AS we trace the downward course of this young man, we find that he receives the first check "when he had spent all." It was a sad history, but a very common one in this world of ours. He had accepted all that he could get; spent it in self-gratification; used it to place distance between himself and his father; and never turned one thought of love and gratitude towards that father, who had dealt so indulgently with him.
And oh, my unconverted reader, is it not thus that you have treated God? Do you not owe Him life, and breath, and all things? And to what purpose have you used them?
It was just at this point, "when he had spent all,” that "there arose a mighty famine in that land.”
“How unfortunate! What an unlucky fellow I am," perhaps he said," I could have borne this when I had plenty of money, but just to happen when I have spent my last penny!" But how truly can we, who know Him, say, “Lo, all these things work eth God oftentimes with man, to bring back his soul from the pit, to be enlightened with the light of the living." Prosperity has but been used to sever us further from Him. He will try adversity. "And he began to be in want." Have us He will, cost what it may to Him or to us. God has set His heart on rebel, wandering sinners.
Instead of turning to his father, the prodigal turned to the world for relief, the world over which he had spent his all. And so he is allowed to learn what the world is. “And he went and joined himself to a citizen of that country; and he sent him into his fields to feed swine." What an occupation for a well-born Jew! The most loathsome and degrading. How low he had sunk, for " he would fain have filled his belly with the husks that the swine did eat: and no man gave unto him." He discovers the hollowness of the world's friendship now.
A young Frenchman of property, who led a festive, spendthrift life, had cause to suspect his butler of stealing his wine. To keep a check upon its use, he marked each cork with the date when the bottle was drunk, and the initials of the friends who had partaken of it. At last the end came. He had “spent all," became bankrupt, and was sold up.
From the wreck of his once considerable estate, only a few worthless odds and ends, in some old boxes, remained to him. One day he bethought him to examine their contents. On opening one he found it full of the corks which he had marked.
He looked them over, and read the initials of friend after friend; and amongst them all there was not one who would do him a good turn, or say a good word for him now. And this is but a too faithful picture of the world, to which so many cling. My reader, are you "in want"—in soul-want? Turn then to the Lord now and find
“What an earnest and seal of unspeakable bliss,
Is conveyed in the Father's affectionate kiss!
The LOST one is found, and the servants must bring,
At the Father's command, the shoes and the ring,
And the very best robe, and the fatling and wine,
(What a change from the rags, and the husks, and the swine),
With music and dancing—'tis something so new,
Such a fullness of blessing—and nothing to do!”
W. G. B.