Luke 15:13

not many days after This shadows forth the rapidity (1) of national, and (2) of individual degeneracy. "In some children, says

Sir Thomas Elyot in The Governour, "nature is more prone to vice than to vertue, and in the tender wittes be sparkes of voluptuositie, whiche norished by any occasion or objecte, encrease oftentymes into so terrible a fire, that therwithall vertue and reason is consumed." The first sign of going wrong is a yearning for spurious liberty.

took his journey into a far country The Gentiles soon became -afar off" from God (Acts 2:39; Ephesians 2:17), "aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world." So too the individual soul, in its temptations and its guiltiness, ever tries in vain to escapefrom God (Psalms 139:7-10) into the -far country" of sin, which involves forgetfulness of Him. Jer. Ep.146. Thus the younger son becomes "Lord of himself, that heritage of woe."

with riotous living Literally, "living ruinously" asotos.The adverb occurs here only, and is derived from a-not," and σώζω -I save." The substantive occurs in 1 Peter 4:4; Ephesians 5:18. Aristotle defines asotiaas a mixture of intemperance and prodigality. For the historical fact indicated, see Romans 1:19-32. Th t individualfact needs, alas! no illustration. One phrase two words is enough. Our loving Saviour does not dwell upon, or darken the details, of our sinfulness.