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 woman, "Thy faith hath saved thee, go in peace!" Progress onward into the life that is everlasting.

HERE is something so exceedingly pathetic and touching in the parable of the prodigal son, that it is scarcely possible to read it without shedding tears. The profound humility and deep repentance of the returning spendthrift, contrasted with the love of the father, in receiving back, with parental joy and thanksgiving, his long lost, and, in a manner, dead child, is a beautiful representation of parental tenderness receiving again to his bosom, his sinful, sorrowing, but repenting child. The scene speaks to the heart, and confirms this cheering truth, "There is joy in the presence of God over one sinner that repenteth." (ver. 10.) The repentance that need not be repented of, is the first step in the Christian life; yet this first step can never be made until man examines himself, and is convinced of sin. The parable states that a certain man had two sons, and the younger said to his father, "Father, give me the portion of goods that falleth to me." On receiving his portion, he took his journey into a far country, wasted his substance with riotous living, and, when all was spent, a famine arose in the land: he was in the bitterness of want, when he became servant to a citizen, who sent him into his fields to feed swine. Here, in want and degradation, he is described as coming to himself. He thought