substance in riotous living, would you shut your doors upon them?
Would not all be forgiven and forgotten at once? Would not you call
your neighbours to rejoice with you, and say, 'It is good to be
merry and glad, for this our son was dead and is alive again, he was
lost and is found?' And would not that penitent child be more
precious to you, though you cannot tell why, than any other of your
children? Would you not feel a peculiar interest in him henceforth?
And do you not know that so to forgive would be no weak indulgence,
but the part of a good father; a good, and noble, and human thing to
do? Ay, a human thing, and therefore a divine thing, part of God's
likeness in man. For is it not the likeness of God Himself? Has
not God Himself, in the Parable of the Prodigal Son, declared that
He does so forgive His penitent children, at once and utterly, and
that 'There is more joy among the angels of God over one sinner that
repenteth, than over ninety and nine just persons who need no
repentance?' So says the Lord Jesus Christ, the only begotten Son
of God. Let who dare dispute His words, or try to water them down,
and explain them away.

And why should it not be so? Do you fancy God less of a father than
you are? Is He not _The_ Father, the perfect Father, 'from whom
every fatherhood in heaven and earth is named?' Oh, believe that He
is indeed a Father; believe that all the love and care which you can
show to your children is as much poorer than the love and care God
shows to you, as your obedience to your earthly parents is poorer
and weaker than the love and obedience of Jesus Christ to His
Father. God is as much better a Father than you are, as Jesus
Christ is a better Son than you are. There is a sum of proportions;
a rule-of-three sum; work it out for yourselves, and then distrust
God's love if you dare.