SIN AS A DEBT.

"O thou wicked servant, I forgave thee all that debt, because thou desiredst me."-Matt. xviii. 32.

Else

We have given an exposition of this parable elsewhere.* The point we now select for observation, is the metaphorical representation that is here given of sin: it is set forth as a debt. where we have been careful to point out the differences between sin and debt.† We have seen that sin is always a crime-debt is not; sin is never transferable-debt is. A debt implies the consent of two parties-sin does not, &c., &c. Why should sin, therefore, be set forth by our Saviour in the model prayer which He gave us, and in this parable, as a debt? Sin resembles debt in two respects—

I. It is an UNFULFILLED OBLIGATION. The debtor has an undischarged obligation resting on him from his creditor-the sinner has an undischarged obligation resting on him from his God. We offer four remarks on this unfulfilled obligation.

* See "Genius of the Gospel," p. 477.

+ See HOMILIST, second series, vol. iii. p. 472.

First: It is criminal. A debt is not always a criminal thing. In English society there are but few men, however wealthy, who are not in some degree in debt to some one. Credit seems the axle on which the commercial world rolls, but sin is essentially criminal-it is a thing of turpitude in all its forms and phases.

Secondly: It is heavy. The debtor in the parable owed "ten thousand talents," which in our money would represent nearly three and a half million pounds sterling

-an enormous sum-but this is but as a feather to a mountain compared with the unfulfilled obligation which the sinner owes God. He owes Him not only everything he has, but his very being.

Thirdly: It is increasing. The debt is going on augmenting at a terrible rate. As mercies multiply obligation goes on increasing, and mercies multiply every hour.

Fourthly: It is unrepayable.

The man who owes to his fellow-man the largest sum may, in the course of time, by industry and good fortune, discharge his obligation, but the sinner never can do so, -the arrears are enormous. As a debt sin is

II. A CANCELLABLE Obligation. A creditor has the power of cancelling a debt. Acting from a generous impulse towards the debtor, he may strike his pen through the outstanding liability; there is no law to prevent him doing so this is his prerogative. Thank God, sin is a cancellable obligation. He

to whom we owe so much has revealed Himself as the forgiving God. "Keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and sins." (Exodus xxxiv. 7.)

First: The debt of sin is cancellable, however great. "Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be white as snow; though they be red as crimson they shall be as wool." “I, even I, am He that blotteth out thy transgressions, for mine own sake; I will not remember thy sins." (Is. xliii. 25.)

Secondly: The debt of sin is cancellable through faith in Christ. "Be it known unto you therefore, men and brethren, that through this man is preached unto you the forgiveness of sins." (Acts xiii. 38.) 66 'In whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins according to the riches of his grace." (Eph. i. 6, 7.) Faith in Christ is essential to produce that genuine penitence of soul which is the necessary condition of pardon. Repentance and remission of sin must ever go together, and there is

DITION AND OBSTRUCTION.

"So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God."-Rom. viii. 8.

WE have here

I. The CONDITION of man's well-being. What is it? To "please God." The expression implies three things.

First: That God is a pleasable Being. The Eternal is neither callous or morose; on the contrary, He is infinitely sensitive and benign. There are existences outside of Him administering to Him plea

sure.

Secondly: It is possible for man to please Him. This is wonderful. It is wonderful that any creature in the universe, however highly exalted, should possess the power of affording the smallest amount of pleasure to a Being

so infinitely happy in Himself, but it is more wonderful that man, insignificant, fallen man, should have this power, yet it is so. How can man please God? Not by singing eulogistic hymns, or offering complimentary prayers, or observing ceremonial ordinances. Men insult the Omniscient One by endeavouring to please Him in such ways. "To what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices unto me, saith the Lord," &c., &c. How then can man please God? (1.) By loving supremely what He loves most. We are pleased with those who love the objects most dear to our hearts. What is the object most dear to the heart of God? Here is the answer: "This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased." It is pleasing to the Infinite to see His creatures giving their affections to Him on whom His own heart is set. (2.) By devotion to those objects which interest Him most. The triumphs of rectitude, the progress of remedial mercy, the advancement of human happinessthese are the things which interest Him: we please Him in proportion to our devotion to these things.

Thirdly: In the pleasing of Him is man's well-being. All the numerous theories of man's chief good are absurd in the presence of this proposition. To please the Creator is the summum bonum of the creature. Does not this proposition

The

Is

chime in with all that is true in philosophic thinking? Is man's happiness in a peaceful conscience? Then the conscience must have a sense of God's approval. Conscience has to do with God. The fear of His displeasure terrifies it, the assurance of His approval is its heaven. light of His countenanceHis approbation-is the paradise of our moral nature. man's happiness in gratified love? The strongest craving of the heart is to please the object of its affections. Love deems no sacrifices too great for this; the loving heart is in anguish until it hears the "well done" of the loved one. Is man's happiness in the full development of his active powers? Then where can these powers have such stimulus and scope as in endeavours to please the Infinite ?

II. The OBSTRUCTION to man's well-being. What is the obstruction? Being "in the flesh." "They that are in the flesh cannot please God." What is meant here by being "in the flesh"? Not merely existing in the flesh thus we all exist; we "dwell in houses of clay." But it means being in the flesh as slaves, not as sovereigns. Having the flesh for our master instead of our menial, our sovereign rather than our servant. The man who thus dwells in the flesh

First Gets fleshly views of the universe. All above, around,

beneath him is gross materialism. His eyes are too gross to discern the spiritual significance of things; his ear too heavy to catch the spiritual melodies of the world.

Secondly: Gets fleshly views of truth. "He judges after the flesh." If he has a theology, it is a gross and sensuous thing.

Thirdly: Gets fleshly views of greatness. He has no idea of greatness apart from splendid costumes, magnificent dwellings, and brilliant equipages.

Fourthly: Gets fleshly views of happiness. He associates happiness with whatever pleases the tastes, charms the senses, satisfies the appetites, and gratifies the lusts.

:

Fifthly Gets fleshly views of God. He makes God such an one as himself, incarnates Him in a human form, and gives Him human thoughts and passions.

Now the soul in such a state "cannot please God." It has lost at once the desire and the power to do so. Deeply did Paul feel this when he exclaimed, "O wretched man man that I am! who shall deliver me from this bondage of sin and death?" But the Gospel comes to enfranchise the soul from the flesh and to restore to it its absolute sovereignty over the body. This deliverance is a new birth. "He that is born of the flesh is flesh, he that is born of the Spirit is spirit."

MODEL PRAYER.

"Search me, O God, and know my heart: try me, and know my thoughts and see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting."-Psalm cxxxix. 23, 24.

THIS is a prayer that implies a conscious honesty of soul, a strong desire to get at the true and the right. Think of what this prayer is.

I. It is a prayer for DIVINE

REVELATION OF THE SOUL TO

ITSELF. "Search me, O God, and know my heart." His idea is not that God should search him in order that He might understand what was in him, for he had just declared that God knew all things pertaining to man, understood even his " thoughts afar off;" but in order that God might make him to know himself, that he might lay bare the moral state of his own soul to his eyes. God answers this prayer in many

manifest to the soul. A knowledge of ourselves is necessary, no science is so important as self-scienceGod alone can teach this.

II. It is a prayer for Divine

EXTRICATON OF THE SOUL FROM

ITS WICKEDNESS. "See if there be any wicked way in me." Some render this, "See if there be a way of pain in me." Wickedness is a way that leads to pain. How many ways of wickedness there are in the soul. There is the way of carnality, the way of greed, the way of vanity, the way of falsehood, the way of profanity, &c., &c. God alone can extricate the soul from

the labyrinths of wickedness. Like a good shepherd He not only sees the lost sheep in the thicket, but He goes after it and restores it.

III. It is a prayer for Divine

GUIDANCE OF THE SOUL INTO

THE RIGHT WAY. "Lead me in the way everlasting." The way of wickedness is a perishable way, the best things of the soul perish in it; the way of righteousness is an eternal way, it is the way of everlasting blessedness. In this way God alone can guide. Hence the necessity of the prayer, "Lead me in the way everlasting."

(No. CCLXXVIII.)

SPIRITUAL VERITIES.

"Bow down down thine ear, and hear the words of the wise, and apply thine heart unto my knowledge. For it is a pleasant thing if thou keep them within thee; they shall withal be fitted in thy lips. That thy trust may be in the Lord, I have made known to thee this day, even to thee. Have not I written to thee excellent things in counsels and knowledge, that I might make thee know the certainty of the words of truth; that thou mightest answer the words of truth to them that send unto thee?"-Prov. xxii. 17-21.

THESE verses begin the third of the five sections into which critics have divided the whole book.

VOL. XXVII.