The News-Herald. [volume] (Hillsboro, Highland Co., Ohio) 1886-1973, 1904-05-12
THE SUNDAY SCHOOL,
Lesson in the International Series for
May Is, 19O4-The Prodi-
gal Son.
THE LESSON TEXT.
Inka tf.ttDlA

GOLDEN TEXT Come and let us re-
turn unto the Lord.-Hos. GIL
OUTLINE OF SCRIPTURE SECTION.
Parable of Barren Fig Tree. Luke 13:l-s
Healing Infirm Woman. .......B Luke l3:10-2l
Teaching About the Kingdom Luke 1S:22-S0
Warned Against Herod. d........Luke 10 3:3l- IS
Discourse at Pharisee's Table Luke HI-A
Discourse on Counting the Cost.:....
.......................... Luke H:25-35
PARALLELS. Lost Sheep and Lost Coin.
.......................... Luke l5;l-10
PARABLE Lost on..............buke lo:ll-33
TIME.-January, A. ID. 30.
PLACE.-Peraea; the same as the last
lesson.
. NOTES AND COMMENTS
Jesus has SO far Tvs. LID illustrated
from things lost now it is a person, a
son, and 1t Is fathers heart that bleeds
for him. In this, the greatest of all
parallels. Jesus comes back to His own
illustration of the relation between God
and man, and pictures 1t in the simplest
and most beautiful and most winning
way possible Most of us are not and
need not be theologians in the ordinary
sense. but we may all master the theol.
ogy of the parable of the Prodigal Son.
and with that we have the essence of
the theology of Jesus. There are sew
erai varieties of theology to be found
in the 66 books that we call the Bible,
but whether they took shape before the
birth Of Jesus, or after His death, they
must square with His own teaching with
regard to God and man and salvation or
we cannot accept them for ourselves.
"A certain man had two sons" The
whole point of the parable is in the re-
lationship: father and son. THE young
er of them" He was inexperienced and
headstrong. 1t is the old story of boy
with q hankering. in itself natural and
right, to see the world and broader
life than that Of the home of his child
hood; he supposed he knew the world
had probably Dragged Of 1t; distance
had lent enchantment and he was wild
to enter its varied and fascinating life.
THE portion of thy substance that fall
eth to me-" One-third of the property
would be the portion" OF the younger
son; two-thirds that of the elder. A
boys desire to realize the freedom and
activities OF manhood becomes wrong
! the moment It forgets to have considera-
tion for the rights and feeling Of others
and the restraints existing because OF
his relationship to home or society OF
God. "He divided unto them his liv-
ing" Not because he had to; not be.
cause he was convinced that his boy
would use the money wisely; but per.
haps because he saw that time hat
come in the boys life when he must bt
are creatures Of free will, and this boy
was become a man. Took his journey
into a far country" He wanted to gel
away from all who had ever seen OIL
known him, from the restraint thai
their presence would be to him. Riot
Gus living" Perhaps he had meant
only to see it: perhaps Seeing life" tc
him meant seeing low. immoral alb
normal life as 1t does to so many; per
haps he thought he could play with fir,
and not be burned, or perhaps II was I
case of the candle and the moth-th,
life of gay revelry had an almost ire
sistible attraction for him. and he flew
to It the e>moment he was free.
when he had spent ALL" That h
spent all indicates the sheer madness
of his course. He ignored almost ever!
consideration that should influence |
young man beginning life. There aros'
mighty famine" The famine
IN whn ba
thrown away his opportunities. 1t 4
neither good economy nor good moral
to learn wisdom only from the bite
experiences of foolishness and sin
This young man had not sense enough
to learn It in any other way. He did no
begin to see the point till he was "il
want" Then. when the terribleness o
his mistake came TO him, what did h
do? Did he say: Il will arise and go t,
my father" Did he admit that he ha
been wrong and go back? Not yet.
Is hard to do that Ele became swine
herd. "Husks:" The nutritious pod
of the carob tree; somewhat like locus
pods. The last resort of starving Syrian
even to-day.
when he came TO himself:' One @
the most significant sentences in tn
whole parable; Jesus did not assum
that man is naturally depraved-a chill
of wrath but the reverse. The far cour
. try, with its drunkenness and miser,
. he is in, to be sure. but 1t is not hi
home and that life is not his life.
, Is unnatural. abnormal and insan,
When the prodigal came to his senses
to himself, his real SELF he realized /
too-that though he was with the swim
he was not one of them-that he was tn
I. child OF his noble father, that "his bette
self" was his true self and that In lea,
ing that nightmare land he was return
ing home. In calling men to follow Hi
Jesus is not calling them to leave the
own life to live one that Is not the
own, but from an abnormal and unsa
isfactory life of wrong and unrest bac
to the wholesome. natural life of chi
dren OF God. He only wants us to con