October 23

We shall deliber the needy when he crieth.

PSALM lxxii. 12.

Verily I say unto thee, To day shalt thou be with me in paradise. — LUKL xxiii. 43.

THUS began the fulfilment of the Saviour's prophecy, "I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me." Christ crucified was the object upon which the malefactor's faith rested. It is an affecting thought that the penitent thief was probably at that hour the only human being who unwaveringly believed in the power and coming of Jesus. Never had his claims and promises seemed so preposterous: never had his cause looked so dark. But though all men had forsaken him, this dying sinner antici- pated the glorious advent of the dying Saviour and made his petition, "Lord, remember me."

One might almost think that he would want to forget him- self and drop from the remembrance of the just and the pure. But faith in Christ enables the sinner to forgive himself and to say of the man that he was. "It is no longer I." The new man within him does not think of hiding from the face of him that sitteth on the throne, but asks as his greatest boon to be held in the memory of a pitiful Lord.

How kingly is the Saviour's response! How far it ex- ceeds the breadth of the petition! The mercy of Christ can reach to the vilest sinner. It can save him in his greatest extremity. It can save him completely. From the place of his penitence it is not even a day's journey to the Paradise of God.

George Alexander.

The dying thief rejoiced to see

That fountain in his day;

And there may I, though vile as he,

Wash all my sins away.

COWPER