The Two Sons
AUTHOR: | Rittenhouse, Ephraim |
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GOSPEL MESSENGER State Road, Del., November 1886 Dear Bro. Respess :--I saw a request some time ago in the MESSENGER for an exposition of the parable of the "two sons," The request was to the editor, but as they have not answered it, except by a few sentences at the time, I feel willing to offer some remarks upon it. I have some other subjects upon my mind, but this may prove as profitable as any other. The parable is recorded in the xvth chapter of Luke, in connection with other parables bearing upon the same subject, which together, make up the whole chapter. Two others precede the parable of the sons. So this one, of the father and his two sons, appears to be a kind of culmination of the lessons designed to be taught. A man with a flock of sheep: has lost one out of his flock. A woman with a number of pieces of silver has lost one of them. Finally, a man with but two sons has lost one of them. The force of the argument would have been irresistible, and could not have been gainsaid in either one of the preceding: parables. But this is the method of inspiration. Two immutable things are still further confirmed. The scribes and Pharisees murmured because Jesus received sinners into his favor. These sinners were not Gentiles, or heathens, but children of the stock of Abraham. And they were sinners only according to the Pharisees' standard, is that they had not observed alt .the precepts of the ceremonial law. The Pharisees had been very zealous, not only to observe all those things, but even more than was required. And they had given alms, and said their prayers, and paid their tithes, until they had become so pure and holy that a sinner must not touch them, or presume to sit at table with them, lest they contract some impurity from the touch. We would suppose, even upon their Own principles, that their zeal would have gone out in behalf of their erring brethren, and that they would have lauded and encouraged every effort to reclaim them. Not so. They have monopolized all the holiness, with all its benefits, to themselves; and. ordered publicans arid sinners to stand by themselves, and come not near. All shepherds who owned sheep, and knew their value, would do just as this shepherd did. They would aim to restore the lost one. The woman has lost her silver, it was silver before she lost it, and it was her own. The shepherd is not gone out in an endeavor to domesticate some wild goats, and so increase his flock. The flock was the right size before. The woman is not engaged in an effort to increase her riches, or to convert other substances into silver, but to find and preserve silver that was already coined, and that already belonged to her treasures.
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