Gazette Of The United States, & Philadelphia Daily Advertiser

The Gazette.

PHILADELPHIA,

SATURDAY EVENING, FEBRUARY 1.

THE LAY PREACHER.

"Bring hither the fatted calf and kill it,

and let us eat and be merry."

THE parable, of which my text is a part,

represents, that a certain man had two sons.

The younger, probably impelled by that

youthful ardor for independence, which often

involves in endless perplexity, demanded and

obtained his portion of the inheritance.

Caught by the fascinating glare of dissipation,

his substance is speedily exhausted in

"riotous living," and he becomes a comfortless

victim of this ruinous seduction. A

famine pervades the land; and, in the universal

distress, this friendless being is marked

as a more than ordinary sufferer. He seeks

to preserve life by a participation with the

grovelling herd; and, in this deep humiliation,

he looks back with agony upon the

luxuries of former time, and reflects with envy

upon the comforts of the servants of his

father's household. The hour of distress and

the hour of penitence are not infrequently

the same. The prodigal resolves to arise and

go to his father, there acknowledge his folly

and transgression, and ask of him, as a boon,

that he may be made as one of his hired servants.

At his return, the father receives

him, neither with phlegmatic reproof, nor

philosophic coldness, but with the ardency

of a parent, exulting in the salvation of a

fallen son. In the ecstasy of the scene, he

commands, that "the best robe be brought

and put upon him, and that a ring be put

upon his hand and shoes upon his feet."

His orders are also given, that the fatted

calf be killed, and that the restoration of his

"lost son" be celebrated by festal merriment

throughout his household.

The joy of this interesting scene is marred

by an unpleasant incident. The elder son

returns from the field; and, hearing the

music and the dancing, enquires, with all the

sullenness of jealousy, "what mean

these things? He is told, that, in consequence

of the return of his brother, mirth

pervades the mansion. He is angry, and refuses

to join in the general joy. When entreated

by the father to come in, he accuses

him of blind partiality for the prodigal.—

"Lo, these many years do I serve thee, neither

transgressed I at any time thy commandment,

and yet thou never gavest me a

kid, that I might make merry with my

friends; but as soon as this thy son was

come, which hath devoured thy living with

harlots, thou hast killed for him the fatted

calf." To the asperity of this accusation,

the father replies in terms becoming a father,

—"Thou art ever with me, and all that I

have is thine; it was meet, that we should

make merry and be glad; for this thy brother

was dead and is alive again, and was lost

and is found."

The distress and penitence of a youthful

profligate, who had wasted his inheritance in

the mazes of delusive pleasure; the forgiving

tenderness and undisguised ecstasy of a parent,

upon the recovery of a favorite child,

"as a brand plucked out of the burning;"

and the churlishness of a brother, jealous of

parental favor, are strikingly depicted in

this simple fable. An unfortunate victim

of vicious indulgence, sunk to the lowest

grade of infamy and want, returning to his

paternal mansion and the paths of virtue, is

an unusual, but an interesting, exhibition.

The cup of pleasure contains a draught,

which is wont to stupify the nobler faculties

of the soul. Reformation is a business of

magnitude, which requires more feeling,

worth and virtue, than usually remain to the

degraded and corrupted victims of sensuality.

The taste and the spirit of the prodigal will

ordinarily, lead him to feed on husks; with

the swine and associate with the brute creation,

rather than impel him to retrace the

fatal path, which has conducted him to perdition.

The language and the conduct of the parent,

on this occasion, are among the finest

touches in the human portrait. No temporizing

or prudential considerations chill the

heart of the father, when his wretched and

dishonored son stands before him, in the posture

of a repenting supplicant. He affectionately

receives him to his bosom, and welcomes

him with a cordial reception, nobly

calculated to preserve and cherish the remaining

sparks of virtue. "It was," truly,

"meet, that he should make merry and be

glad," that the fatted calf should be killed,

and that he and his house should give a loose

to joy.

The soul of the elder brother appears to

have been "made of sterner stuff." He was,

evidently of that subordinate class of beings,

who are "careful and troubled about many

things," who can at all times say, "in

aught have I transgressed." but who have

not one instinctive impulse to deeds of positive

virtue. When urged by his father, to

participate in the merriment of this pleasing

occasion, he recounts, in Pharisaic style, his

own deeds and worth, sordidly taunts his

father with displaying superior affection for

the prodigal, and sullenly refuses to tune his

soul to the joyous music and to mingle in

the mazy dance.

The man, who can check the strong current

of the passions, who can resist the allurements

of the Syrens who invite to vice, and

who, from the lowliness of moral abasement,

can reascend the heights of virtue, is marked

by the portion of a soul nearly allied to

greatness. But he who puts forth the friendly

hand, to lead the wayward back to goodness,

who nourishes with genial warmth reviving

virtue, and who strives to reinstate

the prodigal in pristine fame in excellence,

is greatness itself, arrayed in brightest lustre.

The Lay Preacher of Pennsylvania.