because they are in the presence of feelings which lie deeper than religion itself. Sin, hatred of self, the love of One better and purer than ourselves, gratitude for deliverance from evil,

-these are the elements of which this story is composed, and they are the sunshine and the shadow of every human soul. There is much in the story that is left untold, to be filled up by the imagination or the experience of the hearer. We know nothing of this woman, save that she lived a profligate life in the city. In spite of the diligent efforts of those who have tried to identify her with other women in the Gospel history, there is no safe warrant for doing so. She had been a sinner, she is now a penitent; and that is all we know. We are not told how or when the word was spoken, or the example witnessed, or the love shown, which first raised her from the grave of sin, and bid her come forth to a new and better life. We might be certain that it was not from a high-priest of her own race and faith that absolution came. It was not a Pharisee who told her that, in spite of her sinpolluted life, she was still a child of her Father in heaven. We are not indeed told from whom she learned it; but we cannot be wrong in believing that it was from the lips of Him

whose feet she was now bathing with her tears. The love she showed to Him was won by the love He had first showed to her. Where had this love been shown her? We cannot say. It may have been that some miracle of healing had been wrought upon some relation or friend. But it is not necessary to suppose such benefits as these. The words of the Saviour point us to love in another manifestation, the love that has ranged itself on the side of God and righteousness, and pleaded with a defiant spirit. "She loves much, for much has been forgiven her." And this silence of the sacred writer as to the history of the woman's conversion is a fitting commentary on every conversion from darkness to light. The great conflict between the Spirit of God and the "warring senses" of a human being is fought before no witnesses. We might have been told that the woman, who was a sinner, was in the great crowd who stood round about Him in the plain and listened to the Teacher's word, how He said that they were blessed who hungered and thirsted after righteousness, for they should be filled with it; or spoke of a son, who though broken down with self-seeking and dissipation yet dared to retrace his footsteps to a Father's house. But, in truth, we need not inquire curi

ously into the secrets of a sinning soul. Many are the influences which God brings to bear upon His children, but the moving force of every conversion must be the same. There can be but one motive for a penitence which is to be effective: neither self-interest, nor the fear of suffering, but the discovery of a new happiness. Not the prospect of some future luxury as compensation for a present self-denial, but the perception of a reward lying very near, within reach of all who will but take it—a new relationship, a new affection, a new life. And all these are so near akin that we cannot separate them, and claim any one as the result of a conversion, apart from the others. The discovery of a new relationship to a Father in heaven-of one in whom we live and move and have our being, with whom we may speak and be spoken to :

"For He hears, and spirit with spirit can meetCloser is He than breathing, and nearer than hands and feet."

This is the same as a new affection; and the affection becomes the new life. There had been something which was a part of this woman, and which had kept her distant from God; and this was sin. It was not that she was on earth and God in heaven; this was not the gulf between

them; nor that He was a powerful despot and she a weak slave; but that He was holy and she unholy. And now her old waywardness and pollution, which had hung like a millstone about her neck, had dropped off. She had become sorry and ashamed of self, through companionship with a holy life, and through being admitted to share a love which was the love of God. Something had come to her heart and made it certain that the debt she had incurred-whatever that was-(and she might not have answered so as to satisfy a modern religious inquisitor) was cancelled, and the barriers between her and home were struck down for ever.

This change had come about through experience of the life and words of Christ. It is very interesting, my brethren, to dwell upon such a story of sin and forgiveness as this, occurring in the early days of Christ's ministry, when even those whom He took most closely into His confidence had vague and ignorant notions of their Master's nature, and how His life would terminate. We cannot suppose that this woman had notions clearer than those of her countrymen of a Saviour who should die for the people. I cannot believe that by some special revelation vouchsafed to her alone she foresaw the death

upon Calvary, and was assured that the punishment which her debt had made a necessity would be borne for her there. And yet she was forgiven, and felt within herself the assurance of

it; and the Saviour ratified with His lips the deep conviction of her heart. "Thy faith hath saved thee, go forth in peace;" or as it is more accurately, "go forth into peace." Go forth to a new life of calm trust in God, and the confidence that in union with Him there is joy which earth cannot take away. But though she knew nothing, we are justified in saying, of a death of sacrifice, she saw the life which was leading surely up to that death, every step of which was a surrender of itself to God. The debt which she had not paid, He could pay and was paying. She was doing her own will. He was doing the will of Him that sent Him. She was daily

tempted, and daily falling. He was tempted in all points like His brethren, but, unlike them, knew no sin. And this life brought its necessary sorrow and persecution. He had no place to lay His head; He had to bear privations and hardships-the hatred of the wicked, the scorn of the religious, the ridicule of the worldling. But His suffering was not penal. He could not meet the opposition of a world