CHRIST'S WORDS OF MERCY

TO A

WEEPING PENITENT.

LUKE Vii. 50.

And he said unto the woman, Thy faith hath saved thee; go in peace.

To the proud mind of man, there are few things in the Divine government which appear more strange and inconsistent, than the mercy shewn to some of the most wretched, the most profligate, and the most abandoned. He who never felt himself a sinner, who never knew the bitterness of his own heart, who never discovered his own vileness and utter depravity, who never fled to Christ for refuge and salvation, is unprepared to derive any instruction from the affecting narrative connected with our text. Grace abounding to the chief of sinners, and that, not through

any goodness of their own, but as an act of free and boundless mercy; this is a doctrine which the natural man cannot, will not, receive; a doctrine which he will rather deride, as the phantom ofenthusiasm, and as utterly subversive of decorum and of morality. Alas! how greatly do such men err, not knowing the Scriptures, nor the power or the grace of God! How unlike is such a spirit and temper to that displayed by our blessed Lord on the occasion we are now to consider!-In order the better to understand the subject, let us attentively notice the simple and affecting history as related in the immediate context.

And one of the Pharisees desired him that he would eat with him; and he went into the Pharisee's house, and sat down to meat. And, behold, a woman in the city, which was a sinner, when she knew that Jesus sat at meat in the Pharisee's house, brought an alabaster box of ointment; and stood at his feet behind him weeping, and began to wash his feet with tears, and did wipe them with the hairs of her head, and kissed his feet, and anointed them with the ointment. Now, when the Pharisee which had bidden him, saw

it, he spake within himself, saying, This man, if he were a prophet, would have known who and what manner of woman this is that toucheth him, for she is a sinner. And Jesus, answering, said unto him, Simon, I have somewhat to say unto thee, and he saith, Master, say on. There was a certain creditor which had two debtors; the one owed five hundred pence, and the other fifty; and when they had nothing to pay he frankly forgave them both. Tell me, therefore, which of them will love him most? Simon answered and said, I suppose that he to whom he forgave most. And he said unto him, Thou hast rightly judged. And he turned to the woman, and said unto Simon, Seest thou this woman? I entered into thine house: thou gavest me no water for my feet; but she hath washed my feet with tears, and wiped them with the hairs of her head: thou gavest me no kiss; but this woman, since the time I came in, hath not ceased to kiss my feet: mine head with oil thou didst not anoint; but this woman hath anointed my feet with ointment. Wherefore, I say unto thee, her sins which are many are forgiven; for she loved much. But to whom little is forgiven the same loveth little. And he said unto her,

Thy sins are forgiven. And they that sat at meat with him began to say within themselves, Who is this that forgiveth sins also? And he said to the woman, Thy faith hath saved thee; in peace.

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In considering the subject before us, suffer me to call your attention to a few particulars respecting the Woman, the Pharisee, and the Saviour.

I. THE WOMAN.

The expression, a woman that was a sinner, but too plainly denotes what kind of character she was of whom it is used. The first thing then that strikes us, as recorded of her, is

1. Her former abandoned life. She belonged to that awful class of persons, who, not content with doing evil themselves, use that influence, which nature gave their sex for a better purpose, to allure to the commission of crime the unthinking and the unwary. Probably she had fallen a victim to the false promises and base designs, of some pretended admirer and professed friend. It is possible she might