"His ways" were not as "man's ways!" The "watchmen," in the Canticles, "smote" the disconsolate one seeking her lost Lord; they tore off her veil, mocking with chilling unkindness her anguished tears. Not so "the Chief Shepherd and Bishop of souls." "_This_ man _receiveth_ sinners"! See Nicodemus, stealing under the shadows of night to elude observation--type of the thousand thousand who in every age have gone trembling in their night of sin and sorrow to this Heavenly Friend! Does Jesus punish his timidity by shutting His door against him, spurning him from His presence? "He will not break the bruised reed, He will not quench the smoking flax!" And He is still the same! He who arrested a persecutor in his blasphemies, and tuned the lips of an expiring felon with faith and love, is at this hour standing, with all the garnered treasures of Redemption in His hand, proclaiming, "Him that cometh unto Me, I will in no wise cast out"! Are we from this to think lightly of sin? or, by example and conduct, to palliate and overlook its enormity? Not so; sin, _as_ sin, can never be sufficiently stamped with the brand of reprobation. But we must seek carefully to distinguish between the offence and the offender. Nothing should be done on our part, by word or deed, to mock the penitential sighings of a guilty spirit, or send the trembling outcast away, with the despairing feeling of "_No hope_." "This man receiveth sinners," and shall not _we_? Does _He_ suffer the veriest dregs of human depravity to crouch unbidden at His feet, and to gaze on His forgiving countenance with the uplifted eye of hope, and shall _we_ dare to deal out harsh, and severe, and crushing verdicts on an offending (it may be a _deeply_ offending) brother? Shall we pronounce "crimson" and "scarlet" sins and sinners beyond the pale of mercy, when _Jesus_ does not? Nay, rather, when wretchedness, and depravity, and backsliding cross our path, let it not be with the bitter taunt or the ironical retort that we bid them away. Let us bear, endure, remonstrate, deal tenderly. Jesus _did_ so, Jesus _does_ so! Ah! If we had within us His unconquerable love of souls; His yearning desire for the everlasting happiness of sinners, we should be more frequently in earnest expostulation and affectionate appeal with those who have hitherto got no other than harsh thoughts and repulsive words. If this "mind" really were in us, "which was also in Him," we should more frequently ask ourselves, "Have I done all I _might_ have done to pluck this brand from the burning! Have I remembered what grace _has_ wrought, what grace _can_ do?" "Brethren, if any of you do err from the truth, and one convert him, let him know, that he which converteth the sinner from the error of his way shall save a soul from death, and shall hide a multitude of sins!" "ARM YOURSELVES LIKEWISE WITH THE SAME MIND." Twenty-sixth Day. GUILELESSNESS. "Neither was guile found in His mouth."--1 Pet. ii. 22.