Verse 8. "And again he stooped down and wrote on the ground."

Then in each man's heart there arose an accusing cry. Longforgotten sins rose up to judgment. Sins well-concealed would no more be hid.

A living power stirred up the dark depths of each man's mind; the fierce accusers of the guilty woman thought no more of her. How great is the power of conscience when awakened by the voice of God!

Verse 9. "And they which heard it, being convicted by their own conscience, went out one by one, beginning at the eldest, even unto the last :

When Jesus had spoken the few and solemn words which had a power given unto them to raise such a storm in the bosoms of the old men and the young who had heard them; He again stooped down and wrote upon the ground, and thus gave them fair occasion to withdraw.'* One by one they stole away, self-judged and self-condemned, thankful, no doubt, that his calm searching eyes were not fixed on them, but upon the ground.

Verse 9, "And Jesus was left alone, and the woman standing in the midst.”

Human nature is every-where the same-violence may produce fear and anger, but not repentance. The shame of the sudden and public exposure to the gaze of men, with her crime proclaimed aloud, might have hardened, it scarcely could have softened the feelings of the guilty woman; but when she saw the awful sense of sin fall on those who dragged her there, and send them away in silent shame, each to his home: then, indeed, in that sudden stillness, her sin might fill her with solemn fear. * Jeremy Taylor's Life and Death of Christ, p. 77.

Alone with Him, the power of whose words had changed men's furious accusations into self-condemnation, repentance had room to work.

What was it the Saviour was writing upon the ground? Was it God's judgment of her crime, which His lips refused to speak? Was it His own sorrow for the sins of men, the burthen of which He had to bear? We know not: but,

Verse 10, 11. "When Jesus had lifted up himself, and saw none but the woman, he said unto her, Woman, where are those thine accusers? hath no man condemned thee? She said, No man, Lord. And Jesus said unto her, Neither do I condemn thee: go and sin no more.”

He did not say to her as he had said to many a sufferer before, "Go, in peace; " but simply, "Go, and sin no more." Though He would not take upon himself the office of a magistrate, these words were a condemnation of her sin. She must go to her ruined home- and take the consequences of her crime, which remained as they were before. Jesus would not be the Judge. He came to save, and not to condemn, therefore his lips would not pronounce her sentence; but, if her husband chose to prosecute her according to the law, she was still in his power. If her life should be spared, let her remember the words of Jesus, "Go, and sin no more." Let her remember what she had herself endured, what she had seen of the power of conscience, and tremble even at the thought of sin. We know not her history, but we may hope that when she left the Saviour's presence, whether it was for life or for death, she carried with her a heart touched with that repentance which is unto life.

Those who would fain persuade themselves and others, that purity of life is not absolutely insisted upon in Scripture, have striven to find in this remarkable history, a proof that such

sins as are therein spoken of, are not odious in the sight of God: but it must be confessed that they have ill chosen a place in Scripture from which to argue.

There is no passage in it which more clearly shows the selfcondemning power of sin, and how little the sleep of conscience may be trusted. The Scribes and Pharisees " were righteous in their own eyes, and despised others." Clearsighted to the sins of their fellow-men, they never thought of the sins that had been adding year after year to their own guilt; they came into the presence of Jesus as accusers,—they left it self-condemned criminals,-the judgment of God was against them, as well as against the woman.

Death is the punishment still recorded against all sin, and there is no life, but in Him who is the Life and Light of men; on Him we may cast our burden. The few words He spoke, even his very silence, was a witness against sin: yet He will not condemn us; only let us remember that He bids us "Sin no more." He does not undertake to save us from the earthly consequences of our sins. If we have brought disgrace and ruin upon ourselves, we must bear it, yea, more than bear it, for we should be thankful that our sins have been brought to light in time, if only the discovery has, as it were, forced us into the presence of our Redeemer,-let us fall down at His feet, and seek from him pardon and peace, and rise from thence meekly to endure whatsoever suffering we may have brought upon ourselves. The purest amongst us has good cause to confess,

"A sinner, Lord, behold, I stand

Condemned in thought and word and deed,
But Jesus sits at thy right hand,

For such as I to intercede."

XXXII.

JOHN VIII.

JOHN viii. 12." Then spake Jesus again unto them, saying, I am the light of the world: he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life."

You have already heard, that during the Feast of Tabernacles, each night in one of the outer courts of the temple,* there were lighted up two immense candlesticks. These were adorned with innumerable lamps, hanging from their branches, and so brilliant was the light they shed on all around, that from the heights about Jerusalem, the way-faring man could see the temple rising in splendour from the blackness of the surrounding night; it was a splendid type of the spiritual light, that shone out from thence to disperse the heathen darkness of the Gentile nations" and to guide their feet into the way of peace." +

It has been thought, that when the Lord Jesus said, "I am the light of the world," He meant, from this illumination in the temple court, to lead the thoughts of the people to himself, of whom it was a type; or that looking on the rising Sun, which is seen most gloriously from Mount Moriah on which the temple stood, He cried, as the darkness rolled away from the mountains, "I am the light of the world."

Both the night illumination in the court, and the rising sun, were types of him who "was the true light, which lighteth every man that cometh into the world;"‡ whose light long hid,

*This court was that one which was called "the court of the women."

Is

it too fanciful to suppose that this illumination, the type of Him who came a light, to lighten the Gentiles," was placed in this court in preference to any other, because He was from the beginning ordained to be "the seed of the woman?" † Luke i. 67 John i. 9.

*

had shone "in darkness, and the darkness comprehended it not;" but now was rising as "the sun of righteousness with healing in His beams."

The scene in the Temple that early morning of the day after the Feast of Tabernacles, the last that took place before the death and resurrection of Jesus had fulfilled all things, was surely a striking picture of the period of the world, and of the state of God's Church at that moment.

The Levites clearing away the burnt-out lamps and withered branches, showed forth the breaking up of the Old Covenant of the Jewish Church. It had fulfilled the end for which it had been ordained. Through the darkness of the heathen world it had shone a light and a witness to the great truth, that Jehovah the Creator of the heavens, and of the earth, and of the sea, and of all things in them, was the only one God, and that He only was to be served. But now the time was come, when the types and shadows of the Jewish Church were to give way, before the morning sun of Christianity, which even now was arising, and would shine brighter and brighter till that perfect day, when our fallen world will be brought back into the family of God.

Verses 12, 13. "Then spake Jesus unto them, saying, I am the light of the world: he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life. The Pharisees therefore said unto Him, Thou bearest record (witness) of thyself; thy record is not true.”

It is in the very nature of light to bear witness to itself, it cannot be hid, therefore

Verses 14, 15 "Jesus answered and said unto them, Though I bear record of myself, yet my record is true; † for I know whence I came, and whither I go; but ye cannot