from his hands, and the bold and determined suicide hung trembling on the knees of his prisoners, and under a deep concern about the safety, not of his body but his soul, cried out, "Sirs, what must I do to be saved?" The same power which was so visibly exerted in these instances could easily have purified the fountain of ungodliness in this man's heart at the very moment that the words of bitter derision were flowing from his tongue, and made them to be followed by the sweet and salutary strains of blessing and prayer streaming from a smitten, softened, opened, and sanctified soul. But as the evangelist Luke gives the most circumstantial narrative of the extraordinary incident, it is more natural to consider his detail as qualifying and explaining the general statement of his brethren; and he represents only one of the malefactors as reviling Jesus, and the other as vindicating him. Nor is it uncommon in scripture to affirm that of a number of persons or things of the same kind, which is true of one of them only. Thus we are told that the ark "rested on the mountains of Ararat," that is, on one of them; that Lot "dwelt in the cities of the plain," that is, in one of them; that "the soldiers ran and filled a spunge with vinegar," that is, one of them did so. In like manner we are told "the thieves railed on him," that is, one of them did it.

Although, however, the person mentioned in our text did not join in the blasphemies of his comrade, we have every reason for thinking that the cross was the place of his conversion; and that he came to it with no more knowledge of Jesus, and no more love to him, than his fellow had. But while he was suspended on the cross his heart was changed—he was convinced of sin, enlightened in the knowledge of the Saviour, who was crucified along with him, humbled, sanctified, and made a new man. That the influence by which this was brought about was divine, there cannot be a moment's doubt. The only question is as the spirit of God does not ordinarily produce this change on the minds of adults without the intervention and use of external means by what instrumentality was this man converted, and how did he attain that knowledge

of the truth concerning Christ which he displayed in his address to him?

When Jesus began to teach in the synagogue of his native place, his townsmen were astonished, and exclaimed, "Whence hath this man this wisdom? Is not this the carpenter's son ? Whence then hath he all these things?" There is reason for putting the same question as to this thief, and under a similar feeling of astonishment. Like others who have followed his unlawful trade, we have every reason to think that he was brought up in ignorance and profaneness, and that he was as destitute of religious knowledge as he was of moral honesty. He was too much occupied with his trade to attend on the sermons, or witness the miracles of Jesus; and his exclusion from all sober and decent society must have prevented him from hearing of them by the report of others. By what means then did he acquire the knowledge of him? In his prison he might hear of his arraignment and sentence; and after he knew that he was to be crucified along with him, curiosity would induce him to enquire into the cause of his condemnation. This might perhaps satisfy him that Jesus was no evil-doer— that he had been guilty of no murder, or theft, or sedition, and that the envy of the chief priests had delivered him up to Pilate; and it is probable that his companion also knew all this, and had the same conviction in his breast, although he railed on him as an impostor. But it was at Golgotha, and when hanging on the accursed tree, that he acquired that knowledge which issued in his conversion. And what were the means of his instruction? None that I can discover or tell you of, my brethren, but what he was able to glean from the speeches of those who were below, from the few words which Jesus had spoken, and from the inscription on his cross. The first he had heard say, " He saved others ;" and who can tell what light this saying might let into an understanding opened by the Spirit of God? He had also heard them speak of him, although with incredulity, as "the Christ, the King of Israel, the Son of God, who trusted in God that he would deliver him," He had heard the remarkable and heart-melt

ing prayer which Jesus offered up for his murderers, when they were in the act of nailing him to the tree, "Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do ;" and he had a practical commentary on them in the meekness and patience with which he "endured the cross, despising the shame." And he had an opportunity of reading the inscription which was written over his head in legible characters, in Hebrew, Greek, and Latin," This is Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews." This, my brethren, was at once the text and the sermon by which the thief was converted; and, accordingly, the language of his address and prayer is borrowed from it. He believed that he was "Jesus," a Saviour. He believed that he was a 66 King;" and he believed that his cross was the way to his crown, for it witnessed of it, and it pointed to it. And believing this, and encouraged by it to put his trust in him, he said, "Lord, remember me when thou comest into thy kingdom." Think it not strange, or at least think it not incredible, that the words of scorn and derision spoken by an infatuated, infuriated mob should be made the means of so much good to this man's soul. They were truth, saving truth, and contained the substance of the gospel, and of what Jesus had taught concerning himself. Think it not incredible, that the inscription devised by an unbelieving and unjust judge should have been the means of delivering a criminal, whom he had condemned to an excruciating death, from a doom still more awful. It contained the truth which the person to whom it referred had testified when he stood at the bar of Pilate, and it was devised and written at the secret instigation of Him whose "determinate counsel" the Roman governor executed in this as well as in other parts of this divinely-ordained transaction. Many an excellent, savoury, and saving sermon has been preached from the insidious saying of the arch-priest Caiaphas, "It is expedient that one man should die for the people, and that the whole nation perish not." And why, in that year, and on that day, which was big with the eternal destinies of a world, to which all the prophets and holy men from the beginning had looked forward, and all holy men

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to the end shall look back, why at such a time should not a Pagan magistrate have been made to prophesy as well as a Jewish priest? And why should not his prophecy have been the means of enlightening the mind of a robber, and qualifying him for confessing the dying Redeemer of sinners, both Jewish and Gentile ?

But, my brethren, we are to remember that it is one thing for us to perceive the meaning of this inscription, possessing, as we do, the whole New Testament, yea, the whole Bible, as a commentary on it, and having leisure to compare the commentary with the text; and that it was quite another thing for the thief, without any such helps, to decypher its language and extricate its sense; and that, too, while he hung on the cross in a state of exquisite bodily pain. That he should have been able to do this, and by what process of thought he came to the conclusion which he drew, will continue always to be matter of wonder-a monument of the inscrutable wisdom and amazing grace of Him who works by whatever means it pleaseth him to employ.

II. Consider the situation in which Jesus was placed when this man addressed him in the words of the text.

During his personal ministry, the rays of his glory often pierced the veil of his outward humiliation, so that those that saw its manifestations had all their doubts dissipated, and were assured that he came from God, and was the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. But this man became acquainted with him, and beheld him, not at Jordan, where heaven pronounced him its Son; or at Cana of Galilee, where he manifested forth his glory; or by the lake of Tiberias, where he fed the multitude; or in Bethany, where he raised Lazarus; or in Tabor, where he was transfigured: but he beheld him for the first time at Golgotha, where, instead of speaking as never man spake, he was dumb as a sheep before her shearers, and, instead of doing mighty works, was crucified through weakness. At this time his glory was not merely under a cloud: it was in an eclipse, and seemed to have set never to reappear. It was the hour and power of dark

ness.

THE PRAYER OF THE THIEF ON THE CROSS.

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Formerly he had been followed by multitudes, who crowded to him and thronged him, and when he withdrew they followed him and sought him out with great eagerness-the whole world was gone out after him, and they talked of making him a king, so that the chief priests became alarmed, and his disciples, seeing matters in so prosperous-like a train, thought it high time to look out for themselves, and to secure the most honourable places in that kingdom which he was about to erect. But this flattering prospect had evanished. The multitude which followed him for a time had melted away gradually, until he was left alone with the twelve; and at last he was forsaken by them also. One of them betrayed him, another abjured him, and all the rest fled, and were scattered; and their unfaithful and cowardly desertion had affixed a stigma on his pretensions, which all the malice and misrepresentation of his open adversaries had not been able to inflict. When he was arraigned before the high priest, hopes of his safety still remained; for the Romans retained the power of life and death in their own hands, and Pilate was not only disposed to let him go, but laboured to accomplish his release. Even after he was condemned to die, the case did not appear desperate; for those who had witnessed his miracles, and seen the band sent to apprehend him struck to the ground, merely by his saying to them, "I am he," might flatter themselves that his enemies would be unable to carry their sentence into execution. This last hope had proved fallacious. He had suffered himself to be led as a lamb to the slaughter. He was now affixed to the tree, and was fast bleeding to death. There he hung between two notorious malefactors, disowned by all his former friends, insulted over by his enemies, heaven shut against his prayer, hell gaping for him as its prey. It was in these circumstances, when the cause of Jesus was in the most desperate-like condition, that this man, openly and for the first time, professed his faith in him.

III. Consider the import of the profession contained in his address.