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30. But as soon as this thy son was come, which hath devoured thy living with harlots, thou hast killed for him the fatted calf.

81. And he said unto him, Son, thou art ever with me, and all that I have is thine.

32. It was meet that we should make merry and be glad; for this thy brother was dead, and is alive again; and was lost, and is found.

How simple the story! Even a child can tell it after very few readings, and one could soon learn the words by heart. Is one then through with it? Or has the study then hardly begun?

Note some of the questions that need to be considered:—

1. What various thoughts probably induced the young man to leave home?

2. What pictures of his former life does he call to mind when starving? Why did he hesitate about returning?

3. What were his thoughts and actions as he approached his father; those also of his father?

4. What indication of the father's character is given in the fact that he saw his son while yet "a great way off"?

5. Which is perhaps the most interesting scene? Which is least pleasing?

6. How would the older son have had the father act?

7. Did the father argue at length with the older son? Was it in place to argue much about such a matter?

8. Describe the character of the elder son. Which of the two is the better?

9. Is the father shown to be at fault in any respect in the training of his sons? If so, how?

10. How do people about us often resemble the elder son?

11. Is this story told as a warning or as a comfort? How?

These are only a few of the many questions that might well be considered. Indeed, whole books could be, and probably have been, written upon this one parable. Yet neither such questions nor their answers are included in the text. It seems strange that almost none of the great thoughts that should be gathered from the story are themselves included with the narrative. But the same is true in regard to other parts of the Bible. The conversation between Jesus and the Samaritan woman at the well (John 4) is, perhaps, the greatest conversation that was ever held. Yet one must discover this fact "between the lines"; there is no such statement included in the account.