soul is forfeit, and we have nothing with which to redeem it. In this miserable condition we are all on a level. All must be forgiven, or all must perish. And the point of the parable is—not, who has really been forgiven the most, but, who most feels that he has been forgiven. And then, in proportion to this feeling of the enormous debt forgiven-of the redemption of the soul from eternal misery through the blood of the atonement and the mercy of God-will be the love of him thus forgiven, thus redeemed, thus snatched as a brand from the burning. And he who loves will show his love; will do something as the natural consequence, the spontaneous fruits of his love, which will attest its existence. The woman did this, Simon did not. The woman brought her alabaster box of spikenard very precious; Simon did not pay to his Divine Guest even the ordinary civilities which courtesy in those days required. I give you the conclusion of this interesting scene in our blessed Lord's own words; you would be impatient of any other.

"He turned to the woman, and said unto Simon, seest thou this woman? I entered into thine house, thou gavest me no water for my feet: but she hath washed my feet with tears, and wiped them with the hairs of her head. Thou gavest me no kiss: but this woman since the time I came in hath not ceased to kiss my feet. My head with oil thou didst not anoint: but this woman hath anointed my feet with ointment. Wherefore I say unto thee, Her sins, which are many, are forgiven for she loved much; but to whom little is forgiven (that is, who feels as if little had been for

given), the same loveth little." Is it not manifest to us all, how anxious this woman was for her soul; how careless Simon was for his? How deeply she felt the forgiveness of her debt; how unconscious he was that he owed anything? How intense her love was for Him who was showing her mercy; how Simon desired no mercy at all? You cannot, then, be at any loss for the whole drift and the true meaning of the parable. I pray God, my dear brethren, that both you and Iall of us, every one of us-may lay the teaching of it to heart, and may earnestly seek the pardon of our sins and the redemption of our souls, and then we shall have that pardon and that redemption, and every penitent soul shall be at rest from its trouble, and shall love much. Jesus said unto the woman, "Thy sins are forgiven." "And they that sat at meat with Him began to say within themselves, Who is this that forgiveth sins also?" But Jesus heeded them not.

"And He said to the woman, Thy faith hath saved thee; go in peace."

And she arose.-Her burden was gone.-And she went on her way, full of joy and full of love.

M

SMALL BEGINNINGS AND GREAT

RESULTS.

Preached 4th Sunday after Trinity, 1862.

"Who hath despised the day of small things?"-Zech.iv. 10.

He who has done so has not been wise. A wiser man has said: "He that contemneth small things shall fall by little and little."

Everything is small at first. An acorn is a mere plaything in a baby's hand; grown into a little plant, it might be trodden down by a child's foot; but when it has struck its roots deep, and lifted up its head on high, and thrown out its branches wide, it becomes at once the emblem and the reality of a nation's glory and greatness, and carries Nelson on its deck and Trafalgar at its cannon's mouth. A spark of fire kindled into a flame, and burned down St. Paul's Cathedral and half of London besides. The river Nile, which pours its mighty body of waters for two thousand miles through Abyssinia and Egypt, is at its source but a little tiny rivulet which a boy might jump over. A little fever spot neglected soon spreads

a fatal disease over the whole body, and the man dies. One little seed of evil permitted to thrive in the heart presently kills the soul, and the man is lost for ever. Equally true, whether in its physical or moral sense, is the caution of the Apostle: "Know ye not that a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump?"

Every man is born with a sense of what is right and of what is wrong, and with a secret persuasion that there is an unseen God who knows all that he does, and who will judge him for it hereafter. The veriest savage has a keen sense of any injury done to himself, and so knows that he ought not to injure another. Every man, therefore, born into the world is a responsible being; his conscience prompts him to do right, although his passions may lead him to do wrong so that the light of nature makes it clear to him what morally he ought to do, and what morally he ought not to do.

Much more does the light of God's revealed Word show a man all this. David had only a part of this Word to guide him; but he gratefully said of it: "Lord,....Thy Word is a lantern unto my feet, and a light unto my paths." How heavy, then, is his responsibility around whom the Gospel shines, with Jesus Christ to point him the way, and the Holy Spirit to lead him along it! The first step is but a little one which takes a man out of this right way and puts him into the wrong. He takes that little step wilfully, though warned by conscience not to do so: he takes it because it is a little one, and he thinks he can step that little step back when he likes. But there

is this and that to please him as he walks alongflowers to smell at and fruits to taste; and so he takes step after step, step after step, and presently loses all desire to return; or if he make an effort to do so, he has lost his way, and there is no light to guide him back. He is in the very case which the prophet Jeremiah has described: whilst he is looking for light, God turns it into the shadow of death, and his feet stumble upon the dark mountains, and there he perishes. I am speaking here of the wilful sinner, who first does this little thing wrong and that little thing wrong, and then goes on to greater and greater things wrong; until he becomes hardened and blinded, and God leaves him and the devil has him. And he affords a sad instance of the truth: "He that contemneth small things shall fall by little and little."

We are of a fallen and corrupt nature. When we look at an infant, we think what an innocent little creature it is. But there are the seeds of evil in that little creature which soon show themselves. The seeds are very small, and the evil deeds they first give birth to are very small; but their growth is rapid, if not quickly and carefully rooted out: and then, oh! what great trees do they speedily become, among the branches of which every unclean bird makes its nest and hatches its young. By unclean birds, of course, I mean evil passions and inclinations-all those bad things which come forth from the heart, and defile the man: so small in their beginnings, so fatal in their end! Anger and wrath are but small things at first-only cross looks and hasty words; but by-and-by Cain, that