You remember the story of the Prodigal Son contained in the Gospel of
Luke. In that pearl of parables we have the mention of the "_fatted
calf_." This was considered a great delicacy among the Jews. Large
numbers were carefully selected and fattened for the purpose. And this
is what we are to understand by "calves of the stall." Even the witch
of Endor had "a _fat_ calf" in her house, which she killed and dressed
for King Saul (1 Sam. xxviii. 24). And Abraham ran unto the herd, and
fetched "a calf _tender and good_," and prepared it for the three angels
who had visited him in the plains of Mamre (Gen. xviii. 7). This was
hospitality worthy of both kings and angels; and this is the kind of
entertainment which is set before every returning prodigal. They feed on
angels' food. They eat of the finest of the wheat. They are brought
into Christ's banqueting house, and His banner over them is love.
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.