rather than What can I do? As Christians, our inquiry should be not What must we do in order to avoid sin? but, What may we do, What can we do, in order to glorify God? Let us consider the bounds of God's mercy and of redeeming love, and let us resolve, by divine grace, to make the bounds of our willing obedience as far as possible, commensurate with them. And this is the system of measurement, regarding our duty which was suggested by our blessed Lord in answer to St. Peter's question.

Jesus saith unto him, I say not unto thee, until seven times: but, until seventy times seven.-Seventy times seven is a large number used here for an indefinite one, perhaps with allusion to some common form of speech among the Jews. Our Saviour, by this answer, refused to appoint any precise limitation, such as the Apostle had suggested. It is as though he had said I do not consent to limit your duty of forgiveness in any way such as you seem to require. If you ask for the number of occasions on which you ought to extend forgiveness to one who may claim it at your hands, I only say that the number should be great-very great-unlimited.

But our Lord does not stop here. He not only rejects the false measure, but he proposes the true one. Having refused to prescribe a rule, upon the plan of a covenant of works, he proceeds to establish a principle, in harmony with the covenant of grace. He says to the

Apostle, and through him to us, in the way of parable, Forgive as ye would be yourselves forgiven by your God. Measure not your compassion to your brethren by weight or number or the standard of any human reckoning, but regulate it by your need of God's mercy, and by the riches of that mercy towards yourselves. My law is the law of love. The mercy of redemption, is that which I hold up in the sight of my disciples to be at once their motive and encouragement to duty, and the standard whereby they may regulate their feelings and their ef forts in the performance of it.

Therefore is the kingdom of heaven likened unto a certain king which would take account of his servants.-Represent to yourselves the Most High under the character of an earthly sovereign, who has resolved to settle accounts with his tributaries and dependents and to demand payment of what may be found due.-God is the universal sovereign; all men are the subjects of his kingdom, and are bound to the complete observance of his holy laws. And God takes account of men's conduct towards himself in thought, word, and work. He has commissioned conscience, which is his deputy, to call them to account continually even in this present life. And at length, in his own appointed time, he will, take the matter into his own hands ;---he will set up his throne of judgment, and summon before him the living and the dead, and will examine and make known what claim they have to be regarded as having rendered

perfect obedience to his holy law; and he will deal with them accordingly.

And when he had begun to reckon, one was brought unto him, which owed him ten thousand talents.-The insolvent debtor is guilty man; man who has not fulfilled God's perfect law; man who has broken that law again and again, in thought, word, and deed. If thou, Lord, shouldst be extreme to mark what is done amiss, O Lord, who shall stand!" Not one. "By the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified." There is no man who can hope to find acceptance in the sight of God if judged by the law as a covenant of works, that is to say, if he stand upon the ground of his own deserts when measured by the demands of the perfect moral law. Hence it is truly and emphatically said, concerning the servant who here represents man in his ruined state, that his debt was large, and that he was utterly unable to discharge it. His debt was large. He owed ten thousand talents; a sum equivalent to several millions of our money. The debt which we owe to divine justice is great beyond our calculation; so vast and overwhelming that all thought of discharging it by any efforts of our own must be for ever hopeless. "Who can understand his errors?" "Innumerable evils have compassed me about; mine iniquities have taken hold upon me so that I am not able to look up, they are more than the hairs of my head; therefore my heart faileth me."-And, as our debt is large, so

also, like the poor debtor in this pa rable, we are altogether unable to discharge it. Our Lord says of him that he had not to pay. As guilty transgressors in the sight of God we are altogether destitute of any means of repairing the honour of his broken law. We cannot offer any sacrifice, or perform any service, which may render it consistent with his holiness, truth, and justice to receive us into favour, or even to treat us as though we had never rebelled against him.-What then must be the consequence, if matters take their course, according to the covenant of works? It is declared to us in the following words.

Forasmuch as he had not to pay, his lord commanded him to be sold, and his wife, and children, and all that he had, and payment to be made.—The portion of the guilty, considered in themselves, is total, certain, hopeless condemnation. The lord commands the debtor to be sold,—that is, God delivers over the offender to the everlasting suffering of the deserts and consequences of his sin;-and payment to be made, for, by the condemnation of transgressors the honour of God's law will be for ever receiving reparation, although that reparation will never be complete. The sufferer will be continually making payment, and yet that payment will never have been made. Such is the course of simple justice. "The wages of sin is death."—But let us now look at the liberation of this insolvent debtor.

The servant therefore fell down and worshipped him saying, Lord, have pa

tience with me and I will pay thee all.-Here is the picture of a sinner rightly seeking salvation, and deliverance from his misery and ruin. If any ask "What must I do to be saved?" the Gospel answers, in effect, Do as the insolvent debtor did. Observe, "he fell down and worshipped," or made submission to his lord. And it is thus that we must fall down, with sincere humiliation of soul, before the footstool of our God, acknowledging his righteousness, confessing our own sin and guilt, and renouncing all pleas or pretences founded on any supposed merit of our own.-Again, the debtor said, "Have patience with me." In like manner, we must cast ourselves wholly upon the divine mercy. We must put our entire trust in the free, full, unmerited love and compassion of our God.The debtor added "And I will pay thee all." Just so, we must found our hopes of mercy upon the plea of a perfect payment. We must go to the throne of heaven confessing our poverty and helplessness, and yet saying, with holy confidence, "I will pay thee all."—Yes: a sinner may be said to pay all, when he brings to the throne of divine justice, by faith the all-sufficient sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ; when he pleads the Redeemer's work and righteousness, and the promises of God through him; when he seeks pardon and acceptance only for his sake. And, while he thus pleads the perfect obedience of his Saviour, he will also promise to render his own sincere and hearty obedience to God's holy

laws. Not indeed, that he will attempt to join his own work with the complete and all-sufficient work of Christ, as part of the foundation of his plea ;-but, being constrained by the love of Christ, and filled with love and admiration of God's pure and holy law, and with hatred and indignation against sin, he will resolve and say, in humble dependance on divine grace, Henceforth I surrender unto thee my heart and life,-I devote to thy service all the power of my body and all the faculties of my soul. He will say, as it were, Here, at the footstool of thy mercy, and in the presence of the cross, I offer and present unto thee, O Lord, myself, my soul and body, to be a reasonable, holy, and lively sacrifice unto thee!

Such then is the picture, here set before us, of a sinner saved. He falls down in repentance before God;-he casts himself wholly upon God's clemency and mercy;—he trusts in Christ, who has perfectly fulfilled the law, as the channel through which mercy is conveyed; and, under the influence of love springing from this faith, he resolves and promises, in the strengh of divine grace, henceforth to give his heart, and to consecrate his services, sincerely, affectionately, unreservedly to God. The man who thus comes to God by faith in Christ is pardoned and accepted for the Redeemer's sake.

Then the lord of that servant was moved with compassion, and loosed him, and forgave him the debt. "Moved with compassion,"-it is the tender

From this most instructive parable, let us learn to regard ourselves as guilty before God and utterly unable to atone for our transgressions:-to trust only in God's mercy through Christ;—and to pray evermore for the increase of that faith which may be to us the principle of all godly temper and of a holy life. And, in particular, let us cultivate that most truly Christian grace, a meek, forbearing, forgiving disposition. Let us ponder well the meaning of our Saviour's words. So likewise shall my heavenly Father do also unto you, if ye from your hearts forgive not every one his brother their trespasses. Let us adopt, as a practical maxim of our Christian life and conversation, these words of the Apostle, "Be ye kind one to another, tender hearted, forgiving one another, even as God, for Christ's sake hath forgiven you."

HYMN.

Plung'd in a gulf of dark despair
We wretched sinners lay,
Without one cheerful beam of hope
Or spark of glimm'ring day.

With pitying eye the Prince of peace
Beheld our helpless grief;
He came, and (oh amazing love!)
He died for our relief.

Oh! for this love let rocks and hills
Their lasting silence break,
And all harmonious human tongues
The Saviour's praises speak.

Angels assist our mighty joys,

Strike all your harps of gold; But, when you raise your highest notes His love can ne'er be told.

WATTS.

$ LXI.

CHAP. XIX. 1—15.

Christ healeth the sick; answereth the Pharisees concerning divorcement ; sheweth when marriage is necessary; receiveth little children,

AND it came to pass, "that when Jesus had finished these sayings, he departed from Galilee, and came into the coasts of Judæa beyond Jordan;

2 ' And great multitudes followed him; and he healed them there.

3 The Pharisees also came unto him, tempting him, and saying unto him, Is it lawful for a man to put away his wife for every cause?

6 Wherefore they are no more twain, but one flesh. What therefore God hath joined together, let not man put asunder.

7 They say unto him, 'Why did Moses then command to give a writing of divorcement, and to put her away?