to dream of. Ah! he had
forgot his father's character in the far country. Unbelief had done
its work, and "cut off his hope." But however dark and dim his views
were, he nevertheless returned, was met afar off, and was at last
received in his father's arms. There he poured forth the confession
which relieved his choking heart, "I am no more worthy to be called
thy son!" True. But did he add, "Make me a hired servant?" No, he
could not, for he had already been received _as a son_.

Our Lord tells us how some hearers may receive the Word immediately
with joy, and yet give up when it is the occasion of their being
brought into outward perils or difficulties. Paul complained that
Demas had forsaken him, and John of many who, he says, "went out from
us." We must not think it strange, moreover, if the _visible_ Church
should ever and anon disclose to us how much evil as well as good
it contains. Our Lord never contemplated a Church on earth as
possible--owing to the sinful offences which must needs come--which
should be otherwise than a mixture of good and bad. There was one in
twelve of His own pure apostolic Church a traitor. Among the members
of the pentecostal Church, two were struck down dead for falsehood of
the blackest kind. Among the earliest professed converts in Samaria
was Simon Magus, in the bonds of iniquity. And so it will ever be. The
field will contain tares as well as wheat, and both must grow together
till the harvest; the net must gather into it bad fish as well as
good, until the great day of final separation comes at the end of the
world. But, nevertheless, the field may _now_ contain a glorious crop
of wheat, and the net, after a night of toil, be sometimes full of
good fish, so as to excite the wonder and praise of the "fishers of
men." Those converts who fall away have probably misunderstood the
true idea of the redemption which is in Christ Jesus. They looked for
safety from punishment apart from salvation from sin; upon Jesus as a
deliverer from guilt and hell only, and not also a deliverer from
sin, by giving that life which is heaven; they looked for that life
hereafter, and not now; or they imagined faith as an _act_ done once
for all--a coming to Christ once only for what was required, instead
of as _a state_ which receives at once pardon and acceptance through
the merits of Christ, and _abides_ in Christ for ever as the only
source of life.

We have dwelt upon this point longer than we had at