behold he was alive again, he had been lost and was found. It was the suffering of the separation which alone made possible the intense and glorified happiness of their reunion. And how often it happens that not only are “troubled times praying times,” but that “man’s extremity is God’s opportunity.” Thus suffering often brings a man to his senses and makes him conscious of his dependence upon God. As we read, it was only when the prodigal “came to himself” that he concluded to arise and go to his father, and we must conclude that it was the suffering, sorrow and bitterness of privation and disappointed hopes that drove him to a realization of his true condition, and in the end brought to him a real and lasting happiness. In this and in similar acts of conduct history never fails to repeat itself in every age, in every epoch, in every generation, as well as yearly, daily and hourly in the life of individuals and of nations. Opulence, ease, prosperity and an unwholesome peace have repeatedly rushed peoples and principalities to a shameful and untimely ruin, wherein men have lost their reason and nations drunk with a sense of power have reeled and staggered to and fro like a drunken man and then lay prostrate in the dust. In support of this I appeal to history. In support of this Mr. Kipling appeals to history when in his recessional poem he said: “Far called our navies melt away-- On dune and headland sinks the fire-- Lo, all our pomp of yesterday Is one with Nineveh and Tyre. Judge of the nations, spare us yet Lest we forget--lest we forget.” Suffering then, often serves to give us a fuller, freer, wiser and wider view of life. It was only when through suffering that the prodigal “came to himself,” and when he received this self-revelation, then he “arose and went to his father,” and in like manner when man “comes to himself” he goes to God. But mark you, self-revelation seldom if ever comes to one while sailing the seas of glory and sounding all the depths and shoals of mere worldly splendor and prosperity. “Before I was afflicted I went astray, but now I have kept my word,” said the Psalmist, and when Job came to himself through the trial of his faith and patience, he ceased to question the ways of Providence, he reverently placed his hand upon his mouth and would “speak no further,” for fear he now no longer knew God “by the hearing of the ear,” but by the “seeing of the eye,” and he went to his knees in supplication, “and the Lord turned the captivity of Job when he prayed for his friends.”