Page:Sermons on the Lord's Prayer.djvu/85

 and miserable state. At length, some painful blow, some excess of sin, bringing excess of misery, rouses him from his degradation, wakes his conscience from its sinful lethargy, causes him, like the "prodigal son," to reflect on his wretched condition, recalls to his mind his former state of peace and innocence ere yet he had left his Heavenly Father's house,—that is, before he had wandered away into the paths of vice and wretchedness,—and with a sudden determination, he resolves to "arise and go to his Father," he determines to return to the Lord his God, confess his sins, and pray for pardon of his transgressions, and begin a new and better life.

He keeps his resolution. He has not far to go; for "the Lord is not far from any one of us." He is always near, watching over his erring children, and noting with joy the first movement towards a return. The young man throws himself on his knees before the Lord his God, and prays most earnestly for forgiveness of his sins, promising with heart-felt asseverations not to sin any more, but to begin a new course of life, and to live henceforth in obedience to the Divine Word, and in a manner accordant with the Lord's will.

Like the loving father of the prodigal, the Lord at once forgives; he calls up no recollections of the past, but tries, as it were, to forget it all: for, "He desireth not the death of a sinner; but rather that he turn from his wickedness and live," and he declares in his Word, that "If the wicked will turn from all his sins that he hath committed, and keep all my statutes, and do that which is lawful and right, he shall surely live,