~ood discern the good,'' writes one of our truest poets and deepest thinkers. It is only they who are sincere seekers after the truth who reach the goal. It is" to the upricrht that there nriseth light in the darkness;" it is to the pure and the upright and the merciful that God shows himself to be such, and by them is seen to be such (Ps. cxii. 4; xv iii. 25, 26). We cannot see the wisdom, the faithfulness, the kindness, the mercy of God, while our hearts are wrong with him. But when we ourselves are right with God, and we have so much of the spirit of goodness in us that we may be called the children of wisdom, then God's dealings with our race, with our Church, with our family, with ourselves, are recognized as the just and kind and faithful things they are, and in our experience "Wisdom is justified of all her children." (1) We need not be surprised if God's manifestations of himself in his Son or in his providence are misinterpreted. That is to be expected in the case of the children of error. (2) If we are pining and com- plaining under the hand of God, and are supposing ourselves ill treated, we m:.y be sure that what is needed by us is not something done for u1, but a. change wrought within us. For that we must seek in humility and in prayer.--C. Vere. 36-50.-Loving and forgiving. The peculiarity of Oriental customs, together with the earnestness and eagerness of this penitent, will account for her effocting an entrance into the house of this Pharisee, and gaining accelS to the feet of our Lord. 'l'he lessons we gain from this most touching incident o.re- I. THAT THERE 18 FREE AND FULL FORGIVENESS FOR THE WORST. It is somewhat striking that, although Old 'l'estament Scripture abounds in passages which attest the greatness of God'a mercy to the repentant, the Jews of our Lord's time had no place for such in their system or their practice. This could not be from unfamiliarity with the sacred record ; it rather -arose from ignorance of themselves. They did not acknowledge any sin in their own souls, any shortcoming in their own lives. Simon probably thought that Jesus was putting the debt which represented his obligation (fifty pence) at a high figure. And, thus mistaking themselves, it is not to be wondered at that they took a false view of their neighbours; that they looked upon those who were outwardly bad as hopelessly irrecoverable. But not so the Saviour. By action as much as by language he made it clear that the guiltiest of men and the worst of women might come in penitence and be restored. That is the valuable and lasting significance of his attitude on this occasion. His treatment of this woman, together with his gracious words to her (ver. 48), are to us, as they ever will be, the strong assurance that those whom we most unsparingly condemn and most scrupu- lously exclude may find mercy at his feet. II. THAT NOT HER LOVE BUT HEB PENITENCE WAS TBJ: GBOtn.'D OF HER FORGIVEl!IES8. When Christ said, "Her sins, which are IDQny, are forgiven; for she loved much," he did not, could not, mean that her love was the ground, but that it was the con- sequence of her forgiveness. He meant to say, "You can see that she has been forgiven, for you see how she loves, and it is only they who have been forgiven what she has been forgiven that love as she loves. The fulness of her love is therefore the proof (not the ground) of her forgiveness." What led to her forgiveness was her penitence. Those bitter tears she shed (ver. 38) were the tears of a true contrition; they meant a holy hatred of her past sin, and a sincere determination to lead another life ; and not being repelled, but accepted, by this Holy and Merciful One, deep and strong gratitude arose in her; and penitence, love, and a new and blessed hope surged and strove together in uncontrollable emotion within her heart. When God shows us our fault, we go at once to the merciful Saviour; truating in him, we are received and restored ; then a pure, deep, lasting love arises in our soulB; it ii the simple, natural, beautiful outgrowth of penitence and faith. III. THAT THE BENSE OF GoD's GRACE TO us WILL DETERMINE THE FULNESS OF OUB AFFECTION TOWARD HIM. "To whom little is forgiven, the same loveth little." If we have a very imperfect sense of our guilt, and therefore of God's mercy to us, our response in gratitude and love will be far below what it should be. It is, therefore, of the gravest importance that we should know and feel our own faultiness in the sight of God. For clearly it is not the magnitude of our pa.st sin, but the fulness of ou.r sense of guilt, which determines the measure of our feeling in the matter of g,ratitude and love. 1. It is for this thnt we must look. We shall find it as we dwell on the LUKB, 0 1'.11 TIIE GO:',J'F.T, ACCORDli\G TO ST. LURF,. [en. vn. 1-M.
!(rl'Dlncss of God'~ goodn~~s toward us in his providence nn<I his grnce; in the poverty end fccblcneRs of our filir1l rl'Lurn to him for all hie love nn,l c11re aml kindncss toward u~; in t.Le fnct that he hiis been reqniring purity of thouabt and rectitude of eoul and sinccrity of motive, as well as propriety of word and integrity of deed. 2. !!'or this ,ils,, we mn•t prey; asking for th11t enlightening Spirit who will show ue our true RC'h·cs, :m,! fill us with a due sense ol our great unworthiness and our manifold transgressions.-C.