doubter we ought to deal tenderly; and this we consider to be our calling to-day. To him we hold out the hand, and say, "Come, and learn whose Son he is, for ye know not."

The Lord Jesus passeth over the lake. And now, even to-day, would we say, "All hail!" as, over the raging, tumultuous waves of those dark times, we descry the pennon of his ship. He casts anchor before "his own city"—that is, Capernaum. "His own city" thou wert called, dear valley! Beware lest these words apply to thee: "And thou, Capernaum, which art exalted unto heaven, shalt be thrust down to hell." A friendly house gives to the visitor a hospitable reception. Thanks to God, there are yet in our streets houses where his salutation, "Peace be unto thee," is welcome, and where it abides. Scarcely has he reached this dwelling, when a crowd of people is gathered around him. With us this is not always the case when the word is being preached. To the listening multitude he preaches the word of the kingdom of God. He preaches it also here. Our church walls echo that word; and thence it is sent forth over your mountains, so that by it many are made alive unto God. While the Lord is preaching the word, they draw near with the man sick of the palsy, but know not how to get at Jesus through the crowd. So, in our days, many there are who, while they feel in some measure the attraction of Jesus, fail to get close to him; the God-denying spirit of the times steps forward with objections, gainsayings, and a deriding of the way. Yet, no sooner does the necessity of salvation become too crying to be arrested, than these obstructions are overcome. The bearers of the palsied man, having for a while troubled themselves in vain with a view to press through the crowd, consider at last how they may help themselves. They repair to a neighbour's house, by which they reach the flat roof of the building within which Jesus is; they break open the roof, and, through the opening, let down their patient to the floor, at the feet of Jesus, the great helper of the needy. The expression, "They brought unto him," is, in the original, that which is made use of regarding the offering of sacrifices. The apostle (Rom. xv. 16) says, with a deep and peculiar meaning, "I should be the minister of Jesus Christ to the Gentiles, ministering the Gospel of God, that the offering up of the Gentiles might be acceptable, being sanctified by the Holy Ghost." Yes! if, by the grace of God, we can bring a poor sinner with a broken heart, and cast him into the arms of Jesus, as

did those who carried the paralytic, this is the priestly service which is pleasing to him, and these the sacrifices with which we are welcome to stand in his presence.

The

But, then, was the paralytic a poor sinner? Think you that it was only his afflicted body that urged and drove him to Jesus? Searcher of hearts understood him better. His bodily misery may have been the bridge, alongst which he passed to the consciousness of his greater evil, his spiritual wretchedness; but his chief wound bled in his soul. Ah! the lameness of his limbs he thought not so much of. Here, in the depths of his bosom, the worm gnawed, hell burned. Perhaps he was near death (at one time he would have died in the imagination that all was well); and ah! he knew himself to be a debtor before the Holy God, and his iniquities to be more than the hairs of his head. "Was he, then, a great sinner above others?" O, no: he was no greater sinner than you or I; but, nevertheless, not less so; and that was enough to deprive him of true enjoyment. "But God is merciful!" He knew this. Because, however, he had experienced so much of the mercy of God, and yet, had not loved him supremely, his condemnation was all the more certain. "But God is not rigorously strict?" Our sick man knew God's law: "Cursed is every one who continueth not in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them." "But why did he not endeavour to live henceforth according to God's commandments?" Ah! with all the energy of his mind he has endeavoured to do this. The law, however, reaches even unto death; and he, for the first time, feels his inward enmity against God. The corruption that is in his nature now makes him alive to a sense of this. "Should he not, then, ask God's forgiveness?" This he indeed desires; but, when near to the throne, these words sound in his ear, "Thou art not a God that hath pleasure in wickedness, neither shall evil dwell with thee;" and, trembling, he draws back with a "Woe is me! I am of unclean lips." "Still, should we not hope?" Why hope without a foundation? Hope as the fool? Hope ere he has received the undoubted message from on high, that "with God there is forgiveness?" Hope ere he knew how the righteousness of God could endure, if he who deserved the curse were blessed? Yes, in this our day, you hope-you who are blind, hope as foolish children hope-as the drunkard hopes, senselessly, thoughtlessly. But he who thoroughly knows himself, and the law and the being of

pleted act. But is there no clause or condition annexed? No; nothing of the kind. The forgiveness is free and unconditional. "Thy sins are remitted--they are taken away-thou art free from them in the sight of God." It had been written by the prophet, "I have blotted out as a thick cloud thy transgressions, and as a cloud thy sins." The "hand-writing," as the apostle expresses it, "that was against us is blotted out"-it is "taken out of the way." And this is effected by the word of Jesus; and the paralytic is enabled, in consequence, with the voice of triumph to exclaim, "Who is he that condemneth? here is Christ;" and, with an Abba, Father," to cast himself into the arms and bosom of his God.

But thou shakest thy head! And thou art not alone in this; there are associates with thee. Read. "Behold, certain of the scribes said within themselves, This man blasphemeth;" for, they added, according to Luke, "Who can forgive sins, but God?" Wonderful, that as often as Jesus manifests himself, whether in his life or his preaching, in casual or immediate connection with the forgiveness of sins, then the looks of contempt and rebellion begin to appear. In every other capacity the world will acknowledge him as the comforter of poor sinners, but not in the capacity of the pardoner of sin. Nor is it difficult to account for this; for in the same measure in which the world loves sin, it shuns the knowledge of sin; and the more that one dislikes to believe that his house is on fire, the greater will be his dislike to the sound of "the fire alarm."

Now, these murmuring scribes were right in regard to the main point, though wrong in the application. They judged more in accordance with truth and reason, than do many amongst yourselves. There are those amongst you who seem to imagine that they have the power to forgive sins, who apparently cherish the delusive idea, that if they have been forgiven by their fellow-men whom they have offended, there can be no doubt of their being forgiven by God. O, what foolishness, not to know that the forgiveness of sin is a royal prerogative of the Most High, whose commandments they have violated! To transfer to a creature this prerogative, what is it but blasphemy against the Divine Majesty? The views entertained on the subject by the doctors of Israel are just and well-founded. They are ratified by the Almighty's own declaration, " I, even I, am he that blotteth out thy trangressions for mine own name's sake;" and, in our text,

these views are tacitly confirmed by Jesus himself,

Did Jesus, then, blaspheme, when he assumed that prerogative which belongs exclusively to the Eternal One-the power of forgiving sins? From the charge of blasphemy he could not have been freed, had he been nothing more than a man-yea, even had he been the holiest of men, or the highest angel. But in Him, with whom is it that we have to do? Observe, "Jesus, knowing their thoughts," says the evangelist. How significant these words! How clearly they reveal what had previously been concealed! Who can penetrate the thoughts of others, but He only that dwelleth on high? who, but He that searcheth the heart, and trieth the reins? of whom the Psalmist testifies, "O Lord, thou hast searched me, and, known me; thou understandest my thoughts afar off: for there is not a word in my tongue, but lo! O Lord, thou knowest altogether." Ah! well might they have trembled, as the glance of his eye penetrated their inmost soul, and as he made the appeal, "Wherefore think ye evil in your hearts?" "Evil?" you will say; wherein did it consist? not in their doctrine. But the evil was this; they applied it falsely-they, misapprehended the person of the Lord, charging him with what would indeed have been blasphemy on the part of Jesus, had he been merely a son of Adam. But" was he not so?" Ah! stay thy question for a little. He himself is about to declare who he is. " For," adds he, "whether is easier, to say, Thy sins be forgiven thee, or to say, Arise, and walk?" Verily, unless these are mere empty words, the one is as difficult as the other; both demand the' power of the living God. To human apprehension, the former may seem easier than the latter. But woe to those who would allege-" Thou hast, indeed, said, Thy sins be forgiven thee.' But that may have been said to the wind; we we cannot tell whether it is done according to thy word. Perform some act that is palpable į, to our observation. Here is this cripple, on whom the skill of the physician has been exhausted. Say unto him--but let the lightning of thy word be attended by the thunder of its result-- Arise, and walk!' Here thou wilt stop short."

It

The eyes of all are fixed upon the Lord. is a great, a solemn crisis. Jesus exhibits! before the world the authenticated evidence of his high calling. He proceeds to furnish a proof of it, than which there could be no proof more clear and ample, and to append to his

words an impression of the seal of truth which none might gainsay. "But that ye may know;" thus it is that he commences. Love is the flower of Christianity; a holy knowledge, the root which supports it; and faith, in both the impelling life. “What God hath joined together, let not man put asunder." Where holy knowledge is awanting, we cannot speak of divine life. It would be foolishness to do so. It would be looking for grapes from thorns, and figs from thistles, were we, as is so often done in our day, to look for the fruit of Christian virtue without faith-were we to regard the light of nature as equivalent to revealed truth.

What will the Lord do? You have already heard that we are to learn who he is. The scribes had disputed his right to forgive sins, because they said he was not God. Here, then, was an urgent call to make a declaration concerning his person. If, in truth, he was not God, now, unquestionably, was the proper time to let this be known. Had he remained silent, then would he have admitted that his entire being was comprised in his humanity; while, by performing a divine act in forgiving sin, he would have affected divinity; and he himself, in consequence, would have been guilty of that alleged deification of man, which, according to the judgment of the new "Friends of Light," has been the stain of the Christian Church these eighteen hundred years.

But he is not silent. He knew the vast importance of the hour that had arrived. "But that ye may know," says he. And what would he have us to know? Mark well the position which he maintains, and which he is ready circumstantially to confirm. It is this: "The Son of man”—that is, the Messiah, as Daniel saw him in the clouds of heaven; and, according to David, as a man who, like God in the highest --had power; not commission or permission merely, but perfection of power, even as God has power. To make proclamation in the name of God, "Thy sins be forgiven thee"-is it this that is meant? No; this power might even be given to men. The intimation is, He "hath power upon earth to forgive sins;" that is, the power which God alone has to say to the sinner, "I reckon not thy transgressions unto thee." But this the position assumed by him, is it not virtually a declaration that he is God? Unquestionably it is. Will he, then, prove himself to be God? yes; and in a manner that all occasion of misapprehension may be removed-by a work of almighty power-by a miracle of creation. He looks with a look of kindness on

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the man whose limbs are lame and dead; and, gently, and without ostentatious display, as one who is at home in such divine work, he says to him, "Arise, take up thy bed, and go unto thy house." And as he speaks, it is done. No sooner has he given utterance to the word, than in a moment the sick man feels the vigour of new life rush through his bones. Immediately he arises in the presence of all, takes up his little couch, and, returning to his home, breaks forth into a song of praise of Him, who at one word, has cured both body and soul.

Now, say whether, in this proof which is exhibited, there be aught that is defective. In the presence of the world I maintain that it is evidence which cannot be overthrown. The proof arising from the divine titles and attributes, which, again and again, are associated with the name of the Lord Jesus, unbelief contrives to evade, by asserting that these titles are designed merely to indicate the moral unity of the incomparable man Christ Jesus. But the manifestation which the Lord exhibits of his person in the narrative we are considering, admits of no such interpretation. Here unbelief must strike sail, and confess that, at least, according to the narratives of the evangelists, Jesus has declared of himself expressly that he is not merely a divine man, but that he is actually God. Will any one, in these circumstances, deny that he is the sin-pardoning God-man? He does so at his peril. Is it asked, on what ground does Jesus absolve from sin? I would point to the bloody sweat of Gethsemane, and to the cross. If you still maintain that Jesus Christ is only a man, although the holiest and most exalted of men, then it is clear as day that you tear in pieces the Gospel, and denounce it as a lie; or that you believe the Gospel only in so far as you believe that it charges the Lord from heaven with the crime of blasphemy against the majesty of God. But woe to him, thrice woe to him, who would thus intrude into the sanctuary, and lay violent hands on the Holy One of God!

The great act being performed, we are informed in the narrative that, "when the multitude saw it, they marvelled, and glorified God which had given such power unto men." These last words are a response to the declaration of Jesus, "that ye may know that the Son of man hath power on earth to forgive sins." It was as if the people had said, "Praised be God, that he hath given such power unto men for good," or "that he hath given to them one who