·enemy or all enemiee. If it is in us, it sets the holy, happy heavens against us. Take it from us, and hell becomes our minister for good. This God aubdues. In truth, Diviae forgiveness is the destmction of sin in us, nothing elBe. It is not something outside; it is all within. II. THE ENTIRE B0DMEBBI0N OJI' ALL BIN. "Thou wilt cast all their sins into the depths or the sea." Forgiveness is delivera.nce from sin. How strong is the Imagery employed in the Bible to represent the completeness of this deliverance I It is as the "blotting out of a thick cloud." See that dark mats of cloud op yonder; how it bides the sun and chills the air I A breeze has sprung up, and it is gone-the sky is azure, the scene ls bright, and the flowing air warm with life. That cloud can never come again; no more may thy eins. It is as the throwing of them behind God. "Thou hast cast all my sine behind thy back." Who knows where the back of God is? I see his face in nature. Hie smiles are the beauty of the world. I see bis face in Jesus, "the Brightness of hie glory." But where is his be.ck? It is the fathomless abyss of nothingness. It is e. separation as far as the east is from the west. Tell me the distance from the east to the west, and I will tell yon the distance which the pardoned sinner is from sin. It is a CB!!ting them into the "depths of the sea." Not on the shore, to be washed back by the incoming waves, but into the "depths." Into the a.bysses of some mighty Atlantic, where no storms shall stir them up, no trump shall wake them from their graves. " In those days, eaith the Lord, the iniquity of Israel shall be sought for, and shall not be found." But where are they buried? In the forget- fulness of infinite love. "I will remember their sin no more." Can Infinite Intelligence forget? Yee, and hie forgetfulness is one of the radiant attributes of his character. Does not all true forgiveness involve forgetfulness? Those who say they forgive and cannot forget, lack the faculty of forgiveness; as yet, Heaven has not endowed them with the power of granting absolution. It is of the very nature of love to hide injuries. Charity covereth sine. God has the power of forgetting injuries, because he is Love. I see the power of love in hiding injuries working everywhere in nature. The sea hastes to cover up the wounds which ruthless ships ha.ve ploughed into its noble bosom. The tree, bleeding with the sores which the woodman has inflicted, loses no time in its efforts to conceal the marks of violence it has received. Day by day goes on, until the year comes round, when, amidst its luxurious foliage you look in vain for the old scars. .And thus, as the waves of the sea and the flowing sap, love ever works. It hastes to cover up from the eye of memory the injuries it has received. How soon the love of a wife buries in forgetfulness any injuries she has received from the man she loves too well I The countless pains which the thoughtlessness and waywardness of children in their early days inflict upon the parental heart are soon buried in the sea of parental love. Love digs in the heart of parents a grave for the wrongs, and builds a museum for the virtues of their children. .All this is of God, God-like. Infinite love "passeth by the transgression." He leaves it behind him a.s he proceeds, iu the majesty of hie goodness, to diffuse wider and wider for ever the blesaedness ot hi11 own being.-D, T. HOMILETICAL INDEX 'l'O
THE BOOK OF MICAH.
OHAPTER I. THl<HII PI.Cl ■ TB£KB rAa& God's Truth 31 True Spiritllal Teachers ... 6 Sin an Antagonist 32 The Divine Judgments against Israel 8 The Soul's Exodus 33 The Contagio11Sness of Sin 9 Israel's Popular Preacher_ ... 34 The Prevalence of Sin the Sollrce of Gospel Work 35 Grief to the Good 10 Sorrow following in the Train of Evil 11 CHAPTER ill. The Lord God a Witness against Sinners 11 The Abuse of Influence 38 Sins in the Metropolis 12 Avarice ... 39 Divine Revelation 13 Worldly and Spiritllal Power : a Con- God's Procedllre in Relation to Siu ... 14 trast ... 40 Moral Incurableness 15 Gifts for Divine Service ... 40 Be qlliok 15 National Stability 42 The Ministry viewed in Relation to CHAPTER II. "Hire 11 42 The Desolating Effects of Sin 42 Delineations of Deep Transgression, God's Gift of a Faithful Ministry 44 Righteo11S Retribution, and Divine SpllriOllB Faith 44, Equity 21 Civil Rulers 45 God's Ways vind.ioated 22 False Prophets 46 The Beneficial Influence of God's The True Prophet 47 Words upon the Obedient 23 "Glorious Things" spoken of the True CHAPTER IV. Israel ... 23 'fhe Breaker 25 The Messia.h's Spiritual Kingdom 52 Deliberate Sins bringing PredesUned Enthusiasm in Religion 54 Punishments ... 26 Higher Spiritual Life 55 .Ml Impious Veto; a Fatal With- God our Teacher ... 55 drawal 27 Obedience to the Divine Will 56 Judgment, God's Strange Work; Throllgh Trial to Trillmph 57 Meray, his Delight 28 A New Mount Zion 58 Bin the Great Disturber 29 " The Peaceable Fruit of Righteoas- God the Great Bond-breaker 30 ness " ... 59 Ave.rice,., 81 The Restoration of Israel ... 60
l Ii INDEX.