ion to a man to live on husks, because these are not his true
food. We call it degradation when we see the members of an ancient
family, decayed by extravagance, working for their bread. It is not
degradation for a born labourer to work for an honest livelihood. It
is degradation for them, for they are not what they might have been.
And therefore, for a man to be degraded, it is not necessary that he
should have given himself up to low and mean practices. It is quite
enough that he is living for purposes lower than those for which God
intended him. He may be a man of unblemished reputation, and yet
debased in the truest meaning of the word. We were sent into this
world to love God and to love man; to do good--to fill up life with
deeds of generosity and usefulness. And he that refuses to work out
that high destiny is a degraded man. He may turn away revolted from
everything that is gross. His sensuous indulgences may be all marked
by refinement and taste. His house may be filled with elegance. His
library may be adorned with books. There may be the sounds in his
mansion which can regale the ear, the delicacies which can stimulate
the palate, and the forms of beauty which can please the eye. There
may be nothing in his whole life to offend the most chastened and
fastidious delicacy; and yet, if the history of all this be, powers
which were meant for eternity frittered upon time, the man is
degraded--if the spirit which was created to find its enjoyment in the
love of God has settled down satisfied with the love of the world,
then, just as surely as the sensualist of this parable, that man has
turned aside from a celestial feast to prey on garbage.

We pass on to the second period of the history of God's treatment of a
sinner. It is the period of his coming to himself, or what we call
repentance. The first fact of religious experience which this parable
suggests to us is that common truth--men desert the world when the
world deserts them. The renegade came to himself when there were no
more husks to eat. He would have remained away if he could have got
them, but it is written, "no man gave unto him." And this, brethren,
is the record of our shame. Invitation is not enough; we must be
driven to God. And the famine comes not by chance. God sends the
famine into the soul--the hunger, and thirst, and the
disappointment--to bring back his erring child again.

Now the world fastens upon that