six points should always be remembered in connection with the penitent thief. His time was very short for giving proof of his conversion. But it was time wellused. Few dying people have ever left behind them such good evidences as were left by this man.

Let us beware of a repentance without evidences. Thousands, it may be feared, are every year going out of the world with a lie in their right hand. They fancy they will be saved because the thief was saved in the hour of death. They forget that if they would be saved as he was, they must repent as he repented. The shorter a man's time is, the better must be the use he makes of it. The nearer he is to death, when he first begins to think, the clearer must be the evidence he leaves behind. Nothing, it may safely be laid down as a general rule, nothing is so thoroughly unsatisfactory as a death-bed repentance.

We see, thirdly, in this history, the amazing power and willingness of Christ to save sinners. It is written that He is "able to save to the uttermost." (Heb. vii. 25.) If we search the Bible through, from Genesis to Revelation, we shall never find a more striking proof of Christ's power and mercy than the salvation of the penitent thief.

The time when the thief was saved was the hour of our Lord's greatest weakness. He was hanging in agony on the cross. Yet even then He heard and granted a sinner's petition, and opened to him the gate of life. Surely this was "power!"

The man whom our Lord saved was a wicked sinner at the point of death, with nothing in his past life to

recommend him, and nothing notable in his present position but a humble prayer. Yet even he was plucked like a brand from the burning. Surely this was "mercy."

Do we want proof that salvation is of grace and not of works? We have it in the case before us. The dying thief was nailed hand and foot to the cross. He could do literally nothing for his own soul. through Christ's infinite grace was saved. No one ever received such a strong assurance of his own forgiveness as this man.

Yet even he

Do we want proof that sacraments and ordinances are not absolutely needful to salvation, and that men may be saved without them when they cannot be had? We have it in the case before us. The dying thief was never baptized, belonged to no visible church, and never received the Lord's supper. But he repented and believed, and therefore he was saved.

Let these things sink down into our hearts. Christ never changes. The way of salvation is always one and the same. He lives who saved the penitent thief. There is hope for the vilest sinner, if he will only repent and believe.

We see, lastly, in the history before us, how near a dying believer is to rest and glory. We read that our Lord said to the malefactor in reply to his prayer, “Today shalt thou be with me in paradise.

That word "to-day" contains a body of divinity. It tells us that the very moment a believer dies, his soul is in happiness and in safe keeping. His full redemption is not yet come. His perfect bliss will not begin before the resurrection morning. But there is no mysterious delay,

no season of suspense, no purgatory, between his death and a state of reward. In the day that he breathes his last he goes to Paradise. In the hour that he departs he is with Christ. (Phil. i 23.)

Let us remember these things, when our believing friends fall asleep in Christ. We must not sorrow for them as those who have no hope. While we are sorrowing they are rejoicing. While we are putting on our mourning, and weeping at their funerals, they are safe and happy with their Lord.-Above all, let us remember these things, if we are true Christians, in looking forward to our own deaths. To die is a solemn thing. But if we die in the Lord, we need not doubt that our death will be gain.

NOTES. LUKE XXIII. 39-43.

39.-[One of the malefactors...railed...&c.] The question naturally arises, How are we to reconcile St. Luke's account of the conduct of the thieves with the account given by Matthew and Mark? They distinctly say that both the thieves railed. St. Luke says, one of them."

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1. Some think that only one thief railed, and that Matthew and Mark use the plural number, in the general way that people sometimes use it, when describing a transaction. They adduce as instances Psalm ii. 2; Heb. xi 33, 34, 37. This, acccording to Maldonatus, is the opinion of Cyprian, Cyril of Jerusalem, Augustine, Ambrose, Jerome, Gregory, and Leo. It is also held by Scott and Doddridge.

2. Some think that both the thieves railed at first, but that one of them afterwards repented, ceased to rail, and began to pray. This is the opinion of Athanasius, Origen, Hilary, Chrysostom, Theophylact, and Euthymius. It seems far the most probable opinion.

Let it be noted that the impenitent thief is a striking proof that pain, suffering, and the approach of death, are not sufficient, without grace, to convert a soul. The followers of the impenitent thief are unhappily far more numerous than those of the penitent thief.

40.-[The other answering, rebuked him.] Who this malefactor was,

and what first struck his conscience and moved him to repent, we are not told. Some say, as Bengel, that he was a Gentile ; and some, as Scott, that he was a Jew.-Some think, as Suarez, that he had heard our Lord preach, and seen Him work miracles at some former period.-Some think, as Euthymius, that he had heard our Lord's answers to Pilate, and been struck by them, and so learned to believe in our Lord's kingdom.-Some think, as Stier, that he was struck by the title put over our Lord's head on the cross.-Some think, as Theophylact, that he was pricked to the heart by hearing our Lord's prayer for His enemies, and by seeing our Lord's patience under sufferings. All these are purely conjectural ideas.

Cornelius à Lapide surpasses all other writers in his remarks on the thief. He mentions with much gravity an opinion of Fererius, that the shadow of Christ on the cross, as the day wore on, fell on the thief, and was the cause of his conversion, as the shadow of Peter healed the sick! He adds another opinion, that the Virgin Mary stood between the thief and Christ, and obtained grace for him! He also tells us that the name of the thief was Dismas, that his day in the calendar of saints is March the 25th, and that chapels are erected in honour of his name! It is well that people should know how much rubbish can be found in the pages of an accredited Roman Catholic Commentator.

As to the nation of the thief, it is probable that he was a Jew. Our Lord's words to him seem to imply that. He would hardly have spoken of “paradise" to a Gentile. As to the cause of his conversion, it is safest to rest in the belief that it arose from the free, sovereign grace of Christ, and was intended to be a proof of Christ's power to save even at His time of greatest weakness, and a pattern of Christ's willingness to save the chief of sinners.

[Dost not thou fear God.] Our English version has hardly given the full sense of the Greek words. Scholefield would render it, "Dost not even thou fear God? Even thou, in thy circumstances of desperate wretchedness,-whatever others may do in the unthinking levity of present security."

41.-[This man has done nothing amiss.] The Greek word here translated, "amiss," is only found in two other places. (Acts xxviii. 6; 2 Thess. iii. 2.) In one it is rendered, "harm; "-in the other" unreasonable."

The sentence rather favours the idea that the thief had either heard or seen something of our Lord before, though he had not been a disciple. We must either suppose this, or else we must suppose that he knew generally that he was being crucified in company with a man whom Pilate and Herod thought innocent.

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42.-Lord remember me, &c.] The remarks of Ness on this wonderful prayer are worth reading. This short prayer contained a very large and long creed, the articles whereof are these. 1. He believed that the soul died not with the body of man ;—2. that there is a world to come for rewarding the pious and penitent, and for punishing the impious and impenitent;—3. that Christ though now under crucifying and killing tortures, yet had right to a kingdom;-4. that this kingdom was in a better world than the present evil world;-5. that Christ would not keep this kingdom all to himself;-6. that He would bestow a part and portion hereof on those that be truly penitent;-7. that the key of this kingdom did hang at Christ's girdle, though He now hung dying on the cross;-8. that he does roll his whole soul for eternal salvation upon a dying Saviour."

Ness remarks, also, that the two malefactors, one penitent and the other impenitent, one on the right hand and the other on the left, are "a clear emblem of the sheep and goats" in the day of judgment.

[Into thy kingdom.] Scholefield remarks, that these words would have been better translated, "in thy kingdom."

It is observed justly, by Lightfoot, Bengel and other writers, that not one of the twelve apostles had such a clear and correct view of the real nature of Christ's "kingdom" as this penitent thief had.

43.-Verily I say unto thee.] The use of the word "amen," or verily" here, shows the authority and power with which our Lord even on the cross could save souls, and the certainty with which the grant of paradise was made to the thief. His great faith received a great reward. No child of Adam ever received such an assurance as this.

[To-day shalt thou be with me.] This sentence deserves close attention.

It is a distinct answer to the Romish doctrine of purgatory. It shows clearly that no purification of any kind after death is needed for the person that dies a penitent believer. If the thief needed no purgatory, the whole doctrine of purgatory falls to the ground.

It is an instructive intimation as to the state of believers after death. The moment they die they are "with Christ." Their condition of course is one we cannot pretend to explain. We cannot comprehend the state of a soul separate from the body. Enough for us to know that a dead believer is immediately with Christ.

It is a clear proof of the separate existence of the soul when the body is dead. We shall live and have a being, even when our earthly tabernacle is mouldering in the grave. The thief's