His mind, an injurd father's image brought And, once dear home, a sadly pleasing thought! Hell thither straight if him his limbs will bear And perish if he must resolve to perish there.

THE PRODIGAL SON IN MISERY.

He fills the servile task, and waits the swine,
While they on envied husks and acorns dine,
When, lo! of heavenly light a cheerful ray
To his dark breast restor'd forgotten day.

"He would fain have filled his belly with the husks that the swine did eat. And when he came to himself, he said, How many hired servants of my father's have bread enough 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 thee, and am no more worthy to be called thy son: make me as one of thy hired servants." (Luke xv. 16, 17, 18, 19.)

When the prodigal had, by extravagant and riotous living, spent all his portion, and thereby had reduced himself to the greatest misery and want, he was brought to

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the most degrading servitude. He was sent into the fields to feed swine, and he was so much in want of food to assuage his craving appetite, that he even partook of the husks that the swine did eat. It was in a far country that this young man was thus reduced to this forlorn state, and, as it were, dead to his father and family.

A sinful state is a state of death. A sinner is dead in trespasses and sins, destitute of spiritual life; no living to God, therefore dead. A sinful state is a lost state; " This my son was lost." A sinful state is a state of madness and frenzy. This is intimated in that expression (ver. 17,) "When he came to himself." Surely he was beside himself when he left his father's house. The prodigal's wretched state only faintly shadows forth the awful ruin of man by sin. But afflictions, when

sanctified by Divine grace, prove the happy means of turning sinners from the error of their ways. By them the heart is disposed to receive instruction; and they are sensible proofs of the vanity of the world and the evil of sin.

Having viewed the prodigal in his abject state of misery, we next shall consider his recovery from it. This begins by his coming to himself. He had been blind, both to his interest and his obligations; but by his afflictions he was brought to reflect on his own conduct. His first thought was of the plenty in which his father's servants lived, and which he might have enjoyed still, and more abundantly, but for his own sin and folly. Accordingly the prodigal resolved to "arise and go to his father." He resolves to confess his fault and folly -"I have sinned." Forasmuch as we

have all sinned, it behoves us to own that we have sinned, referring ourselves to the covenant of grace, which offers forgiveness to those that confess their sins. He would not extenuate the matter; "I have sinned against Heaven, and before thee." Let those who are undutiful to their earthly parents, think of this; they sin against Heaven, and before God. The malignity of sin is against Heaven. It is committed in contempt of God's all-seeing eye upon us. To regard God always as a Father, and our Father, will be of great use in our repentance and return to him.

The prodigal's return, see page 293.