Luke xix. 9. And Jesus said unto him, This day is salvation
come to this house.
IT is said of our blessed Lord, that " he went about doing good." But the good which he did was prin- cipally to the bodies of men ; the work of converting
and saving their souls was to be carried on principally after his death by the instrumentality of his Apostles. There were, however, some instances, wherein he wrought effectually to the conversion of men's souls. At the time of his death, the number of his Disciples amounted to about five hundred. Amongst that happy number was Zaccheus, of whose conversion we are informed in the passage before us.
Zaccheus was a rich Publican, or tax-gatherer : having heard much of the fame of Jesus, he was desirous to see him ; but, being small of stature, he could not easily accomplish his wish : he therefore ran before, and climbed up into a sycamore-tree, near which Jesus was about to pass; and thus secured the desired gratification. But, to his utter surprise, Jesus called him down from the tree, invited himself as a guest to his house, and, as the event proved, converted and saved his soul.
Now in this history we see,
I. In what way salvation is imparted —
Doubtless there is a great diversity in the expe- rience of different people : some are called to the knowledge of Christ more suddenly, others more gradually ; some with deeper convictions of their guilt and danger, and others in a more easy and placid way : but in some things all are agreed : to whomso- ever salvation comes, it is in the first instance,
1. Unmerited —
[It is evident that Zaccheus did not merit salvation: he was an unjust and oppressive man; and though he might not deserve such opprobrium as the Jews cast upon him, as though he were the vilest of characters, yet it is plain, from his own acknowledgment, that he had availed himself of the power vested in him by the Romans, to extort more than by the laws he was entitled to ; and he had thereby considerably augmented his own wealth. But if no such conduct could have been im- puted to him, yet must salvation have been to him an unmerited gift : for, as sinners, we all deserve the wrath of God : and they who deserve his wrath, certainly cannot deserve his favour. " If we had done all that is commanded us, we should still be unprofitable servants ;" and therefore we must for ever renounce