against all the kind advice which has been given them.

Q. Does the parable furnish an instance of this description?

Q. What did the young man do, when he arrived in the far country?

A. He soon commenced the career in which he had promised himself great happiness.

Q. How do you learn this?

A. The parable says that he "there wasted his substance with riotous living."

Q. How do you understand this language?

A. That he commenced a life of idleness and dissipation-mingling with vicious and licentious companions and giving unbridled rein to every wicked passion-until he speedily squandered all the wealth which his good father had toiled to obtain, and had bestowed upon him.

Q. Was not this exhibiting great ingratitude to his parent, as well as deep corruption of moral principle?

Q. Did this course of life lead him to prosperity and happiness?

A. It did not; but, on the contrary, it led him to speedy wretchedness.

Q. How is this described in the parable?

A. "And when he had spent all, there arose a mighty famine in that land; and he began to be in want. And he went and joined himself to a citizen of that country; and he sent him into his fields to feed swine."

Q. How was this business of tending swine estimated in that age?

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A. It was viewed as the most vile and low employment in which a man could engage. Herodotus says that in Egypt, those who tended swine were not permitted to mingle with civil society, nor to appear in the worship of the gods, nor would the very dregs

of the people have any matrimonial connection with them."

Q. Why was this occupation peculiarly offensive to a Jew?

A. Because the Jews were expressly forbidden by the law of Moses, to eat of swine's flesh, or even to touch it.

Q. To what extremity was the prodigal son reduced?

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

Q. What does this show?

A. It shows that the foolish young man had brought himself into the deepest degradation, and the most abject suffering, by his sinful practices.

Q. If this prodigal had heeded the advice of his parents, would he have reduced himself to this unhappy condition?

Q. What is the invariable effect of leading a life of dishonesty and dissipation?

A. The invariable effect is, to plunge those who lead such a life, into the most miserable circum

stances.

Q. What proof is there of the truth of this declaration?

A. The plain declarations of the word of God, and the experience of all men, in all past ages, unite to prove the correctness of this position.

Q. Can we find true happiness in wrong doing? A. We cannot. The laws of our nature are such that this is utterly impossible; and whoever makes the effort to become happy in this manner, is in total ignorance of the sources from whence human happiness flows, and will find that he has selected the wrong path.

Q. Is it a law of God that all sin shall be punished?

Q. Can we avoid the punishment denounced against sin?

A. We cannot. mitted, we must

When crime has once been comsuffer the punishment which it deserves and no skill, nor wisdom, can save us from it.

Q. What do the Scriptures declare on this subject?

A. "Though hand join in hand, the wicked shall not be unpunished."-(Prov. xi. 21.)

Q. In representing the prodigal as reducing himself to misery by his wickedness, does the Saviour assert and illustrate the truth of this declaration of God's word?

Q. Is it exceedingly important that these truths should be deeply impressed upon the minds of the young?

Q. What influence would it have upon them?

A. It would have the strongest tendency to deter them from sinful habits.

Q. Is a knowledge of the certainty of punishment more efficacious in restraining the evil disposed, than of its severity?

A. It is.

Q. Would an understanding that a milder punishment will be certainly inflicted on the transgressor, have a greater influence in deterring him from crime, than the threatening of a more awful infliction, with an opportunity afforded to escape it entirely?

A. It would.

Q. What was the fundamental principle of a cele

brated writer?

A. "The benevolent and philosophical Beccaria, whose writings first gave an impulse to reform in the criminal codes of continental Europe, states, as his fundamental principle, that certainty of punishment, however mild, is a better preventive, than severity."

Q. What effect did the sufferings of the prodiga have upon his mind?

A. They brought him to reflect upon his course, and impressed him with a sense of his folly in choosing the way of wickedness, instead of virtue. His miseries also made him think of his kind father, and of all the comforts he might have enjoyed, had he tarried at home.

Q. How is this expressed in the parable?

A. "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!" Q. What is one of the chief objects of all punishment?

A. One of its chief objects is, or should be, to reform the guilty.

Q. Has punishment, when properly inflicted, an influence to induce sorrow for sin and repentance of heart?

Q. Does St. Paul assert and establish this principle?

A. He does. "Now no chastening [punishment] for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous; nevertheless afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby." (Heb. xii. 11.)

Q. What does the same Apostle say of God's design in chastening or punishing us? A. He says that God chastens us "for our profit, that we might be partakers of his holiness."(Heb. xii. 10.)

Q. What are the words of David, on this subject?

A. "Before I was afflicted I went astray; but now have I kept thy word."-(Ps. cxix. 67.)

Q. What do we learn from this language?

A. We learn that the afflictions or punishments | which God sent upon David, had an influence to

make him keep the words or commandments of the Creator.

Q. Was not this the influence which punishment effected on the prodigal?

LESSON XXI.

Parable of the Prodigal Son-Continued.

Q. What resolution did the prodigal form? A. "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." Q. Was this a wise resolution?

Q. Had punishment now effected its designed and legitimate work upon the prodigal ?

Q. Will punishment produce the same effect on all the sinful?

A. It will, when administered wisely and faithfully.

Q. Did the prodigal put his good resolution into effect?

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A. He did: 'And he arose and came to his father."

Q. How did his father receive him?

A. "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."

Q. What do you say of this reception?

A. It was most kind and merciful, and every way worthy a wise and affectionate father.

Q. Must it not have made a strong impression on the heart of the son?

A. It must have greatly affected him, and made