possibility justify or encourage such danwickedness as you suppose.

Do you

gerous remember last year, when we heard that the ship in which your uncle had taken his passage to come home from the West Indies was lost, and that every person on board had perished, and we thought for some weeks that he was dead?

Henry. Yes, Mamma; and I remember my uncle told us afterwards, that he had been just going on board, when he was stopped about some business which he thought very provoking just then, though afterwards he found out that it had saved his life.

Mrs. B. Very true, my dear boy; and this will shew us how little we really know what is good for us, and what is not, but there is One who knows, in whom we may safely trust. But what I wanted to impress upon you was, what you cannot have forgotten, how far more lively was our joy and gratitude to that merciful Providence, who had preserved your uncle, when we with reason thought him lost, than it would have been, had we never thought him in any danger.

In the same manner, we cannot doubt but that benevolent beings, as the angels undoubtedly are, should feel a more lively joy at seeing a soul which had been in danger of suffering everlastingly, brought to a sense of its danger, and repenting truly of its past sins, than if that soul had indeed been "a just man who needed no repentance." But where, my dear children, shall we find such a person? Who can say that he needs no repentance? "For in many things," says St. James, "we all offend." And knowing our own unworthiness, the unworthiness of the best among us to be accepted of God, it is surely consoling to know also that our sincere repentance for our past sins, and our earnest endeavour to avoid them for the future, can give "joy to the angels in heaven." But before we can hope to do so, let us consider a little what is required of us, and let us take the three parables which the Bible affords us in illustration of this subject.

1

Henry. What, Mamma, are there three parables on this one subject?

1 James iii. 2.

F

Mrs. B. Yes, my love. The first two indeed are parables, in the literal sense of the word, comparisons; not stories at length, but short allusions to circumstances which might happen any day in common life. The third is one of the longest, one of the most detailed, and, at least as it has always struck me, the most beautiful of any in the Bible. We will begin with the two short ones first, and I think we shall hardly have time to go through the whole three to-day.

Jesus in the course of His preaching had not disdained to associate with persons who were looked down upon, and despised by the Pharisees.

Henry. Who were the Pharisees, Mamma?

Mrs. B. They were a sect, my love, or party among the Jews, who were very strict observers of all the customs and ceremonies commanded by the law of Moses; and who seemed to think that so long as they carefully obeyed the letter of the law, it mattered little, in comparison, what was the state of their thoughts and hearts. These persons took offence at our Saviour for con

prac

versing familiarly with notorious sinners. Now the Pharisees would have been quite right, if Jesus had made Himself a companion of these persons, in order to encourage them in their wickedness, or to share in it; but, on the contrary, He went among them to withdraw them from their bad tices, to shew them how sinful they were, and to teach them the ways of religion and of peace. But the Pharisees did not believe or did not understand this; Jesus, however, instead of being angry with them, condescended to explain the reasons of His conduct. "They that are whole," said He on one occasion, "need not a physician, but they that are sick”—that is, as a physician goes to heal, not those who are well, but those who are diseased; so I, who am the great Physician of the soul, and whose great object is to cure men of their sins, and give to their minds health and comfort, need not go to the righteous (if any such there be) but to those whose souls are diseased, and who have need of the healing medicine of my

1 Luke v. 31.

words: to them I go, that I may cure them of their sickness, by leading them to repentance, and forgiving their sins.

On another occasion, He answered the same objections by the two parables which I have already mentioned to you.

“What man of you,” He said, “having an hundred sheep, if he lose one of them doth not leave the ninety and nine in the wilderness, and go after that which is lost, until he find it? And when he hath found it, he layeth it on his shoulder rejoicing; and when he cometh home, he calleth together his friends and neighbours, saying unto them, Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep which was lost."

Henry. But, Mamma, was it not very foolish of him to leave all his other sheep, to look for this one? Might not they have run away too, while he was looking for the other?

Mrs. B. My love, we must understand that he left the remainder under proper care; for God, who is our good Shepherd, never ceases to care for any of His flock; but the expression is only a strong one, to signify the