3550. An Earnest Entreaty

A Sermon Published On Thursday, February 8, 1917.

Kiss the Son lest he be angry, and you perish from the way, when his wrath is kindled only a little. Blessed are all those who put their trust in him. {Ps 2:12}

For other sermons on this text:

   {See Spurgeon_Sermons No. 260, “Earnest Invitation, An” 253}

   {See Spurgeon_Sermons No. 3550, “Earnest Entreaty, An” 3552}

   Exposition on Joh 18:28-40 Ps 2 {See Spurgeon_Sermons No. 2826, “King in Pilate’s Hall, The” 2827 @@ "Exposition"}

   Exposition on Ps 2 Mt 3 {See Spurgeon_Sermons No. 2409, “Great Sermon by the Greatest Preacher, A” 2410 @@ "Exposition"}

   Exposition on Ps 2; 110 {See Spurgeon_Sermons No. 2806, “Jesus Our Lord” 2807 @@ "Exposition"}

1. Let us have a little quiet talk tonight. I have known a simple, earnest conversation to turn the whole current of a man’s life. I remember a good man, who lived at a certain market town in Suffolk. He was no preacher; so far as I know, he had never tried to preach; yet he was a mighty soul winner. He had noticed how commonly it happened in that town, as in most of our smaller towns, that the lads as they grew up looked for jobs in London, or in some other large centre of industry, and consequently they left their home, their parents, guardians, and the associations amid which they had been trained, to enter a new sphere, where they would lack much of the oversight that had so far checked them when prone to wander. His watchful eye and ever-listening ear having ascertained within a little while when any young man was going, he sent a polite invitation to supper, and at that supper table the words he used to speak, the cautions he gave, and the necessity he urged of being decided for Christ before leaving, and especially the earnest prayer with which he concluded the evening—these things have been remembered by scores of young men, who, on moving to the larger towns, could never shake off the impression which his quiet, devout conversation had made. Some of them even traced their conversion to God, and their subsequent perseverance in the paths of righteousness, to the evening they had spent with that humble, but wise and earnest individual. I wonder whether any of us remember in our young days any such talk as what exerted an influence on us; I wonder more if, instead of trying to preach anything great tonight which is not much in my line, I try to talk very seriously and pointedly to all present who are unconverted, whether God will not bless it by his Holy Spirit, and make it a turning-point to decide the present course and eternal destiny of some of my hearers.

2. Our text contains some very sound advice. Let us ask—to whom was it originally addressed? and to whom is it appropriately addressed now?

3. I. Our first point is:—TO WHOM WAS IT ADDRESSED.

4. “Kiss the Son, lest he be angry.” Look at the tenth verse, “Be wise now, therefore, oh you kings; be instructed, you judges of the earth.” So to monarchs and potentates of this world; to those who made and those who administered the laws, in whose hands were the liberties, if not the lives of their subjects, were these words spoken. People make a great fuss about a sermon preached before Her Majesty. I must confess to having wasted a shilling once or twice over those productions. I could never figure out why they should not have been sold for a halfpenny, for I think better sermons could have been bought for a penny. But, somehow, there is always an interest attached to anything that is preached before a king or a queen, and still more so if it is pointedly preached to a king. Now this was a little private advice given to kings and judges. Still, it offers counsel by which people of a lower rank may profit. You, sir, are not so great in position but this advice may be good enough for you. If it was meant for those who sat on thrones, wielded sceptres, and exercised authority, you will not have to humble yourself much to listen earnestly, and receive gratefully this admonition of wisdom.

5. Let me take you by your lapel, and hold you for a minute, and say, “Be wise now; this is the day for reason; exercise a little judgment; put on your thinking-cap; do not spurn the admonition, or set it aside with a huff and a puff, as though it were not discreet or urgent.” This was language meant for kings; listen to it; it may be a royal word to you. Maybe—for strange things happen—it may help to make you a king, too, according to that saying which is written, “He has made us kings and priests to God.” The language which would command the attention of kings would certainly claim heed of such humble and obscure people as are assembled here. Surely, when the expostulation proceeds from the mouth of God, and when it is spoken to the highest potentates in the world, you might consider it a privilege to have the matter revealed to yourselves. And since it intimately concerns you, there is all the more reason that you take heed to it.

6. The words were spoken to those who had wilfully opposed the reign of our Saviour, the Son of God, the Lord’s anointed. They had determined to reject him. They said, “Let us break their bands asunder, and cast away their cords from us.” A terrible, a disastrous course to resolve on in the teeth of a destiny that no plot can hinder, no confederacy can avert. Hence, the caution and the counsel appeal to all or to any who have been opposers of Christ and of true religion. I do not suppose there are many such here, who are actively and ostensibly revolting against the gospel, yet there may be some such; and, if there are, I would sound an alarm, and ring loudly the warning, “Be wise now, therefore; be instructed; listen a little.” It is good to be zealous in a good cause. But suppose it is a bad cause! Saul of Tarsus was vehement against Christ, but after some consideration he became quite as enthusiastic for him. It may cost you many regrets another day to have been so violent against what you will find out to have been worthy of your love rather than of your fierce opposition. Every wise man, before he commits himself to defend or withstand a policy, would make quite sure, as far as human judgment can, whether it is right or wrong; to be desired, or to be deprecated. Surely I do not speak to any who would wilfully oppose what is good. Or, if prejudice has prompted you, there is all the more reason why your judgment should now be impartial. Stop, therefore, and give ear. It may be your relentings will be kindled, and wisdom will enlighten your heart.

7. These words were spoken to those who ought to have been wise—to kings and judges of the earth. Those mighty ones had been mistaken, otherwise the rebuke would have been untimely and superfluous—“Be wise now, therefore, oh you kings; be instructed, you judges of the earth.” It appears they had rebelled—partly through ignorance, but mainly through jealousy and malice—they had rebelled and revolted against the Christ of God. Doubtless they did not properly understand him. Perhaps they thought his way was hard, his laws severe, his government tyrannical. But he meets your wild rage with his mild reasoning. To the gusts of your passion he responds with the gentle voice of his mercy, “Be wise, oh you kings; be instructed, you judges of the earth.” Learn a little more; get a little more knowledge; it may correct your vain imaginations. A ray of light shining into your minds might make you shudder at the darkness in the midst of which you dwelt. A view of the right might, perhaps, show you that you have been wrong. It might take the tiller of your soul, and turn the vessel around into another course. All of us could profit by a little more instruction. He who cannot learn from a fool is a fool himself. When a man says, “I know enough,” he knows nothing. He who thinks that his education is “finished,” needs to begin his schooling again, for he has never yet made a fair start. With a sound basis, the edifice of education may proceed satisfactorily, but it never can be completed. Excelsior {higher} is the student’s motto. He sees higher and higher altitudes as he rises in attainment; and as long as he sojourns in this world new fields of enquiry will continue to open up before him.

8. Once again, I believe the words of our text have a special reference to those who are thoughtless and careless about their best interests. The kings of the earth were deliberating how they might successfully oppose Christ; but they were strangely and culpably negligent of their real interest. Hence the admonition, “Be wise now; be instructed, you judges of the earth.” The general lack of intelligence in the present day with respect to religion is, to my mind, appalling. The knowledge with which most men are content is superficial in the extreme. They do not think; they do not take the pains to make reflections and draw inferences from the facts within their reach, but they allow themselves to drift with the tide of what is called “public opinion.” If it were the fashion for people to carry brains in their heads, some religions which are now very rife would soon come to an end. I have stood aghast with wonder and with awe at the sublime folly of mankind, when I have seen how eagerly and devoutly they will bow down before baubles and peep-shows, while they vainly imagine that they are worshipping God. Have they no brains within their skulls? Have they no faculty for thought? Have they no reasoning power? What exceptional defect can be traced to their birth, or with what fatal folly have they renounced their common sense? Ought we to pity, to chide, or to scorn them? In indictments for witchcraft, I suppose, you punish the impostor as a knave, while you laugh at the victim as a dupe. But in cases of priestcraft, you divide the scandal more equally. So the Lord’s-day theatricals run their course, until the force of thought, the voice of conscience, and, I might add, the love of liberty, shall pronounce their doom.

9. People do not think. Some of them are of the religion of their ancestors, whatever that may be. You hear of Roman Catholic families and Quaker families. Not conviction, but tradition determines their destinies. Others are of the religion of the circle in which they live, whatever that may be. They are good Protestants, they say; had they been born in Naples, they would have been as good Papists; or had they been born in Timbuktu, they would have been as good heathens. Just about as good in any case. Thought, reason, or judgment never entered into their calculations. They go up to their place of worship: they pray as others do, or they say “Amen” in the service. Thought, they have none. They sing without thought, hear without thought and as the thing is to be done, I suppose, they preach without thought. Speaking of preaching, I have samples at home of sermons which can be bought for nine pence each. They are underlined, so that the proper emphasis is apparent, and the pauses to be made between the sentences are clearly indicated. Preaching made easy! We shall be favoured one of these days with preaching machines; we have already gotten down to hearing machines. Most of our hearers are not much more animated than an automaton figure. Life and liveliness are lacking in both. Preaching and hearing may both, perhaps, be done by steam. I wish it were not so.

10. Men are evidently thoughtful about other things. Bring up a sanitary problem, and there are men who will work it out somehow. Is some new invention needed, say, a gun or a torpedo, to accomplish wholesale destruction of life? You shall find competitors in the arena, vying with each other in their study of the murderous science. Man seems to think of everything but of his God; to read everything but his Bible; to feel the influence of everything but the love of Christ, and to see reason and argument in everything except in the inviolable truth of divine revelation. Oh! when will men consider? Why are they bent on dashing into eternity thoughtlessly? Is dying and passing into another world of no more account than passing from the parlour to the drawing-room? Is there no hereafter? Is heaven a dream, and hell a bugbear? Well, then, cease to play with shadows; no longer foster such delusions. Whether these things are true or false, your insincerity is equally glaring. Like honest men, repudiate the Scriptures if you will not accept their counsel. Do not pretend to believe the solemnities of God’s Word, and yet trifle with them. This is to make fools of yourselves, while you insult your Maker. I appeal to the conscience of every thoughtless person here, if reason or common sense would justify such vacillation.

11. II. So having tried to find the people to whom my text applies, let me now direct your attention to the advice it gives them:—THE ADVICE WHICH IS GIVEN.

12. The advice is this: rebel no more against God. You have done so, some of you actively and wilfully; others of you by ignoring his claims and utterly neglecting his will. It is not right to continue in this rebellious state. To have become entangled in such iniquity is grievous enough, but to continue in it any longer would be an outrageous folly and a terrible crime. Serve the Lord with fear, and rejoice with trembling. Do you say, “We hear of advice and are willing to take it; our anxiety now is to find out the way in which we can become reconciled to God. How can we be restored to friendship with him whom we have so bitterly wronged and so grossly offended?” Here is the pith of the advice. “Kiss the Son, pay him homage, yield the affectionate obligations of your hearts to the Son of God.” Between you and the great King there is an awful breach. You can obtain no audience with him. So grievous has been your revolt, that he will not see you. He has shut the door, and there cannot be any communication between you and himself; he has hung up a thick veil, through which your prayers cannot penetrate. But he refers you to his Son. That Son is his other self—one with himself in essential Deity, who has condescended to become man, has taken your nature into union with himself, and in that nature has offered to divine justice an expiatory sacrifice for human guilt.

13. Now, therefore, God will deal with you through his Son. You must have an advocate; as many a client cannot plead in court, but must have some counsellor to plead for him, who is infinitely more versed in the law and better able to defend his cause than he is, so the Lord appoints that you, if you would see the face of your God, must see it in the face of Jesus Christ. The short way of being at peace with God is not to try and mend your ways, or excuse yourself, or perform certain works, or go through certain ceremonies, but to go to Christ, the one and only Mediator, who once was fastened to the cross, being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit. He is now at the right hand of God, and you are required to worship him, to trust in him, to love him. Do this, and the reconciliation between you and God is accomplished in a moment. The blessed Jesus will wash you from your guilt, and the righteousness of Christ will cover you with beauty, which will make you acceptable in the sight of God. “Kiss the Son.” It means render him homage, just as in our own country they speak of kissing hands with the Queen when certain offices are taken and homage is required. So come and kiss the Saviour. This is not hard work. Some of us would gladly kiss his blessed feet for ever. It would be heaven enough for us. Oh! come and pay your homage to him; acknowledge that Christ is your King. Give up your life to his service. Consecrate all your powers and faculties to do his will. Only trust him. “Blessed are all those who put their trust in him.” That is the true kiss. Trust him, rely on him, depend on him; stop depending on yourself, and rely on Jesus. Throw yourself flat down on the finished work of Christ; when you have done so your faith has reconciled you to God, and you may go your way in peace. Only go your way from now on to serve that King whose hand you have kissed, and to be the willing subject of that dear Redeemer who ought to have you, because he bought you with his precious blood.

14. This advice is urgent. Do it at once. I am not now speaking as an orator, but I am talking to you as a friend. I wish I could pass along those aisles, or over the tops of those pews, and gently take the hand of each one, and say, “Friend, God would gladly have you reconciled to him, and it only needs the simple act of trusting Jesus and accepting him to be your leader and your king.” Do it now. If it is ever worth doing, it is worth doing at once. It is a blessed thing to do. Why delay? It is a simple thing to do—why hesitate? It is the very least thing God could ask of you, and even that he will not require you to do in your own strength. Are you willing, but weak? He will help you to do what he commands you to do. Now, as you sit in your pew, what do you say to this? “I will think it over,” one says. Does it require any thinking over? If I had offended my father, I should wish to be at peace with him immediately; and if my father said to me “My son, I will be reconciled to you if you will go and speak to your brother about it,” well, I should not think it hard, for I love my brother as well as my father, and I would go to him at once, and so all would be well. God says, “Go to Jesus; I am in him. You can reach me there—go around by his cross; you will find me reconciled there. Away from the cross I am a Judge, and my terrors will consume you. With the cross between you and me, I am a Father, and you shall behold my face beaming with love for you.” Do you ask, “But how am I to get to Jesus?” Why, have I not told you?—simply to trust him, to rely on him. Faith is trusting Christ. This is the gospel, “Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and you shall be saved.” Put your entire trust in him. Renounce all lordship that has ever been exercised over you by any other master, and become Christ’s servant. Rely on him to land you safely at the right hand of God, and he will do it. “Kiss the Son.” Oh! friend, I cannot make you do it; it must be done by your own will. Only God can lead that will of yours to yield itself up to Christ’s will; but please do it—kiss the Son, and do it now.

15. III. Pursuing our quiet talk, I come to my third point, which is:—HOW IS THIS ADVICE PRESSED HOME ON US?

16. The vanity of any other course is made palpable. Be reconciled to God, because there is no use in being at enmity with him. The kings of the earth opposed God, but while they were plotting and planning, God was laughing. “Yet,” he says, “I have set my King on my holy hill of Zion.” I think if I were a king, and had the misfortune to be driven to go to war, I should not like to fight one who had ten times my own strength. I should rather engage in a somewhat equal combat, with a prospect that, by dint of valour and good generalship, victory might be gained. To contend against Omnipotence is insanity. For any man, I do not care who he may be, to put himself in opposition to God is utter folly. I have often watched, as doubtless you have done, the foolish moth attracted by the glare of the candle or the gas-light. He makes a plunge for it, as though he would put it out, and he drops, full of excruciating pain, on the table. He has enough wing left to make another dash at the flame, and again he is filled with another pain, and unless you mercifully kill him outright he will continue as long as he has any strength to fight with the fire which destroys him. That is an apt picture of the sinner’s life, and such will be the sinner’s death. Oh! do not do this, dear friend—do not do this. Do I not speak with the voice of reason when I dissuade you like this? If you must fight, let it be with someone whom you can overcome. But sit down now and consider whether you can hope to win a victory against an Almighty God. End the quarrel, man, for the quarrel will otherwise end in your death and eternal destruction.

17. We are further pressed to the duty commanded by the claims of the Son. “Kiss the Son.” As I read the words, they seem to me to have a force of argument in them which explains itself and vindicates its own claims. Kiss! Kiss whom? “Kiss the Son.” And who is he? Why, he is Jesus, the well beloved of the Father, and among the sons of men the chief among ten thousand, and the altogether lovely. Surely Christ is such a princely one that he ought to receive homage from mankind. He has done such great things for us, and he has shown such good will towards us, that to pay him reverence seems not so much the call of duty as the natural impulse of love. The worship which is his due should flow spontaneously from the instincts of grace rather than be exacted by the fiat of law. Even those who have denied the authenticity of inspiration have always been charmed with the character of our Lord, and you will notice that the most astute opponents of Christianity have had little, if anything, to say against its Founder, so transparent is his virtue, so charming is his humility. Oh! Kiss the Son, then. He is God—trust him. He is man, a perfect man—confide in his friendship. He has finished the work of human redemption; therefore, hail him as your king, and pay your homage to him now. Oh! that God’s eternal Spirit may lead you to do so without hesitation or demur!

18. If I were talking to some of you in a quiet corner I might gather an argument from the simplicity of the promise offered to you here. “Kiss the Son.” Is that all? Pay Jesus homage. Is that all? The Emperor of Germany, in the olden times when Popes were Popes, had offended his Unholiness, and before he could be restored to favour he had to stand for three days (I think it was) outside the castle gate, in the deep snow, in the depth of winter, and do penance. I have seen, myself, in Rome and elsewhere, outside of the older churches, places uncovered and exposed to wind and rain, to the heat of summer and the frost of winter, where backsliders were made to stand, sometimes for years even, before they were restored, if they had committed some offence against ecclesiastical statutes. You will sometimes see in old country churches of England little windows that run slanting and just look toward the communion table, through which poor offenders who professed repentance, after some months of standing in the churchyard, or perhaps outside of it, were at last allowed to take a peep at the altar, at the end of their weary term of penance. All this is contrary to the spirit of the gospel, for the spirit of the gospel is, “Come, now, and let us reason together; though your sins are as scarlet, they shall be as wool.” The spirit of my text is, “Kiss the Son, now”; and that is all. Though those lips were once blaspheming, let them kiss the Son. Though those lips have uttered high words and proud words, or perhaps lying and lascivious words, “Kiss the Son.” Bow down at those dear pierced feet, and trust Emmanuel, and submit yourself to be his servant, and you shall be forgiven—forgiven at once, without delay—and tonight you shall be accepted in Christ. I am very glad I have so good a message to tell. I wish that you would receive it with gladness. May it drop like the snowflakes on the sea, which sink into the wave. May each invitation sink into your soul, there to bless you from now on and for ever!

19. Moreover, the exhortation of our text is backed up with blessings for those who yield to it. “Blessed are all those who put their trust in him.” Those of you who do not know anything about trusting in Christ must have noticed how joyfully we sang that hymn just now:—

   Oh! happy day that fixed my choice

      On thee, my Saviour and my God;

   Well may this glowing heart rejoice,

      And tell its raptures all abroad.

Do you not think there was some fervour in our tones? Was it not sung as if we meant it? If no one else meant it, I did; and I could see by the look of your eyes that a good many of you were stirred with grateful memories. It was the happiest day in all our lives when Jesus washed our sins away. Far be it from us to deceive any of you by saying that to be a Christian will save you from the sorrows of the world, or from trials and tribulations, from physical pain or from natural death. Nothing of the kind. You will be liable to sickness and adversity in their various forms, just as other men are, but you will have this to comfort you in every dark, distressing hour, that these light afflictions, which are only for a season, will come to you from a loving Father’s gentle hand, with a gracious purpose, and they will be dealt out to you in weight and measure according to his judgment, while some sweet consolations will always be sent with them; and, above all, there is perpetual joy and perennial satisfaction in that man’s heart who knows that he is right with God. Although his house may not be as he would have it, yet he has accepted God’s way of reconciliation—he is reconciled by the blood of Christ—God loves him, and he loves God; he is confident, therefore, that, whether he lives or dies, he must be blessed, because he is at peace with God. Oh! happy day, happy day, thrice-happy day, when a man comes into this blessed state! I have heard many regret that they have pursued the pleasures of sense and been fascinated with them; but I never yet heard of one who had found the dear delights of faith pall on his taste. It has never fallen to my lot yet to attend a death-bed where I have heard a Christian regret that he put his trust in his Saviour; neither have I ever heard at any time of anyone who died believing in Jesus who has had to say, “Had I only served the world with half the zeal I served my God I would have been a happier man.” Oh! no; such bitter reflections on misspent time and misused talents befit the worldling, and the world’s poet put it into the dying man’s mouth in another form from what I gave it; for “what we might have been,” and “what we might have done,” make the sum of life’s bewailing, when death in view makes such repentance unavailing. The Christian’s satisfaction is, on the other hand, only shaded by the wish everyone feels that they had loved the Saviour more intensely, trusted him more confidently, and served him more diligently. I have never heard any other kind of compunction and self-reproach.

20. “Come along, then, friend; come along,” they say to us; “what does it matter as long as you are happy?” I have often heard them say so. And let me say to you, if that is one of your mottoes, and you really do seek after happiness, you cannot do better than pay homage to the Son of God, end the awful rift between you and your Creator, and from now on put your trust in him. There is one other motive I must mention. “Kiss the Son, lest he be angry, and you perish from the way, when his wrath is kindled only a little.” A striking expression! If Christ gets a little angry, men perish from the way. Then what must his great anger be? If his anger, kindled only a little, burns like devouring fire, and men perish from the way of life, and from all hope of salvation, what must his great wrath be! Is there a fear suggested here that anyone will provoke Christ to fiercer anger? There is; alas! there is. Shall I tell you the most likely person to do it? Not, I think, that abandoned sinner who was born and bred in an immoral atmosphere, and has followed a vicious course to the present hour. To him I would say, “Come to Jesus, and he will wash you now, and cleanse you from all your pollution.” But the man I tremble for as most likely to make him swear in his wrath is such a one as I was, privileged with godly parents, watched with jealous eyes, scarcely ever permitted to mix with questionable associates, warned not to listen to anything profane or licentious—taught the way of God from his youth up. In my case there came a time when the solemnities of eternity pressed on me for a decision, and when a mother’s tears and a father’s supplications were offered to heaven on my behalf. At such a time, had I not been helped by the grace of God, but had I been left alone to do violence to conscience, and to struggle against conviction, I might have been at this moment perhaps dead, buried, and doomed, having, through a course of vice, brought myself to an early grave, or I might have been as earnest a ringleader among the ungodly as I desire to be for Christ and his truth. When there is light given, when one is not left to grope in darkness, when conscience is kept tender, a little provocation may then anger Christ very much.

21. I am afraid some of you young people who are growing up here stand in great need of admonition. You have good parents. You have been instructed in the Scriptures from your infancy, and you have had a great many deep impressions while sitting in these pews listening to the sound of the gospel; and yet you are playing with them, you are trifling with them. There is nothing bad about you—so you think. You are not conscious of having grossly violated any moral law. But have you never heard of a gentleman in India who had a tame leopard that went about his house? It was as playful as a cat, and did no one any harm until one day, as he lay asleep, the leopard licked his hand, and licked until it had licked a sore place and tasted blood. After that there was nothing for it but to destroy it; for all the leopard’s nature was aroused by that taste of blood. And some of you young people, with all the godly associations who are all around you, will—I am always afraid—get a taste of the devilry outside, of the world’s vice and sin; and then there is the leopard’s nature in you. If you once get the taste and flavour of it, you will be prone to be always thirsting for it. Then, instead of the hope we now cherish, that we shall soon see you at your parents’ side, serving Christ—see you take your father’s place, young man, in later years—see you, young woman, grow up to be a matron in the Church of God, bringing many others to the Saviour—we may have to lament that the children are not as the parents, and cry, “Woe is the day that they were ever born.”

22. I, therefore, want you to decide, lest you perish from the way—from the way of God and the way of righteousness—while his wrath is kindled only a little, lest he say, “Leave them alone,” and throw the reins on your neck; for if he should once do that, then rue that day! Nothing can happen worse to a man than to be left to himself. Kiss the Son, then. Affectionately and earnestly I entreat you—not standing here ex officio to deliver pious platitudes, but from my very soul, as though I were your brother or father, I would say, “Young man, young woman, kiss the Son now. Yield your heart up to Jesus now.” Blessed are those who trust in him now. Oh! tonight, tonight, tonight—your first night in grace, or else your last night in hope! Tonight, tonight! The clock has just struck; it seemed to say, “Tonight.” May God help you to say, “Indeed, it shall be tonight, for God and for Christ!”

   Songs of triumph then resounding

      From thy happy lips shall flow;

   In the knowledge of salvation,

      Thou true happiness shalt know,

         Through Christ Jesus,

      Who alone can life bestow.

Exposition By C. H. Spurgeon {Lu 7:36-48}

36. And one of the Pharisees desired him that he would eat with him. And he went into the Pharisee’s house, and sat down to eat.

They sat according to the eastern custom of sitting, which was rather lying at length, with the feet far out on the couch or sofa.

37. And, behold, a woman in the city, who was a sinner,

In a particular sense, a sinner; one whose very trade was sin.

37, 38. When she knew that Jesus sat eating in the Pharisee’s house, brought an alabaster box of ointment, and stood at his feet behind him weeping.

As she could do, you see, without coming into the room, except for a few yards, especially if the Saviour’s feet were near the door.

38. And began to wash his feet with tears, and wiped them with the hairs of her head, and kissed his feet, and anointed them with the ointment.

For water she gives her tears, for a towel, her hair; to heal the blisters of his weary pilgrimage, there are her soft lips for liniment; and then for ointment comes this precious salve.

39. Now when the Pharisee who had invited him saw it, he spoke within himself, saying, “This man, if he were a prophet, would have known who and what kind of woman this is who touches him; for she is a sinner.”

She is a sinner, and does he let her touch him, and kiss his feet, and show such signs of affection? What man must he be who allows a prostitute’s kiss, even though it is on his feet? Ah! poor foolish Pharisee! He judged according to the sight of the eye, or else he might have known that the best of men would never be angry at a prostitute’s tears, for the tears of repentance, coming from whatever heart they may, are always like diamonds in the esteem of you who judge properly.

40-42. And Jesus answering said to him, “Simon, I have something to say to you.” And he says, “Master, say on.” “There was a certain creditor who had two debtors: the one owed five hundred pence, and the other fifty. And when they had nothing to pay,

And were, therefore, likely to be cast into prison, and to be sold as slaves.

42, 43. He frankly forgave them both. Tell me, therefore, which of them will love him most?” Simon answered and said, “I suppose that he, to whom he forgave the most.” And he said to him, “You have correctly judged.”

There were no bonds, no promises of what they would do in the future, but he frankly forgave them both.

44. And he turned to the woman, and said to Simon, “Do you see this woman? I entered into your house,

And it was, therefore, your duty to attend to me.

44. You gave me no water for my feet:

Though that was the common custom.

44, 45. But she has washed my feet with tears, and wiped them with the hairs of her head. You gave me no kiss;

Which was the customary welcome to every honoured guest—a kiss on the cheek or on the forehead.

45. But this women, since the time I came in, has not ceased to kiss my feet.

She has done what you ought to have done; she has done it better than you could have done it; she has done it when there was no claim on her to do it, except that she had been forgiven much, and, therefore, loved much.

46. You did not anoint my head with oil;

This, too, was the usual custom.

46-48. But this woman, has anointed my feet with ointment. Therefore I say to you, ‘Her sins, which are many, are forgiven; for she loved much; but to whom little is forgiven, the same loves little.’” And he said to her, “Your sins are forgiven.”