near to us, and treat us as friends, and pardon all our sins, and share with us his own glorious and blessed life and character, now and for ever!

Once more: there was one important point in which those publicans and sinners who came to hear Christ differed from the Scribes and Pharisees. It was this that they knew themselves to be sinners, and had some real sense of their need; whereas the others were ignorant of their state, and satisfied with themselves. The one knew that they were wretched and miserable, poor and blind and naked; and so they came to Christ for gold to make them rich, and raiment to clothe them, and eyesalve that they might see. But the others, who were in God's sight as ill off, said, "We are rich and increased in goods, and have need of nothing." The one, therefore, hungered and thirsted after righteousness; the others were already satisfied with their own righteousness. one said, we are in darkness and wish light; the others said, "We see," and so "their sin re

The

mained." Both were sick and the one knew it, and so drew near to the Divine Physician; but the others knew it not, and thought they were 'whole," requiring no such aid. The poor in

66

spirit were therefore fed, while the "rich" were

sent empty away.

Blessed indeed are we if, like the publicans and sinners, we hunger and thirst after Christ! For it is not sin which hinders Christ from helping us, but ignorance of sin, or contentedness with sin, that refuses his help. It is not our poverty of spirit, but our pride; not our weakness, but our imaginary strength, which separate us from our Redeemer.

There are many, alas! so thoroughly satisfied with themselves, with their beliefs, and with their lives, that they will not give Christ a hearing. If they do so, it is not to believe what He says, but rather to tell Him what He ought to say; not to receive from Him what He gives, but to reject it if not agreeable to their preconceived notions and likings. They would treat Christ as an equal, not as their Divine Teacher, and so their hearing of Him is ever mingled with murmurs against Him. Like Naaman the Syrian, because He will not help them in their own way, they go away in a rage, saying, like him, "I thought," instead of submitting to the thoughts and words of God.

And how often are those who profess to believe

in Him, and to honour and obey Him, so deceived by their very knowledge and profession, as never to perceive how all that is truly good in man is bestowed by Christ's grace, received by faith in Him, and maintained by abiding in Him through his Spirit. We are proud self-worshippers! But "God resisteth the proud, and giveth grace unto the humble." He knoweth the proud Sadducee or Pharisee afar off, but draws near to humble penitents, though they be publicans and sinners.

Yet if we would only draw nearer to Christ to hear Him, and earnestly believe in Him as a teacher sent from God who cannot lie, then should we learn from Him what would save our souls. He would teach us, and quicken in us a sense of guilt which He alone through his blood can pardon, and reveal to us a nature so corrupt that He alone through his Spirit can renew and sanctify it; and open up to us a heart so empty that He alone can fill it. By thus drawing near in earnestness and humility to hear Him, we should be taught at once to realise our wants and to receive his supplies; to see our lost and hopeless condition without Him, and our blessedness in the possession of Him now and for ever as our Lord and Saviour. Let all at least try this Saviour.

F

THE LOVE OF JESUS CHRIST

FOR SINNERS.

"What man of you, having an hundred sheep, if he lose one of them, doth not leave the ninety and nine in the wilderness, and go after that which is lost, until he find it?" &c. &c.ST. LUKE XV. 4-10.

'HE fact of Christ loving all those who love

THE

Him, is admitted by every professing Christian. But what I fear many doubt, is his love to those who as yet neither love Him nor trust Him. It is true indeed that Jesus Christ has a special love to the one class of persons which He has not to the other; for He approves of and sympathises with the state and character of the one as right, though imperfect, while He cannot but condemn and dislike the state and character of the other as utterly wrong; yet it is equally certain that He so loves the worst

man on earth as to pity his lost and miserable condition; and has so loved the whole world that He gave his life to save the chief of sinners.

It is this wondrous good-will to men who have as yet only ill-will to Him, which perplexed the Pharisees, and which sinners find so difficult to understand or to believe. It is this free grace which at once condemns our unbelief and enmity, and yet is the only means of our deliverance from both. For there can be no deliverance for us out of unbelief into sincere trust in Jesus, and consequently out of guilt and misery into reconciliation and peace with God; out of suspicion and dislike, into confidence and true affection; out of wilful disobedience, into the cheerful doing of his will, unless there is first of all an assured confidence in the reality of Christ's love to us, a love as real, even when it is unknown to us, as is the mother's love to her babe who is yet unconscious of its existence. The thought that the Saviour of mankind is indifferent to us, or-oh, dreadful!— hates us, can only produce corresponding feelings on our part towards Him. We may acknowledge indeed that if we only loved Him, He would then, but not till then, love us! but in vain we ask what