do in the world till the end of time. When many, and these the
most wretched, are brought in redeemed and sanctified, the Lord is not
satisfied; yet there is room, and the servants must go forth again to
new, and if possible, more needy objects, with new, and if possible,
more urgent appeals. "Whosoever will, let him come." It is thus that the
numbers are filled up in the kingdom of God; but let it be well observed
that to be in a spiritually wretched state does not confer a favour or
imply safety. These men were saved, not because they were spiritually
very low, but although they were spiritually very low: they were saved,
although the chief of sinners, because Christ invited them, and they
came at his call. The more moral, and more privileged, who were first
invited, would have been as welcome and as safe if they had come.

THE LOST SHEEP, THE LOST COIN, AND THE PRODIGAL SON.

LUKE xv.

The three parables of this chapter, like the seven in Matt. xiii.,
constitute a connected series. As soon as we begin to look into their
contents and relations, it becomes obvious that they have been arranged
according to a logical scheme, and that the group so framed is not
fragmentary but complete. We cannot indeed fully comprehend the
reciprocal relations of all until we shall have examined in detail the
actual contents of each; and yet, on the other hand, a preliminary
survey of the scheme as a whole may facilitate the subsequent
examination of its parts. A glance towards the group from a point
sufficiently distant to command the whole in one view may aid us
afterwards in making a minuter inspection of details; and, reciprocally,
the nearer inspection of individual features may throw back light on
what shall have been left obscure in the general outline.

The three parables, then, the lost sheep, the lost coin, and the
prodigal son, refer all to the same subject and describe the same fact;
they contemplate that fact, however, from opposite sides, and produce,
accordingly, different pictures. It is important to notice at this stage
that the three parables of this group do not constitute a consecutive
series of three members. In the logical scheme the stem parts into two
branches, and the first of these is afterwards subdivided also into two:
the lost sheep and the lost coin contemplate the subject from the same
side, and in the main present the same representation.[72]

[72] While the evidence that the main division is