The inconsistency is only apparent; it disappears on a moment's reflection. Here, as in so many of our other relations to God, we learn to understand the Divine relation from the human. A child cannot love the father whom it does not fear. We all know what is in common parlance a "spoiled child." It is one who has not been allowed to grow up under the blessing of a discipline. And as the affection which has denied it this discipline is a false and weak and ungodlike affection, however wellintended; so is the love which it evokes in the child weak and false also. The filial relation is only seen in its perfect shape where a discipline is maintained and obeyed. Fear is the parent of love in the work of education. Such fear does not cast out love; it cherishes it and makes it a reasonable and a worthy love, based like all love worthy of the name upon reverence and honour. But this love in turn casts out that other fear of which St. John speaks-a fear which is born not of faith but of distrust; the fruit of ignorance, not of knowledge. "I know," says the Apostle Paul to Timothy, "whom I have believed, and I am persuaded that He is able to keep that which I have committed unto Him against that day." This is the calm and

I

humble conviction of one in whom fear had been cast out by a perfect love. In Jesus Christ he had seen death abolished; for he had seen a sinful world reconciled to the Father; he had seen in Him life and immortality brought to light, through the Gospel; and it had banished fear for ever. My brethren, may we have the same ground of confidence as St. Paul; not despising death, nor living in bondage to its terror; but calm and brave as they who have had their fetters of sin broken, and are walking in the glorious liberty of the children of God.

SERMON X.

THE FORGIVENESS OF SINS The remisSION

OF A DEBT.

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(JANUARY 16, 1870.)

'And Jesus answering said unto him, Simon, I have somewhat to say unto thee. And he saith, Master, say on. There was a certain creditor which had two debtors: the one owed five hundred pence, and the other fifty. And when they had nothing to pay, he frankly forgave them both. Tell me therefore, which of them will love him most? Simon answered and said, I suppose that he to whom he forgave most. And He said unto him, Thou hast rightly judged." -LUKE vii. 40—43.

If it were not that we had the clear authority of Scripture for so doing, I think we might hesitate to liken the debt due from us as sinners to our Father in heaven, to any obligation existing between man and man. The distance between Creator and creature is so infinite; sin must be so heinous in the eyes of a perfect being; the impossibility of making adequate restitution so absolute; that we might have

thought it idle and misleading to attempt to reason about sin as we should reason about debt due from one of ourselves to another. And yet we have, as I said, a most complete warrant for doing this. If we collect all that our Lord taught on this subject of sin and forgiveness, we shall find nothing more striking than the repeated comparisons, express or implied, between the two things. In the prayer which He gave for His disciples' use, the petition for forgiveness is coupled with a reference to those who trespass against us, as if to remind us, in the very act of prayer, that the Divine and the human remission of sins rest upon the same necessity, and are possible upon the same conditions. When we ask that our sins may be forgiven, as we forgive the offenders against us, we do not ask, as some seem to understand the words, that God's forgiveness of us may be conditional upon our forgiveness of others. "As we forgive," means "in the same way in which we forgive;" with a forgiveness springing from the same cause and leading to the same results. It is a parable told in prayer. And were there no more complete parable given to us by which to understand the mystery of sin and its pardon, we should be bound to base the con

ception of our relation to God on the language of that prayer. The subject on which I wish to speak this afternoon is the light thrown upon sin, as an offence against God, by the illustration of a debt due from one human being to another.

For, as in the passage I have just read, this comparison is employed by our Lord Himself. He compares God's remission of sin to our remission of a money debt. Sin is a debt-that is the primary idea of this parable, and of others which you will remember our Lord used at different times to explain the same mystery. In the case before us the parable was used to illustrate the effect of the remission upon the mind and heart of the debtor. A great burden rested upon these two men—the burden so well known to many, of owing money and being unable to pay it. It is not said that the burden was the result of the debtor's own misconduct. He may have become embarrassed through misfortune, or the fault of those with whom he was connected; he himself may have been quite conscience-clear. But not the less was it a

burden.

The sense of dependence upon another's forbearance; the fear of results for himself, perhaps for his family; we know what such a burden is, and what the sense of relief and