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are unwilling to make, and a conviction of utter unworthiness, which too few generally feel.

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Can we then sincerely adopt this confession, and honestly give utterance to the language which our church puts into the mouths of communicants, previous to their approach to the sacred table? "We do earnestly repent, and are heartily sorry for our misdoings; the remembrance of them is grievous unto us; the burthen of them is intolerable. Have mercy upon us, Have mercy upon us, most merciful Father; for thy Son our Lord Jesus Christ's sake forgive us all that is past." If this be the spirit which we have imbibed, and it is precisely that which led the weeping penitent to the feet of Jesus, then need we not despair of obtaining pardon. Much as we may have to be forgiven, yet it is not too much for God to forgive. We may rest assured that he who looketh down from the height of his sanctuary to hear the groaning of the prisoner, will listen to our humble petitions; that "he who is faithful and just to forgive us our sins," will hear in heaven his dwelling-place, and mercifully pardon, and that to us the consoling declaration will be addressed, "Thy sins are forgiven theego in peace."

But perhaps there are some now present whose view of their spiritual condition essentially dif

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fers from the scriptural view which has been now taken of it, and who cannot trace any parallel between their own case and that of the penitent believer, whose conduct we have been considering. Forming a very erroneous notion as to the spirituality of the divine law, and the extent of its requirements, their "ways are clean in their own eyes." Conscious that their lives are not stained by such enormities as to render them amenable to their country's laws, or to exclude them from respectable society, their frame of mind is that of the self-sufficient Pharisee, at whose table the Saviour was a guest when the penitent approached him: and when told of the rich mercy of God in pardoning for Christ's sake the very chief of sinners, their feeling is that of the elder son in the parable, when he heard music and dancing to celebrate his brother's return; and accused his father of partiality and unfairness in clothing the prodigal with the best robe, and killing for him the fatted calf.

But, be assured, that such a state of insensibility to your spiritual condition, and of ignorance of your own need of a Saviour, is a state of the most imminent danger. You have much to be forgiven, though you suspect it not; you have sins to be pardoned, and a debt to be cancelled; and even should you to the end be wrapt in spiritual slumber, and the

bed of death not be embittered by the upbraidings of a guilty conscience, and the pains of the body be far surpassed by the agonies of the troubled mind, yet the day of reckoning, though postponed in mercy, must eventually arrive; the day of terror, "which shall burn as an oven," when the books of God's remembrance shall be opened for your lasting condemnation, unless in this, the accepted time, you seek through the Saviour's merits for that pardon which will not be denied, which the penitent before us so freely obtained, and which is of infinitely more value than ten thousand perishing worlds.

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SERMON VI.

MARY OF BETHANY.

MARK xiv. 8, 9.

"She hath done what she could; she is come aforehand to anoint my body to the burying. Verily I say unto you, wheresoever this gospel shall be preached throughout the whole world, this also that she hath done shall be spoken of for a memorial of her.”

THE individual to whom this honourable testimony was borne by our blessed Lord, and the memorial of whose affectionate regard towards him is never to be forgotten, was Mary the sister of Martha and Lazarus. She was a member of that family of Bethany peculiarly distinguished as one which the Saviour loved; and she had already received the commendation from his lips, of having devoted her attention to the "one thing needful," and having chosen "that good

part which should not be taken from her," while her sister was cumbered with much serving, and showed too great care and anxiety about the things of the present world.

The transaction referred to in the text, has sometimes been confounded with that recorded in the seventh chapter of St. Luke's Gospel, where a woman, who had been a sinner, anointed the feet of our Lord as he sat at meat, washing them with her tears, and wiping them with her hair; but the transactions are totally distinct. That mentioned by St. Luke took place most probably at Nain in Galilee, in the house of Simon a pharisee; and the woman who anointed our Lord was of abandoned character. This oc

curred at a later period of his ministry at Bethany, near Jerusalem, in the house of Simon the leper, and the person who anointed was a pattern of christian excellence. The two incidents are therefore perfectly distinct. Neither need we suppose that because St. John fixes the date of this transaction six days before the passover, while St. Matthew and St. Mark fix it at two days only, that there were two separate anointings. The difference in their statements may readily be accounted for without having recourse to the supposition, that two events, so very similar, should have taken place in the same short period, or that our Lord should have been twice

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