nese. And certainly we may :find the perfect eumple of the" best" in David's greater l:lon. III. WD MAY MINIBTEB TO OUR GENERATION BY MANFULLY RESISTING THE EVIT,8 THAT MAY AFFLI0T IT. For every generation has its conflicts and wants its holy we.rriors, its bre.ve soldiers, as well as its noble leadern. Evil i~ active in every age. The enemy of God and righteousness "goeth about as a roaring lion, seeking whom no me.y devour." It is true that we beet oppose to evil the solid, steadfast, quiet persistence of eodly character; but we are not fully faithful to our God or our generation if wo let e.ny phase of social, political, or moral evil grow up in our midst unchallen;:,;ed and unresisted. And in this our Lord has left us his holy example. There is a sublim~ force in his fearless denunciations of Pharisaic conceit and tladducean laxity. Ha always called things by their right names, and sought, with wholesome reproofs and warnings, to purify a corrupt generation. And the man who faithfully serves his generation may be sure of this-his influence will never fade out, will never die. And God will show one day how he helped on his kingdom of righteousness and peace. -R.T. Ver. 38.-Forgiveness of sins. To illustrate how the gospel message has ever boma on this" forgiveness of sins," compare for the teaching of John the Baptist, Mark i. 4; Luke ii. 3: of our Lord himself, Matt. ix. 2, 6; Luke vii. 47; xx.iv.47: of St. Peter, eh. ii. 38; v. 31; L 43. See another instance of St. Paul's teaching on the subject ( eh. xxvi. 18). Taken with its contex.t, the passage is a striking one, as showing how deeply St. Paul was, from the :first, impressed by the fact that the Mosaic Law was inefficient as a guide to true righteousness; and by the fact that forgiveness, as an act of grace, and not bestowed on any form of human merit, was the very essence of the gospel announce. ment to men. This subject is, however, so familiar, that there seems little need fot more than the suggestion of an order in which thought may hopefully be guided. !. DISTINGUISH BINS FBOM 0EREMONIAL OFFENCES. Observe the distinction 9(1 carefully made in Heb. iL 9, 13, 14, 23 ; and note: 1. Ceremonial offences ara limited by human regulations; sins are indicated by Divine Law. 2. Ceremonial offences concern only such persons as come under the ceremonial rules ; sins attach to all mankind, because related to God's moral law for all his creatures. 3. Treatment o! ceremonial offences may illustrate, but can only illustrate, Divine methods of dealing with sin. 4. Sins, and not ceremonial offences, are dealt with by the Heaven-sent Saviour. The heinousness, hatefulness, and evil influences of men's sins may be shown, and the greatness of a redemptive scheme that can meet all the mischief caused by sin, should be explained. II. FORGIVENESS OF SINS IS MAN'S SUPBEME WANT. Not man's only want, but th« real root of all his wants, because other right relations can only follow on his right rela.tions with God. Sin is, in essence, self-will, and finds ex:pression in rebellious actions, thererore the way of the removal of sin must be repentance, which is the humbling of the self-will, and forgiveness, which removes the expressions and consequences ol the sell'-will. It may be that man's sin was at first pressed home upon men by the apostles in its greatest manifestation-the rejection and crucifixion of the Son of God; but this supreme act of iniquity did but reveal the utter baseness, badness, and corruptiou of the human heart and life. On this point see the teachings of St. Paul in Rom. iii. 9-10. III. SUCH FORGIVENESS IS ADMINISTERED DY THE BISEN CHRIST. Prospectively, ha ha.cl power on earth to forgive sins, but in that he did but declare l,is right, and illustrate the power he now has to "give repentance to Israel, and remission of sins." Direct from the living Saviour to the sinner's own soul must now come the message of Divine forgiveness. On the basis of his finished and accepted sacrifice, to our Lord Jesus Christ is now entrusted the power to grant absolution and remission of sins to all who "truly repent, and unfeignedly believe his holy gospel." And the decla.rn.tion to men of a full and free forgiveness, actually now ministered to them by the living Saviour, as the beginning of his proposed work of delivering them from all sin's power and thral- dom, is the very point of the messaga which we must bear to men. Not meu's frailties only, nor men's mistakes, nor men's intellectual errors, uor men's hereditary tenueucies, nor men's faults in the eye of "class n or "society;" but distinctly men's sins, meu's 438 THE ACTS OF THE APOSTLES. [cH. XIV', 1-28,
~ilfulnesse~, Rnd wickednesse~ an~ defiances of God, and breaking■ of lo.w, and orucify- mg or Gods Son,-these, the Infinite love has found out how to reach; a11d it spealts from the lips of the "once dead, but now risen, living, and glorified Christ" froe full forgive11ess of all, even the blotting out for ever of scarlet and crilll3on stain~.-R, T. EXPOSITION.