"The denial is most emphatic, and if you read through the chapter you will see that the apostle does not use any argument against a believer's wilful continuance in sin, he simply treats it as a thing impossible; as impossible as that the slave of one master should be the servant of another, or that a dead man should at the same time be alive."

"I see too," said Cecilia, "that our Lord says, that those who are forgiven most love most, not those who have sinned the worst; and sin and forgiveness do not mean the same thing."

"You are right, my dear; I feel sure that Christ is here speaking not of the actual degree of sin, but of the consciousness of sin. The two creditors in the parable both knew the amount of the debt they owed; the one who owed five hundred pence would have felt no gratitude towards his merciful creditor, had he not known that he was in debt, or had he thought the debt trifling, or the payment of it needless."

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But surely those who have sinned the most deeply, would be the most conscious of their sins, and of all that Jesus has done to deliver them."

"They would be, if our sense of sin were really in proportion to the sin itself; but one of the worst consequences of sin, its heaviest punishment in this world, is that it blinds the eyes, and dulls the heart, so that the wilful sinner becomes at last quite insensible both to his own sinfulness and God's mercy; and the higher the holiness, often the keener the sense of sin." (Comp. 1 Tim. i. 15, 16; 2 Cor. xi. 5; also Job xlii. 6 and i. 8.)

"There is a certain difficulty in our Lord's application of the parable. He places forgiveness as a cause of love, and then He says that it is the fruit of love; that she was forgiven, because she loved much."

"I was going to ask you about that when you had finished what you were saying," said Cecilia.

"I think the very difficulty shows us that the two are

inseparably connected-love, the strong yearning after Christ, will never be sent away ungratified. He does not weigh and measure the exact amount of sin, so much shall be forgiven, so much shall be past forgiveness. No one that cometh to Him in love, or in faith, will He cast out, and the consciousness of the forgiveness that He grants deepens and intensifies the love for Him.

"And now let us turn to the conduct of the woman herself, her love for Jesus, her ardent desire to see Him, to cling to Him for pardon, could brook no delay. Not only did she lavish on His feet the most costly offering she could present, but she made her way through those who she knew must scorn and despise her, and from whom, in her newlyawakened sense of sin, she would have shrunk, had room been left in her heart for any feeling of self; and this, mind, was only in the hope of being forgiven, for it was not till Jesus spoke to her, and said, 'Thy sins are forgiven,' that she knew that the merciful Saviour had sealed her pardon. We can only guess at the remainder of her life, but we may feel sure that He who had begun a good work in her would not abandon her, but help her forward in her heavenly course, till she should reach that place prepared for all who have repented and believed in Jesus."

"What does our Saviour mean by saying to Simon, 'Thou gavest me no water for my feet,' &c. Was it customary to wash a guest's feet?"

"When they were guests of consideration, they were treated with all those ceremonies, which Jesus says, that Simon had omitted in His case, thus showing that he looked upon Him as no more than an ordinary acquaintance. In the 49th verse you see that Christ's forgiveness of sins excited the same wonder as on a former occasion. His parting words to the poor woman were, 'Go in peace,' words which must have stayed in her heart with comfort, through all the fierce struggle she must have had with sin and with temptation."

CHAPTER IX.

ST LUKE VIII. 1–4.

"Do any of the other Evangelists mention this journey?" asked Cecilia.

"No; St Mark mentions none of the events recorded by St Luke between the choosing of the apostles and the parable of the sower. He does relate a discourse upon the casting out of the devils, which St Matthew shows to belong to the healing of a man who had a devil. St Matthew relates the healing of the centurion's servant and the message of John the Baptist, but not in the same order; and places the plucking of the ears of corn, and the healing of a man with a withered hand, after the message of John. This is the first mention of these three women. Joanna and Mary Magdalene, as you know, we hear of again in the history of the resurrection; of Susanna there is no other notice.

"Is Arthur coming?" asked Mrs Dalton, interrupting herself.

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No; he told me to say my father wanted him, so he could not come," said Ellen.

"Very well; now go on reading" (4th verse). "This is the first parable spoken by our Lord, is it not?" said Ellen, stopping at the end of the 4th verse.

"We had one yesterday," suggested Cecilia; "the one of the two debtors."

"Our Lord's words seem to point to this as a sort

of introduction to His teaching by parables (Matt. xiii.; Mark iv. 13). Like His other discourses, the parables seem sometimes to have been prompted by circumstances; and the parable of the two debtors is an example of these. Sometimes they had, as far as we know, no such origin, but were part of His systematic teaching; and of these this parable and the six others in Matt. xiii. are examples."

"Can you tell us what was the object of our Lord's teaching by parables?" said May. "I know in a general sort of way, but I want to know more distinctly."

"I am glad you did not ask me that question yesterday," said Mrs Dalton, smiling, "or I could not have answered it so well; but I told your father last evening how far we had got in our reading, and we began talking about the parables and looking through them. The object of them seems, in a general way, to be to bring before us vividly, and in a way suited to our comprehension, truths which neither we, nor those who first heard them, would otherwise be able to grasp. Some of them are prophetical of the spread of Christ's kingdom, or its growth in the hearts of men; others, of the last judgment; others, of the final rejection of the Jews as a punishment for their stubbornness; others, again, describe God's readiness to hear prayer; and those in Luke xv. set before us very forcibly God's love to us. By the help of these we understand God's dealings with us far more clearly than we could hope to do otherwise. Some of the parables, again, enforce upon us some special doctrine or precept, such as preparedness of heart to hear God's Word, constancy in prayer, unselfishness, work for God; but though the general object of the parables is one or other of these two, either to illustrate God's dealings with men or to enforce some precept of the gospel, I cannot draw the line of distinction sharply in the individual parables. Many of them teach us both. To take only one instance, the parable of the rich.

man and Lazarus, which teaches us the sin of selfishness and disregard of our neighbour's wants, gives us also a clearer glimpse than any other passage in the Bible, unless perhaps some chapters of Revelation, into the state of those who have left this world, and are waiting the final judgment."

"Will you tell us some of the parables which belong to one of the different classes you mean?" said Cecilia. 'Try whether you cannot think of some. Tell me first of one that contains a prophecy of the spread of Christ's kingdom."

Cecilia sat thinking for a few seconds, then happening to glance at her Bible, which she had open at Matt. xiii. before her, exclaimed, "There is the parable of the mustard seed."

"Yes; the scope and meaning of that is to show how God's kingdom should grow in the world."

"And the one that we read yesterday—the two debtors to God-teaches us, that the amount of love, not the amount of sin, is what God looks to," said May; "that teaches us a doctrine which applies to each individual."

“And the one you spoke of then-of the two fellowservants-teaches us that we must forgive others, if we wish to be forgiven," said Ellen.

"Yes; I cannot let you go through all the parables now -there is not time-but I think if you would look them out, you will find that the object of them is either to reveal the future growth and varied condition of the Church, to set forth some aspect of God's dealings with men individually, or to enforce some precept which we must observe. These truths, which our dull minds would be unable to grasp were they expressed simply in few words, come within our reach; the story, with its double meaning, earthly and heavenly, enables us, through the medium of that which we can understand, to see (faintly and dimly, it is true) those deep heavenly mysteries, which but for this