September 19

The Far Country

The younger son gathered all together, and took his journey into a far country. — Luke 15:13

A man has not long shaken off his subjection to God before he begins his departure from Him. He first gets the reins into his own hands, and then the old paths are too straight and limited for him. He has taken all his “goods” into his own keeping — that is, he has assumed charge and control of all his own powers, gifts, and energies; and now he will go out and try life in his own way — the way of license and self-gratification. Every one has departed from God into the far country who is not at home with God, who is not living as a child in the Father’s house.

The “far country” is a costly place to live in. When the prodigal got there his property soon began to go; and it was not very long till it was all gone — wasted in riotous living. This story is the literal history of a great many young men. There are thousands of them who are wasting large fortunes every year in this same riotous living — in drinking and all kinds of debauchery.

But how must we interpret this in its spiritual application? The “substance” of the sinner consists in his gifts, talents, powers, opportunities, and possibilities. He “wastes his substance” whenever he does not use it for God and for the good of the world — the uses for which God bestowed it. He wastes it also when he squanders it in sin. Here then is the picture: a man endowed with powers fitting him for nobleness and usefulness, rushing into evil courses, spending his strength in sin, destroying his body, mind, and spirit in revelry and dissipation. The man with one talent, who only hid it away and did not use it at all, keeping it as it was, to be returned in the end, was condemned to outer darkness. How much sorer will be the doom of those who squander their talents in sin, and use them to curse the world and drag down other souls!