robe, and clothed him, and put shoes on his feet, and even acknowledged him again, by putting his ring on his hand; nor is he more anxious to remove his rags and clothe him anew, than to furnish him a refreshing supply for his hungry appetite. Instead of a strict scrutiny into crimes heartily repented of, the father's fondness vents itself by exclaiming, "my son was dead, and is alive, was lost, and is found." Instead of parental reprehensions, his heart, unable to sustain the tale of woe, melts upon the view of the ef fects of heaven's chastisements inflicted for the violation of filial duties.

When a guilty sinner comes to himself from his delirium of pride and sensuality, discovers he is likely to be overtaken by destruction, and finds that the husks of sensuality will not satiate his hungry soul; when he discerns himself a slave of sin, filthy and loathsome, is brought to remember that the weakest servant of God enjoys better provision than he, and resolves to arise, and go to his Father, and confess his sins, he may determine to say, Father, I have sinned against Heaven, even in thy sight; I am unworthy of the name of a son, give me the meanest place in thy service; but when he puts his resolution in practice, and essays to come, his sense of guilt and unworthiness makes him hover at a distance, how can he approach that God whom he has so often blasphemed ? but the merciful heavenly Father sees him afar off; he pities and comes to his relief;

he clothes him with the best robe, and seals him his own son; he brings him into his house, and the possession of the privileges of his children; he feeds him upon the best of food, and puts into his mouth a song of joy and gladnes; she gives "beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness."

All this household, except the eldest son, rejoiced with the father of the family, because his son who had been dead was alive, because he who had been lost was found; so every child of God rejoices, and even the angels in heaven, upon the return of a wandering prodigal to his father's family; a sheep which had strayed away, to the fold again.

The elder brother was angry, and would not go in unto the feast; and so the Pharisees, who were Israelites, and claimed to be children of God according to the prophecy, "Israel is my first born," were angry at Christ's receiving and eating with publicans and sinners. They would not partake of the gospel feast themselves, and censured the entertainment. They, like this eldest son, could boast of their good deeds for many years; and as he condemned the bad conduct of the returning prodigal brother, so these Pharisees thought and spoke in the most contemptuous manner of those whom Christ was admitting to the gospel privileges.

The eldest son complained that he had had no such marks of favour conferred on him; but the father replied, "thou hast been always with me, and all I have is thine;" so the Jews had no right to complain; they had been a favoured peo

ple; to them had been committed the oracles and the advantages of the true religion.

We have all received the blessings of a kind father, who has provided for us, and instructed us. We have all been impatient of restraint, desired to be independent, and wandered from him. We have all been feeding upon the husks of sensual pleasures, and been starving for want of spiritual food, which the meanest servant of our Father's house enjoys.

Can we say we have come to our right minds," discerned our condition, and resolved to return to our Father, and to confess, Father, we have sinned against thee, even in thy sight. We have been dead in sin and lost, have we been found by grace, and restored?

Happy for us if we have returned from our wanderings, been received by our Father as sons and daughters, clothed with the best robe of righteousness, had his signet put upon us, received a name and a place in his family, and been invested with the right of dwelling in his presence, where there is fulness of joy for ever

-more.

LECTURE IX.

MARK, CHAPTER X, VERSE 13 TO 16.

AND they brought young children to him, that he should touch them and his disciples rebuked those that brought them. But when Jesus saw it, he was much displeased, and said unto them, Suffer the little children to come unto me, and forbid them not: for of such is the kingdom of God. Verily I say unto you, Whosoever shall not receive the kingdom of God as a little child, he shall not enter therein. And he took them up in his -arms, put his hands upon them, and blessed them.

AMONG the numerous descriptive predictions of the Messiah given us by the evangelical prophet, this is one : "He shall gather the lambs with his arm, and carry them in his bosom." These words have not only an impor tant figurative sense, but are literally fulfilled by the Saviour, in the occurrence here related, if these little ones can be called the lambs of his flock. And why not? They were unquestionably Jewish children; his embassy was confined to that nation; "He came to his own." Israel

* Isaiah, xl, 11.

was his first born. He came not to destroy the law and the prophets, but to fulfil them. The Jewish dispensation was not yet removed, sacrifices were still lawful, circumcision was still in force. The Jews and their children were still members of the church of God. When an Israelite believed Jesus to be the promised Christ, it was not necessary, whilst the Saviour was yet living, that he should renounce his religion. All that Christ required of the Jews was not only consistent with their worship, but according to the Mosaic dispensation in its purest form. They were therefore the lambs of his flock, it must be presumed, by visible church membership.

There were under the Mosaic dispensation Jews outwardly and Jews inwardly, the natural descendants of Abraham, and the spiritual seed; the circumcision of the flesh, and the circumcised in heart; the latter were as truly the invisible church of God reconciled in Christ, in the time of the then Jewish as since in the time of the New Testament church: accordingly he could then say, "the kingdom of God is within you," and so in this passage, "of such is the kingdom of Heaven." If some have been subjects of spiritual and saving blessings from their birth, as John the baptist was; and if infants were capable of receiving such blessings, and that they were is plain from Christ's putting his hands on them, and both blessing them himself, and praying for his Father's blessing on them; then infants could at that time be not only mem bers of the Jewish visible church, but also of the

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