'night like the drought in summer,' and his soul being as a weaned child;' the stone which lay on his heart was removed, the graveclothes which cramped and bound his spiritual life were loosened, and he was set free, yet he still spoke to God as a sinner, but as a sinner saved and yet conscious of his danger, assured in words that he could not mistake that the Lord had put away his sin, and yet still praying that God would create in him a new heart and wash him mightily from his sin (Ps. xxviii. 2, 4, 6, 9, 11; cvii. 5; vi. 3). Thus is it Divine Love through the penitent teaching the peni'tent how to mourn for sin. It tells that sorrow for having displeased our good loving God is in this life inexhaustible. We learned, as 'we learn every grace, by opening our souls to 'receive from God what in its whole compass 'is unattainable.' Surely Christ teaches us, by this constant reminder of our daily need of daily forgiveness, the peril of forgetting our sins. To forget is to daub with untempered mortar, and the wall must eventually fall. And it is unloving, a breach of that gratitude which is the spirit of the songs of the redeemed, who hath washed us in His Blood. And having the joy of heaven must be, when felt, a foretaste of heaven here. If we enter not into it now we shall never find it hereafter. But we do enter into it now, for that is the comfort which is promised to the mourner. The mourning for sin is no downcast, hopeless, dejected feeling which shall shut out all cheerfulness, and cloud life's brightest hours, but rather the especial bliss which makes the worst times seasons of infinite peace. As the memory of forgiven sin will intensify the happiness of heaven, containing in itself all the highest feelings of gratitude and love, they shall sing a new song which none but the hundred and forty and four thousand can sing, so does it now. The joy of consolation has been called the touch of God, for the soul is comforted by the combined action of God on the soul meeting constantly the desire of the soul, loving much because much forgiven. But there is a condition, As we forgive those 'who trespass against us.' The condition is the measure of the unity of the body; we are never to keep apart the thought that we are members one of another, and that our spiritual life is affected for good or evil by our actions on others. For this cause doubtless Christ enlarges (St. Matt. vi. 14, &c.) on the virtue of forgiveness as being an element of power in our prayers. This spirit,' says Butler, 'is absolutely necessary, as ever we hope for pardon of our sins, as ever we hope for peace of mind in our dying moments, or for Divine mercy at that day when we 'shall stand most in need of it.' The infinite debt pardoned, which we owed to Him and could not pay, the lesser debt due by others to us is given into our hands as an act of mercy to discharge: this we can do, the other is beyond us. So in asking thus we in effect ask Him never to forgive unless we forgive, never to cancel our debt, constantly accumulating, unless we on our part exercise charity to our brethren. 'I beseech you look into your lease; look into your covenant, that 'conveyance, by which bliss and immortality are made over to you; and you shall find that you hold all by this. You held it from the King of kings, and from quit rent, your ac'knowledgment for His great mercy, is your 'mercy to others. Pay it down or you have 'made a forfeiture of all' (St. James ii. 13).— (Faringdon.) So have we the law of tenderness to others by the tenderness of God to us. That is the spirit we are to pray for, and as we cast out little and gather in much, so He promises our forgiveness of the great debt in return for the effort to wipe out the small one. And as the saintly man may be known by his continued humility and his constant sense of unworthiness, by his constant reaching forth in tone and supplication to an ever offended, and yet through the Blood of Christ an ever reconciled God, so he may be known by his tenderness to the wants and feelings of others. He comes and brings an atmosphere which tells that he has been with Christ. His heart is enlarged, and while the springs of life may be closed by coldness and by a harsh and bitter tone, they flow freely and purely where love is. We are to be tender to the wants of others, nothing must come too small or beneath our notice: the greatest saints have been at once the most childlike; and there must be the going forth of the heart to souls as the heart of the Blessed One goes forth to us. The unselfishness and the desire to make others happy at the expense of our own care, the throwing ourselves into the wants and wishes of the little circle in which we move, as much as can be like Him who brought peace and righteousness wherever He came, and made all the better for having once, only once seen Him. Never man spake like this Man: the wretched knew that they had a friend, and they were not disappointed. Then tenderness to the mistakes of others, to the wrong prejudices and the ignorance of others, possibly the most difficult to bear with, and amongst whom the most difficult to preserve a loving and forgiving spirit. He put forth the mourners and minstrels, not harshly, but gently rebuking the unreality which must have been so offensive to Him. Much at times in life will jar with our deepest convictions, much will offend our most sensitive feelings, much seems unreal and distasteful, but here is the call for patience and for remembering that like as a father pitieth his own children, even so is the Lord merciful to them who fear Him. They laughed Him to scorn: a great insult, but He was not angry. He shewed no displeasure, for He came to give life to the dead; let us realize our mission as the same as the salt of the earth, as the light of the world, and show tenderness in removing mistakes and correcting faults. The forgiving spirit that makes allowances, that is not ready to say, 'I 'do well to be angry,' but thinks what He would have done, and what He would have said. Make a continual act of thankfulness to Him that He hath opened thine eyes, and if He hath taught thee what it is to love Jesus spare some of the precious ointment to pour out on the heads of others, for that is like the dew of Hermon which fell on the hill of Sion, for there the Lord promised His blessing and life for evermore. CHAPTER IX. LEAD US NOT INTO TEMPTATION. HERE have we revealed the power and mystery of temptation, and the strength which the sacrifice of Christ hath purchased for the tempted soul. The whole Gospel is here unfolded by Him Who is the sin-bearer, and Who bruiseth the head of Satan: we have the power of evil, and personality of Satan, and the sympathy and strength of Jesus. It is the voice of the Beloved Who speaks in words of warning and of love, as He bids us pray, 'Lead us not into temptation.' The depth of that mystery we can never know, it is among the secret things of God; nor yet the extent of that sympathy which changes the object of temptation and defeats the enemy of souls, which enables to realize the persuasion of the apostle that nothing can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus. We ask, Whence knowest Thou this? In me indeed dwelleth no good thing, but Thou. Whence knowest Thou temptation? This is the power of the prayer, it is the prayer fashioned by Him Who had used it Himself, by Him who came with dyed garments from Bozrah, and who in that weary life, as the Man of Sorrows, drinking the cup of bitterness Him |