November 6

"And he was angry and would not go in."—Luke 15:28.

MAY God deliver me from the religion of the elder brother!

It is outward. It renders external service, while the heart within is unforgiven. "Holy intention," says Jeremy Taylor of the golden mouth and the saintly life, "is to the action of a man that which the soul is to the body, or the root to the tree, or the fountain to the river." Without it all my obedience is vain.

It is self-seeking, too. The elder brother thanks God that he is no prodigal; he magnifies and lauds and congratulates himself. And what about my own self-estimates? In the Ptolemaic astronomy the earth was the centre of the universe, and the planets did lowly obeisance to it; in the Copernican system the sun is the centre, and the earth has become its servitor. Has self been deposed in me? Is Christ my Sun of Righteousness whom I rejoice to obey?

And it is harsh. It feels nothing of God's joy over the finding of lost things; it is as cold as the polar ice to a returning sinner. The spirit of criticism, of suspicion, of doubt, disfigures it day and night. There is no slightest tincture of Jesus Christ in it—Jesus Christ, whom love brought from the highest heaven to save us who were far away.

My Lord, keep me from this evil heart. Give me the soul that is right with Thee at its innermost centre and core. Give me the humility that makes confession, I am not worthy to be called Thy son. Give me the love that is "a spark, O Jesu, from Thy fire, a drop from Thine abyss."