“He divided his means between them.” The son is as impatient as the father was kind. He is weary of his father’s own life. Since he cannot shorten his father’s life, he works to get possession of his property. He was not content to possess his father’s wealth in company with his father, and he deserved to lose the privileges of a son. Let us make some inquiries. What reason brought the son to such actions? What bold prospect raised his spirits to make so startling a request? What reason did he have? Clearly the Father in heaven cannot be bounded by any limit, or shut in by any time, or destroyed by any power of death. The son could not await his father’s death to get his wealth, so he conceived the desire to get his pleasure from the generosity of his father while he was still alive. The father’s bounty proved that the insult lay in his request.
