DRAWING NEAR HEAVEN.

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heart do I rejoice, that thou hast given me such instruction respecting thy will, and the way to eternal life; that thou hast furnished me with such inviting prospects. Help me ever more to press onward, with the world behind my back, and heaven before me; and feel truly grateful for that grace of thine, by which I am enabled to look forward to the future with such glorious hopes.

HYMN.

Amid the wilderness I tread,

Of gloom and pilgrimage and dread,
With scenes eternal drawing near,
I am cheer'd; the realms of joy appear.
What though the land be dimly seen,
And death's cold river roll between,
At every step appear a foe,
And hell flash fearful as I go?
To guard me safe on either hand,
I see the angels marshall'd stand,
While brighter, like the dawning day,
Heaven sheds its beams upon my way.
Taste then, no more, earth's bitter streams-
Keep fast thine eye upon these beams;
Press boldly up the mountain glade,
Or fearless penetrate the shade,
Till, clad in new immortal bloom,
Thou issuest from the desert gloom.
Enraptured then survey the plains,
Where thy Redeemer lives and reigns;
Hard by the trees celestial grow,
And life's broad living waters flow;
The city of thy God lies here,
The rainbow and the cloud appear,
The sacred choir, the burnish'd throne,
And (joy transporting!) all thine own.

PART III.

I. THE PARABLES OF JESUS.

SECTION I.

INTRODUCTORY REMARKS.

You have already heard enough, my young friends, of the instructions of Jesus, to know, that everything he taught is useful, and will be listened to and remembered, with great pleasure, by pious children and youth. He has, however, taught us many things in a peculiarly interesting and agreeable manner. To his disciples, and others who collected around him, he often uttered little histories or narratives, which are usually called parables. These were either accounts of events which had really happened, or else inventions made for the occasion, just as if they had happened. They embodied most excellent instruction, and were expressly intended, by the interest they excited, to set those who heard them a thinking. From them, we too may learn a great deal as to what is right, and what is wrong; as to what is good and adapted to make us happy, and what is wicked and adapted to render us unhappy. I can here make you acquainted with but a few of them. If you read them with attention, they will prove very salutary to your imagination and your heart.

A RICH man had two sons. The youngest did not wish to remain any longer under the inspection of his good father; and, for the purpose of being able to live without hinderance, according to his youthful inclinations, he resolved to go into a distant country. He requested of his father, therefore, the portion of the estate which would regularly fall to him as his share of the inheritance after his father's death. The good man complied with his son's wishes; and this young man collected all his money together and went into a strange country. Here he did whatever seemed to him to be good, and gave himself up altogether to sensual pleasures, leading a very wild and disorderly life; until, in a short time, he had squandered away all his wealth in sports, drunkenness, and debauchery. Soon after this, there came on a terrible famine, in the land where he was residing. On account of his great poverty, he felt the pressing scarcity far more than others. In order, therefore, to avoid dying of hunger, he was forced to become a feeder of swine. While he was thus employed, he would gladly have satisfied his hunger with the swine's food; but not even of this did he receive a supply. Inexpressible indeed was the depth of anguish, into which this young man now found himself plunged by his past follies and dissipated conduct! He, who had possessed great property, lived in luxury, perhaps worn splendid garments, and seen himself surrounded with a multitude of gay and joyful companions,- -now saw himself just ready to die of hunger, clothed in ragged and filthy garments, living

in the most contemptible condition a man, and especially a Jew, could occupy,-among the swine in the field, and afflicted, perhaps, at the same time with diseases brought on him by his dissipation.

Alone and forsaken, he now began to think upon his miserable state. In the course of his reflections, he said to himself, "How many day-labourers has my father, and they all have food enough while I am here perishing with hunger. I will arise, and go again to my father,— will confess to him my folly, my unsteadiness, and my infamous conduct, and ask his forgiveness." He immediately entered upon the journey, and came to his father. His father caught sight of him, while he was at a great distance, and in him at once recognized his son. Full of compassion for the miserable condition in which he saw his son, the father ran to meet him, fell upon his neck, and kissed him with the greatest tenderness. Full of humility and bowed down to the very dust, the returning son then said to him, "Best of fathers, I have sinned grievously against God and against thee, and am no more worthy to be called thy son. Take me into thy family as a day-labourer, as a hired servant." The good father forgave him everything, took off his filthy tattered garments, clothed him with a fine robe, putting a ring on his finger and shoes on his feet, commanded a splendid feast to be prepared, told the members of his family that they ought to be truly joyful, and, full of paternal gladness and delight, exclaimed to them, "See here! This my son was as it were dead, but he is alive again; he was lost, but now he is found."

The eldest son, on coming from the field where he at first was, hearing of the return of his brother, and perceiving the joy it occasioned, was so far from rejoicing

THE LOST SON. REPENTS AND RETURNS.

127 with his father and all the family, as to be filled with envy and indignation. He would not even go into the house. The good father went out to him, and reasoned with him, intreating him to come in ; but instead of yielding to his father's solicitations, he brought up reproaches against him, objecting that he had never once perinitted him to make merry in a friendly festival; but that as soon as his other son had come home, who had wasted away his property in the most dissipated life, he had killed for him the fatted calf, and made a great feast. The good father, however, replied to his son in a manner full of affection and love, told him that he had ever lived with him, and been receiving favours at his hand, and besides was at it were master of all his estate; and, by rightly impressing him, respecting the matter, endeavoured to bring him to take part in the joy of the whole family, on account of the safe return and the thorough reformation of his only brother, telling him as he had told the rest of his family, that nothing was more proper than this joy, for that this brother of his, was like one restored to them from the dead, or one found, after he had long been given up as altogether lost.

SECTION III.

REFLECTIONS.

THIS parable has been extolled as a most admirable one, particularly by the pious Lavater, of Switzerland. It is indeed deserving of all the praise it has ever received, and should be read not only, but studied. In what I say of it I must be brief.