that land of iniquity, who sent him into his fields to
feed swine,--thus doth he designate the most coarse and loathsome sin.
When, after much labour, he had come to the utmost misery, and might
not even fill his belly with the husks that the swine did eat, at last
he came to perceive his shameful plight, and, bemoaning himself, said,
'How many hired servants of my father's have bread enough and to spare,
and I perish with hunger! I will arise and go to my father, and will
say unto him, "Father, I have sinned against heaven and before thee,
and am no more worthy to be called thy son: make me as one of thy hired
servants."' And he arose, and came to his father. But, when he was yet
a great way off, his father saw him, and had compassion, and ran, and
embraced him, and kissed him tenderly, and, restoring him to his former
rank, made a feast of joyaunce because his son was found again, and
killed the fatted calf. Lo, this parable, that Jesus spake to us,
concerneth such as turn again from sin, and fall at his feet in
repentance. Again, he representeth a certain good shepherd that had an
hundred sheep, and, when one was lost, left the ninety and nine, and
went forth to seek that which was gone astray, until he found it: and
he laid it on his shoulders, and folded it with those that had not gone
astray, and called together his friends and neighbours to a banquet,
because that it was found. 'Likewise,' saith the Saviour, 'joy shall
be in heaven over one sinner that repenteth, more than over ninety and
nine just persons which need no repentance.'

"And, in sooth, even the chief of the disciples, Peter, the Rock of the
Faith, in the very season of the Saviour's Passion, failing for a
little while in his stewardship, that he might understand the
worthlessness and misery of human frailty, fell under the guilt of
denial. Then he straightway remembered the Lord's words, and went out
and wept bitterly, and with those hot tears made good his defeat, and
transferred the victory to his own side. Like a skilful man of war,
though fallen, he was not undone, nor did he despair, but, springing to
his feet, he brought up, as a reserve, bitter tears from the agony of
his soul; and straightway, when the enemy saw that sight, like a man
whose eyes are scorched with a fierce flame, he leaped off and fled
afar, howling horribly. So the chief became chief again, as he had
before been chosen teacher of the whole world, being now become its