2. The deeper Jewish commentators saw that the words must really apply, not to Israel as a whole, since the nation had morally fallen too low for such high distinction, but to the expected Messiah, its ripe product and its splendid Eepresentative. And accordingly our Lord Jesus Christ, just after His public entry into Jerusalem, when the people had saluted Him in other words of this Psalm, applied to Himself what was said about the corner-stone ; He was Himself the corner-stone ; and Israel, in rejecting Him, was repeating the crime of the Gentiles in rejecting Israel.
3. When, therefore, St. Peter, standing before the Court of the Sanhedrin, said that Jesus was " the stone set at nought by you builders," he was following His blessed Master's guidance. It had been Christ's own way of saying as vividly as He could to His countrymen, that although rejected and crucified, He was the true Hope and Deliverer of Israel. And thus the salvation of which St. Peter speaks was the salvation which Messiah was to bring. It was the salvation to which Israel was looking forward. It was the salvation of which the healing of the cripple had been a figure. Israel was the real cripple after all, and her rulers knew it.
72 THE SAVING NAME
4. To the nation, then, St. Peter preaches that the present is a time of repentance, during which God gives to Israel opportunity to return to Him, and the Apostle consequently renews the call to repentance given by Jesus Himself, promising to those who repent and are baptized the advent of the great Messianic salvation. But the repentance required is no longer only the general repentance taught by Jesus. It is the specific wickedness of the Jewish nation, misguided by their rulers, in crucifying Jesus, that requires to be repented of ; and the positive side of this repentance is faith in Jesus as the Messiah. He is proclaimed as the only Saviour in the approaching day when those who reject Him will be cut off.
iii. Salvation from Sin.
There is one theological word which has found its way lately into nearly all the newer and finer literature of our country. It is not only one of the words of the literary world at present, it is perhaps the word. For it represents something, the reality of which, its certain influence, its universality, have at last been recognized ; and in spite of its being a theological word it has been forced into a place which nothing but its felt relation to the wider theology of human life could ever have earned for a religious word. That word, it need scarcely be said, is Sin. Even in the lighter literature of our country, and this is altogether remarkable, the ruling word just now is Sin. Years ago it was the gay term Chivalry which held the foreground in poem and ballad and song. Later still, the word which held court, in novel and romance, was Love. But now a deeper word heads the chapters and begins the cantos. A more exciting thing than chivalry is descried in the arena, and love itself fades in interest before this small word, which has wandered out of theology, and changed the face of literature, and made many a new book preach.
Professor Henry Drummond says that there are three deadly facts about sin — its guilt, its stain, and its power ; and there are three facts of salvation — forgiveness, healing, redemption. These facts are stated in Ps. ciii. 3, 4 : "Who forgiveth all thine iniquities ; who healeth all thy diseases ; who redeemeth thy life from destruction."
1. The first deadly fact of sin is its guilt — that is, the blame-
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worthiness that follows the doing of it. When we say that the sinner is guilty, we mean that he is to blame for his sin. The responsibility for it abides on him. The wickedness of it is his. And this guilt, this blameworthiness, is all the more terrible from the fact that we are responsible to God. This is the most tragic thing about sin. It is not merely a violation of our own nature or a breaking of an abstract law. Sin is against something — it is a pushing of the will against something. Yes, against some one. " Against thee, thee only, have I sinned," cries the Psalmist, and all who have read deepest into the human heart agree with him. Sin is against God. It is a violation, a setting aside of the will of the living God, that will in which alone we can have eternal life. God is absolutely holy and good. And sin is an offence against Him, a disobedience to Him, a separation from Him, a breaking up of the harmony that ought to be between man and God.
Now the question which we must ask in order to meet this first fact of sin is, Where can I get pardon ? This is a question asked by conscience, and the questions which conscience sends up to us are always the deepest questions. The man who has never sent up the question, " Where can I get pardon ? " has never been into his conscience to find out the deepest want he has. It is not enough for him to look lifeward; he must also look Godward. And it is not enough to discover the stain of his past, and cry out, "I have sinned." He must see the guilt of his life and cry, "I have sinned against God." Now the punishment of sin is death. " In the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die." Therefore death is the punishment which must be in one of the facts of salvation. It will not meet the case if the sinner professes his penitence and promises humbly never to do the like again. Death, and nothing less than death, must be in the fact of salvation from the guilt of sin, if such salvation is to be. This fact, this most solemn necessity, understood and felt, the rest is plain. We all know who deserved to die. We all know who did die. We know we were not wounded for our transgressions, we were not bruised for our iniquities. But we know who was. The Lord hath not dealt with us according to our iniquities ; but we know with whom He has. We know who bare our sins in His own body on the tree — One who had no sins of His own. We know who was lifted up like the serpent in the wilderness — He