it has been discovered and restored. The Saviour's
delight over a publican's return to piety should be more vivid than his
joy over a Pharisee, who, by the supposition, has been pious all his
days.

Had the Lord then and there intimated to the Pharisees that they were
deceiving themselves in regard to justifying righteousness,--that they
needed repentance as much as the publicans, his word would have been
true, but that truth, he perceived, was not suitable in the
circumstances. It pleased him at this time not to fling a sharp reproof
in their faces, but rather to drop a living seed gently into their ears,
that it might find its way in secret to some broken place in their
hearts. A certain portion of the truth he communicated to them; more
they would not have received. The whole truth on this subject, if it had
been bluntly declared, would have driven them away in disgust.

Elsewhere the Master expresses his mind very clearly, "Except your
righteousness exceed the righteousness of the Scribes and Pharisees, ye
shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven;" but it pleased him
on this occasion to teach another lesson, namely, that even although
they were as righteous as they deemed themselves to be, the recovery of
a lost one would afford the Redeemer a greater joy than the retention of
the virtuous. Beyond expression precious is the doctrine unequivocally
taught here that so far from receiving prodigals with a grudge, the
Saviour experiences a peculiar delight when a sinner listens to his
voice and accepts pardon at his hand. This doctrine we learn is divine;
we know it is also human: almost every family can supply an example of
the familiar principle that the mother loves most fondly the child who
has cost her most in suffering and care.

XXIII.

THE LOST COIN.

"Either what woman having ten pieces of silver, if she lose one piece,
doth not light a candle, and sweep the house, and seek diligently
till she find it? And when she hath found it, she calleth her
friends and her neighbours together, saying, Rejoice with me; for I
have found the piece which I had lost. Likewise, I say unto you,
there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner
that repenteth."--LUKE xv. 8-10.

The three parables of this group, as has been already intimated, do not
constitute a simple consecutive series of first, second, and third: the
group consists of two parts, and the first part c