They lie in a corner in
darkness, not knowing their own value in God's eyes; not knowing that
they bear his image, though it be all crusted over with the dust and
dirt of barbarism and bad habits. Then Christ will go after them,
and seek diligently till he finds them, and cleanses them, and makes
them bright, and of good use again in his Church and his kingdom.
They are worth something, and Christ will not let them be wasted; he
will send clergymen, teachers, missionaries, schools, reformatories,
penitentiaries, hospitals--ay, and other messengers of his, of whom
we never dream, for his ways are as high above our ways as the heaven
is above the earth: with all these he sweeps his house, and his
blessing is on them all, for by them he finds the valuable coin which
was lost.
But there is a third sort of sinner, spoken of in Christ's next
parable in this chapter, from which my text is taken, of whom it is
not said that God the Father sends out to seek and to save him. That
is the prodigal son, who left his father's house, and strayed away of
his own wantonness and free will. Christ does not go out after him.
He has gone away of his own will; and of his own will he must come
back: and he has to pay a heavy price for his folly--to taste
hunger, shame, misery, all but despair.
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