made thee for those shameful dishonours thou hast received from me.'

Such was the nature of that humble devoted love which she evidenced by kissing her Saviour's feet. Let it be borne in mind that that penitent was a pardoned penitent, and you will see the exact effect which God's forgiving grace has on every really renewed mind. So far from filling him with vain confidence or vain-glory it does but deepen his contrition at the same time that it inflames his love. Who does not understand that, when the returning prodigal first felt the enfolding of his father's fond embrace, and the gushing tears of joy and forgiveness that fell upon his neck, he was more truly grieved at his past wanderings than at that moment when he was starving upon the husks which the swine did eat? The more and the greater the honours which his father heaped upon him-the more and the deeper would be his own self-abasement. How awful then must be the delusion of those who imagine that a deep and abiding sense of sin is inconsistent with the privileges of the gospel, or with an assurance of pardon and reconciliation and persevering grace! Wherever you may be, and from whomsoever such opinions may proceed, turn a deaf ear to the poison, aye, deadly poison they insinuate. My brethren, God is witness that I love your souls! I love them and am jealous for them; and therefore my heart's desire and prayer for you is, that you may live and die in the very

frame and spirit of her who stood weeping at Jesus' feet. It is true she wept; but there is a luxury in such tears that may well be styled a foretaste of heavenly joys. They are, in fact, thus connected in the word of God by the relation of seed to the harvest; for thus it is said, "They that sow in tears shall reap in joy."

v. One more evidence of the sincerity of her repentance, and that which crowned its acceptance, was the faith it displayed. You are not to understand me as saying that this was one of the fruits of her repentance. Contrariwise, it is itself the root of every other grace. Still it attested the genuineness of the contrition. And here observe what it is after all to which Jesus looks in our approaches to him. Either of us might have singled out this woman's case as remarkable for any other of the qualities above enumerated. We might have quoted her humility, contrition, and devoted affection; but none of us would have discovered her faith. "The Lord," however, "seeth not as man seeth." Jesus not only pardoned her sins, but commended her faith. He shewed indeed that he was not insensible to her love, but intimated at the same time that it was only a return for his, as magnified in the forgiveness of her many and enormous transgressions. "Her sins, which are many, are forgiven; therefore (for thus it should be translated,) therefore she loved much." But he does not say, nor can it can it ever be said, "Thy tears have saved thee, thy humility hath saved

thee, thy love hath saved thee.' This honour is reserved for another grace, and for the simple reason that it is the one which of all others, by receiving Christ, most honours Christ. He said unto the woman, "Thy faith hath saved thee." She had manifested her faith in believing that, sinner as she was, he would not cast her out, nay, that he would pardon, and welcome, and bless, and save her. And in her case, as in every other, according to her faith so was it done unto her.

My brethren you have the same warrant to proceed upon, the same sure word of promise. "Come unto me all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest." "Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool." " As I live saith the Lord God, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked; but that the wicked turn from his ways and live; turn ye, turn ye from your evil ways; for why will ye die, O house of Israel?" Him that cometh unto me I will in no wise cast out." "If any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous; and he is the propitiation for our sins."

That faith

Here then, is the warrant of faith. is the gift of God. The promise is, "Ask, and ye shall receive." Only believe that Jesus is able and willing to save you; implore him to do it, and you shall hear him whispering to your soul, as to hers, "Go in peace."

L

SERMON VII.

MATTHEW XXVII. 3.

"THEN JUDAS, WHICH HAD BETRAYED HIM, WHEN HE SAW THAT HE WAS CONDEMNED, REPENTED HIMSElf."

THE passage I have now read, completes the solemn and affecting history to which your attention was directed on the evening of the last sabbath.* On that occasion our general subject was different, and the case of Saul was then selected as an illustration of the fearful power of the tempter, over such as sell themselves to work iniquity. The same biography, however, seems no less rich in instruction, with reference to the topic of our morning series. The plan as originally sketched out, has been to select from the word of God, alternate examples of genuine and of spurious repentance, and these, as standards by which to test the sincerity of our own. I need not say, even if the rotation were not known to many of you, under which class the case of Judas * Page 65.

ranks. I had a motive for reading only a part of a single verse, when my purpose really was to enlarge upon the whole of that, and the two which follow it. It seems almost impossible to listen to the awful consummation they record, without being led into a train of reflection, upon the consequences of being judicially abandoned to the evil of our hearts, and the certainty with which they who sow to the flesh, shall of the flesh reap corruption.

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"What is the hope of the hypocrite?" asks the patriarch, though he hath gained, when God taketh away his soul."-"Take heed," says our Lord," and beware of covetousness."-" The wages of sin is death." These and similar lessons, are those which the narrative before us, and more especially the sequel obviously suggests.

But these, important as they are, would be calculated to divert your attention from the particular point, to which I am seeking, through God's assistance to direct it. The portion which I have read, as the text, distinctly asserts the facts of Iscariot's repentance. The context supplies several important characteristics which essentially and invariably accompany, or follow, true repentance. So near indeed, does the counterfeit resemble the truth, that had not the issue of the whole been exhibited to our view, there might have been a great diversity of opinion, as to the point of his acceptance before God, and in short of his complete recovery and final