self on the edge of the grave, I shall decide quite otherwise respecting my trespasses than I do in the season of health. What seems to me now only as a grain of sand will appear to me then as a mountain rearing its head above the clouds, as if to give testimony against me in heaven. What I now regard as a trifle, I shall then shudder to think of, as a matter of the heaviest import. And, oh! may I even then, when all my felicity for unbounded ages will depend upon this illumination of my understanding, may I even then only perceive the entire abomination of my crimes and errors!

And when thus the lively consciousness of my sins terrifies me, when the anguish of my soul increases, and my straitened heart knows no relief, oh! then thy meritorious death, my Jesus! must prove my sanctuary, and the trust and comfort of my soul. Think of me, gracious Jesus! when I wrestle with my sins, and let me not be subdued. Think of me, when the remembrance of the levities of my youth, and of the worse acts of my riper years, make my heart afraid, so that I may not be wholly bereft of hope. Think of me in those hours of sorrow, when no one on earth thinks of me, or when the mindfulness of my friends can afford me no alleviation, in order that I may be able to combat against all trials and temptations. Think of me in my death-agonies, and abide by me with thy grace, that I may find the portals of heaven unfolded for my entry, when the earth can no longer afford to me a dwelling-place on its surface. Remember all the desolate, all suffering, and all dying persons, for their respective good. Of these children of calamity there are many at this present moment who seek thee with all their heart. Mercifully encourage and alleviate them, and let them, for thy redemption's sake, find their home in thy Father's mansion.

CONTEMPLATION XXXVII.

The Graciousness of Jesus towards the Penitent Thief.

And Jesus said unto him, Verily I say unto thee, To-day shalt thou be with me in paradise.-LUKE, xxiii. 43.

By this answer I again recognise Jesus in his divine majesty, which even the deepest debasement could not wholly efface. I see before me meanness and elevation, poverty and riches, united in a most mysterious manner in one and the same suffering person. What no king can do, when death strips him of his earthly dignity, the crucified Jesus does here: he promises to the penitent thief a portion in his kingdom, and in the glory which he expected on the day of his decease. Did it lately prove a stumbling-block to my weak reason, when I heard Jesus abused by senseless slanders and vulgar taunts? now is this objection entirely taken away, since I behold him at present in a state of potency and greatness, which no mockery nor defamation can in the slightest degree abridge. Truly, Jesus the crucified is the Son of God. His is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever and ever!

And how consolatory is it for my faith that this King is the friend of sinners. The evidences of his divine exaltation would be far from proving so satisfactory as they are, if he had not displayed them for the good of transgressors. If I merely knew that his kingdom and his glory are of eternal duration, this knowledge could not be so very ravishing to me; to render it thus, I must first have learned, that I also have a part in his kingdom and in his glory. If I

only beheld in the persecuted Jesus the Son of God, this would, indeed, strike me with admiration, but it would, at the same time, awe me from approaching to him. But—sweet, encouraging idea!—Christ, the Son of God, is the friend of sinners, and he is my God, my King, my Saviour, and my Sanctifier! And this conviction it was that gave peace to the heart of the dying malefactor. In the extreme tribulation of his soul, in the near approach of his last moments, nothing could more strongly invigorate him, nothing inspire him with more joy, than the love with which Jesus gave ear to him and accepted him. He had disclosed to the Redeemer all the anguish of his soul, and Christ was ready to release him from it, nay to promise him more than he had ventured to solicit. The delinquent begged Jesus to remember him when he should come into his kingdom. He could easily conjecture, that his torment on the cross would not continue for a long time he only desired, therefore, that, when his death ensued, he might find some measure of grace, and not be quite lost. But Jesus imparted to him far more than he could either have imagined or craved. Today, said the great Benefactor, shalt thou be with me in paradise!

How amazed I am at Jesus' love for sinners! Even during the time of his crucifixion, under the most horrible pangs, in the vilest degradation, sinners remain his dearest concern. As, throughout his life, it was his daily occupation to search for sinners, and to render them blessed, so is it also now, in the hour of his death, his gratification to rescue lost souls from perdition, to convert the profligate and abandoned. conceive to myself what joy his tortured heart must have felt, when he saw his last efforts on the earth for

I

the rescue and felicity of sinners so victoriously crowned with success! He had often, while a wanderer in the world, endeavoured, through his doctrines and his blessings, to draw sinners to him without effect; and now, at the extreme close of his terrestrial existence, he had the happiness to win the affections of one of the greatest of transgressors. This was the first conquest of the cross, the first result of the intercessory petition which Jesus had made for his foes, and the noblest booty which he himself carried away from death's scene of

contest.

Oh! that I, too, through my reformation, might yet cause to my Redeemer as much joy as I have already occasioned him sorrow through my continued obduracy and impenitence! How long has he looked towards me in my errors, how often sought to save me, and how ardently desired my amendment! To what a number of external circumstances and events has he given rise in order to awake me out of my lethargy of sin! Every season, every place, every occurrence, was ordered and employed by his tender care to bring me to him. So many examples as he has exhibited to me both of rejected and grace-admitted sinners; so many disasters, and special gifts, and deliverances as he has sent to myself individually, might surely convince me of his inclination to seek out sinners to the last, to sue for their confidence and love, and to make them happy without bounds! And what does he not do for me at this moment? The opportunity which he affords to me of contemplating his sufferings; the instance which is placed before me of a pardoned worker in iniquity are not these powerful admonitions to my heart to flee from the paths of vice, and cleave to him

N

who is able and willing to save? No, thou only Help of sinners! I will not allow thy exertions to be fruitless with respect to me. I see how thou stretchest out thy arms to me, and I hasten towards thee. I will gladly permit myself to be laid hold of by thy benignant hand. Without farther postponement, I will now be solicitous for the safety of my soul. So favourable a moment as the present will not, perhaps, return: conversion will not be so easy to me in the process of time as it now is. I shall grow every day more perverse, more habituated to sin, and therefore more hardened. I will hence avail myself of the passing instant, and employ it in meditating important things, and in making those essential preparations from which I may anticipate a happy termination to my mortal career.

The sooner I apply myself to the work of salvation the more cheerfully shall I meet death, and the more certain shall I be of participating in eternal bliss. If this important task be early commenced and vigorously prosecuted, then, indeed, I may expect heaven with confidence as my reward, and breathe out my last in the soothing persuasion that, on the day of my death, I shall arrive in paradise. That last moment, which here separates my soul from my body, will then be my first in glory. Let the earthly part of me moulder into dust, the better part will be exalted above the grave and corruption. Be my knowledge of the condition of the soul after corporeal extinction, and of the nature of the world to come, ever so obscure and imperfect; it is enough that I am convinced that it will go well with my own immortal spirit; enough that I can rest assured, that the place to which I shall be removed will be an infinitely more agreeable, and an in