btain
A servant's humble place."

No; after the meeting the youth did indeed say that he was not
worthy to be called a son, but he did not say he had abandoned the
hope or the desire of being reinstated. Yet, notwithstanding this
and other errors that have crept into the collection, and the
superior character of many that are excluded from it, no vigorous
effort has been made to obtain a revision in order to exclude the
faulty and introduce better in their stead. Conservative inertia--an
instinct to keep unchanged what has descended to us from our
fathers--is a great and curious power in human nature, operating
both on Church and State. Although not creditable to the wisdom and
courage of men, it is doubtless overruled for good by the providence
of God.

The father's command regarding the son's reception represents the
complete reconciliation of the Gospel--the total oblivion of the
prodigal's past sins, and his admission into the favour and the family
of God, as a dear child. Even the details at this point have been framed
after the pattern of spiritual privileges as they are elsewhere
represented in the Scriptures; and they admit, consequently, of being
minutely examined and applied. The best Robe points to the Redeemer's
righteousness which the believer puts on, and wherein he is justified;
the Ring is the signet of a king, the seal of the Spirit in the
regeneration; the Shoes suggest that the sinner, forgiven and renewed,
shall walk with God in newness of life; the Feast indicates the joy of a
forgiving God over a forgiven man, and the joy of a forgiven man in a
forgiving God.

These two lessons Christ has tenderly and plainly taught in this
parable,--first, that God receives and forgives a sinner who comes back
repenting; and second, that he delights in the act of so forgiving
repentant sinners: on these points no ambiguity is left, and no room for
controversy. These features of our Father's character, if they were
fully perceived and frankly accepted, would soon change the face of the
world. Guilt makes the guilty suspicious and distrustful. For the chief
ailment of humanity the parable supplies a specific antidote: let the
aspect of God's character, which is here displayed, take possession of a
sinful heart, and it is forthwith won.

A young person is in want of employment; and a great man lives in the
neighbourhood who could give him both work and wages. To this man the
yout