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Stearns

eousness. which In the sight of God is
only as filthy rags lisa Xiv. g, and can
In no case entitle one to enter the king
dom Matt. V. 20). The righteousness
which is required by God must be alb
solutely perfect, an unbroken law. for
whatsoever shall keep the whole law
and yet offend in one point he Is guilty
OF ALI (]as. II. 10J. The law is so
holy and righteous that no sinful man
can keep IL. and it was never intended
to give life. but to prove our guilt, shut
our mouths and lead us TO Christ, who
is Gods perfect righteousness and the
end Of the law for righteousness to
every one that belleveth.
There is no Saviour or salvation for
righteous man In the Bible-that is,
for such as think themselves righteous
but only for sinners.
In connection with the murmuring OF
the pharisees when our Lord called
Matthew or Levi. the publican. and
Levi made Him a feast In his own
house, at which Il great company OF
publicans and others We're present. our
Lord said: They that are whole need
not physician but they that are sick.
came not 20 call the righteous. but
sinners. to repentance" duke V. 81 80.
On another occasion He said to the
chief priests and elders. Verify | say
unto you that the publicans and the
harlots go into the kingdom of God be
fore you" (Matt. xxi, %. 81. To this
40 oh. ,h
members who. being ignorant Of
|. Gods righteousness and going about
to establish their OWE righteousness.
have not submitted themselves unto
the righteousness Of God" (Rom. X. 81.
1t is indeed fearful thing to be sat
isfied with oneself and have no convic
ton of sin. In the first part OF our les
son today the Pharisee did not pray 10
God, did not ask God for anything. did
not seem to need anything. but prayed
with himself and told God what good
man he was and how much good he
did and how thankful he was that he
was not a bad man nor even like that
publican. Truly he was well satisfied
with his righteous self The publican
had no goodness to prove his right
eousness. nothing good to say OF him
self. but he did have consciousness
OF his own sinfulness. and from his
heart he said. God be merciful 10 me
sinner" In the margin OF the re-
vised version it is. God be propitiated
to me- the sinner" Weymouth has 1t.
20 God. be reconciled to me. sinner
that am The Lord Jesus Christ.
who reads all hearts. the only Saviour
OF sinners, the only Judge OF all men.
said that the publican went to his
home justified.
/ like the definition OF justification
which | learned in Sunday school when
/ was Il boy. and. II ! remember cor
rectly. it read thus: Justification is an
act OF Gods free grace. wherein He
pardoneth all our sins and accepteth
us as righteous in His sight only for
the righteousness OF Christ. imputed
unto us and received by faith alone"
In the second part Of our lesson we
have a rich publican who had n desire
to see Jesus. and. though he did not
seem to have the same conviction of
sin as the poor publican. he. too, was
welcomed and saved. He was a prom
inent man. chief among the publicans.
He was not prominent as to his phys
zeal appearance. for he was little OF
stature. He was not what one might
call dignified. for he ran and climbed
up into tree. His thought evidently
was to see without being seen. How
surprised beyond measure he must
have been to see Jesus look up and TO
hear Him call him by name and to
hear Him say. Make haste and come
down, for today | must abide at thy
house" verse D.
Was this something exceeding abun-
dainty above all that Zaccheus had
ever thought to come his way, or was
IL the Saviour's recognition Of a desire
which He had actually seen in the
heart OF this man? Eph. Ill, 20; Eek.
XII. 3; rs. cxlv. 49, | cannot tell. but
I do know that the "handfuls Of pur-
pose" which the Lord drops for those
who seek Him and for those who seek
to serve Him are truly wonderful
ruth II. 10. 16l.
We do not wonder that Zaecheus
made haste and came down and re-
ceived Him joyfully Verse O.. Any
one but a Pharisee would If he only
understood what II meant According
to John /. -. Zaccheus thus became n
child OF God and according to / John
II, 10. had there and then the forgive
ness Of his sins-freely justified. as
was the other publican. There is only
one salvation and one way Of salvation
for rich or poor. IL was foreshadowed
In the atonement money OF Israel, con-
corning which IL was commanded,
1.-THE rich shall not give more and the
poor shall not give less than half a
shekel" CEx. XXX. 11-15l That which
Zaccheus said he did In verse was
part of the evidence that he had be-
come child Of God. for. while no
works Of ours can obtain or help to OBJ
tain salvation the good works must