unhealthy religious feelings may sometimes be, the great truth still remains behind, that feeling is the secret of doing. The heart must be engaged for Christ, or the hands will soon hang down. The affections must be enlisted into His service, or our obedience will soon stand still. It will always be the loving workman who will do most in the Lord's vineyard.
We see lastly, in this passage, that a seme of having our sins forgiven is the maimpring and life-blood' of love io Christ. This, beyond doubt, was the lesson which our Lord wished Simon the Pharisee to learn, when He told him the story of the two debtors. "One owed his creditor five hundred pence, and the other fifty." Both had ^' nothing to pay,'* and both were forgiven freely. And then came the searching question : " Which of them will love him most?" Here was the true explanation, our Lord told Simon, of the deep love which the penitent woman before Him had displayed. Her many tears, her deep affection, her public reverence, her action in anointing His feet, were all traceable to one cause. She had been much forgiven, and so she loved much. — Her love was the effect of her forgiveness, not the cause, — the consequence of her forgiveness, not the condition, — the result of her forgiveness, not the reason, — the fruit of her forgiveness, not the root. Would the Pharisee know why this woman showed so much love P It was because she felt much forgiven. — Would he know why he himself had shown his guest so little love P It was because he felt under no obligation,-^had no consciousness of having obtained forgiveness, — had no sense of debt to Christ.