Repentance

Mark i. 15.

Luke v. 32.

vii. 13, 14.

ii. 17.

x. 13.

ix. 13.

iv. 12.

xi. 32.

xi. 21, 28.

vi. 12.

xiii. 3, 5, 24,

xii. 41.

x. 1

xv. 7, 10, 11-

xviii. 3.

xvi. 30, 31.

xxi. 29, 32.

xvii. 3, 4.

xxii. 32.

xxiv. 47.

IN the foregoing chapters our Lord’s view of the Highest Good has been presented positively by exhibiting His teaching on Blessedness, the Kingdom of God and Righteousness, and negatively by setting forth His teaching on Sin. Even to be able to sin involves the possession of a nature far different from that of the beasts that perish; and the tragedy of human sin reveals, by contrast, the height of man’s original destiny.

We now go on to that part of experience which the ancients designated by the term Virtue, but which modern thinkers would call the Formation of Character. In Aristotle, as we saw ,in the Introduction, the way to acquire virtue is practice. To do right may be difficult at first; but every attempt makes it easier; every victory over temptation strengthens the virtuous habit; and by degrees that which was at first disagreeable becomes pleasant and exhilarating. That there is profound truth in this is not denied by Christianity; on the contrary, this doctrine of the philosopher is adopted in many

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a saying of Holy Writ. But this is not the whole truth contained in the teaching of Jesus at this point or even the most characteristic part of it. Here Jesus takes a way of His own and differs widely from the philosophers. We have seen already that He differs from them on the subject of sin, dwelling on it far more than they, taking a more serious view of its nature and consequences, and regarding man as a being whom it is vain to help without recognising the depth of his fall. In short, Jesus begins with the ethical subject much lower down than the philosophers. We shall see, as we proceed, that He also raises him far higher, before He is done with him. Hence the road is longer, and it is more complex and far more original. We are here, indeed, entering on the most peculiar portion of the ethical teaching of Jesus, in which comes to light much of the genius of the Christian system. While there is in Christianity an optimism that soars far above the highest aim of philosophy, there is in it, at the same time, a pessimism far deeper than any found in philosophy, and the heights are not attainable without sounding the depths.*

It was probably from the peculiar series of experi-

* “Es ist immer ein Massstab fur den Ernst der sittlichen Forderung und ein Beweis, dass sie zu neuem Siegesgang aufruft, wenn die Losungsworte Wiedergeburt, Bekehrung hellen Klang geben.” — Haering, Das christliche Leben, p. 206. ences by which man rises from the depths of sin to the heights of virtue that Christianity received the first name which it ever bore, when it was called the Way, as it frequently is in the Book of Acts.* Not only are such experiences unknown to philosophy, but they have often been strangely neglected by theology. In the traditional practice of theological science learned labour expended on themes belonging to the periphery of Christianity, where theology marches with science or philosophy, has been far more secure of recognition from the principalities and powers than study of those experiences in which the very essence of religion consists. Nevertheless the secret of the Lord is with them that fear Him, and, in general, the class which, in the days of His flesh, heard Jesus gladly has made no mistake in the books which it has taken to its heart and has continued to read from century to century. At length in our day the estimates of the learned world appear to be changing, and it looks as if it were to be acknowledged

* ix. 2; xix. 9, 23; xxii. 4; xxiv. 22, with a capital letter in Revised Version. No doubt there is a connection also with the saying of our Lord, “I am the Way.” More doubtful is a connection with The Two Ways, a kind of vade-7necum for catechumens, incorporated in The Teaching of the Twelve Apostles and, as the researches of Seeberg have shown, much used in primitive times; for this production is rather devoid of the element referred to, and it is not impossible that it may have been of Jewish origin.

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that the learning which best deserves the name of theology is that which investigates what is most characteristic of Christianity. The great work of von Frank on Christian Certainty has produced an ample literature, which is still growing, and the recent work of Professor James has so stirred the spirits that, all over the Christian world, scholars are directing their inquiries towards the region opened up by James’s great countryman, Jonathan Edwards, in his .treatise on the Religious Affections. It is a good sign when the strongest current of theology flows in a channel dug for it by personal experience.*

* As welcome signs of such a change, I directed attention in The Expository Ti?nes recently to two books of Professor Henri Bois, of Montauban — Le Reveil ail Pays de Galles and Quelques Reflexions sur la Psychologie des Reveils; also to James’s Varieties of Religious Experience and Starbuck’s Psychology of Religion. Der Be griff der Bekehrung, by Johannes Herzog, is a contribution to the same subject from the Ritschlian School. And, since the note referred to was written, there have appeared Vorbrodt, Zur religiosen Psychologie; Schmidt, Die verschiedenen Typen religioser Erfahrung und die Psychologie; and Cutten, The Psychological Phenomena of Christianity. Among the works called forth by von Frank’s System der christlichen Gewissheit may be mentioned Kostlin, Die Begriindung unserer sittlich-religidsen Uberzeugung, which contains a valuable review of preceding literature; Wendt, Der Erfahrungsbeweis fur die Wahrheit des Christenthums; Schwarze, Neue Grundlegung der Lehre von der christlichen Gewissheit; and Ihmels, Die christliche Gewissheit, ihr letzter Grand und Entstehung. At the same time may be recalled two older books of sterling value: Dale, The Living Christ and the Four Gospels, and Stearns, The Evidence of Christian Expel ience.

The first step in the upward path which we have, therefore, now to describe is Repentance.

Repentance had been the watchword of the forerunner of Christ, who preached “the baptism of repentance for the remission of sins.” Indeed, it * might be called the watchword of all the prophets; for these had all been sent, in the words of Isaiah, “to show the house of Jacob their sins.” But our Lord had Himself to sound the same note. In Matt. iv. 17 the commencement of His ministry is described in these terms: “From that time began Jesus to preach and to say, Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand”; where repentance is set forth as the very first word in His ministry. And in St. Mark’s account of the sending forth of the Twelve, to do in their humbler way the same work as their Master, this is what is said: “They went out and preached that men should repent,” as if this had been the sum and substance of the Gospel.

And repentance, if understood in its full Scriptural sense, is the sum and substance of the Gospel. It will be remembered that it formed an epoch in the experience of Luther when he discovered, on examining the Greek Testament, that the Greek word for repentance means literally a change of mind.* In the practice of the Roman Church and in the preaching to which he listened in his boyhood, pccnitentia, the Latin equivalent, was used indis-

* Merai/oux.

criminately for repentance and penance; so that in his mind repentance was identified with the whole round of penitential practices prescribed by the Church. Hence it was a great new light to him when he discovered that the repentance of the Bible is a change of heart. In our own religious vocabulary the word is too much identified with contrition, the shame and pain due to a sense of guilt. Though it includes these sentiments, its true meaning is much wider. The word “conversion” would more accurately express all that is included; and it is not surprising that, in the words of our Lord, this term is sometimes used in the same sense, as in the well-known saying, “Except ye be converted and become as little children, ye shall not enter the kingdom of God.”

As the penetration of Luther discovered, repentance signifies a change of mind; but this is not so much in the sense that our thoughts about religion are altered as in the sense that the mind is turned to religion from other objects. What is wrong with men is that their thoughts and feelings are absorbed in the wrong objects, the enthusiasm and force of the soul being expended on things that are not worthy of the devotion of such a being as man; and what is required is that the mind should be diverted from such questions as, What shall we eat? What shall we drink? and, Wherewithal shall we be clothed? to the thoughts connected with man’s lofty origin and immortal destiny. This drawing of men away from preoccupation with the wrong objects, that they may have just and influential conceptions of the right ones, has always been the problem of the religious teacher.

A remarkable peculiarity of the teaching of Jesus is that He seems to speak as if repentance were not necessary for all, as when He observes that there is joy in heaven over one sinner that repenteth more than over ninety-and-nine just persons that need no repentance. Does this mean that it is only one in a hundred that needs to repent? Jesus was speaking at the time of the publicans and sinners, and contrasting them with the scribes and Pharisees. Certainly the former class was designated by the one repentant sinner; and it would seem to follow that the latter class was signified by the ninety-and-nine. Did Jesus, then, mean that such persons as the Pharisees needed no repentance? We have already made our¬ selves acquainted with His estimate of the character of the Pharisees; and it would not lead us to suppose that He judged them to be in no need of repentance — quite the contrary: in His estimation Pharisaic sins were of all sins the worst. A subtle irony is, there¬ fore, to be suspected in this reference to the ninety-and-nine who need no repentance, the suggestion being that, in their own estimate of themselves, they need no repentance, although in reality this is the clearest evidence that they do require it not less, but

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more than others. It was in exactly the same vein that He said on a similar occasion, “I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.” On this occasion also those called to repentance were the publicans and sinners, while the righteous were the scribes and Pharisees; but that the latter should be called righteous by Jesus could only be in irony, if His language about them on other occasions had any justification. This is confirmed by the parable of the Two Sons,’ to whom their father said, “Go, work to¬ day in my vineyard.” The good one replied, “I go, sir,” but went not; the bad one said, “I go not,” but afterwards “repented and went.” Evidently here again we have the same two contrasted classes. The coarse impudence of the bad boy certainly required repentance, and perhaps provoked it in his own mind by its very superfluity of naughtiness; but equally did the behaviour of the good boy demand repentance, though repentance was not so likely to follow. With the same irony the elder brother in the parable of the Prodigal Son is described, it being apparently conceded that he is ever with his father and never has at any time transgressed his commandment; yet it is evident that he required repentance quite as much as his younger brother, if not more. But the point is unmistakeably decided in words from the Lord’s own mouth, when He says to the scribes and Pharisees, “Verily I say unto you, that the publicans and harlots go into the kingdom of heaven before you; for John came to you in the way of righteousness, and ye believed him not; but the publicans and the harlots believed him; and ye, when ye had seen it, repented not afterward, that ye might believe him.” Here He distinctly implies that they ought to have repented, and reproaches them with not learning to do so from the example of the publicans and sinners. With what contempt such a suggestion would be treated by them, it is easy to understand; nevertheless His intention was perfectly sincere. The sense of sin, it has often been remarked, may be in inverse ratio to its presence. A saint on the point of passing into glory may be poignantly conscious of being the chief of sinners, whereas the most notorious sinner may be prepared to defend himself as no worse than other people. But, if there be any on earth who either are sinless or think themselves so, Jesus passes them by with the observation, “They that are whole have no need of the physician, but they that are sick.”

From the scattered sayings of our Lord on repentance it would not be difficult to collect a clear idea of the elements entering into His conception of it; but we have received from Him one full-length picture of repentance; and it will be more remunerative to follow this clue, taking up more casual hints as they may occur by the way. The parable of the Prodigal Son contains, indeed, more than an account of conversion or repentance; because in its opening

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verses we find a most suggestive description of that which is the very opposite of conversion — namely, the departure of the soul from God — and towards the close we have an equally pregnant account of the change which follows repentance; while in the closing verses we have a searching investigation of the true inwardness of Pharisaism, involving the solution of the problem discussed between Christ and His opponents. But, on the whole, the parable of the Prodigal Son is an account of conversion or re¬

pentance; and it is needless to say that it is an incomparable one. Every word tells; every sentence goes to the marrow of the subject; scene succeeds scene in perfect and easy arrangement; and the whole is brought to a harmonious close. We need not be afraid of putting too much into this utterance; the only danger lies in not seeing deep enough.

The point in the parable at which the description of repentance may be fairly said to commence is when the Prodigal “came to himself”; and this striking phrase may be said to show the first element in repentance to be Awakening. When a man awakens out of sleep, we say he comes to himself. The Greek means literally “he entered into himself” * — a remarkable phrase; for who is denoted by “he” and who by “himself”? It sounds as if in one person there were two men, the one of whom has been from home but now returns. So, in common parels eavTov I6<xpv. lance, we say, a man is “out of himself” or “beside himself,” meaning that he is mad. And, indeed, sin is a brief madness; it is a drunken sleep, out of which a man has to awaken and be himself.* Or “he entered into himself” may suggest another line of reflection. The interior man may be conceived as a picture-gallery or corridor, hung with the scenes of one’s own past, into which, in hours of leisure and reflection, one can enter and follow one’s own course step by step and stage by stage. Certainly this was exactly what the Prodigal did, when, in the midst of the swine, he sat down and reflected on the past. The excitement and intoxication had now gone out of his blood and the glamour out of his eyes, and in the cold reality of retrospect he saw everything in an entirely different light. To get people thus to see things as they are, forms, in all ages, the task of religious teachers. “My people do not consider,” was the standing complaint of Jehovah, speaking through the prophets. Sometimes it seems as if nothing less than a miracle would awaken the unthinking. Such was the thought of Dives in the place of woe, when he begged that Abraham might be sent to his five brethren; “For,” said he, “if one went unto them from the dead, they will repent.” But the reply of divine wisdom, “If they hear not Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded though one rose from the dead,” indicates the true means of

* Horace, Epp. ii. 138, says of a lunatic, Redit ad sese. producing repentance — namely, the faithful preaching of the Word of God.

A second element in repentance is Fear: and this is indicated in the words “I perish with hunger.” * These words may, indeed, in the first place rather express the deep dissatisfaction with a godless existence which also is a part of repentance. As the Prodigal began with the best of everything, but at last had sunk to the husks that the swine did eat, so, in a sinful life, though there is a stage of greedy satisfaction with the things which gratify natural desire, yet delight is succeeded by disgust; in one hour, if the instincts of the higher nature be awakened, the satisfactions of a worldly life may cease to please and the most bottomless hunger ensue. But, besides, the Prodigal was actually confronted with the fear of death. He might die of actual starvation, as many a one has done at his stage of want and degradation. This corresponds with the fear of finally losing the soul which is an element in repentance. Of this motive Jesus did not scruple to make use, as we have already seen in speaking of the final issues of sin. “Except ye repent,” He said, “ye shall all likewise perish”; and another solemn saying to the same effect was, “Fear Him who, after He hath killed, hath power to cast into hell.” This latter saying has been interpreted of the Evil One; I should think, there can be little doubt that it refers

luiiocode dni’Wvuai. to God; but, taken either way, it conjures up an illimitable fear. In our day there are those who doubt whether this be a legitimate motive in religion; but the real question is, whether there be anything of this nature lurking in the future. If not, of course it is a crime to darken the minds of human beings with such a nightmare; but, if it be real, it may be criminal to be silent about it. The practice of sneering at the preoccupation of the mind with the hopes and fears of a future life was introduced by Goethe, and has since been repeated by a number of shallow spirits; but it was not worthy of the wisdom of that great man, and at all events it was in the face of the practice of a Greater than he.

A third element of repentance is a Vision of Good; and this is indicated in the parable by the words, “How many hired servants of my father’s have bread enough and to spare.” * The question has been much discussed in theology, whether, according to the teaching of the New Testament, the title “sons of God” belongs only to the saints or to all men. However the question may be answered in regard to other teachers in the New Testament, it is clear from this parable that Jesus looked upon all men as being in a sense children of God, however far they might be from living up to their dignity. The Prodigal was a son even in the far country; he could remember the paternal home; and it was this that

* jrepicrcrevovcnv aprajv.

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drew him back. This is ‘only stating in metaphorical language that man is a religious being, dowered with religious instincts, which, though neglected and even outraged, reassert themselves in moments of reflection and fill the soul with a divine longing. Man is an immortal being; and the passion for immortality, reawakening, may make every earthly possession appear trivial. There is no more potent means of awakening this longing than acquaintance with those who are enjoying the fatherhood of God themselves in its fuller sense; for, although Jesus acknowledged a certain sonship common to all, He, at the same time, endeavoured to produce a realisation of this sonship very different from the vague aspiration after an unattained good which may arise in the heart of the common man. It was in this sense of unclouded sonship that He placed the ideal of human happiness; and the sight of those who are in the enjoyment of it awakens in the careless and sinning the sense of what they are missing. Wherever there are Christians living a life of consistency and peace, there will be in their vicinity movements of uneasiness like that which arose in the Prodigal at the vision in his mind’s eye of the paternal home. Jesus Himself must have diffused such subtle impressions on every side; for, amidst the innumerable distractions to which He was exposed, it was manifest that, at the heart of His life, there was a great central peace, and amidst His sorrows it could be seen that

He was inwardly crowned with joy. The sonship in Himself, of which He testified, awoke in men the consciousness of their own.

A fourth element of repentance is Confession; and on this great stress is laid in the parable. No wonder: there is no more vital element in this state of mind. To recur again for a moment to the image of entering into oneself: the meditative mind goes from room to room in the interior galleries of reminiscence, tracing back the scenes and incidents of the past; but at last it comes to one room in which there is only a single figure; and before this object the Prodigal stands transfixed — because it is his father. Of him he had long thought little, try¬ ing even to forget him; but now the familiar features look down on him: the venerable figure, the melting eye, the gentle smile — all sink into his heart; till, casting himself in imagination before it, he cries, “Father, I have sinned.” And, in the subsequent meeting with his father, this scene is repeated. In his address to his father there is the genuine accent of repentance. Once, when he was fretting against the discipline of home and planning a way of escape, he called his conduct Independence; in the far country, when bright eyes were shining on him and soft arms encircling him, he called it Pleasure; later, after he had run through his means, and friends and lovers had forsaken him, he called it Ill-luck; even when he commenced his reflections

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in the course of coming to himself, he only called it Folly; but now he has found the right name, when he confesses, “I have sinned.” Confession deepens the sense of sin in the mind of him who confesses. It separates the man from the sin, being a kind of violent ejection of the latter. But it has an influence, too, on him against whom we have sinned. It has a kind of atoning power. The person to whom a confession is made is thereby provoked to lift up the penitent who has voluntarily cast himself down at his feet. Jesus expressed His sense of the extraordinary virtue residing in it when He said, “If thy brother trespass against thee, rebuke him; and if he repent, forgive him; and if he trespass against thee seven times in a day, and turn again to thee, saying, I repent, thou shalt forgive him.” But the best of confession is that it brings the sinner and the God sinned against face to face; for the core of repentance is to recognise, not what our sinful life has been to ourselves, or even to others, but what it has been to God.

A fifth element in repentance is Decision; and this is embodied in the parable, in the words, “I will arise and go to my father.” * One reason why “repentance” is not so good a translation of the New Testament term as “conversion,” is that it is too frequently identified with a certain kind of senti-

* ’Avaarras nopevaopai npos tov ware pa pov raent apart from action. There is a great deal of penitential sentiment that ends in nothing. The drunkard is said to repent when, on awakening from a debauch with pockets empty, a brain on fire, and a throat like an open sepulchre, he calls himself fool and madman; but in nine cases out of ten he does nothing; the fit of remorse passes; and, the next time temptation offers, he succumbs again. Unless remorse culminates in action, it is not deserving of the name of repentance. The fear of danger must be strong enough to force the Prodigal to his feet, and the vision of good attractive enough to draw him on in the right direction. It is not even superfluous that it is added, “And he arose, and came to his father.” Many a one has gone the length of saying, “I will arise and go to my father,” and yet has never returned home. Between the far country and his home the Prodigal may have had to pass through the city where his substance had been wasted; and there some would be willing, for old acquaintance’ sake, to invite him to the old haunts, or even spend a trifle on his entertainment; while others might scoff at the idea of his return in rags to a respect¬ able home. At all events it is certain that, whenever anyone resolves to quit the far country and return to his Father, obstacles are placed in the way and desperate efforts made to turn him back. “Strait,” said the Great Teacher, “is the gate; and few there be that find it.”

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Thus has an exposition been attempted of the portion of this parable most directly bearing on repentance, the other sayings of our Lord on the subject being at the same time woven in. Each of the five elements we have thus found in repentance might be a name for the whole. In experience sometimes one of these is more prominent and sometimes another; so that there is ample provision for variety in religious history. Almost better, how¬ ever, than even the parable of the Prodigal Son as a guide to the mind of the Saviour on this subject would be an exposition of the actual cases of repentance or conversion recorded in His ministry.

One such case of profound significance is that of Zacchaeus. How long this publican may have known something about Christ we are not informed; but, on the whole, his case is one of sudden conversion, and it was due principally to the attractive power of Christ, especially of His magnanimity and compassion. Zacchaeus stood and said unto the Lord: “Behold, Lord, the half of my goods I give to the poor; and, if I have taken anything from any man by false accusation, I restore him fourfold.” In his latest exposition of these words — in The Expositor s Greek Testament — the late Dr. Bruce interprets them as an account of the habitual procedure of Zacchaeus before he met with Jesus; so that what Jesus did was not to make Zacchaeus a good man, but to make the world, which had misunderstood him, aware how good he was. Zacchaeus was a hidden diamond, doing acts of justice and kindness by stealth and utterly demolishing the Pharisaic and the popular conception of a publican. It cannot be denied that the words of this verse by themselves might bear this construction, or that in such an interpretation there is a certain piquancy. But what becomes of the words that follow, “To-day is salvation come to this house,” or of the fervent words of Jesus immediately afterwards, “The Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost”? It is true, these words express the joy of discovery; but the discovery is a more sacred one than the un¬ earthing of the good deeds of a misunderstood moral hero. Anyone might have made such a discovery; but the discovery made by Jesus was one possible only to Himself; and the whole scene has to be emptied of its significance and separated from the others in the Gospels which exhibit the Saviour in the very act of transforming great sinners into great saints, if this meaning is thrust upon it.

In the conversion of Zacchaeus, a noteworthy feature is Restitution — a duty which ought to be preached far more than it is. Nothing exhibits more impressively the genuineness of true repentance than an earnest effort to undo the evil done in the preceding life, and this is rendered peculiarly impressive to the common man if it includes the refunding of money obtained in indefensible ways. In the recent

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Welsh Revival this was a prominent feature; and Mr. D. L. Moody used to introduce this subject in his addresses with remarkable results. The other effect on Zacchaeus was more commonplace — the resolution to, give half his goods to the poor. We see a kindred but perhaps a finer trait of repentance in the case of another converted publican — Matthew’ — when he assembles the former companions of his sinful life, to give them an opportunity of meeting and hearing the Master whom he had resolved to follow.

But the most impressive instance of repentance narrated in the earthly life of our Saviour is undoubtedly that of the Woman who was a Sinner, the account of which we owe to the graceful pen of St. Luke. If, through the movements of her body — for she uttered not a word — and through the words in which Jesus commented on her action, we could penetrate to the depths of her soul, we should see repentance in its purest form. It was in flight from a besetting sin and a lost life, and in pursuit of a better life, the vision of which had risen before her eyes, that she ventured in where she dared not well be seen. There was a certain boldness in her action; but this was necessary in order to make a public break with the past. On the other hand, humility pressed her down to the earth; shame constrained her to unbind her hair and let its heavy tresses fall to hide her burning blushes; sorrow for her sins, which were many, burst in tears from her eyes. The shattering of the box of ointment may have been the final sacrifice of an instrument of her evil calling. But it would not be easy even to name all the emotions surging through her soul — timidity, admiration, gratitude, love, enthusiasm. This was repentance: it is an upheaval of the nature from its foundations; it turns the life upside down; it is a decisive breach with the past; it is a great venture for the future.*

* If Professor Bruce wrote with imperfect wisdom on Zacchaeus, we have from his pen, in his choice book entitled The Galilean Gospel, a noble exposition of the case of the Woman who was a Sinner, from which a few sentences may be quoted. “Jesus believed in the possibility of moral transformation. Sin He knew and declared to be a bondage, but He did not regard it as a fixed final doom. The soul might shake off its fetters; a powerful reaction might take place in the conscience at any moment, resulting in complete and permanent emancipation.... A second item in the permanent didactic significance of this incident is, that much sin can be repented of and therefore forgiven. ‘ Her sins, which are many, are forgiven.’ There is no reason in this universe, Christ says in effect, why a grievous offender against moral laws should not enter into peace. All things work together for his good, even the un¬ cancelled ills of his own state, and in the state of others injured by his misdeeds; the one working in him meekness and patience, the other awakening in him a mighty desire to be henceforth a blessing instead of a curse to his fellow-creatures.... Happy for the world if this part of Christ’s Gospel be true. For the world does not consist for the most part of little sinners. Men and women in vast numbers go wrong greatly, tragically. A gospel which excluded them would be altogether a one-sided, mean, uninteresting affair, bringing a petty salvation to people

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of petty character, the elect circle of moral mediocrity, that supplies no theme to the historian, the dramatist, the artist, or the preacher.... Yet another lesson of this incident is that a great sinner may become a great saint. The ratioiiale of this is simple. A great sinner, penitent and forgiven, will love much. He will be characterized by great devotion to the Redeemer. But devotion to Christ is. the cardinal Christian virtue, the mother of all the virtues. Again, a great sinner means a man of great, misdirected energy, full of passion and life-force. When he is converted, he does not lose his energy. The driving power remains. All that takes place is that the power receives a new direction and is utilised for new purposes. Made free from sin, it becomes the servant of righteousness, and in this service gains distinction equal to its former bad notoriety in the service of evil.” Then Dr. Bruce quotes the following sentences of marvellous beauty from Bunyan’s Jerusalem Sinner Saved: “Alas, Christ has but little thanks for the saving of little sinners. To whom little is forgiven, the same loveth little. He gets not water for His feet by His saving of such sinners. There are abundance of dry-eyed Christians in the world, and abundance of dry-eyed duties too — duties that were never wetted with the tears of contrition and repentance, nor sweetened with the great sinner’s box of ointment. Wherefore His way is oftentimes to step out of the way, to Jericho, to Samaria, to the country of the Gergasenes, to the coasts of Tyre and Sidon, and also to Mount Calvary, that He may lay hold of such sinners as will love Him tOjHis liking.”