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which knew Him not, and escape with ease and security. His mission could but end in one way. If He was obedient unto the end, it must be "unto death." And though this woman knew not of the death that was to come, she believed in His sacrifice, because she believed in Him. It was her faith which had saved her; faith not in creeds or systems, but in Him who had stooped to raise her from the death of sin. He had given Himself to save her and those who like her had separated themselves from God, and this was the long-foretold sign of Him whose name should be called Jesus, because He should save His people from their sins.

A question about a single Greek conjunction, that which in the English version is rendered "for"-"her sins which are many are forgiven, for she loved much"-has introduced doubt into the meaning of a passage which is otherwise quite free from difficulty. Does it mean, it has been asked, that the love is the fruit of the forgiveness; or that the forgiveness is the reward of the love? The whole drift of the story, and the parable introduced to interpret it, point to the true meaning. The love is the fruit of the discovery that reconciliation is possible. For, as I have said, it is impossible to separate for

giveness from reconciliation. If forgiveness were the remission of a penalty, it would be possible to be forgiven, and yet to be unreconciled. For the exemption from penal suffering does not, and can not, unite a soul to its God. In the case before us, forgiveness was only valued by the woman as it was the beginning of a new life. She perceived an atonement through her Saviour, which was really an atonement—because a real making at one. She had not been taught that her gratitude was due to Christ for having borne for her a Father's wrath. She perceived that He was bearing the burden of her sin, in order to save her from herself. She owed a debt to God which she could not pay. She owed Him all her wasted affections, her truant days of dissipation, her long disobedience; and as these became hateful to her in the light which Jesus had brought to shine upon them, the burden which now pressed so heavily upon her fell off, and she became aware that to save others from their sins is to bear those sins oneself. Till she had met Him, sin seemed no sin to her; but it rested with unutterable bitterness upon Him. She had not grieved for herself, but He had grieved for her, and for every sinner who was living in exile from God.

Surely He had borne

the griefs and carried the sorrows of the world, and was bearing them; and as she awoke to feel this, she was abased with shame which showed itself in tears, but filled also with the surest sign of humility, the gratitude which brought Him of her costliest and best.

The lesson of this history is not far to seek. We bid you, also, in Christ's name, be reconciled to God. Do not try to be thankful for some future blessing, but for the blessing which is opened to every one now who will be true to his heavenly relationship. It is hopeless for us to speak to you of a future bliss, unless we can make you feel that it is about you now, waiting for you to accept it; that its name is righteousness, and no other; that the desire for a prize or a compensation in the world to come is not the true note of a soul which was made for God, and for nothing lower; that the reward of righteousness, as the Laureate has told us in deathless verse of virtue, which is righteousness in action, is "the glory of going on, and still to be."

But because this, my brethren, is the reward of righteousness, it cannot be easily won; and those who have found it will acknowledge that they won it only through sorrow, through strong crying and tears. The dread secret of per

sonality must have been first felt in all its intensity. The sense of sin, of unfitness to hold communion with a righteous Being, this must first have done its work. The bathing with tears must precede the offering of the precious ointment. And as before the Saviour's death, so, two thousand years after it, we must pause on our way to God, to lay our weight of disobedience the burden of the debt-at His feet who has offered up to God once for all a perfect obedience. It is not possible to gauge the Atonement by human measurement. It justifies itself only to those who have the same motive as had the "woman in the city who was a sinner," for kneeling in tears before the feet of Christ. "She loves much, for her sins, which are many, are forgiven her."

SERMON XII.

THE VOICES OF GREAT CROWDS.

(SUNDAY BEFORE THE GENERAL ELECTION, 1868.)

"Some therefore cried one thing, and some another: for the assembly was confused; and the more part knew not wherefore they were come together."—ACTS xix. 32.

ST. PAUL had been journeying through the province of Asia Minor, and the gospel which he preached had made many converts everywhere. Opposition he had throughout excited, for though he had consistently abstained, as his opponents admitted, from needlessly insulting the prejudices of the people, his religion was inherently opposed to the worship of gods made with hands. It is not strange, therefore, that at Ephesus, the capital of the province, the centre. of the religious worship of Asia, the popular hatred should have taken the boldest and most uncompromising shape. For at Ephesus was the great Temple of Artemis, or Diana (for the

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