your righteousnesses are as filthy rags." Misery, pollution, guilt; a darkened mind, a desperately wicked heart; vile affections, contending passions, and triumphant lusts; a soul as earthly as a worm's, as proud as Satan's;-these are the things among which man must search for all his goodness, for all the recommendations he can plead to heaven's favor. O what a fool is man, when man dreams of righteousness and worth!

3. But when is this great pardon given? | They are men who have been "making Now; the very moment when grace brings God to serve," oppressing him "with their the sinner to himself, and mercy finds him sins," and " wearying him with their inat the Redeemer's feet. It is an immediate iquities." "Put me in remembrance," he pardon. We read here, not "I will for- says to them; "let us plead together; degive;" but "I forgive." "I am he that clare thou, that thou mayest be justified." blotteth out thy transgressions." "Even They are silent; their own proud lips dare now while I am speaking, my hand is pass- not talk of justice, no, nor even plead for ing over the black and crowded page. I mercy. And what can our lips say? have spoken; the work is done; thou art They have said much. They have spoken free. Thou must wait indeed awhile be- of goodness and merit, of tears, and charifore thy pardon is publicly proclaimed; my ties, and prayers, of good hearts and harmangels must be summoned, and all the less lives; but what has God answered? sleeping dead must be awaked; thou may-"Ye are all as an unclean thing, and all est wait for a few short days before thy own unbelieving heart rejoices in its blessedness, or even knows it; but the deed of acquittal is written; I have set my seal to it; the blood of the covenant is on it. Since I can swear by no greater, I swear by myself that it shall never be recalled. Thou wilt find it in my word. Place it in thy bosom. Rejoice in it when thou liest down, and when thou risest up. And when thy lips are opened after the silence of the grave, when thou seest me on my throne, and hast pleaded Guilty, guilty,' at my bar, then bring it forth. I will acknowledge it. The heavens shall hear it and rejoice." 1. He sometimes pardons from a love of Such then is the pardon which God be- mercy; to gratify the feelings of a kind and stows. And is it not a most gracious compassionate heart. So also does God. pardon?—so full, that of all the multiplied" He pardoneth iniquity," says Micah; millions of Israel's sins, there is not one left on the record;-so lasting, that it runs on with eternity;-so immediate and prompt, that the guiltiest here might have it in an hour. Looking at the Being it comes from, we say with one pardoned sinner, "Who shall lay any thing to the charge of God's elect? It is God that justifieth. Who is he that condemneth?" Looking at the pardon itself, we exclaim with another, "Who is a God like unto thee, that pardoneth iniquity ?"

The springs of mercy then must be in God; but what are they? Turn again to an earthly king.

"he passeth by the transgression of the remnant of his heritage; he retaineth not his anger forever, because he delighteth in mercy." No one loves mercy as God loves it. And of all the mercy he delights in, pardoning mercy he values the most. He is more ready to offer, than the perishing to accept it; more willing to speak peace to the offending, than they are to hear it. He deems his grace his wealth. He calls it his "riches,' "the riches of his glory,” his glorious riches.

And

III. But why is all this? Where shall 2. A king may pardon from another mowe find the motives of this act of mercy? tive. Perhaps he has just ascended his This is our third inquiry. The answer to throne. He desires to be loved by his subit is short; it is humbling, but yet of all jects; he wishes his reign to be glorious. answers the most encouraging and the no- He begins it, therefore, with an act of blest. These four words, "for mine own grace, a proclamation of pardon. sake," are the sum and substance of the God pardons to display his glory; "for his gospel; the hope of a lost world; the theme, own sake ;" to make his perfections known, the praise, the security, of a saved one. to put honor on his eternal Son, to fill a A good king never pardons without a rea-universe with his praise. And how does son for his conduct. This, in most cases, he attain this end? Not by at once remust be looked for either in the criminal or storing sinners to his forfeited love. in himself. Seek it in these criminals. He saves his Israel; one after another, he

No.

O pity yourselves! To be going to such a place as the bar of heaven, and to be going there with the tidings of pardon sounding in your ears, and yet to care about any thing or every thing rather than pardon!-none but the Spirit of God can cure such folly as this. At once implore him to work effectually in your hearts. Fall down this night before him, and on your bended knees make this your prayer, “Lord, help me." "Lord, save me." "Wash me thoroughly from mine iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin."

takes his redeemed to heaven; and we wonder at his grace as we think of beings so unworthy rejoicing in so holy a place; but it is not their salvation simply, which we admire. It is not that which raises the new and loudest hosannas of his temple. It is the way in which he nas saved them; it is the display he has made of his glory in the cross of his Son. The redeemed would have been happy, had he pardoned them without any satisfaction, but neither his love nor his justice would have been so highly exalted. Mercy would have shone forth, but not in her brightness, not in that 2. Are any of you already seeking this glorious attire in which she now triumphs forgiveness? seeking it with a feeling, and reigns. broken, imploring heart? Then stretch IV. We have now examined the for- forth the hand of faith :—take this pardon. giveness proclaimed to us. The most im-You have heard that it is full; God tells portant matter, however, yet remains be- you it is free. He offers it to you, not behind-How ought we to treat this offer of par- cause you have deserved it, or because you don? How ought we to act with respect to it? are fit to receive it; but simply "for his Place yourselves within a prison. A own sake"-to indulge his mercy, to magSovereign enters it, and declares aloud that nify his grace. he has mercy, many free and full acquittals, to bestow. How would the inhabitant of every cell and dungeon act? Would he not hasten to throw himself at his monarch's feet, and eagerly exclaim, "Pardon me! O save me!" Imitate these men.

1. Make this your first concern, to seek the pardon offered you in the gospel. Labor to secure it for yourselves.

Cease then from all unbelieving reasonings and proud objections. If you are conscious of your need of pardon, if above all things you desire pardon, if you despair of doing any thing whatsoever to deserve it, if you are really willing to receive it, as guilty, condemned, helpless, dying men; then you are as much warranted as sinners can be, to go, in Christ's name, to the mercyYou answer, perhaps, "We have done seat, and to take this complete and eternal so." Then tell me, or rather tell your own pardon as your own. To you, as well as consciences, the hour, the day, in which you to the proud in heart, God says, "Put me have sought this mercy. Name the cham- in remembrance. Let us plead together." ber, the field, the church, where you have" Tell me not forever of thine unfitness for smitten on the breast, and, with the earnest- my kingdom, thy rebellion and thy crimes. ness of a dying man supplicating life, cried Tell me of my invitations to the guilty, and for forgiveness. Is there such a place on my promises to the lost. Tell me of the the earth? Is there such an hour in your blood that was shed to save thee. Tell me history? Some of you must answer, "No." of the tears, and prayers, and righteousness, Then how came this wonderful pardon the cross, and passion, of my Son. yours? Brethren, it is not yours. None me that thou canst trust my word. Only has ever found, who has not sought it. It believe, and though thou wert as sinful as s as free as the air you breathe; but they the cursing Peter, or as unworthy as the lie unpardoned, who despise it. O that you persecuting Saul, I, even I, am he that blotknew your need of it! O that you knew teth out thy transgressions for mine own ts value! O that you knew the conse- sake, and will not remember thy sins." quences of setting it at naught! You may lo without it in some poor way, as long as ou are within these prison walls, but you nust soon leave them. "The Judge is at he door." Death is ready to call you way. Ere a few more years are gone, our body will be a lump of clay, and your oul will stand trembling before its God.

Show

3. Are any among you really in possession of this mercy? Then go once again for instruction to the prisoner's cell.

He has sought and obtained his monarch's pardon. The deed confirming it is in his hands. After a few months or years have past, he hears the same voice again proclaiming the same free mercy. How would

such a man act? Would he hear that | But we are sure that we are right in turnvoice now with indifference? O no. It ing to her for a standard. The blessed would remind him anew of his former dan- Jesus himself seems to hold her out to us ger. He would press the warrant of his for this purpose. He treats her with pecusafety closely to his heart and rejoice in liar favor; he twice pronounces her forit afresh. And how would he treat the given. O may he bless our review of her author of his security? Would he despise character to the conviction or comfort of him because he was merciful? make light every heart? of his displeasure, because he had been set free by his grace? Would he turn traitor against him, because he was good? He could not do this. He would make the prison ring with his praises. He would be found amongst the very first at his feet; he would be the last to depart from his sight. One minute, he would be calling on some thoughtless criminal to apply for his mercy; Here then becomes visible one of the the next, he would be shouting with praise first marks which distinguish the pardoned for some new pardon bestowed. Were he-they seek Christ; they come to him. in his right mind, such a man would be the humblest and happiest within those prisonwalls.

I. She is first introduced to our notice. as entering a house wherein our Lord was sitting at meat. It was a Pharisee's house. She was a sinner; a known, open sinner; consequently an unbidden, and doubtless an unwelcome guest. But Christ was under that roof; and thither, regardless of conse quences, did her eager feet at once carry her.

None others seek him. Not the care less-they think not of him. Not the selfrighteous-they can do without him. Not all whom conscience stings-thousands of these fly to a giddy world for relief; many try sacraments and prayers, and many more intemperance and sin; some exclaim for a time, with the astonished Peter, “Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, 0 Lord;" a few, even on this side of the grave, cry out in the anguish of their hearts, with the unclean spirits, "What have we to do with thee, Jesus, thou Son of God?" and then, like Judas, they rush unbidden to his bar.

But turn to the pardoned. "We would see Jesus," is the language of them all. Nothing can satisfy, nothing can quiet them but Christ. They seek him more than they seek any thing or every thing be side. There is not one of them, who does not grieve because his cold, wandering heart does not seek him more.

A SINNER must be either pardoned or lost. We, brethren, are sinners. It is a question therefore which no one of us can too ear- They seek him with different feelings;— nestly put to his soul, Are my sins forgiven? sometimes like the Ethiopian convert, reAm I a pardoned, or an unpardoned trans-joicing; sometimes, like Joseph and Mary, gressor of the law of Heaven? Some of us sorrowing; sometimes, like the woman who perhaps are deeply anxious to have this touched the hem of his garment, trembling; momentous question truly answered. How but whether happy or sad, in sickness or then shall we proceed? There is no easier way than to open our Bibles, to find there some transgressor whom God himself has declared forgiven, and to see how far his character corresponds with our own.

This text brings such a sinner before us— a woman of Capernaum or Nain. Her name is not mentioned. A few short verses contain all that we know of her history.

in health, in trouble or in joy, they are inquiring for Christ, they cannot rest till they find him. In his works, they look for him; in his house, they strive to draw near to him; in prayer, they thirst for his presence. They prize his word, because it testifies of his grace; their mercies are sweetened to them, because in their mercies they see his goodness; they almost love their afflictions,

is escaped and heaven won. "Then shall ye remember your own evil ways and your doings that were not good," says the Lord And to Israel. And when was this remembrance to begin? Not till he had "saved them from all their uncleannesses;" not till he had said to them, " Ye shall be my people, and I will be your God." "When he was

which proves no more in our favor than own dry eye; that all his life long his a fever in the brain or a whirlwind in the transgressions have never perhaps cost him air. No holy effects follow it: it may break a sigh. What answer shall we make him? our hearts, but it will never subdue them. We would tell him to look upward; there No gracious dispositions produce it: a trou- dwells an offended Father;-downward; bled conscience, a dread of shame, a fear of there lies a dark and wo-worn hell;punishment-these are its sources. Death backward; he will see mercies abused, is its end. But look at that consciousness of guilt which distinguishes the accepted penitent. It lays the proudest in the dust. This woman was once probably an object of admiration, if not of love; flattered perhaps by the great, and seated on high with the rich. Where is she now? At the feet of a despised Nazarene.

Here we must remember that the ancient Jews did not sit at their meals, as is usual among ourselves. They lay reclined on couches placed round their tables. The feet of Jesus, on this occasion, were consequently not on the ground, but on the couch whereon he was sitting. Near them this sinner took her station. "She stood at the feet" of Jesus. Mary sat at his feet when she listened to his words at Bethany. This was an humble station; but this woman stands in his presence, and stands at his feet. And not only so, she deems herself unworthy to appear before his face; she stands "behind him." And what is her errand there? She came to pour ointment on his head, but she cannot fulfil her purpose. Trembling diffidence restrains her hand. Her heart is melting within her. All she can do is to weep. She stood at his feet behind him weeping.' And the tears which she shed were not a few. They fell so fast, that they served to wash the blessed feet of her Lord. And they fell for a long time. The Saviour began to speak, but her tears did not cease. O what a scene was this! An angel could hardly have looked on it without wishing to share its emotions.

Will any man say that the tears shed here were the tears of weakness or folly? that they flowed from merely natural causes? Then let him tell us whence flowed the tears of the manly Peter, when he went out from the high priest's palace, and "wept bitterly." Let him tell us why Jacob "wept and made supplication ;"why the noble Paul served God "with many tears;"-why the tears of David were his "meat day and night." And then let him go a step further. Let him tell us that a single tear for sin never falls from his

patience wasted, and sins committed, which might make an angel mourn ;-forward; a tremendous eternity;-within him; a polluted and ruined heart;—without him; a miserable and wicked world, a world which he has loved better than his God. If these things have not power to move him, we will tell him of an incarnate God; of the Babe of Bethlehem; of the Man of sorrows we have seen at Golgotha; of the love, and tears, and cross, of Jesus Christ. We will tell him of mercy that even now does not abandon him; of grace that even yet is sounding in his ears, Why will ye die ?"

And then, if that man still makes scorn of the penitent transgressor's sorrow, we will say, and say it almost weeping, that we would not have our souls in his soul's stead for a thousand worlds.

Contrition, shame, humiliation, selfloathing-sorrow, pungent, secret, and lasting-these are the marks which stamp 2 sinner for heaven. These are the things which make angels rejoice, as they look on a worm of the dust, and cause the Redeemer himself to call him blessed.

Do you need any proof that these sayings are true? O that your own hearts could afford it! O that your own experience rendered every other testimony needless! But hear the voice of Jehovah. He is speak ing to Israel. "I will establish my cove nant with thee;"—for what purpose? "that thou mayest remember, and be confounded, and never open thy mouth any more because of thy shame, when I am pacified towards thee for all that thou hast done, saith the Lord God." Hear a weeping Saviour's testimony; "Blessed are they that mourn for they shall be comforted.' "Blessed are ye that weep now, for ye shall laugh."

Here we might stop. Angels may seek Christ, as well as the pardoned; the condemned and lost may remember their sins; but neither on earth, in heaven, nor in hell. can this humiliation, this sorrow for sin, be found, except in a pardoned soul. But there is one feature more in the character of the forgiven, which the conduct of this woman wil not suffer us to overlook.