whence come they? Look at the frowns. The Lord has offended them. How? (St. Mark ii. 6, 7.)

Now two questions:

(i.) How was the Lord able to give this absolution?

See Him give the same to a woman from the streets-distressed for her sins"Daughter, be of good comfort" (St. Matt. ix. 22, compare with "Son, be of good cheer," ver. 2). How was He able to do this?

(a) "He was God as well as Man." I thought you would say that; quite true. But think; can the judge let off a prisoner who is found guilty? What will be said by good men if he do? That is not just (Gen. xviii. 25, last part).

(6) He was Himself to bear the guilt of those very sins, to pay the penalty. "Son, be of good cheer, see these hands shall be pierced for thee; feet pierced for thee, will hang on cross with all the guilt resting on Me, bear it all away." Thus He could forgive (Isa. liii. 5, 6).

(ii.) How was the man able to receive the absolution ?

A strange thing the angels see in our streets every day. Thousands of men going about, some grown quite grey with age, carrying about always with them the sins of all their life from time when they were schoolboys-not one sin forgiven, and the burden growscarry it about in God's sunshine, just as though Christ had not died for them. Others so happy, forgiven; why not these? How was this man able to take the forgiveness ?

(a) He was penitent; "Pilgrim's Progress." What is the bundle on Christian's back which presses him down? Sin felt. What means it when he feels that the great rock at Sinai is about to fall and crush him? Feels God's law is against him. So this poor man, no doubt, on his bed, had much time to think; his fishing-nets, or his spade, away in the corner, he not able to use them a helpless log; perhaps wife had to keep him for years; this not the worst. How about the future? Must go before God. Most people think that his palsy due to wild, bad life when young. So brought to feel penitent. (See St. Matt. v. 4.)

The

(b) He had faith in Christ. ittle group of five did not know what they were about to get. He is "wont to give more than we desire or deserve." But they all five had faith in Christ

and His power and kindness. So the poor fellow was able to receive the absolution; yon poor Pharisees needed it, but could not receive it as yet. How happy he; how different his life; sunshine come; could bear anything now. Absolution (Ps. xxxii. 1).

(iii.) How did the Lord teach us to believe in absolution ?

Now, was the poor man drawn up through the roof and carried back again by his friends, still a cripple, though happy? No. But remember it is so sometimes. When we sin it is like two things: (1) Spilling ink over a white frock; (2) dropping a handful of thistle seed amongst the flowers in the bed. How so? There is a stain on our souls called "guilt," that separates the soul from God and heaven; there are troubles spring up in our lives-those called "the consequences" of singuilt and consequences. Wild youth, much sin, leaves dark guilt, and bad consequences, sometimes palsied limbs. (Ever see palsy ? Continual shaking, useless limbs, speech bad, pallid cheeks.) Terrible to sin; even when the guilt pardoned, the consequences left (Gal. vi. 7, 8), perhaps poverty, or sickness, or disgrace. God so merciful and loving, can change these and make them useful even, steps up to heaven, though hard to bear. Here the Lord does what? By miracle removes the consequences as well as the guilt. Look round the hot, crowded room a moment; only one sick man; but how many need forgiveness! He longs to give it ; feels for them though they scowl upon Him. Cannot accept the pardon that would make them of good cheer. A gift offered, but no hands to take it. The Lord makes use of the miracle to do them good. Listen! Read St. Mark ii. 7 to 11. Puzzling question-Which easier to SAY? To say Forgiven," none can test it; nothing to show. To say "Be well, rise up, walk," all would look at once to see if the word had power. A hush-He speaks the words "Rise up," &c., all eyes fixed. What wonder to see the cripple instantly feeling the new power, rise, roll up mat, with beaming face, grateful heart, edge his way through the crowd. No doubt about it; power there; illness_gone; yes, and the sin was forgiven. Feel as sure as though saw "paid" marked on the bill they owed, or saw prison door open and the prisoner walk out-all paid; loosed from all. Absolution (ver. 12).

[Teachers should gather up the threads -be sure that the answers to two questions (i. and ii.) are clear, as also the difference between the guilt and consequences of sin-then bring this most important subject home.] You have not lived as long as you have without having sinned (name likely sins)—that has left a stain-needs absolution. God longs to give it to us all; are we able to take it? Are we sorry? Some boys and girls secretly are unhappy about wrong things done. Do this: (1) When you say the "confession" in church, we have erred and strayed," &c., re

III. THOUGHTS

1. "I do freely and fully acknowledge, and with unspeakable comfort embrace this as a most necessary and infallible truth, that whereas every sin is a transgression of the law of God (1 John iii. 4), upon every transgression there remaineth a guilt upon the person of the transgressor, and that guilt is an obligation to endure eternal punishment, so that all men being included under sin, they were all obliged to suffer the miseries of eternal death; it pleased God to give His Son, and His Son to give Himself, to be a surety for this debt, and to release us from these bonds; and because without shedding of blood there is no remission, He gave His life a sacrifice for sin, He laid it down as a ransom, even His precious blood as a price by way of compensation and satisfaction to the will and justice of God; by which propitiation, God, Who was by our sins offended, became reconciled, and, being so, took off our obligation to eternal punishment, which is the guilt of our sins, and appointed in the Church of Christ the Sacrament of Baptism for the first remission (Acts ii. 38, xxii. 16), and repentance for the constant forgiveness of all following trespasses. And thus I believe 'the forgiveness of sins.'"-(Bishop Pearson.)

2. The ministry of reconciliation (2 Cor. v. 19) is fully and freely set forth in the services of the Church as contained in the Prayer Book. The following seven points are made abundantly clear :

(a) That our forgiveness flows out from the Fatherly Heart of God. 'Almighty God, our Heavenly Father, Who of Thy tender mercy didst give Thine only Son Jesus Christ to suffer death upon the cross for our redemption."

(b) That the atonement offered by

member the wrong things-might write them down even. (2) When the clergyman stands up to say the absolution, say to yourself, "That is God's message to me. He has forgiven all. I am loosed from all, like Jesus saying to me, 'Son, (daughter) be of good cheer,'" &c. So you will feel that nothing comes between you and God; when the sun shines, and the birds sing, will feel it is all like that in your heart. (The illustration (4) in notes for teachers may be used, if time permit.) The song of happy sons and daughters whom their Father has forgiven (Ps. ciii. 1—3).

FOR TEACHERS.

Christ has made it possible for God to forgive all who truly repent. "Who made there (by His one oblation of Himself once offered) a full, perfect, and sufficient sacrifice, oblation, and satisfaction for the sins of the whole world." (c) That sin is first put away in the Sacrament of Baptism. "We call upon Thee for this infant (or this person) that he, coming to Thy Holy Baptism, may receive remission of his sins by spiritual regeneration."

(d) That the priest has authority to declare and pronounce God's pardon to the penitent. "The Father of our Lord Jesus Christ hath given

power and commandment to His ministers to declare and pronounce to His people, being penitent, the absolution and remission of their sins," &c. "Receive the Holy Ghost for the office and work of a priest in the Church of God. Whose sins thou dost forgive, they are forgiven; and whose sins thou dost retain, they are retained," &c. (Ordination Service, and see St. John XX. 21-23).

...

(e) That confession of sin is a condition of pardon. Two forms of general confession are given for use; one in daily Morning and Evening Prayer, the other in the Office of Holy Communion. Special confession by the individual is also provided for in the exhortation in the Communion Office, which is as follows:-"And because it is requisite that no man should come to the Holy Communion but with a full trust in God's mercy, and with a quiet conscience; therefore if there be any of you, who by this means cannot quiet his own conscience herein, but requireth further comfort or counsel, let him come to me, or to some other discreet and learned minister of God's Word, and open his grief; that by the ministry

of God's Holy Word he may receive the benefit of absolution, together with ghostly counsel and advice, to the quieting of his conscience, and avoiding of all scruple and doubtfulness." -(See the exhortation in Communion Office, and also the Visitation of the Sick.)

(f) That preaching, or the ministry of the Word, is the instrument by which the Holy Ghost brings men to repentance. A sermon is ordered for each Sunday; the various Prayer Book exhortations are suggestive of what the preaching should contain; and the exhortations to repentance are frequent.

3. In a weird passage of the "Inferno," Dante pictures Guido di Montefeltro as having lost his soul through trusting to a priest's absolution without repentance on his own part. Boniface VIII. would demolish the fortresses of Penestrino, and promised Guido absolution in return for his assistance. "Let not

thy heart misdoubt; even now I do absolve thee, and do thou teach me so to act that I may cast Penestrino to the ground. Heaven I can open, as thou knowest, for two are the keys that my predecessor held not dear." Guido, in Inferno, subsequently cries, "Saint Francis afterwards, when I was dead, came for me, but one of the Black Cherubim said to him, 'Do not take him; wrong me not. . . . For he who repents not cannot be absolved.'" Dante taught his generation that—

So

66 Naught but repentance ever can absolve, And that though sins be horrible, yet so wide arms

Hath goodness infinite that it receives
All who turn to it."

(Quoted by Bishop Carpenter.)

4. The sect of the Novatians and others in the third century denied that those who lapsed either under persecution or severe temptation, after they had been baptized, could be restored and forgiven. Hence the Article "I believe

in the forgiveness of sins" is very emphatic. St. Gregory Nazianzen calls repentance "another Baptism," but

rougher and more troublesome. Our 16th Article runs, "not every sin willingly committed after Baptism is sin against the Holy Ghost, and unpardonable."

5. No notes on this part of the Creed would be complete without reference to Martin Luther's experience-how, alarmed by a thunderstorm, when a student, he was brought under deep conviction of sin, and he entered the monastery at Erfurt. To gain peace he undertook the most laborious and humbling employments, with wallet on his back begging in the streets; he practised extreme rigour in the ascetic life; he found no peace, he became thin, and a deadly pallor and strange wildness came over him. No peace; he was discovered in a fainting state on the stone floor of his cell. It seemed to him a fearful thing to meet a holy God. All was darkness in his soul. At this crisis an aged monk, sitting at the side of his couch, repeated the words of the Creed, "I believe in the forgiveness of sins." The words penetrated the soul of Luther. They were balm to him. At length he said aloud, "I believe in the forgiveness of sins." "Ah! but," returned the monk, "we are to believe not merely that there is forgiveness for David or for Peter; the command of God is that we believe there is forgiveness for our own sins!" Luther's spirit revived; here was rest for his storm-tossed soul: "I believe in the forgiveness of sins- of MY sins." Peace, strength, health came back; he walked in the light and hape and joy of the living.-(See "Luther Anecdotes.")

6. The forgiveness of sins is beautifully set forth by our Lord in His washing of the disciples' feet. "If I wash thee not, thou hast no part with Me.... He that is bathed " (the first washing from sin) "needeth not save to wash his feet" (the need of constant cleansing from the defilement which we contract in our subsequent daily life) (St. John xiii. 3-11).

Collect of Twenty-first after Trinity.

"I believe in...

222. Explain these three parts.

The body of man, which we can see and touch; the soul of man, by which he thinks, loves or hates, feels joy or