Would you know the condition of a sinner, whose conscience is awake, and lets him see his sin and his condition? Look upon David, when he had been guilty of adultery and murder: hear how he expresses his grief, (Psalm xxxviii.) "My sorrow is continually before me; for mine iniquities are gone over mine head; as an heavy burden, they are too heavy for me."-Look upon St. Peter, when he had denied his Lord, and thought upon it, you will find him weeping bitterly. See the Publican in the temple; he dares not so much as lift up his eyes, but smites upon his breast and cries, "God be merciful unto me a sinner." In one word, consider the penitent woman at the feet of Jesus washing his feet with her tears. What was all this for? Our Lord will tell you, "her sins were many;" Christ had forgiven her upon her repentance; and thus she expresses her love and thankfulness. She looked upon it as the greatest mercy in the world, to be restored to the favour of God, and she could not but shew it by her love and by her tears. And if we are not thus affected, when we consider how merciful God has been to us, it is because we are not truly sensible what it is to be out of his favour, what it is to be under his displeasure. In short, it is because our consciences were never well awake.

They that are whole (or think themselves so) care not for a physician, but they that are sick. "Come unto me," saith our Lord, "all ye that travail and are heavy laden, and

I will give you rest." When once

it is thus with men, they will hear these parables with delight, and receive the doctrines contained in them with cheerfulness.

They will understand, for instance, with the greatest satisfaction imaginable, that by the Shepherd, who went to seek his lost sheep, is meant Jesus Christ, who came into the world to seek and to save sinners: when they hear what pains he took to find it; how he took it upon his shoulders; how he rejoiced that he had found it, &c., they will then apply this parable to themselves; they will see plainly that God desires their conversion; that if he desires it, he will afford them all the means of being converted ; that their souls are dear in his sight, or else he would not have sent his own Son to seek and to save them; then they will see and acknowledge the tender love of this good Shepherd, who spared no pains to find his lost sheep; they will therefore love him, desire to please him, and not willingly do anything that may justly offend him.

And when they hear again the parable of the Woman that had lost a piece of silver, what concern she had upon her, what pains she took to find it, what pleasure she had when she had found it, they will easily see that all this is matter of the greatest comfort to sinners; that if the angels rejoice upon the conversion of a sinner, it is because God is pleased with it, and because they know that God will not reject any that return to him.

And they will be still more convinced of this, when they go on to

consider the circumstances of the Prodigal Son. He left his father's house without his leave; that which his father gave him to maintain him decently he spent upon harlots; he never thought upon his father, nor the sad affliction he gave him, till he could live nowhere else: these are all instances of a vile behaviour; and

yet, after all, the father receives him without upbraiding him, and treats him after such a manner as if he had never done amiss. And will God thus deal with sinners, that return to him after all their wanderings; who being sensible of their unhappy condition, desire his pardon and favour? Yes, thus God will deal with his unhappy creatures; unhappy because they have offended him, but happy in having such a father, so full of goodness, so ready to pardon. Will any sinner after this say, I would willingly return, if I could hope that God would receive and pardon me? A sinner may indeed say, I will not forsake my sins; I will not ask pardon; I will not return to my duty; but no man can say, if I should desire to return to God, he will not receive me.-WILSON.

HYMN.

Who can describe the joys that rise, Thro' all the courts of paradise,

To see a prodigal return,

To see an heir of glory born?

With joy the Father doth approve,

The fruit of his eternal love;

The Son looks down with joy, and sees

The purchase of his agonies.

The Spirit takes delight to view
The holy soul he form'd anew;
And saints and angels join to sing
The growing empire of their King.

WATTS.

§ CCVI.

CHAP. XV. 11–32.

The parable of the Prodigal Son.

11 ¶ And he said, A certain man had two sons:

12 And the younger of them said to his father, Father, give me the portion of goods that falleth to me. And he divided unto them his living.

13 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 riot

ous living.

14 And when he had spent all, there arose a mighty famine in that land; and he began to be in want.

15 And he went and joined himself to a citizen of that country; and he sent him into his fields to feed swine.

16 And he would fain have filled his belly with the husks that the swine did eat: and no man gave unto him.

17 And when he came to himself, he said, How many hired servants of my father's have bread enough and to spare, and I perish with hunger!

18 I will arise and go to my father, and will say unto him,

us to ourselves. What is man's light and wavering will, when withdrawn from the guidance and direction of the supreme and unchangeable will? In its healthy state it threw off its salutary dependence and chose perdition: how much more then does it require the aid of its Restorer, how that it is blind, diseased, and infirm?

Man cannot long continue under his own guidance, without being made sensible that he is led by blindness and delusion. The sinner's misery has its degrees of aggravation, and he commonly reaches its extremity step by step.

1. He loses sight of God and departs from him. 2. The love of God no longer prevailing in his heart, sensuality necessarily bears sway, and corrupts the whole. 3. He loses all spirituality of mind. 4.

Having abandoned God, and lost his grace and his love, he is given over to poverty, wretchedness, and want. It is just that he who has sought for happiness without God, should find when at a distance from him, nothing but affliction, indigence, distress. How disastrous is the poverty of the heart which has wasted its spiritual treasure-how wasting the famine of the heart no longer nourished by the heavenly bread! 5. The sinner becomes the bondman of the devil. The farther we depart from the sovereign good, the deeper the darkness of the mind; the heavier the yoke imposed by appetite upon the will. 6. The sinner feels the rigour of his slavery.

bondage so oppressive as that of sin: no servitude so degrading as the slavery of passion. 7. The sinner, deprived of all legitimate and innocent enjoyment, craves after the husks of carnal and covetous desire; his pleasures are those of swine, earthly and sensual, wallowing in mire and uncleanness.

The course of the parable now brings us to note the progress of conversion-He came unto himself. 1. The sinner is awakened to the misery and corruption of his heart; but how shall he awake, unless the light which he was the first to quit, be the first to draw nigh, and to seek him in the abyss of his darkness? We come to ourselves when God returns to our hearts; as we leave ourselves when we leave God. As it is the last and lowest wretchedness when God permits the sinner to sleep amid the guilty delights of sin, undisturbed by conscience, so is it the commencement of returning happiness, to feel the misery of sin, and to covet the felicity of God's servants.

The second step in conversion, is when the sinner is enabled to resolve on quitting sin and sinful circumstances-I will arise. Whatever be the motive, how much soever tainted by feelings of interest or inconvenience; however imperfect and little distinguished by real antipathy to sin itself, still it cannot be too promptly obeyed. Grace, inthe event, sanctifies all its own. purposes.

The third stage is when the sinner turns unto God-I will go unto

my Father-and hastens towards his heavenly parent, without a moment's delay, since misery can never be too speedily rejected, nor can there be greater folly than to risk, by lingering, misery everlasting.

The fourth advance in conversion is the sinner's confession of guilt. Father I have sinned against heaven and before thee. Love to God is the foundation of true repentance. The strongest motive for hating sin is to be found in its hostility to his graciousness, and, in the conviction that it offends him who is the best of fathers.

The sinner humbles himself in conscious unworthiness of the grace and mercy of God.-I am unworthy to be called thy son. Love and the spirit of adoption give us the right to call God our Father. We lose that right when we put away that affection, and when that spirit retires. The confession of unworthiness is an acknowledgment of humiliation deserved; and we welcome humiliation when we love God, because it is in the order of his justice.

6. The sinner cherishes a spirit of submissive humility-make me as one of thy hired servants. Without this temper and frame of mind there is no true contrition, and the mercy of God is renounced. The spirit of penitence delights in the lowest, hardest, and longest service.

and the seal of reconciliation. the signs of God's goodness will never deaden the feelings of sincere repentance, nor take from the lowly spirit the temper of humility; yet in the very depths of his humiliation the strong affection of his heart emboldens him to cherish a filial confidence, and in his approaches to a throne of grace, to call upon a Fa ther's name.

The more deeply the sinner humbles himself in the conviction of his unworthiness, the more freely will God bestow his blessings and his gifts. He will welcome him as his son; crown the grace of reconciliation by adding every other grace; clothe him with the righteousness of Christ, and confirm this new covenant by the impression of his Spirit, which is the seal of adoption, the pledge of the heavenly inheritance, and the earnest of the everlasting promise. He will give grace and strength to run in the way of His commands, victorious over temptation and the tempter. How joyful is the soul that has thus recovered its privilege of abiding in its Father's house, of feasting on heavenly food. Sinners, draw nigh and learn how good and merciful is the Lord! Happy is the man who trusteth in Him.

Nor will the contrite heart forget, that he who was thus dead and is alive again, lost and is found must henceforward live in the spirit of this re

world which ruined him, nor to the sin which slew bim, nor to himself who embraced that ruin and that