PARDONED

BLESSED IS HE WHOSE TRANSGRESSION IS FORGIVEN,WHOSE SIN IS COVERED

Psalm 32 is very instructive. The experience of one man is instructive to another. We learn the way in which we should walk by observing the footsteps of the flock. The psalm begins with a blessing. Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered. I think I hear a sort of sigh of relief, as if the man had been burdened with a load of guilt, and now at last his sin is put way, and his sigh has more solemn joy in it than if it had been a song. Beloved you must know the bitterness of sin before you can know the blessedness of forgiveness, and you must have such a sight of sin as shall break your heart before you can understand the blessedness of the divine covering, that sacred coverlet that hides sin effectually, blots it out, and even makes it cease to be. Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered. Would you not think so, dear burdened heart, if it ever came to your lot? I hope it will be so tonight. Do we not think so, who remember the day when almighty mercy forgave us our transgressions, and covered our sins? Indeed we do. This is one of the greatest joys out of heaven. Perhaps, for a sort of still soft melody, with much of the minor in it, this is the sweetest music in the whole book, blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered.

Now the psalmist must put the same truth in another form. He loves to reduplicate, to repeat again and again a truth which is very precious to him. Blessed is the man unto whom The Lord imputeth not iniquity, and in whose spirit there is no guile. Here are two reasons for the man's joyfulness, sin is not laid to his charge, and he is no longer deceitful, he no longer tries to palliate and to excuse his sin, he makes a clean breast of it, and God in a higher sense gives him a clean breast. He acknowledges the justice of God, and God displays His infinite mercy to him.

FATHER FORGIVE THEM.

And when they were come to the place, which is

called calvary, there they crucified Him,

and the malefactors, one on the right hand,

and the other on the left. Then said Jesus,

Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.

And they parted His raiment, and cast lots.

And the people stood beholding. Luke 23vs33-35.

They gave Jesus the place of dishonour. Reckoning Him to be the worst criminal of the three, they put Him between the other two. They heaped upon Him the utmost scorn which they could give to a malefactor, and in so doing they unconsciously honoured Him. Jesus always deserves the chief place wherever He is. In all things He must have the pre-eminence. He is King of sufferers as well as King of saints.

How startled they must have been to hear such words from one who was about to be put to death for a supposed crime! The men that drove the nails, the men that lifted up the tree, must have started back in amazement when they heard Jesus talk to God as His Father, and pray for them, "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do." Did ever Roman legionary hear such words before? I should say not. They were so distinctly and diametrically opposed to the whole spirit of Rome. There it was blow for blow, only in the case of Jesus they gave blows where none had been recieved. The crushing cruelty of the Roman must have been startled indeed at such words as these, " Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do."

The gambling soldiers little dreamed that they were fulfilling the scriptures while they were raffling for the raiment of the illustrious Sufferer on the cross, yet it was so. In the 22nd psalm, which so fully sets forth our Saviour's suffering while He hung on the tree, David wrote, " they parted My garments among them, and cast lots upon My vesture."

"And the people stood beholding," gazing, looking on at the cruel spectacle. You and I would not have done that, there is a public sentiment that has trained us to hate the sight of cruelty, especially deadly cruelty to one of our own race, but these people thought that they did no harm when they "stood beholding." They also were thus fulfilling the scriptures, for the 17th verse of the 22nd psalm says, " they look and stare upon me."