joy of the free pardon of God, raising us out of the dust of our misery, and filling us with the warmth of His abounding love, we are ready in our deep compassion to take the outcasts in our arms with love resembling His, and to tell them what we have felt ourselves, and of the pardon and love which God offers them, if they will only return to Him. Then would the Gospel we preach also be attractive to them; then should we truly be actuated by the spirit which was in Christ.

If ever there was One who might hold Himself aloof from sinners with pride and horror, it was Christ-the Holy One-the Just! And yet He mingled with them in His daily life. He not only preached to them, but lived with them; entered into their houses, sat at their tables, ate with them, a proof among all Eastern nations of great friendliness. Like the sun, which sends down its rays every day into the foulest corners of our earth without being sullied by them, so Christ-the Infinitely Pure-could take

sinners to His heart without having His Purity in the smallest degree tainted by their sin; and thus, when we have His spirit, shall we also be able to do.

The pharisees and scribes were angry with Him for associating with publicans and sinners. In the first place their pride was hurt by it. They considered themselves the most learned and virtuous, the most worthy to be sought,-the élite of the Jewish people,-and that Jesus should prefer the society of publicans to theirs, stung them to the quick; for the Lord had already risen to fame; His miracles and His preaching had proved Him to be no ordinary prophet, and because of His fame, not because of what He taught, they would gladly have attached Him to their party.

In the second place the Lord in some measure belonged to their sect. He was learned in the law, and He observed it as strictly as they did, and they felt offended that any one so nearly belonging to themselves should descend to the

company of sinners; they felt themselves compromised and degraded by it. These were the reasons which made them so bitter against the Lord.

Yet to them His sublimest teachings,-if we can make any comparison between the teachings of our Lord,-to them His sublimest teachings were addressed. Take, for instance, the three parables contained in this chapter, that of the lost sheep,-of the piece of silver,—and the beautiful parable of the Prodigal Son, which has been well called, an epitome of the whole Gospel. In all these He tells them a simple truth, that He came to seek and to save the lost. The physician goes to the sick who need him; the shepherd goes in search of his lost sheep. He says, "What man of you," what man, who has the heart of a man, the bowels of compassion of a man,-"having an hundred sheep, if he lose one of them, doth not leave the ninety and nine in the wilderness (or pasture) and go after that which was lost until he find

it?" And having found it, what does He do? He does not reproach or chasten,—“He layeth it on His shoulders, rejoicing." "Likewise joy shall be in heaven over one sinner that repenteth, more than over ninety and nine just persons which need no repentance;" that is, there is more joy in heaven over one such outcast saved, than over ninety and nine people who are outwardly respectable, but whose pride, like that of the pharisees, keeps them far from God, and prevents their seeing that they have need of repentance.

Some may think, perhaps, that I am hard on mere outward respectability; they would urge that surely it is better to lead a steady life, and to keep, at any rate, free from outward sins; but, my friends, it is not I who am hard upon them, it is the Gospel, it is our Lord Himself!

II.

LUKE XV, 11-13.

11. And he said, A certain man had two sons :

12. And the younger of them said to his father, Father, give me the portion of goods that falleth to me. And he divided unto them his living.

13. And not many days after, the younger son gathered all together, and took his journey into a far country, and there wasted his substance with riotous living.

Some ancient commentators, as well as some in modern times, have considered that this parable was intended to apply to the Jews and Gentiles; the elder son representing the Jews, and the faulty younger son, the Gentiles; but this seems to me a much narrower application than that intended by our Lord, and the many conversions to which this parable has led, the many poor prodigals whom it has encouraged to return to their Heavenly Father, appear to prove a far wider signification: that it is applicable even to all mankind.