It is the desire of the writer to call attention to one of those beautiful harmonies, which, occurring so often in unexpected places, touch up and revivify with a new beauty some familiar portion of the Word, and thus keep the reader in that expectant attitude which becomes him who at any time may find a rich treasure beneath his feet and would not pass it by unwittingly.

So many similarities have been found between the teachings of Paul and the Gospel of Luke, that some learned critics have wanted to make out that Paul referred to it, when speaking of "my gospel." However we may differ from them as to this, we may still welcome all correspondence that can be pointed out, as witness to one Master Hand, controlling and combining the music of these distant and various players into one grand symphony of praise. "He maketh the wrath of man to praise Him," but how much sweeter the song of those chanting,-

" Wondrous stories of the glories of His grace."

A verse in the tenth chapter of John, says, "When He putteth forth His own sheep He goeth before them," and what I want to point out is, how Paul seems to respond, in those wondrous seven platforms of grace in the second chapter of Philippians, "But when the lost sheep wandereth away, He followeth in every footstep." Luke gives the footsteps of the sheep; Paul, of the Good Shepherd. Let us ponder them together, and think as we do, of the apostle's exhortation, " Let this mind be in you."

The first antithesis is this, "Who being in the form of God, thought it not robbery (a grasping), to be equal with God." Luke, "And the younger of them said unto his father, Father, give me the portion of goods which falleth to me." Here we have in a nutshell the whole course of the first Adam portrayed. What privileges he lost by his grasping spirit. Luke gives them with a touch of the pen, when he says, Adam was the son of God. Likewise the prodigal ! Not content with his happy home, an overflowing abundance, he must have something which he can point out to an admiring world as his own, as completely in his power; the title fully his, not his father's any longer. "Thus no doubt," he ponders, "I shall be respected and looked up to, as my father is; I will have power." Ah, fellow-Christian, cannot we recognize the old tempter's voice again, "Ye shall be as God, as your Father." The younger son will let his father divide his living, to gratify his own grasping spirit. How beautiful the contrast in Philippians, where we see One, with title to the whole universe, not grasping after it, but with a spirit ready to give up everything. The blessed Shepherd thus blots out the first soiled footmark of the lost sheep.

And now for the second antithesis. Luke, "And not many days after, the younger son gathered all together and took his journey into a far country, and there wasted his substance in riotous living." Paul, "He emptied Himself" (literal rendering). Two emptyings here:but how different ! How short an answer, but what a large field for meditation. Do not pause with the mere pittance of thought here written, but revolve it over and over, and God will bless it to you. "He emptied Himself," but how much must have been laid aside for One equal with God to empty Himself. Let us look at a few Scriptures in this connection. He was " the brightness of God's glory and the express image of His person," and yet as we ponder it, we hear Isaiah's low undertone adding its soft minor chord and making both inexpressibly sweet, "We saw no beauty in Him-His face was so marred, more than any man's and His form more than the sons of men." Reverently let us respond.-

"O Head, once full of bruises,

So full of pain and scorn, 'Mid other sore abuses, Mocked with a crown of thorn."

Brethren, we tread upon holy ground. It reminds me of the words, may I not say, admonition, of a Christian upon first seeing that beautiful hymn, the seventy-first in the appendix:* *"Little Flock hymn-book."*" Oh, it seems almost too sacred to sing, does it not ? Again we are told, " He upholdeth all things by the word of His power," but the Psalmist prophetically exclaims, "My strength is dried up like a potsherd, and my tongue cleaveth to my jaws, and thou hast brought me into the dust of death." "All things were made by Him," and yet, "Jesus being a wearied sat thus on the well." How we might multiply quotations. He thus stripped Himself, for we had also done so, but alas! in riotous living.

Now comes the third step and third antithesis. Luke says, "And he went and joined himself to a citizen of that country," and Paul answers," He took upon Himself the form of a servant." The former seeks to serve himself by serving another; the latter to serve others gratuitously. "The Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister. The gospel of Mark beautifully exemplifies this character of our Lord's life. Here we have those " immediatelys" and " straight-ways," which picture so vividly the busy Servant, having no time of His own. The people so learn the readiness of His touch that they know themselves welcome even when intruding upon His private moments. "And from thence He arose and went into the borders of Tyre and Sidon, and entered into a house and would have no man know it; but He could not be hid." No wonder Paul delighted to preach "the untraceable riches of Christ" (literal rendering). So many were the dark corners into which the Lord carries and has carried them, through so many "holes of the door" has His arm been lovingly stretched (Cant. 5:4), that the bewildered gaze of man cannot follow. Man's path, on the other hand, can easily be seen; he bestows his goods upon himself. Man's goodness is very patent, for he blazons it abroad with a trumpet. "How beautiful upon the mountains," have been His footsteps, blotting out once more all traces of the prodigal's soiled, self-serving path, in "joining himself to a citizen of that country."

"And was made in the likeness of men." The antithesis here is not so clear. In the next phase of our story the prodigal is seen in the fields feeding swine, and in a state of such destitution as to long for the husks which the swine eat, "and no man gives unto him." Have we not here, however, a sketch of what man really is ? He is a creature of wants, never satisfied, dependent upon others, especially in these days of "division of labor" and "co-operation." Does he not, too, sometimes yearn after husks, the food of swine, because he has wasted his Father's substance? How graciously the Lord also took a position of dependence, as at Sychar's well, for instance. He was wearied, He was hungry, He was thirsty, and in our prodigal state did we ever give unto Him ? Is not the Good Shepherd still on the track of His lost sheep ? Let us watch His next footstep.

"He humbled Himself"! This is not characteristic of man. The opposite mind has so taken hold of him, that to-day he is trying to convince himself, as hard as he can, that he never has fallen. The prodigal, however, has learned better. He goes to humble himself before His father. I don't believe his motives were all right. I think self was still an object to him. It is only because of what he is, he now steps up in stepping down. Perhaps he has heard a footfall upon the mountain. Perhaps in his destitution he has caught a glimpse of a "shining One," bending pityingly over some dark stain upon the rock. Perhaps he has heard a whispered, " Come unto Me," like a sweet strain of far off music from a father's house. Perhaps! Dear brother, can you tell me what it is now brings him home ? Does it not bow our hearts to think that the Good Shepherd's face was towards no home when He humbled Himself!

"And became obedient unto death." Is not the parallel close here ? His path is now especially emphasized as one of obedience to His Father, while in Luke it is the father that says, '' This my son was dead."

"Even the death of the cross." That death was one which involved the curse of God's law, and separation from His Father, while in Luke the death is characterized by the words "was lost." Ah, now the last stain is gone. The utmost penalty has been paid, and the music of the father's house bursts upon our ear; yet it seems amid it all we may turn back and wonder, "How He followed in every footstep." F. C. G.