still his affections are bound up in his own house and country; and as he returns and approaches, his heart burns with increasing desire for his native land, for the home of his friends and his fathers. And shall not the disciple of the Lord, "weary and heavy laden" with the burden of sin, feel delight in expecting the day, when he shall have done with toil for ever? Graciously assisted and comforted as he is, he longs to lay down his load, and to find perfect "rest unto his soul." And shall not the christian traveller, tired down in the desert of sin and sorrow, be musing upon his everlasting home, and eagerly desirous of it; where he has many friends gone before and waiting for him ; and whither, after his removal, he trusts that many more will follow him? And as he nears the goal of separation, shall he not look onward with a more intense, interest and a holier ardour; and wish, not impatiently but sincerely, for his journey's end? An aged Christian, now near this end, once of our congregation, com

monly says, at every striking of the clock upon his ear, thank God I am an hour nearer to my home and my rest. Such thankfulness may every one of us be able heartily to express! Blessed is that man, who has a mind, a spiritual earnestness and confidence, to think and to say this: he will undergo any difficulties, he will take any pains, he will submit to any mortification or denial, for the sake of reaching his resting-place. He has had a foretaste of it already, in many a holy rest and refreshment; in respite from care and disquietude, from doubt and fear, from labour and sorrow; in his enjoyment of the sabbath after the business of the week; in his peace of conscience and his peace of mind: he has found a rest of grace, and he is looking and waiting for a rest of glory.

SERMON XXI.

GOD LOVED ACCORDING TO OUR SENSE OF PARDON.

LUKE vii. 47.

To whom little is forgiven the same loveth little.

THE parable, from which these words are taken, was intended to illustrate and set forth the goodness of God to sinners, and their sense of that goodness in proportion to their sense of the need of it. For though it would appear, that the love of the repenting sinner is described as depending upon the greatness or number of the sins committed and forgiven, I apprehend that the main conclusion, the important lesson to be drawn is this, that where there has been the deepest conviction of

guilt and danger, there will be the most fervent gratitude for pardon, and the most abundant return of love to the Lord of mercy. Of two persons, who equally repent, doubtless the more heinous offender will probable be the more deeply penetrated; yet still it is the sense of past transgression which stirreth up the soul and filleth it with joy and love.

The Pharisees looked upon Jesus with an evil eye, because He conversed with sinners and condescended to their company. Jesus shews, in this parable, the reasonableness of His conduct: the more sinful they were, the more manifest and striking was their need of salvation; and if they could be brought to a deep perception of their lost condition, and to accept the offer of grace and forgiveness, they would be more likely to become the devoted servants of their reconciled God, than those who had sinned less flagrantly, and had thereby been prevented from taking a proper account of their iniquities and failings, and from feeling their total

unworthiness in the sight of their holy Creator.

Of all people, making any pretension to religious character, the Pharisees were most deficient in this true knowledge of their real state and situation. Instead of approaching Jehovah as miserable sinners, without help and without hope but through His undeserved mercy, they "trusted in themselves that they were righteous ;"* and felt and acted, as if the Lord were under an obligation to them for their services: they could not be benefited by any spiritual instruction, because they saw no necessity for being taught: they turned a deaf ear to the preaching and the offer of that grace, "which commandeth all men every where to repent,"* because they esteemed themselves "just persons which needed no repentance:" they held all other people in contempt, and despised Jesus for consorting and discoursing with them.

Still they could not be blind to the * Luke xviii. 9. † Acts xvii. 30. Luke xv. 7.