nt of the world, and
then tried to settle down at once to quiet duty, knows how true that
is. To borrow a metaphor from Israel's desert life, it is a tasteless
thing to live on manna after you have been feasting upon quails. It is
a dull cold drudgery to find pleasure in simple occupation when life
has been a succession of strong emotions. Sonship it is not; it is
slavery. A son obeys in love, entering heartily into his father's
meaning. A servant obeys mechanically, rising early because he must;
doing it may be, his duty well, but feeling in all its force the
irksomeness of the service. Sonship does not come all at once. The
yoke of Christ is easy, the burden of Christ is light; but it is not
light to everybody. It is light when you love it, and no man who has
sinned much can love it all at once.

Therefore, if I speak to any one who is trying to be religious, and
heavy in heart because his duty is done too formally,--my Christian
brother, fear not. You are returning, like the prodigal, with the
feelings of a servant. Still it is a real return. The spirit of
adoption will come afterwards. You will often have to do duties which
you cannot relish, and in which you see no meaning. So it was with
Naaman at the prophet's command. He bathed, not knowing why he was
bidden to bathe in Jordan. When you bend to prayer, often and often
you will have to kneel with wandering thoughts, and constraining lips
to repeat words into which your heart scarcely enters. You will have
to perform duties when the heart is cold, and without a spark of
enthusiasm to warm you. But my Christian brother, onwards still.
Struggle to the Cross, even though it be struggling as in chains. Just
as on a day of clouds, when you have watched the distant hills, dark
and gray with mist, suddenly a gleam of sunshine passing over reveals
to you, in that flat surface, valleys and dells and spots of sunny
happiness, which slept before unsuspected in the fog, so in the gloom
of penitential life there will be times when God's deep peace and love
will be felt shining into the soul with supernatural refreshment. Let
the penitent be content with the servant's lot at first. Liberty and
peace, and the bounding sensations of a Father's arms around you, come
afterwards.

The last circumstance in this division of our subject is the reception
which a sinner meets with on his return to God. "Bring forth the best
robe and put it on him, a