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So asked Rachel and Leah of Jacob. And we see how suggestive these historical touches in Old Testament story are, when vitalized by the spirit of the gospel. We think at once of the Saviour, who is the open door to the great Father's house. There are multitudes who have lost their portions, and some are very sad and weary. Prodigal meets prodigal, and recounts the story of the painful way. Ruins always touch us with sadness; and "human hearts get ruinous in so much less time than stone walls do!"

I. THE CRY IS PERSONAL. Men do not ask, "Is there hope for the lost — the profligate, the vile?" but, "Is there hope for me?" The soldier lying wounded in the battle-field thinks of the home harvest-fields far away, and the soul amid its wounds and woes whispers, "I will arise and go to my Father. There is a home-returning way for me!"

II. THE CRY IS ANXIOUS. "Is there yet?" Once the soul was ready to surmise there might be! But is there now? when sin has consolidated into habit, when the door has been shut so often in the marred face of the Man of Sorrows! "My sin is ever before me," is the great cry of conscience. We sympathize with human anxiety. We watch with moistened eyes the widow who asks, "Is there yet a table in the wilderness for me and my little ones?" In reply to the "yet," let us answer, "Though thy sins be as scarlet, He shall make them white as wool"; "He shall blot out thy transgressions as a cloud, and thine iniquities as a thick cloud"; "He is able to save to the uttermost all that come unto God by Him."

III. THE CRY IS CHILDLIKE. "My Father's house!" For we are, in one sense, all of us God's offspring. True, we have lost likeness to Him and peace with Him; and only by faith can we become the spiritual sons of God. But there is memory of the lost estate in every heart. Man was made for God, and He is the only home of the soul. God gave us our earthly homes and relationships, to be parables of that great central truth. No word thrills us like "home"; no picture on Academy walls touches us like Provis's interiors. And this is natural. For let home be dark or deserted, let the dove of peace leave that, let those sweet sanctities be desecrated, and no outside joys, no travels, no pursuits can make compensation! And to know the value of a home, you must lose one.

IV. THE CRY IS ANSWERED. Yes! in many parables, in many promises, in deeds of love and sacrifice. Faith leads all along the way, from justification to glory. But it were wrong to conceive of the inheritance as all future. Heaven does begin on earth, because the heavenly principles, purposes, and pleasures may be ours now. CONCLUSION. We close with the remembrance that there is welcome for us, room for us, reward for us. Have you ever stood outside a flower-show in the summer-time, and seen carriage after carriage drive up, with rustling silks and dazzling liveries and crested panels, pride and pomp entering in; and then caught the wistful face of a poor child at the gate, with another child in her arms, shut out from seeing God's beautiful flowers? The poor, the blind, the maim, the halt, the prodigals of every type are welcome. What, does He want me? does He wait for me? has He asked for me?

(W. M. Statham, M. A.)

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KJV: And Rachel and Leah answered and said unto him, Is there yet any portion or inheritance for us in our father's house?

WEB: Rachel and Leah answered him, "Is there yet any portion or inheritance for us in our father's house?