of fails to touch the real root of the transgression. The poison is in the wound still, and will frustrate all the cure. The rancour of the soul, which is the real venom of the wound, God seeks to expurge; and that never passes out until the penitent, hungry, footsore, tear-stained, travel-worn, falls blessedly on his Father's bosom, and cries, "Father, I have sinned against heaven, and in thy sight, and I am no more worthy to be called thy son ;" and then, and then only, can the joyous cry be heard, "Bring forth the best robe, and put it on him; and put a ring on his hand, and shoes on his feet: And bring hither the fatted calf, and kill it ; and let us eat, and be merry: For this my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found."

2. Confession re-establishes the filial relation, which alone can give to penitence its perfect fruit.

The father not only wishes to know that his child has come to his right mind, and that he sees both the commandment and his own transgression in the clear daylight of truth, but he wishes to have him home again, near his side, under his eye and hand, that he may watch and tend him, train and teach him, uphold him against the temptations which once mastered him, and make his repentance a repentance unto life. A sense of right in common is not a sufficient bond of communion between two beings who are brought into relations, unless it

be cemented by warm and living bands of love. Spirits do not need only to see eye to eye, they need to beat heart to heart; till that is possible, their concord is not perfect, they may talk of peace, but there is nothing of that peace which is known as the peace of God. That is essentially personal. It is not the setting a soul square with righteousness; this it includes, but it is essentially the setting a heart right with God. Hence confession, which is the restoration of a personal union, is essential to it. Let that be withheld, the father's heart is unsatisfied, the child's heart is unsoothed, the home is closed, the songs are still. The restoration of the child to the father's heart is the only complete restoration; this alone is the guarantee of future peace. Let the barrier which the sullen heart persists in holding against the Lord once be broken, let the inward shame and sorrow burst forth in the confession-" Have mercy upon me, O God, according to thy lovingkindness: according unto the multitude of thy tender mercies blot out my transgressions. Wash me throughly from mine iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin. For I acknowledge my transgressions: and my sin is ever before me. Against thee, thee only have I sinned, and done this evil in thy sight: that thou mightest be justified when thou speakest, and be clear when thou judgest,”—and the peace becomes perfect

and blessed. There is great joy in that home, as there was great joy in that city to which the Gospel came; and the song rings out and infects the air with its gladness :-" It was meet that we should make merry, and be glad: for this thy brother was dead, and is alive again; and was lost, and is found." Thus the demand for confession, like all Divine commands, has its root in the deep love of the Father of Spirits for even His prodigal children, and His resolve that their restoration shall be a complete restoration to peace and to Himself. This leads me to speak, in the third place, of

III. The fruits of confession through the abounding mercy and love of God.

"He will deliver his soul from going into the pit, and his life shall see the light." "God will deliver;" and the way of deliverance is here not dimly set forth. (Read Job xxxiii. 14-26.) I am not about to discuss the intricate questions which concern the doctrinal bearings of particular passages of the book of Job. To my mind, not in one passage only, but in many of the most profound passages of the book, the great idea of mediation is very plainly unfolded; and, as I have before said, the conditions of effectual mediation are very explicitly set forth. But, in truth, every promise of God in the Old Testament is built on the facts which are developed in the New. From first to

last it is God in Christ, "reconciling the world unto Himself, having made Him to be sin for us who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him." It is God in Christ who treats with man every when and every where. It is on the basis of the atonement which was completed on Calvary, that God meets with man and pleads with him in the promise::-" Come now, and let us reason together, saith the Lord: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool." The atonement is the reason, the promise is its fruit. Strike out that history-the history of the passion of the Incarnate Word—and there is no meeting-point of man and God. There is then no reason in forgiveness, no right. pronounce it; man could not believe in it; Heaven could not rejoice over it: -" But now the righteousness of God without the law is manifested, being witnessed by the law and the prophets; even the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe: for there is no difference: for all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God; being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus: whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in His blood, to declare His righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbear

K

God could not

ance of God; to declare, I say, at this time, His righteousness: that He might be just, and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus." There is the one absolute basis on which justification rests. But in this passage, and throughout the Old Testament generally, we have less the way set forth, explaining the grounds of the Divine action, than the end, as concerns man-forgiveness, reconciliation, and peace.

The fruits here set forth are two-fold. He will deliver his soul from going into the pit, and his life shall see the light.

1. The pit. It is a word at which some laugh, but at which others, who know what sin means, shudder. Some treat it as a mere bugbear, with which theologians frighten the foolish; to others, it is the horror of horrors, the grave of a living soul. The pit! Have you ever looked boldly into your own soul when the devil has been holding high festival there; after a mad revel, a foul wrong, a dark crime, or those more subtle and deadly sins of the spirit a frenzy of hate, envy, or revenge? Is there anything blacker in the universe than that looks? There is a pit there deep enough, dark enough, to bury a soul's volition, a soul's love, a soul's joy, a soul's hope, for ever from the light of day. Have you ever shuddered at the thought of sinking into the pit of your own sin, the slime