giveness, such as this woman displayed, mean, and from whence they arise; surely from this, from the deep feeling in the sinner's heart, that by his sins he has separated himself from that God who is Love, while yet he cannot do without his love,-from the feeling that the heart must be again permitted to love him, must be again assured of his love toward it, else it will utterly wither and die. Sin unforgiven is felt to be the great barrier to this; and the desire after forgiveness, if it be not a mere selfish desire after personal safety, in which case it can be nothing before God, is the desire for the removal of this barrier, that so the heart may be free to love and to know itself beloved again. This desire then is itself love at its negative pole, not as yet made positive, for the work of grace, the absolving word of God can alone make it so; it is the flower of love desiring to bud and bloom, but not daring and not able to put itself forth in the chilling atmosphere of the anger of God,-but which will do so at once when to the stern winter of God's anger, the genial spring of his love succeeds. In this sense that woman "loved much;" all her conduct proved the intense yearning of her heart after a reconciliation with a God of love, from whom she had alienated herself by her sins; all her tears and her services witnessed how much she desired to be permitted to love him and to know herself beloved of him, and on account of this her love, which, in fact, was faith* (see ver. 50, "Thy faith hath saved thee"), she obtained forgiveness of her sins. This sense of the miserable emptiness of the creature,-this acknowledgment that a life apart from God is not life but death, with the conviction that in God there is fulness of grace and blessing, and that he is willing to impart of this fulness to all who bring the empty vessel of the heart to be filled by him; this, call it faith, or initiatory love, is what alone makes man receptive of any divine gift,-this is what that Pharisee, in his legal righteousness, in his self-sufficiency and pride,† had scarcely at all, and

* Very distinctly Theophylact (in loc.) "Οτι ἠγάπησε πολύ, ἀντὶ τοῦ, πίστιν ἐνεδείξατο πολλήν, and presently before he calls all which she had been doing for her Saviour, πίστεως σύμβολα καὶ ἀγάπης. For further testimonies in favor of this exposition, see GERHARD'S Loc. Theoll., loc. 16, c. 8, § 1.

In the Bustan of the famous Persian poet Saadi (see THOLUCK's Blüthensamml. aus d. Morgenl. Mystik, p. 261) there is a story which seems an echo of this evangelical history. Jesus, while on earth, was once entertained in the cell of a dervish or a monk, of eminent reputation of sanctity; in the same city dwelt a youth sunk in every sin, "whose heart was so black that Satan himself shrunk back from it in horror." This last presently appeared before the cell of the monk, and, as smitten by the very presence of the Divine prophet, began to lament deeply the sin and misery of his life past, and shedding abundant tears, to implore pardon and grace. The monk indignantly interrupted him, demanding how he dared to appear in his presence and in that of God's holy prophet; assured him that for him it was in vain to seek forgiveness; and in proof how inexorably he considered

therefore he derived little or no good from communion with Christ. But that woman had it in large measure, and therefore she bore away the largest and best blessing which the Son of God had to bestow, even the forgiveness of her sins; to her those blessed words were spoken, "Thy faith hath saved thee, go in peace;" and in her it was proved true that "where sin abounded, grace did much more abound."

his lot was fixed for hell, exclaimed, "My God, grant me but one thing, that I may stand far from this man on the judgment-day." On this Jesus spoke, "It shall be even so the prayer of both is granted. This sinner has sought mercy and grace, and has not sought them in vain,-his sins are forgiven,-his place shall be in Paradise at the last day. But this monk has prayed that he may never stand near this sinner, his prayer too is granted,-hell shall be his place, for there this sinner shall never come.

XVII.

THE GOOD SAMARITAN.

LUKE X. 30-37.

We need not suppose that the lawyer, who "stood up" and proposed to our Lord the question out of which this parable presently grew, had any malicious intention therein, least of all that deep malignity which moved questions like those recorded at John viii. 6; Matt. xxii. 16; which were, in fact, nothing less than snares for his life; nor need we attribute to this lawyer even that desire to perplex and silence, out of which other questions had their rise. (Matt. xxii. 23.) For in the first place, the question itself, "What shall I do to inherit eternal life?" was not an ensnaring one; it was not one like that concerning the tribute-money, which it was hoped would put the answerer, however he replied, in a false position; and further, we may conclude from the earnestness of the Lord's reply, that the spirit out of which the question was proposed, had not been altogether light or mocking; since it was not his manner to answer so the mere cavillers or despisers. The only ground for attributing an evil intention to this scribe, or lawyer,-for Matt. xxii. 35, compared with Mark xii. 28, show that scribe and lawyer are the same,—is that he is said to have put the question to Christ "tempting him." But to tempt, in its proper signification, means nothing more than to make trial of, and whether the tempting be good or evil, is determined by the motive out of which it springs. Thus God tempts man, when he puts him to proof, that he may show him what is in himself, that he may show him sins, which else might have remained concealed even from himself (Jam. i. 12); he tempts man to bring out his good, and to strengthen it (Gen. xxii. 1; Heb. xi. 17); or if to bring his evil out, it is that the man may himself also become aware of some evil which before was concealed from him, and watch and pray against it, it is to

humble him and to do him good in his latter end;* only Satan tempts man purely to irritate and bring out and multiply his evil. The purpose of this lawyer in tempting Jesus, as it was not on the one side that high and holy one, so as little seems it this deeply malignant on the other. The Evangelist probably meant nothing more than that he desired to put the Lord to the trial. Comparing Matt. xxii. 35 with Mark xii. 28–34, both records of the same conversation, we shall see that in the first the questioner is said to have proposed his question, as in the present case, tempting the Lord; while in the second Evangelist, the Lord bears witness concerning the very questioner, "Thou art not far from the kingdom of God;" even as he was evidently a seeker and lover of truth. We cannot, indeed, suppose that the question, on the present occasion, arose purely from love of the truth, and a desire to be further instructed in it; but the lawyer probably would fain make proof of the skill of this famous Galilæan teacher, he would measure his depths, and with this purpose he brought forward the question of questions, "What shall I do to inherit eternal life?"

Our Lord's reply is as much as to say,-The question you ask is already answered; what need to make further inquiries, when the answer is contained in the words of that very law, of which you profess to be a searcher and expounder? What is written there concerning this great question? "How readest thou?" That the lawyer should at once lay his finger on the great commandment which Christ himself quoted as such on that other occasion just referred to, showed no little spiritual insight, proved that he was superior to the common range of his countrymen he quotes rightly Deut. vi. 5, in connection with Lev. xix. 18, as containing the essence of the law. Thereupon our Lord bears him. testimony that he has answered well,-that his words were right words, however he might be ignorant of their full import,-of all which they involved: "Thou hast answered right; this do, and thou shalt live ;" put this which thou knowest into effect,-let it pass from dead uninfluential knowledge into living practice, and it will be well. Now at length the lawyer's conscience is touched: these last words have found him out; however he may have owned in theory the law of love, he has not been

* Πειράζειν = πεῖραν λαμβάνειν. Augustine very frequently describes the manner in which it can be said that God tempts, and the purposes which he has in tempting; thus (Enarr. in Ps. lv. 1): Omnis tentatio probatio est, et omnis probationis effectus habet fructum suum. Quia homo plerumque etiam sibi ipsi ignotus est: quid ferat, quidve non ferat ignorat, et aliquando præsumit se ferre quod non potest, et aliquando desperat se posse ferre quod potest. Accedit tentatio quasi interrogatio, et invenitur homo à seipso, quia latebat et seipsum, sed artificem non latebat. Thus God tempts, as doкiμаσтhs Tŵv kaρdiŵv, Satan, on the contrary, is The temper (8 TeipάGwv = d πeipaσThs.) Cf. TERTULLIAN, De Oratione, c. 8.

living in obedience to it. Still he would fain justify himself; if he has not been large and free in the exercise of love towards his fellow men, it is because few have claims upon him:-"True, I am to love my neighbor as myself, but who is my neighbor?" The very question, like Peter's, "How oft shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him?" was not merely a question which might receive a wrong answer, but itself a wrong question, involving a wrong condition of mind, out of which alone it could have proceeded. He who asked, "Whom shall I love?" proved that he understood not what that love meant of which he spoke, for he wished to have laid down beforehand how much he was to do, and where he should be at liberty to stop, who had a claim and who not upon his love; thus proving that he knew nothing of that love, whose essence is, that it has no limit, except in its own inability to proceed further, that it receives a law only from itself, that it is a debt which we must be well content to be ever paying, and not the less still to owe. (Rom. xiii. 8.) Especially wonderful is the reply which our blessed Saviour makes to him, wonderful, that is, in its adaptation to the needs of him to whom it was addressed, leading him, as it does, to take off his eye from the object to which love is to be shown, and to turn it back and inward upon him who is to show the love; for this is the key to the following parable, and with this aim it was spoken.

"A certain man went down from Jerusalem to Jericho." He says, "went down," or, "was going down," not merely because Jerusalem stood considerably higher than Jericho,-for the phrase would have its fitness in this view,—but because the going to Jerusalem, as to the metropolis, was always spoken of as going up. (See Acts xviii. 22.) The distance between the two cities was about a hundred and fifty stadia,the road lying through a desolate and rocky region-" the wilderness that goeth up from Jericho" (Josh. xvi. 1), though the plain of Jericho itself, the second city in Judæa, was one of extraordinary fertility and beauty, well watered, and abounding in palms (" the city of palm-trees," Judg. i. 16), in roses, in balsam, in honey, and in all the choicest produc

* Tholuck (Auslegung der Bergpredigt, Matt. v. 43), has an instructive inquiry on the interpretation which the Jews gave to the term "neighbor," in the law. It is striking to see the question of the narrow-hearted scribe, "Who is my neighbor?" reappearing in one who would think that they two had little in common. I make this extract from Emerson's Essays (Ess. 2): “Do not tell me, as a good man did to-day, of my obligation to put all poor men in good situations. Are they my poor? I tell thee, thou foolish philanthropist, that I grudge the dollar, the dime, the cent, I give to such men as do not belong to me, and to whom I do not belong. There is a class of persons to whom by all spiritual affinity I am bought and sold; for them I will go to prison, if need be; but your miscellaneous popular charities," &c.