Listen to the case of a wretched prodigal.--Crime had reduced him to rags. He had a _home_--but through perverseness he banished himself from all its comforts. He had a _father_--but he undervalued his affection, in a moment of folly demanded his patrimony, and adventured abroad friendless and alone. A few years brought him to the very gates of death. O thoughtless sinner, "_Thou_ art the man!" _Thou_ hast forsaken God, the Father of mercies! _Thou_ art "perishing in ignorance and unbelief!" But this moral lunatic came to himself, and resolved to return to his father; "I will arise and go to my father, and will say unto him, Father, I have sinned against heaven and before thee, and am no more worthy to be called thy son; make me as one of thy hired servants. And he arose and came to his father. But when he was yet a great way off, his father saw him, and had compassion, and ran, and fell on his neck, and kissed him." What a son! what a father! what a meeting! what sighs of penitence! what tears of fondness! what looks of tenderness! what words of peace! How were resentment and grief drowned in a sea of love! God of all comfort, who art thyself this kind, forgiving, bountiful Father, grant of thine infinite mercy that every reader may prove himself this humble, sincere, and grateful penitent! Sarah Chapter II. Abraham's Departure from Chaldea--His Faith--Its Failure--Sarah and Abraham agree to prevaricate--The Admiration which Sarah attracted--Abraham's Dismissal from the country of Egypt--Beauty and Dress--Importance of a proper Education--Parental Vanity--Source of real Attraction--Sarah proposes to Abraham to take Hagar--Unhappy Consequences--Hagar's Flight and Return--Visit of three Angels--Sarah's laughter at the subject of their commission--Her subsequent Character--General Remarks--Birth of Isaac--Ishmael's Conduct and its Consequences--Sarah's Death. [Sidenote: Years before Christ, about 1920-1921.] At a very advanced period of life, and in obedience to a divine injunction, Abraham went out from his country and his father's house, "not knowing whither he went." By this cheerful, prompt, and pious submission to the mysterious will of Heaven, he has acquired a high distinction in the sacred records, and presents a noble example for the imitation of all future ages. Here was no debate between a sense of duty and an inclination to sin--no disposition to question the wisdom or the goodness of the command--no effort to devise expedients for the purpose of procuring delay--and no unholy apprehensions respecting the possible or probable consequences of such a proceeding.