oiJers to render to us. We cannot rejoice in him as in our Divine Saviour, rencemin~ us from the penalty and the curse of sin, until we have known and felt our own unworthiness an<l wrong-doing. 1. This is the scriptural doctrine. O11r Lor<l, before he loft hie apostles, instructed them to preach "repentance an,l remihoion of sins in his Name among all nations" (eh. xxiv. 47). Peter said," Repent . . . for the remis- sion of sins" (Acts ii. 38). Paul testified to Jews a.nd Greeks" repentance toward God, and fnith toward our Lord Jesus Christ" (Acts xx. 21). John wrote, a.s he doubtless preached, " If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves . . . if we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all 11nrigh teous- ness" (1 John i. 8, 9). 2. This is the oln,iQUB spiritual order. For bow can we make our appeal to Christ, how can we put our trust in him as in our Divine Redeemer and the Propitiation for our sins, until we have recognized in ourselves the sinners that we are? For this there is necessary: (1) The idea of sin-in many hearts, in many places, found to be wholly wanting, and having to be planted there. (2) The sense of sin- absent from a great many more; absent, it may be, because it is forgotten that our guiltiness before God is not only nor chiefly found in doing what he bas forbidden, but in withholding what he has desired and required of us, in the non-payment of the "ten thousand talents n of reverence and gratitude and service we owe him. (3) Shame for sin, and a strong and deep desire to be cleansed from its evil stain. Tbi8 true penitence brings us in eagerness and hope to the feet and to the cro8s of the Divine Sa.viour.-C. Ver. 7.-The ministry of fear. We read that" Noah, moved with fear," built the ark which, in saving him and his family, saved the human race. r'ear, dread of impending danger, has its place in the heart of man, and its work in the service of mankind. God made his appeal to it when he dealt with Israel; there was much of it in the Law. It was not absent from t.he ministry of Jesus Christ; it was he who spoke to men of the "millstone about the neck," of the undying worm, of the doom less tolerable than that of Tyre and Sidon. John's teaching seems to have been compos,d very largely of this element; he spoke freely of the " wrath to come." We are bound to consider- !. THE FUTURE WHICH WE HA VE TO FEAR. we a.re not to imagine that because those terrible pictures of physical suffering which arose from mistaking the meaning of our Lord's figurative words have long ceased to haunt the minds of men, there is there- fore71othing to apprehend in the future. That would be a reaction from one extreme to another. If we take the authority of Scripture as decisive, it is certain tha.t the impenitent have everything to fear. They have to face: 1. Judgment and, wirh judg- ment, condemnation. "We must all appear before the judgment-seat of Christ.n "Every one shall give account of himself to God." What reason here for keen appre- hension on the pa.rt of the impenitent sensualist, oppressor, defrauder, scorner! 2. The penalty which is due to guilt. This may be heavier or lighter, according a.s the light in which a man lived was clearer or less clear; but when we think how sin is bramle<l and smitten now, what shame and suffering follow in its train in this world of probation, how seriously Divine wrath visits iniquity even in the day of grace, we may ~ell shrink, with a fear that is not craven but simply wise, from enduring the penalty of unforgiven sin in the world of retributio11 (see Hom. ii. 5-!J). It is not the brave, but the blind and the infatuated, who are indifferent to "the wrath to come." II. Oua COMMON INTEREST IN THIS SOLEMN 'l'!!EME. "\Vho bath warned y()u," said John, addressing himself (as we learn from l\'fatthew) more particularly to the Pharisees and Sadducees, "to flee from the wrath to come? How comes it that you, who are so perfectly satisfied with yourselves and charge yourselves with no defects, are concerned about judgment? And how is it that you Sadducees, who profess not to believe in any future at all, are trembling in view of another world?" Why did the rigid for- malist and the sceptic come to listen so attentively to his doctrine of repentance? The truth waR and is that the supposed sufficiency of l'harisa.ica.l proprieties, and the barrier of sceptical denials, break down in the hour when the faithful and fearless prophet speaks, wbe:i the stern but friendly truth of God finds its way to the human conscience. Our carefully constructed defences may last for days, ur even years, but they will not lu.s1 for avur; the hour comes when IOme 11trone reality swcoJ.ls thcw away. There i.! 7B THE UOSPEL ACCORDING TO ST. LUKE. [cu, nt. 1-38.
not onC' of us, into how many different chsses or denomin:itione we may bo divided who <l0e~ n0t need to inquire earne~tly of God's epokesm:in what le the way of escap~ from the penalty of sin. And we know what ie- lII. THE BURE w A"I' OF ESCAPE. It is that of pll1l,itence, on which John eo strongly insi~t<'d; and of faith in that" Lamb of God" whom he pointed out as" taking away the sins of the world."-C.