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THIRD DAY.

Parables of the Lost Sheep and the
Pieces of Silver.

Luke xv. 4.

"MAMMA," said Mary, (when the little party were again assembled for their daily reading, and, as Henry called it, dissection of the parables,) "when we were talking yesterday about the angels, did not you say that there was joy among them over one sinner that repented, more than over ninety and nine just people who needed no repentance?" I meant to have asked you then, but I did not like to interrupt you, whether this was not very odd, that they should like a repentant sinner better than

a thoroughly good man, who never did. any thing wrong? Is not this an encouragement to do wrong first, that we may be good afterwards?

Mrs. B.-I do not wonder at your asking the question, but you have not put the case quite fairly. It is no where asserted in Scripture, nor is it to be by any means imagined, from our knowledge of their nature, that God Himself, or his Holy Angels, regard with more love and good will the penitent criminal, than the perseveringly good and sincere Christian; the expression is, as you correctly quoted it, that there is more joy; and joy no doubt in proportion to the compassionate sorrow they had felt for the former wickedness and danger of the offender. Surely, there is nothing unnatural in this feeling, as far as we can judge of the feelings of heavenly beings by our own--still less any thing which could by possibility justify or encourage such dangerous wickedness as you suppose. Do you remember last year, when we heard that the ship in which

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your uncle had taken his passage to come home from the West Indies, was lost, and that every person on board had perished, and we thought for some weeks that he was dead?

Henry. Yes, Mamma, and I remember my uncle told us afterwards that he had been just going on board, when he was stopped about some business which he thought very provoking just then, though afterwards he found out that it had saved his life.

Mrs. B.-Very true, my dear boy; and this will shew us how little we really know what is good for us, and what is not, but there is one who knows, in whom we may safely trust. But what I wanted to impress upon you, was, what you cannot have forgotten, how far more lively was our joy, and gratitude to that merciful Providence, who had preserved your uncle, when we with reason thought him. lost, than it would have been, had we never thought him in any danger. In the same manner we cannot doubt but

that benevolent beings, as the angels undoubtedly are, should feel a more lively joy at seeing a soul which had been in danger of suffering everlastingly, brought to a sense of its danger, and falling in penitent adoration before its God, than if that soul had indeed been "a just man who needed no repentance." But where, my dear children, shall we find such a person? Who can say that he needs no repentance? "For in many things," says St. James, "we all offend."* And knowing our own unworthiness, the unworthiness of the best among us to be accepted of God, it is surely consoling to know also that our sincere repentance for our past sins, and our earnest endeavour to avoid them for the future, can give "joy to the angels in heaven." But before we can hope to do so, let us consider a little what is required of us, and let us take the three parables which the Bible affords us in illustration of this subject.

* James iii. 2.

Henry.What, Mamma, are there three parables on this one subject?

Mrs. B.-Yes, my love. The first two indeed are parables, in the literal sense of the word, comparisons; not stories at length, but short allusions to circumstances which might happen any day in common life. The third is one of the longest, one of the most detailed, and, at least as it has always struck me, the most beautiful of any in the Bible. We will begin with the two short ones first, and I think we shall hardly have time to go through the whole three to-day.

Jesus in the course of his preaching had not disdained to associate with persons who were looked down upon, and despised by the Pharisees.

Henry.-Who

Henry. Who were the Pharisees, Mamma?

Mrs. B. They were a sect, my love, or party among the Jews, who were very strict observers of all the customs and ceremonies commanded by the law of Moses; and who thought that so long as

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