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‘A certain man had two sons.’
Luk_15:11
I. The younger son’s position.—In this wealthy and nominally Christian country there is a grievously large portion of the community which, whether viewed from a social or from a religious standpoint, is in the position of the Prodigal Son. Three characteristics in the parable graphically depict that position.
(a) He is in a far country. The gap which separates the upper and middle classes from the poor, the destitute, the outcast, is very wide and very deep. The rich are more and more living together in special parts of the towns, in favoured suburbs, in pleasant watering-places and country localities. The poor herd together in their ever-growing thousands, as near as possible to their places of work.
(b) He wastes his substance in riotous living. It has been stated that gambling among the rich is on the decrease. Certainly the enormous sums once staked on horses are rarely known now, while heavy gambling at lotteries and cards and other play has somewhat lessened. But among the poor it is not so. Here gambling has undoubtedly grown. Women and even boys indulge in it. But it is in strong drink that the most ruinous waste occurs.
(c) He suffers want, and companies with swine.—Never has there been a wealthier nation than ours. Yet multitudes of our people live in abject poverty. London is the richest city in the world; yet in London in 1888 more than one out of every five deaths was in a charitable institution, and it has been estimated that not less than one out of every four of our London population dies dependent on charity. Mr. C. Booth has made a careful calculation that 32.1 per cent, or nearly one-third of Londoners, are either paupers or fighting a hand-to-mouth battle for life.
Now let us see—
II. The elder brother’s attitude.—There are two things about him which specially strike us.
(a) His position of privilege. ‘Son, thou art ever with me,’ says the father, ‘and all that I have is thine.’ These words must be allowed their full meaning. They must not be watered down. How great is our position of privilege in comparison with that of many of our brothers! We have had opportunities of growth in every good way. Our environment, our training, the countless circumstances which mould body and mind so powerfully in youth, were all in our favour. Different, indeed, have been the opportunities of many of society’s prodigals. The younger son in the parable doubtless lost his privileges by his own fault. It was by his own reckless and headstrong will that he left his home and went into the far country. But these were both there.
(b) His lack of love. It does not seem fanciful to point out that we have no mention of the elder brother ever trying to prevent the younger from taking that ruinous journey. We do not read that he ever started to find him and tried to persuade him to return. He does not seem to have had any solicitude about his absence; for when, broken and contrite, he returned, the elder brother found fault with the father’s joyful celebration of the event. He will not even call him ‘my brother,’ but styles him ‘this thy son.’ He makes a statement about his having companied with harlots, for which, so far as we know, he had no proof. And he refused, though we trust he did not persist in his refusal, to come in to the festal board and greet his brother.
Do you say this is a picture of lamentable selfishness—a selfishness absolutely unnatural and reprehensible in its callous indifference? But does not this same sin lie with accusing weight at the door of the Christian Church? Yea, more, does it not strike home to the consciences of Christians here, renewed men, with a mighty power of convincing truth, ‘Thou art the man’?
Rev. C. H. R. Harper.
Illustration‘What Louis Kossuth, the Hungarian patriot, said, is true, “If the doctrines of Christianity that are found in the New Testament could be applied to human society, the solution of the social problem would be got at.” ’