for which there is no possible forgiveness is one for which there is no actual repentance. No one is shut out by God from remission who does not shut himself out by persevering in sin. Pardon is inseparable from penitence. Christ "is exalted to give repentance and remission of sins." These gifts are indissoluble. The first is a pledge of the second. Repentance is our actually moving out from the shadow of death across the boundary into the sunshine of life and love. He who repents is already in the region of pardon and the light of God. Christ the High Priest, through whose sacrifice and intercession this pardon is conferred, is the only Mediator at whose hands we receive it, by whose word we are assured of it. It is the privilege and duty of all who are forgiven to declare and pronounce to all others, being penitent, the same absolution and remission of sin which they have received; but it is Christ alone who can bestow it, and authoritatively declare and confirm it. He said to the man whom He cured of the palsy, "Thy sins be forgiven thee," and claimed that "the Son of Man hath power on earth to forgive sin;" and as "none can forgive sins but God only," none but Christ may assume this function. In the words of the Dean of Llandaff, "I cannot believe that Christ meant any man to come, even as a helper, even as an abettor, between the soul and its God. It is the glory, it is the originality, it is the power of the Gospel, that it brings together, face to face, without any intermediate, the two Beings which are at issue, God and the soul. You say you can aid. this meeting? Take heed that you do not hinder it (Vaughan). Luther said, "A pope or bishop has no more power to remit sin than the humblest priest, and even without any priest the humblest Christian, even though a woman or a child, can do the same. For if a simple believer say to thee, God pardon thy sin in the name of Jesus Christ,' and thou receive that word with firm faith, and as though God Himself spake it to thee, thou art absolved." The absolution Christ bestows is plenary, immediate, complete. If we have a multitude of transgressions to confess, He has a "multitude of tender mercies" wherewith to hide them. "Our sin in respect to His mercy is as a spark to the ocean; and cannot the ocean quench a spark?" Can the food be insufficient for the guests whom He invites ? Can the lifeboat He equips be too small for the shipwrecked crew? IV. PRAYER FOR PARDON. God, by His Ambassador of mercy, bids us say, "Forgive us our debts," and encourages us by the promise, "Every one that asketh receiveth." He who was in the bosom of the Father," and knows His purpose, the Christ who Himself suffered for our sins, teaches us thus to pray. The High Priest who intercedes above instructs us how to plead below, so that our prayers and His may blend, and "Him the Father heareth always." Thus instructed by the Son of God, we pray to a Father who pitieth His children and calls them to Himself. Round about the throne of Majesty is the rainbow of Mercy dispelling our fear. Acceptable prayer for pardon includes 1. Conviction of guilt. We must recognise our indebtedness. Fallacies must be put away by which we have tried to persuade ourselves that we are not guilty before God. We must not make weakness an excuse for wickedness. If helpless as a worm, if lifeless as a corpse, we cannot be guilty as men. God has endowed us with capacities which make it possible for us to obey Him, but we have abused those capacities, and so have incurred a debt which was both due and in our power to pay. Nor may we plead temperament, circumstances, or the devil. We never yield but by our own consent, and this is our sin. Let us beware of the false humility that pleads helplessness, and cultivate the true humility that confesses our abuse of ability and a depraved proneness to evil. 2. Contrition. Sorrow because of sin is an essential condition of the pardon of it; sorrow, not merely for the consequences but for the act. Many criminals are sorry when captured, arraigned and condemned, who, were they to escape, would forget their grief; and many sinners against God are sorry, not because they have sinned but because they cannot sin with impunity, or because their sins are about to be judged. Godly sorrow mourns for the sin itself, as evil in its own nature, as rebellion against our Creator, as The A little boy ingratitude towards our Benefactor, as undutifulness towards our Father. "Wherefore I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes." Thus the publican in the parable bows his head with shame and smites his breast for sorrow, while he cries, "God be merciful to me a sinner." The Psalms are full of the groanings of contrite hearts. All Christian biography records the anguish caused by sin. Without such sorrow there will be no true joy. "Blessed are they that mourn, for they shall be comforted." The hope of pardon does not altogether remove this sorrow. God forgives us, but we do not forgive ourselves. wound is healed, but the scar remains. was told by his father to drive a nail into a plank for every offence committed. Whenever he did something worthy of praise, a nail was withdrawn. At length the father said with joy, "See, they are all gone now." "Yes, father," said the son, "but the marks are there." The remembrance of some act of unkindness to a friend, who, though grieved at the time, has perfectly forgiven and forgotten it, is long afterwards recalled with an inward blush; and the sorrow caused to parents in the days of youthful heedlessness is a source of deep regret even in old age. St. Paul never ceased to reflect with sorrow that he was once a "persecutor, and injurious." The writer cannot forget an illustration of such sorrow in the case of a very poor field-labourer who was groaning in extreme agony. When there seemed a little abatement of suffering, some words of sympathy were uttered, to which the dying man replied, "My biggest pain is to think that I ever grieved my dear Lord Jesus." Such sorrow is a mark of sonship and a sign of pardon. "The seal is set on wax when it melts; so God sets pardon on melting hearts." Such sorrow is a means of reformation. The seeds of truth watered by penitential tears will bear fruit in the heavenly paradise. "He that lacks time to mourn, lacks time to mend. -H. TAYLOR. If 3. Confession. The burden on the soul seeks relief by utterance: "Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh." We should confess an injury to our neighbour as a step towards redressing it. "Confess your faults one to another the faults committed by one against another. So our faults against God are to be confessed to God. "He that covereth his sins shall not prosper." If we wish God to hide them, we must not hide them ourselves. we would be healed, we must show our wound to the Physician. If we would get our debt remitted, we must acknowledge our obligation. "When I kept silence, my bones waxed old through my roaring all the day long. I acknowledged my sin unto Thee, and mine iniquity have I not hid. I said, I will confess my transgressions unto the Lord; and Thou forgavest the iniquity of my sin." As God alone forgives, so to God we are to confess. No fellowsinner may stand between ourselves and Him, except |