LET our enquiries gather round this dying, praying, penitent thief. (a) Who was he? A Jew or a Gentile? (b) What had be done? Possibly he had lived a brigand life, and doubtless was a murderer. (c) Where was he? On a cross, and to a certainty dying. (d) How did he act? With courageconfessing his sin-condemning himself showing compassion for Christ. All this awakens our surprise and quickens our interest,

and we proceed to ask, (e) By what means was he led to manifest this spirit? Had he heard Christ preach? Had his imprisonment broken his spirit and led him to reflect? Had he been melted by the prayer, "Father, forgive"? Had he recognised Christ as the Preacher whose wayside words had been to him like nails fastened in a sure place? Was he impressed by the dignity and patience of Christ, and did he read these in the light of the inscription on the cross? or had suffering subdued him, and forced him, as he thought of the past, to prepare for the futuro? All these may have been

means used by God for reclaiming this soul, but behind them was the Divine sovereignty leading, convicting, enlightening. We must not place too much to the credit of this man, but we shall not err in saying that he had, what all ought to have, enough knowledge to see himself as a sinner, and enough wisdom to apply to Christ for help and deliverance. Let us note here

I.-A SINFUL MAN'S PRAYER. 'Jesus, remember me." "It was the offerer's last, yet perhaps his first prayer, perhaps, indeed, the only prayer he ever breathed."

1. To the life of prayer this will make, for all, a good beginning, and there is no better ending. Do not say you cannot pray, until you have appropriated these words.

2. This cry is addressed to a king. Yes, and the poorest beggar may thus have audience with the Lord of all. Do not say you have no friendship with royaltydoes not Jesus still live?

3. The prayer displays a humble spirit, yet it is in itself very full and comprehensive. If Christ

remembers us, what matters it who may forget us. His remembrance is not barren and unfruitful. It has all power and riches at its command. "Christ's memory of a penitent soul is a guarantee of that soul's salvation." Do not say you are unhonoured if you are held in the memory of the Saviour.

4. How short and simple is this prayer. It is just such a prayer as a sinner could pray, a penitent would pray, we all should pray. Do not say you know how to pray until you have learnt the meaning of these three words "Jesus— remember-me."

It

II. A DYING MAN'S FAITH. The Revised Version gives a clear meaning to the sentence which accompanied the short prayer. reads, "When Thou comest in Thy kingdom." Such words are evidence of some faith. It may be dim, uninstructed, undeveloped, but there it is-" the assurance of things hoped for." The words certainly wear every appearance of faith. (a) In Christ's Messiahship; (b) In Christ's future glory; (c) In Christ's power to confer favours. This man's dying body held a precious spirit just beginning truly to live. Prayer and faith are here going hand in hand.

And the faith was exercised amid difficulties. Christ stretched on the cross.

was

Does this

look like "coming in a kingdom"? No, but faith forgets all difficulties, overleaps all obstacles, pays no heed to the visible, but fastens on the promise, anchors there, and then rides in safety amid all the billows.

The wants of this dying man remind us at once of the "sufferings of Christ and the glory which should follow."

-

III-A PENITENT MAN'S BLESSING. "To-day shall thou be with Me in Paradise." This promise— (1) gave him much more than he sought. (2) Was to be speedily enjoyed "To-day." (3) Was Divinely assured-" Verily." (4) Contained the perfection of all blessing "With Me." What comfort for a dying man. He received it in silence. He was "dumb with praise." What a grand triumph for the cross! It was but the beginning of myriads. If Jesus Christ could save a robber-why not anyone? Jesus Christ could save a dying man-why not a living man? If Jesus Christ could save from the cross-why not from the throne ? Is salvation by works? How then was this man saved? Is salvation by grace through faith? Why then should any despair?

BRISTOL.

If

WALTER J. MAYERS.

Matthew xxvii. 51.

(Palm Sunday.)

"AND, BEHOLD, THE VEIL OF

THE TEMPLE WAS RENT IN TWAIN FROM THE TOP TO THE BOTTOM."

THE arrangements of the Temple service, for a carefully graduated approach to the presence of manifested Deity, were designed, not to foster a vague sense of mystery, but to sustain the idea, to deepen the conviction, that He who was thus so scrupulously separated from contact with sinful man was the thrice-holy Lord; that He was of purer eyes than to behold iniquity, and was one on whom the eyes of the unpurified might not look. The veil separated the Holy from the Most Holy Place, the inner from the innnermost sanctuary. The former was the human, the latter the Divine compartment of the meeting-place of God and man: the one was the ante-chamber, the other the audience-chamber itself of the Majesty of Heaven. At the time when this most significant incident occurred there would be priests within the sacred enclosure of the Holy Place it was afternoon: it was drawing toward the time of evening sacrifice: they would be profoundly moved, excited by what they had seen or heard of that great day's proceedings;possibly rejoicing that He of whose

piercing truth they were so much afraid was condemned to death. And when, suddenly, as if grasped and rent by unseen hands, that most sacred veil, interposed between God's own chosen residence and their most sacred sphere, was torn in twain from the top to the bottom, they must have been struck with consternation; they may have begun to wonder whether that hand which once wrote on Belshazzar's palace wall, was not now intimating that the days of the old ritual system were numbered and that it also was "finished." The rending of the veil suggests to us—

I. THAT GOD HAD ADOPTED A NEW METHOD OF ASSERTING HIS HOLINESS, and of impressing it on the mind and heart of the world. The great fundamental doctrine of the holiness of God, which had been taught by the sacrifices and seclusions of the Temple, was not without its effect upon the Jewish mind; no other nation had such a conception of the purity and righteousnesss of God as Israel had. But this foundation truth had now received a far stronger sanction, and was now to rest on another basis. Instead of a curtained chamber and a bloodbesprinkled mercy-seat providing its illustration for a small nation, the supreme fact of a Divine Saviour's sacrifice of Himself for

the sin of the world was to kindle the imagination, to instruct the mind, to cleanse the heart of the whole human race; IT was to write the holiness of God in characters which should be legible to all mankind, to proclaim it in a voice which should reach the ear of the remotest lands and the most distant generations. How holy is the Holy One, how heinous and intolerable is all sin seen to be in the light of the cross of Christ.

IL-THAT GOD HAD NOW PROVIDED ANOTHER AND BETTER WAY

OF MERCY TO MANKIND. As the mercy-seat covered the ark in which were the two tables with the ten commandments, so does mercy ever rest on righteousness, for it has no meaning without it, and so does the mercy of God triumph over the law of God. When the veil of the temple was rent in twain and the way was thus opened to the mercy-seat, there was an indication that the way was now open to the mercyseat, to that awful and all-availing sacrifice of which the sprinkled blood (on the great Day of Atonement) was but a feeble foreshadowing.

III. THAT THE WAY UNTO THE HOLY ONE HIMSELF IS NOW OPEN TO ALL THAT WILL ENTER.

The veil of the temple was more than a symbol: it was the means and instrument of exclusion,

through it no prying eyes might peep, no ambitious step intrude. When that veil was rent, it was Divinely signified that the way into the Holiest of all was now open to every one. Not, now, one man on one day of the year, but all men, at all times, are free to draw nigh unto the living God, to seek His mercy, to implore His blessing, to present to Him the heart's thanksgiving, to offer or to renew the sacred vow of self

surrender. There are, to-day, busy hands mistakenly and mischievously employed in restoring that veil, wishing to re-establish the system of priestly mediation and of sacrifice through consecrated officials. But what God, in His grace, has put asunder, let no man, in his presumptuous meddling, seek to join again. And while sternly deprecating this theological reaction, let us not be negligent of the religious privilege of which the rent veil speaks, but come "boldly" and continually unto that throne of grace between which and our own sin-troubled, striving souls there now hangs no intervening veil, Reverently and rejoicingly should we draw near to present those spiritual sacrifices, humility, gratitude, adoration, supplication, dedication, with which God is well pleased.

BRISTOL

WILLIAM CLARKSON, B.A.

John xx. 22, 23. (First Sunday after Easter.) THERE are in human life beneficent compensations. "The cold climate invigorates. The barren soil does not breed fevers and scorpions." Every shadow has a brightness close at hand. The losses and sorrows of life are followed by new gains and joys. Every man who is wise knows that too much ease and advantage is apt to send him to sleep, while difficulties and disadvantages develope his manhood and bring out his powers. While our teacher, brother, friend is with us, and we can see him and hear him, we often fail to know his true character and enter into closest fellowship with him; but when he is gone from us, and silence and loneliness are around us, we get a new vision of him, and wake up to the knowledge of his worth. With outward nearness there is often spiritual distance from each other, while with outward separation there often comes spiritual oneness. When an angel leaves us, as we sit and weep over our loss he often comes back with brighter face and a more sacred beauty.

This is what the disciples of Christ found. Christ had left them, having finished His life on the cruel cross of Calvary. It was a dark hour to them. But in the midst of their sorrow and loneliness He comes back to them, more their

Friend and Brother and Lord than ever. He has risen again to them: returned as a spiritual presence to inspire and teach and sanctify them.

DISCIPLES.

I.-THE COMMUNICATION OF THE SPIRIT OF CHRIST TO HIS "He breathed on them and said, Receive ye the Holy Spirit." The spirit of one whom we love can pass into us and rule us. Paul calls Timothy "his son in the Gospel." What did he mean? He meant that Timothy had become imbued with his aims, had caught the tone of his mind, and was filled with his spirit. When the sons of the prophets came out to greet Elisha, they said, "The spirit of Elijah doth rest on Elisha." It is said that it was John Wesley who inspired Howard with the burning desire to reform the prisons of Europe. Wesley was himself a prison philanthropist. He might be seen in the cells of Newgate, speaking to the lost and degraded ones of Him who was the Friend of sinners, and of the Father in heaven who shuts the door against no returning prodigal. And the spirit that animated Wesley passed into the philanthropist, Howard. There is such a thing as a man's communication of himself to others We see this taking place every day: teachers inspiring their scholars, fathers inspiring their children, commanders inspiring their soldiers.