man prodigal may again be led by a diviner hand back to his happiness and to his home.

"son.

"And when he came to himself, he said, I will "arise and go unto my father, and say unto him, "Father, I have sinned against heaven, and before "thee, and am no more worthy to be called thy These words reveal the secret workings of every human heart. Whatever may have been the nature or the degree of our transgressions, it is in these words that the "Spirit from above," the "holy Spirit that worketh unto salvation," speaks unto us all. It says, "ARISE,"-arise at once from sin and from wretchedness;-from a condition foreign to your nature, and destructive of your hopes; -from your slavery in "a far country," where there is only famine from Heaven, and cruelty from men. Return to the home in which you were born,-to that household where even the "hired servants of "your father have bread enough and to spare;" and where, under his protecting arms, you may still return to peace, to usefulness, and to happi

ness.

-What are the purposes of these moral punishments in the administration of the Almighty, and what are the promises which the Gospel gives to genuine penitence, we shall afterwards have an opportunity of considering. In the meantime, my brethren, let us pause, with seriousness, upon the history which we have now reviewed. It is the history (in some degree or other,) of every human Wherever guilt begins, it begins like the

soul.

young man in the parable, with the abuse of the goods which the wisdom of the great Father of the universe hath divided unto us; and whatever may be its course, it uniformly ends like his, in the consciousness of moral want, and in the feeling of religious wretchedness.

Let the young pause upon it; and while life is that "far country" into which they are so willing to travel, let them consider well the example which is here presented in mercy to their inexperienced eye. -Let them learn what it is to conceive all the goods which Providence bestows upon them to be their own; and where it is to which the vain, and the arrogant, and the selfish mind must come, when it forgets alike the paternal hand which gave, and the beneficent purposes for which they were given.

Let the gay, and the busy, and the active, pause in the midst of their career; and, in these hours at least, ask themselves whether their course resembles that which we have seen. If it does, if they too are wasting for their own base or selfish ends, the goods which were committed to their care, let them not hope that the laws of the Eternal will change for them.-Let them believe that there is one process alone which can purify the waters which are hastening to eternity;-and let them consider that it is only while the mind retains its strength, and the soul its vigour, that the prodigal child of nature can arise from the dust into which he has fallen, and retrace the journey which has separated him from his Father.

-Upon this, and upon every congregation who are met in these solemn hours in the name of Jesus Christ, may the spirit of genuine repentance descend" with healing upon its wings !"-May seasons as they pass, tell us that they are passing;-and may we all so employ them, that they may become to us, "the appointed time," that they may prove to us "the day of salvation!"

SERMON XIX.

ON THE PARABLE OF THE PRODIGAL SON:

LUKE XV. 11:

"And he said, A certain man had two sons.'

WHEN we were last assembled, my brethren, I submitted to you some observations upon the memorable parable of the Prodigal Son, which contains to every feeling bosom, lessons at once of humility, of hope, and of animation. In soliciting your attention to the history of the younger son of the parable, it was my object to shew you, that it was the universal history of man;-that all have left, in some way or other, the house of their father;-that the passions and imagination of youth too naturally wish to stray into "a far country;"-and that all of us, in the course of life, have felt, in some degree, that moral selfishness which leads us to consider "the goods "which fall unto us" as our own, and to forget, in the pursuit of our own inventions, alike the designs of our Father, and the interests of our brethren.

What the results of this weakness or selfishness of our nature are, you have seen in the exquisite painting of the parable;-you have seen its first consequence to be in the wasting of the very goods which had occasioned it ;-its last consequence you have

seen to be in the contempt and disapprobation of mankind-in the internal consciousness of shame and of unworthiness; and in the indelible belief, that punishment must some time or other arrive. Such were the results of the sins of this youthful prodigal; and such are the results to which every sin must look ; the unalterable laws of the divine administration, which no human presumption can dare to hope will be suspended for them.

Sad, however, and awful as this termination of errour must appear, the parable we are considering is not completed. Its final consequence, its animating end is not yet produced; and it is to this end that I now wish to draw your attention;—to shew you, in imperfect words, (and in the illustration of this parable what human words must not be imperfect?) the magnificent purposes which moral punishment serves in the administration of the universe; and the grateful light which the mercy of of the Gospel throws upon the darkest scene of our imperfect nature.

We have seen the termination of the errours of the young man in the parable.-We have witnessed all the natural succession of evils which his sins have brought upon him; and we have heard him pronounce the words which form the crisis of his fate; "I will arise and go to my father, and say unto him, "Father, I have sinned against Heaven, and before thee, and am no more worthy to be called thy son. -We are now to return to a nobler scene, to the original scene from which the wanderings of

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