Did ever any one sin a more grievous sin than the prodigal? Was ever any one visited with a sadder and sorer punishment? Like the silly sheep, he had strayed away into the far-off country; and there, in that distant land, he found himself in penury and rags. He would fain have filled his belly with the husks that the swine did eat. But the Shepherd found the sheep. The poor wanderer came to himself in that distant land, and found his way back again to his father's house. And what was the result? His home-coming was celebrated by a feast. The father said unto the servant, "Bring hither the fatted calf and kill it."
"A day of feasting I ordain,
Let mirth and song abound,
My son was dead, and lives again,
Was lost, and now is found.
Thus joy abounds in paradise,
Among the hosts of heav'n,
Soon as the sinner quits his sins,
Repents and is forgiven."
The sin, the sacrifice, the feast. The golden calf, the slain calf, the fatted calf. The first is ours, the second is Christ's, and the third is designed for both. "Behold, I stand at the door and knock: if any man hear My voice and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with Me." Nay, Jesus Himself is both sacrifice and feast. He could turn to the Jews and say, "Whoso eateth My flesh, and drinketh My blood, hath eternal life." "I am the living bread which came down from heaven: if any man eat of this bread, he shall live for ever."
We must repent of the sin, we must trust in the sacrifice, and we must feed upon the feast. Not till then shall we be fired with the hope and filled with the joy of the last of the prophets—"Unto you that fear My name, shall the Sun of righteousness arise with healing in His wings: and ye shall go forth and gambol as calves of the stall."
The Bat.
"In that day a man shall cast his idols to the moles and the bats."—Isa. ii. 20.
The bat is only mentioned three times in the Bible, and it cannot be said at a first reading that the references are very flattering. They seem to justify the kind of horror which most people feel when they encounter a bat; for it is generally regarded as "a creature of such ill-omen that its very presence causes a shudder, and its approach would put to flight many a human being."
Moses speaks of it as one of the unclean animals—a creature neither to be eaten as food nor offered in sacrifice; while Isaiah describes it as a fit companion for the mole, or rather the mole-rat, which crawls away from the sunshine, and seems to love the darkness rather than the light, because its deeds are evil. Clearly the little "night-flier" has a good deal to contend with in winning for itself a place among the world's favourites. It has enough against it to crush an Atlas, not to speak of a bat; and if it rise to a position of honour after all, it does so in spite of the incubus of general dislike and loathing which the ignorance of superstition has heaped upon it. But all true bats, like all true boys, but seek to rise above any such reputation.
I.—THE JEWISH PROHIBITION.
The bat was regarded as unclean. Two reasons may be given for this—corresponding to the two classes of bats which are known to have existed in Bible lands. We have first the insectivorous bats, which, both in habits and appearance, are so repugnant that no one would ever dream of regarding them as food, or as fit objects for sacrifice. They were rejected on the principle that nothing repulsive or hideous is to be eaten or offered; for this would offend the horror naturalis which is so great a safeguard in human life. And indeed, if these were the only bats known to the Jews, the prohibition as thus applied would seem to be needless. But these were not the only bats. We have also the large frugivorous bats which have been used as food in various parts of the world; and they may have been so used by the Jews themselves when sojourning in the land of Egypt. The Egyptian monuments show that these large fox-headed bats were not at all uncommon in the valley of the Nile; and Canon Tristram secured two fine specimens even in Central Palestine, which measured twenty and a half inches from wing to wing. Now if surrounding nations ate these bats as a common article of diet, would not this be a sufficient reason why the Jews should not be allowed to touch them? I think it would. Israel as a nation was set apart to Jehovah. They were His peculiar people. They were His chosen and purchased possession; and therefore even in their food there must be a separation in which this reference to Jehovah was expressed. They must be made to feel that even in the prohibition of the bat and other animals, the divine command had been addressed to them, "Come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord."