sinned
against Heaven, and in your sight, and am no more worthy to be called
your son." Luke 15:20,21.
I THOUGHT I would hardly preach a set discourse from this familiar
text, but just give you some odds and ends of thought upon these words.
You know that there are many people who are in such a low state of
mind–and who have such a humble opinion of themselves that if I bring
them a loaf of bread, they will be afraid to eat it–so I have only
brought a few crumbs, this time, and my hope is that they will say with
the Syrophenician woman, "Truth, Lord: yet the little dogs eat of the
crumbs which fall from their masters' table." May any such persons who
are here feel able to pick up a stray thought which shall be spiritual
food to them, even manna sent from Heaven and, perhaps, when they have
eaten one morsel of it, they may then dare to eat more, and yet more,
until their souls are satisfied and they learn to rejoice in the God of
their salvation! I am going to take a roving commission and ramble
about somewhat more than usual–and I shall do so because I know there
are many here who are, themselves, rambling. Perhaps if I ramble, I may
come across them. If I keep along the city road, some of the hedge
birds that are out of the way may get missed, but if I go over hedge
and ditch and say something unusual here and something startling
there–it may be that they will wonder how I went just where they
happened to be as much as I marvel how they have managed to go where
they are!
My one thought at this time is not concerning my subject, but my
objective. I have not any particular subject, but my objective is that
some poor prodigal may return to God, that some lost child may come
back to the Father's heart, that, in fact, some sinner may repent of
sin and believe in Jesus and so enter into rest this very hour! I would
rather be the means of saving a soul from death than be the greatest
orator on earth! I would rather bring the poorest woman in the world to
the feet of Jesus than I would be made Archbishop of Canterbury! There
is no honor and no dignity under Heaven that can content us unless
souls are won for Christ! And if souls are won, we shall care little
how the great work was done instrumentally, for God will have the whole
of the glory of it.
I. From my text I am going, first, to make this observation, that THE
COMING SINNER'S FORECASTS DIFFER VERY MUCH FROM THE FACTS.
When a sinner comes back to God, he generally has a notion of how he is
coming back and what he is going to feel– and what he is going to say,
and what he is going to receive. He fashions in his mind a kind of
program of what he fancies is about to happen. But, so far as my
observation has gone, his programs are generally good for nothing and
his forecasts of what will happen are usually quite mistaken! This
forlorn son said, "I will arise and go to my father, and I will ask him
to make me as one of his hired servants."
Notice, dear Friends, first, that the prodigal's program was not
carried out with regard to his own prayers. He did not say in
prayerwhat he had determined that he would say. He did begin to repeat
it, but he never finished it. You remember that he resolved to say,
"Father, I have sinned against Heaven, and before you, and am no more
worthy to be called your son: make me as one of your hired servants."
That was his intention, but the prayer he actually uttered did not
contain that last sentence, he did not cry, "Make me as one of your
hired servants!" I suppose that he was going to say it, but his father
kissed him and so stopped it. "No, my boy," the father seemed to say,
"you shall not even askto be made a hired servant. I know that humble
petition is simmering in your heart, but it shall never come out of
your lips, I will not permit you to say that."
Perhaps someone here is saying, "I know what I will say tonight when I
pray, I know how I will confess my sin, I know what I will ask of God."
No, dear Friend, you do not! When you come to the real praying, you
will find that something very different will occur to your mind. Much
of what now suggests itself to you will fly away and fresh thoughts
will come in. Therefore, do not be particular about making up a program
at all. If this son had gone back to his father without having a
preconceived prayer, it would have been just as well. And so, if you do
but go back, with a strong desire, to the great Father from whom you
have wandered–even though you cannot compose a prayer in words, never
mind about that! The composition would have been of little value to you
if you had been able to make it. Go with your broken heart and pour out
sighs and cries and tears before the Lord. Wordless though the prayers
may be, they shall not lack for force and energy to prevail with God.
But the prodigal's program also broke down, very sweetly and blessedly,
with regard to his father's action. He had, in his mind's eye, a vision
of what his father would do. Possibly he feared that his father would
spurn him altogether but, dismissing that fear, he may have thought,
"If my father is very kind, indeed, to me, he will at least severely
chide me and then put me into some low position in the household and
bid me seek to retrieve my lost character and work my way up till, at
last, I may be permitted to sit somewhere at the bottom of the table."
He had some such notion as that, but his program went all to pieces
because his father suddenly manifested his intense love to him. He was
a great way off, his tears were flowing and his heart was trembling,
yet, in a moment, before he knew where he was, his father's arms were
around his neck and the kiss of love was on his cheek!
So, when a sinner is coming to Christ, he tries to fancy what will
happen. He says, "I must be in distress of mind, I must be in deep
anguish, I must be pleading and crying to God for forgiveness and so,
perhaps, the Light of God will gradually come to me." Then it often
happens that, in a single moment, the soul finds perfect peace with
God. I should not wonder if, while I am speaking, the Spirit of God
should come rushing into some dry and thirsty soul and fill it up to
the brim with heavenly delight! Multitudes of persons find peace with
God all of a sudden. It is not so with all, for God has many ways of
working. "The wind blows where it will," but have you not sometimes
noticed that when everything has been very quiet and still, suddenly
you have heard the moaning of the wind and then, almost before you were
aware of it, the clouds were flying before the breeze, like winged
chariots? Have you never been on the Thames, in a yacht, when there has
come a sudden squall that seemed as if it would upset everything? Well
the Spirit of God can come upon a man just as swiftly as that! The poor
soul is dreaming of the way in which he thinks the blessing may come to
him, but when it is bestowed by God, it surprises, astonishes, astounds
him! Before he expects such gifts, sin is forgiven, Divine Grace is
received, joy fills the heart and the man is glad with exceedingly
great joy. May it be so with some of you who are now here! May your
program be broken in that respect by the sudden incoming of unexpected
Grace!
There is no doubt whatever that this prodigal son expected that he
would have to undergo a probation–that his father would put him in
quarantine for a time. He felt that he was not fit to be received back
just as he was, that his father could not let him sit at the table the
first day he came home, but that he would say to him, "Remember how
badly you have behaved, young man–you have acted so wildly that it
will be long before I can think of trusting you again." Instead of
speaking thus, the father said, "Bring forth the best robe and put it
on him, and put a ring on his hand, and shoes on his feet. And bring
here the fatted calf, and kill it, and let us eat and be merry." This
was done at once, the very first day the prodigal returned! "What?"
asks someone, "can I be introduced to the highest privileges of
Christian communion as soon as I come to Christ?" Yes, that is God's
way of welcoming sinners! Look at the dying thief. The very day he
repented, he went to Paradise! Though he had been a great sinner until
then, Jesus said to him, "Today shall you be with Me in Paradise." Only
think of a child of the devil in the morning being changed to a child
of God at night–and made to rejoice in Christ Jesus with the happiest
of the saints in Glory!
It was after a similar fashion in the case of this younger son. He was
to be in no inferior position, he was to be in all ways equal to his
elder brother and, in some respects, there was even a higher joy
concerning him. I wish it might happen to some of you as it happened to
me one Sunday morning, long ago. I went into the little House of Prayer
as burdened as ever this forlorn young man could be, but I came out as
full of joy as ever that household was when "they began to be merry."
Why should it not be so with you, also? I have seen my Master give His
most charming feasts to newcomers and make a festival for raw
recruits–yes, and set upon the tables all the delights of His dearest
love to be food for sinners who, but a day or two before, were feeding
the swine of their lusts and indulging in every kind of sin! Oh, the
splendor of Almighty Love, the Infinite Majesty of the Grace of God to
deal thus with the guilty! Your poor program is no guide at all! You
think that God will treat you as men deal with men, but, lo, He deals
with you after the manner of God! "Who is a God like unto You, that
pardons iniquity, and passes by the transgression of the remnant of His
heritage? He retains not His anger forever, because He delights in
mercy."
So, you see, this prodigal's program was erroneous, both as to his own
prayers and as to his father's action. In like manner God deals with
His returning prodigals exceeding abundantly above all they ask or even
think. This fact ought to induce many to come to Christ who are, at
present, afraid to come. You do not know, dear Friends, how gracious my
Lord is! You would never stand outside His door if you knew what
accommodation He has for the poorest beggar who does but knock. Did you
but know the readiness of Christ's heart to move towards the chief of
sinners, you would not linger away from Him. If you could only imagine
how near you are to a heavenly bliss, the likes of which you have never
tasted, you would cross the borderline at once! If other prodigals
could only know what music and what dancing of a celestial kind might
soon be all around them, they would not stay with the citizens of this
barren country feeding the swine of this world–they would hasten home
to the Father's house and the Father's love! Do not stay away, Brothers
and Sisters, because of that foolish program of yours which makes you
fancy that you must feel this and must feel that! God does not save us
according to our programs–He has a far better way of His own! He does
not act according to our prejudices or suppositions, but according to
His riches in Glory by Christ Jesus!
So much for the first observation, that the coming sinner's forecasts
differ very much from the facts.
II. My second remark is that THAT WHICH PREVAILS WITH GOD IS NOT THE
COMING SINNER'S
PRAYER TO GOD, BUT GOD'S SIGHT OF HIM.
Notice, when the prodigal resolved to return, he promised to himself
what he would say to his father. But his father fell on his neck and
kissed him before he could utter his petition–"When he was yet a great
way off, his father saw him, and had compassion, and ran, and fell on
his neck, and kissed him. And the son said unto him, Father, I have
sinned." The utterance of the prayer of the son followed the display of
love on the part of the father! The reason why the father acted with
such wondrous favor to his son was not because the prodigal had prayed,
for he had not done so. He had resolved to pray, but he had not
actually prayed. His prayer followed the deed of mercy done by his
father–and the cause of that mercy was that his father saw him! Do
notice that his father saw him and, therefore, had compassion on him.
His father saw him and, therefore, ran to him. His father saw him and,
therefore, fell on his neck. His father saw him and, therefore, kissed
him!
What did the father see? Long before the prodigal saw his father, his
father saw him and, first, he saw his misery. Suppose that it were your
boy, you who have children. Suppose that somewhere in this crowd,
perhaps near the door, you should see that son of yours who long ago
ran away from you? Possibly he has been far away at sea–that might not
be to his discredit, but, alas, he has also been living a very loose
and sinful life. You have enquired for him. You have advertised for
him, but you have not been able to find him. Suppose that you should,
tonight, stumble on him all in rags, lean, cadaverous, consumptive,
ready to die? I am sure that you would not begin enquiring what he had
done, or where he had been, or anything of the sort! It would be the
very sight of his awful misery, the lines of his sorrow and sickness
that would at once touch your heart! As you would look at him, you
would see his misery and you would also see his relationship to you.
You would ask, "Is that really my boy? Is that my son?" When you had
reckoned him up and, perhaps, his mother at your side had said, "Yes,
that is our John, I am sure it is," there would be no further
delay–your heart would have compassion and you would be ready to fall
upon his neck and kiss him in the Tabernacle just as he is!
I knew a good minister whose name happened to be a Jewish one. We will
say, "Benjamin." However, he was not a Jew, but one day there called
upon him a venerable Israelite who fell at once upon the minister's
neck and said, "O my son, my dear lost son!" The good man looked at him
and said, "I do not understand what you mean, Sir." The Jew replied,
"Years ago, I had a son who became a Christian and I disowned him. And
I have always lamented for him ever since. I have hunted the world for
him. I have advertised for him and now, at last, I thank the God of
Abraham that I have found him." The good minister had to say, "My dear
Sir, I am very sorry for you, but I am obliged to rob you of your
comfort. I am not a Jew, I am a Gentile. My father long since went to
be with God. You have made a mistake." So the poor old Jew went down
the stairs broken-hearted because he had not found his son. It does not
matter whether a man is a Jew or a Gentile–he loves his boy, does he
not? Why, because we are men, we cannot bear to see our offspring in
sickness and sorrow and poverty! And though they may have broken our
hearts by their sin, yet they have not broken our hearts off from love
to them.
It is just thus that God looks towards you, O penitent Sinner! It is
not because you pray. It is not because of anything in you, but it is
because He sees your sin and your misery–and sees in you, as a
returning penitent, a child of His heart, one whom He has loved with an
everlasting love, one for whom He gave His Son to die! And because He
sees this in you, therefore He falls upon your neck and manifests
Himself in Infinite Love to you. I have put this Truth of God, I hope,
very plainly. But to any poor soul who says, "I cannot pray," I would
answer, "Suppose you cannot? That is no reason why the Father should
not run and fall upon your neck and kiss you." "But, oh, I cannot put
words together! I have tried, but failed to do so." Do you not see that
this father kissed his son before the prodigal had said a word Do you
not perceive that very clearly in the narrative? The prayer, truly, had
been concocted in his own heart, but he had not uttered it! He
neveruttered all of it, but his father had kissed him and blessed him
before he had spoken a single word! So, it is not your prayers, it is
not your feelings, it is not anything in you that will save you–it is
the great heart of God who loves you that is your highest hope and the
real grounds why you should be saved! Would to God you could believe
this and find peace with Him through Jesus Christ His Son even now!
III. Now I want to make a third observation, which is that THE FASHION
OF PRAYER MATTERS LITTLE, AS LONG AS IT IS TRUE PRAYER.
This young man had intended to pray a contradictory prayer Notice what
his prayer was. It makes me smile as I read it. Listen–"I will arise
and go to my father and will say unto him, Father," and so on, "I am
not worthy to be called your son." Why, then, did he call him,
"Father"? So there is often a beautiful inconsistency about a true
penitent's prayer–he puts God in His right place by calling Him,
"Father," yet he does not dare, himself, to get into his right place to
be called a son. But, surely, if I may call God, "Father/'l may call
myself, "son," for the relationship necessarily exists on both sides if
it exists at all! Ah, poor Sinner, I daresay your first prayer is full
of blunders, but that does not matter as long as your heart is in it!
The Lord knows how to put our prayers together and take all the
contradictions out of them–He understands the meaning of our sighs and
our groans!–
"To Him there's music in a groan And beauty in a tear."
Notice, too, that the prodigal's prayer was a confession rather than a
prayer "Father, I have sinned against Heaven and in your sight, and am
no more worthy to be called your son." You see, he does not ask for
anything–he just acknowledges his guiltiness and his unworthiness. It
is only part of a prayer–a one-legged prayer, as it were–but, blessed
be God, He accepts limping prayers! The oddest, strangest, most
singular prayers that ever were prayed, so long as the heart of the man
is in them going towards the Father, shall not be refused!
I am going to read you some Scriptures to comfort those of you who are
afraid you cannot be saved because you cannot pray. Have you ever
noticed what is regarded as prayer according to the Word of God? David
says, in the 22nd Psalm, "Why are You so far from helping me, and from
the words of my roaring?" So that roaringis prayer when the heart is so
sad that it cannot use words–when it roars like a wild beast rather
than speaks like a human being! Some of you know what it means to get
into such a state of misery that you dare not speak and yet cannot be
silent–to be so distracted that you cannot think consecutively, you
cannot read your own thoughts and do not know how to shape them before
God– so that your utterance is more that of the roaring of a wounded
and dying animal than the praying of a sensible, intelligent man. Yet
even thatis prayer and God accepts it as prayer!
Cries also are prayers. In the same 22nd Psalm, at the second verse, we
read, "O my God, I cry in the daytime, but You hear not; and in the
night season, and am not silent." This is the cry of pain that comes
from a child, rather than the intelligent expression of the thoughts
within the soul. But have you never known, dear Friend, what it is to
be in such distress, even as a man, that you wish you could get alone
and weep? The tears, perhaps, have refused to come, and you have sat
down and said, "I am lost! I am lost. Ah, me! What will become of me, O
my God?" Such crying as that, when you can hardly get the words out, is
the best praying in the world. It is only, "Oh!" and, "Ah!" and, "Would
that!" and all manner of broken and strange expressions. Yet those are
prayers such as God hears and answers!
I will give you another text to show that prayer may sometimes take the
shape of a cry. In Psalm 69:3, we read, "I am weary of my crying: my
throat is dry." So crying isprayer, even hoarse crying, when, at last,
the throat becomes so dry that not a word can be uttered. But that is
not all, for breathingmay also be praying. In the Book of Lamentations,
in the third Chapter, at the 56th verse, we find this amazing petition,
"Hide not Your ears from my breathing." The man cannot speak, his soul
is too full. If he looks through Heaven and earth, he cannot find a
word that he can utter! But quick and hot are the breathings of his
life which seems as if it would ebb away. Yet that is true prayer. Some
of the best prayer that ever reaches the ears of the Lord God of
Sabaoth is just like that–the breathing of agony when the very life
seems to be expiring. As everything that has breath is to praise
Jehovah, so let everyone who has breath feel that he can pray, for even
breathing may be prayer!
Yes, and when you cannot breathe, what do you do, then? Why, when a man
grows short of breath, then he pants. That again is prayer. Hear how
David puts it in Psalm 42:1–"As the hart pants after the water brooks,
so pants my soul after You, O God!" You know how the stag that has been
hunted, longs to have its smoking flanks in the water brooks, and to
take a deep draught from the cooling stream, for it seems to be burning
within like an oven. There it stands and pants to find the water–its
whole soul seems to go up and down as it pants. Well, when you cannot
breathe, when you feel as if that strong breath that I mentioned just
now cannot be reached by you, you can pant! "I opened my mouth and
panted," said David. Well, that again is some of the best prayer that
God ever hears. Do not be afraid, therefore, that you cannot pray if
even panting isprayer
Yet further, in the 69th Psalm, at the third verse, David says, "My
eyes fail while I wait for my God." And in the fifth Psalm, third
verse, "In the morning will I direct my prayer unto You, and will look
up." So, you see, prayer may take another shape–looking up may be a
prayer I have read of an old saint who usually spent a whole hour in
the day alone. And being watched and noticed, it was seen that he never
said anything, but he stood quite still for an hour. So he was asked,
"What, then, is your devotion?" He answered, "I look at God, and God
looks at me." And I must confess that I sometimes find it a very high
form of devotion to sit quite still and look up. There is a reverent
silence of worship that will sometimes disable the spirit from any
other kind of communion. Prayer is–
"The upward glancing of an eye, When none but God is near."
Oh, you who cannot speak, but yet have your eyes–you can look up–and
even in the look there shall be a prayer that God will regard, for He
observes which way men's eyes go and, if their eyes are towards the
hills, from where comes their help, He will bless them!
Next, a moan may be a prayer Notice this text, Jeremiah 31:18–"I have
surely heard Ephraim bemoaning himself thus." Moaning is rather the
language of a cow than of a man, but, oh, that is a prayer that touches
God's heart! We cannot bear to hear a child moan. You mothers who have
nursed a sick child at night, I know that it has gone to your heart
when you have heard that which you cannot describe otherwise than as
moaning. And oh, poor troubled Sinner, if you cannot pray, but can only
get alone and moan, that is good praying! See how Hezekiah prayed when
he was sick–his praying was of this kind, according to Isaiah
38:14–"Like a crane or a swallow, so did I chatter: I did mourn like a
dove." You know how a dove coos and how pathetic is the mourning of a
dove bereaved of its mate. That is good praying and though to you it
seems like chattering and only making a poor, silly, bird-like noise,
it is true prayer when the heart is in it!
I am laboring with all my might to bring these things before you that
you may see how simple a matter prayer is, so long as the heart is
right with God. So notice, next, that prayer is a sigh. Psalm
80:11–"Let the sighing of the prisoner come before you." Further, it
is a groan. Psalm 102:19, 20–"From Heaven did the Lord behold the
earth; to hear the groaning of the prisoner." The very best prayer out
of Heaven is a groan! Remember Romans 8:26? "The Spirit itself makes
intercession for us with groans which cannot be uttered"–groans with
such unutterable pain about them that they are not to be fully
expressed in words! These are the very intercessions of the Holy Spirit
and, therefore, our groans are among the very best of prayers!
There is another form of prayer that David was accustomed to use and
that was spreading out his hands. Psalm 88:9–"I have stretched out my
hands unto You." And, in another place, Psalm 143:6–"I stretch forth
my hands unto You." Sometimes he stood in prayer in this way, as if his
heart was saying, "I need to get the blessing. I long to receive it.
I am reaching out to You, my God, for it." How often have I seen a sick
man pray like this when he could not do anything else, for words had
gone and the mouth was stopped and choked, and the brow was covered
with a clammy sweat! That is the sort of prayer that God will hear. O
Sirs, you may go through your liturgies as many times as you please
and, perhaps, there may not be any prayer in them, after all! You may
intone them and accompany them with all the music of your choirs and
your organs–and they may fall flat as death before the Throne of God!
But a true penitent who gets alone in his agony and does but groan, or
stretch out his hands, or glance his eyes to Heaven, shall never be
refused by the great Father above!
There is one other kind of prayer–there may be a great many more–but
this must suffice for the present. David says, in Psalm 6:8, "The Lord
has heard the voice of my weeping." There, again, is wondrous power, as
if the tears that fell from penitent and earnest eyes were treasured up
in the tear bottle of God. Every tear from His children's hearts will
go to the heart of the great Father and He will answer the requests of
our tears. There is a salt about the tear of a seeking soul that is
pleasant to God. If your tears burn their way down your cheeks, they
will burn their way into the heart of God–and you shall get the
blessing that you desire.
Now, after all this, I think that I may add that there is nobody here
who dares to say that if he wills to pray, he cannot pray. If there is
true prayer in his heart, the expression of it is so simple, so varied,
so easy, that everyone must be capable of it! And I do pray that many
here may feel that it is not so much howthey come, or with whatthey
come, as that if they do but come with the heart, God will receive
them! Dear Hearts, will you not come? I wonder whether I am right in
the reflection I sometimes make after I have been preaching? I
sometimes say to myself, "I think that if I had heard that sermon when
I was seeking the Savior, I would have found Him." I do not know how to
put Christ's love more plainly, or give the invitation more simply. I
wonder that souls do not come and yet I know that you will not come
unless my Master draws you! But, surely, He will draw you! He is
drawing you! Breathe a prayer to Him. He who refuses to pray deserves
to be lost. He who knows that God will hear a cry, a breath, a groan, a
moan, a panting and will not put up any of these–ah, well, what shall
I say of him? Are you choosing your own damnation? Do you really mean
to be ruined forever? Do not so, I pray you! God help you to come, now,
to the great Father and to find joy and peace in Him! "For God so loved
the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in
Him should not perish, but have everlasting life." "He that believes
and is baptized shall be saved." "To as many as received Him, to them
gave He power to become the sons of God." "Believe on the Lord Jesus
Christ and you shall be saved." "Turn you, turn you from your evil
ways; for why will you die, O house of Israel?" "As I live, says the
Lord God, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked; but that the
wicked turn from his way and live."
May He turn you, and bless you, and save you, for His great mercy's
sake! Amen.
EXPOSITION BY CHARLES H. SPURGEON: LUKE 15.
Verse 1. Then drew near unto Him all the publicans and sinners for to
hear Him. It was a motley group–"all the publicans and sinners"–the
riff-raff, the scum, as people sometimes call them. "All the publicans
and sinners" drew near unto Jesus "for to hear Him."
2. And the Pharisees and scribes murmured, saying, This Man receives
sinners, and eats with them. "See," they said, "what kind of a ministry
this must be that attracts all these low people? In what a condition
must be the mind of this Man who seems pleased to associate with such
people as these!"
3. And He spoke this parable unto them, saying.–Our Savior's aim was
to show them that the first objective of God is to find the lost, that
His first thoughts are toward the guilty and the fallen that He may
bless and save them. "He spoke this parable unto them saying."
4. What man of you, having an hundred sheep, if he loses one of them,
does not leave the ninety and nine in the wilderness and go after that
which is lost, until he finds it?s not the shepherd's first thought
concerning the one lost sheep? For the time, anxiety about that lost
one swallows up the consideration of the 99 that are in safe keeping!
And he goes "after that which is lost, until he finds it."
5, 6. And when he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders, rejoicing.
And when he comes home, he calls together his friends and neighbors,
saying unto them, Rejoice with me; for I have found my sheep which was
lost. He did not say, "Rejoice with me over the 99 that were never
lost," but, for the time, all his anxiety and, afterwards, all his joy,
centered upon the lost one.
7. Isay unto you, that likewise joy shall be in Heaven over one sinner
that repents, more than over ninety andnine just persons, which need no
repentance. The mercy of God shall seem, as it were, to swallow up
every other attribute, and His great heart shall rejoice to the fullest
over repenting sinners!
8. Either what woman having ten pieces of silver, if she loses one
piece, does not light a candle, and sweep the house, and seek
diligently till she finds it. The woman's candle and broom and eyes are
all for this one lost piece of silver! She does not look, just now, at
the other nine pieces. They are, at present, left in a safe place by
themselves, and she is thinking only of this lost piece.
9. And when she has found it, she calls her friends and her neighbors
together, saying, Rejoice with me; for I have found the piece which I
had lost. She does not rejoice one half so distinctly and markedly over
the nine pieces which were not lost, as she does over the one piece
that had been lost, but now is found.
10. Likewise, Isay unto you, there is joy in thepresence of the angels
of God over one sinner that repents. Our Savior, you see, is still
keeping on the same tack and showing that He was right in associating
with the publicans and sinners, since He aimed at finding and
reclaiming and saving them. He now goes on with a third most beautiful
and instructive parable.
11-15. And He said, A certain man had two sons and the younger of them
said to his father, Father, give me the portion of goods that falls to
me. And he divided unto them his living. And not many days after the
younger son gathered all together and took his journey into a far
country, and there wasted his substance with riotous living. And when
he had spent all, there arose a mighty famine in that land; and he
began to be in need. And he went andjoined himself to a citizen of that
country; and he sent him into his fields to feed swine. That was the
best the citizen of the far country could do for the prodigal! The
devil's best is always bad–what must his worst be? If he sets his
favorites the employment of feeding swine, what will he do with them
when the time of his favor is over and they are forever in his power?
16. Andhe would gladly have flledhis belly with the husks that the
swine did eat: andno man gave unto him. Here was the free and easy
gentleman who had spent his thousands without a thought, and now, "no
man gave unto him." I do not know that this prodigal spent his living
with harlots–the Scripture does not say that he did. It was his elder
brother who said that and he may have made out the case to be even
worse than it was. He was simply a waster of his substance in riotous
living–and that was bad enough. But I never find that the younger
brother tried to set himself right and repudiate the slanderous
accusation of the elder. It was not worthwhile for him to try to do so,
for he was right with his father and he would get right with his elder
brother, by-and-by. If you get right with God, my dear Friend, even if
some Christian people should not believe in you, never mind about that!
Even if they should think you worse than you have been, never mind! If
you are right with God, you will be right with them in due time.
17. And when he came to himself–For he had journeyed into a far
country and he had gone as far away from himself as he had gone from
his father! But, "when he came to himself."
17-22. He said, How many hired servants of my father's have bread
enough and to spare, and I perish with hunger! I will arise and go to
my father, and will say unto him, Father, I have sinned against Heaven,
and before you, and am no more worthy to be called your son: make me as
one of your hired servants. And he arose, and came to his father. But
when he was yet a great way off, his father saw him, and had
compassion, and ran, and fell on his neck, and kissed him. And the son
said unto him, Father, I have sinned against Heaven, andin your sight,
and am no more worthy to be called your son. But the father said to His
servants.–As much as to say–"Let me hear no more of this, my Son! I
cannot bear it. You break my heart with the story of your repentance."
"The father said to His servants."
22. Bring forth the best robe, andput it on him; andput a ring on his
hand, and shoes on his feet. "Dress him like a gentleman! Do not let it
be seen that he ever was in rags–'Bring forth the best robe, and put
it on him; and put a ring on his hand, and shoes on his feet.'"
23. And bring here the fatted calf, and kill it; and let us eat, and be
merry. ' 'Do all that you can to make this poor broken heart happy
again, to lift this poor fallen son into the sphere from which he has
been away so long. Make him feel at home 'and let us eat, and be
merry.'"
24. For this, my son, was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is
found. And they began to be merry. I have no information that they ever
left off being merry. The Church of God never ceases to praise and
bless the Lord for saved sinners. If you come to Christ, dear Friend,
you will set bells a-ringing that will never leave off throughout
eternity! "They began to be merry."
25. 26. Now his elder son was in the field: and as he came and drew
near to the house, he heard music and dancing. And he called one of the
servants and asked what these things meant Perhaps he was not very
musical and did not care much for joy and delight. He may have been a
hard-working, plodding man, but not a happy one.
27, 28. And he said unto him, Your brother is come; and your father has
killed the fatted calf because he has received him safe and sound. And
he was angry, and would not go in; therefore came his father out, and
entreated him. I scarcely know where the father's love is the more
seen–in falling on the neck of the younger son, or in going out to
entreat this elder son who was in a pet because the returned prodigal
had been welcomed so kindly.
29. Andhe answering said to his father, Lo, these many years do Iserve
you, neither transgressed I at any time your commandment: and yet you
never gave me a kid, that I might make merry with my friends. He seems
to say, "I have had no joy of religion. I have been a good, steady,
moral person, but my soul has had no high delights."
30. But as soon as this, your son, was come, which has devoured your
living with harlots, you have killed for him the fatted calf''Not even
a little lamb or kid of the goats for me, but a fatted calf for him!"
So some still say, "There has been a revival and some of the worst
people in the parish have been brought to Christ. But we, who have
always gone to church and always were moral and upright, have not had
half the joy of these new converts. No fuss has been made over us–all
the rejoicing is over the returning prodigals." Do you see your
portraits, any of you? If so, may you soon be set right by the only One
who can make you what you ought to be!
31. And he said unto him, Son, you are ever with me, and all that I
have is yours.' 'Everything I have is yours. If you have not had the
kid you spoke of, it was your own fault–you might have taken it if you
had pleased. The whole house is at your disposal. I never denied you
anything. All that I have is yours.'"
32. It was meet that we should make merry, and be glad. See, the
younger son did not speak for himself–there was no need for him to do
so. His father spoke for him. What a blessed Intercessor, what a
wondrous Advocate we have with our elder Brother! We may well leave
them alone, ourselves, for He will bring them right–"It was meet that
we should make merry and be glad."
32. For thisyour brother, was dead, andis alive again; and was lost,
andis found.