We all remember the story in the Gospel, of the different treatment which our Lord met with in the same house, from the Pharisee, who had invited him into it, and from the woman who came in and knelt at his feet, and kissed them, and bathed them with her tears.  Our Lord accounted for the difference in these words, “To whom little is forgiven, the same loveth little;” which means to speak of the sense or feeling in the person’s own mind, “He who feels that little is or needs to be forgiven him, he also loves little.”  And this same difference which existed toward him when he was present on earth, exists no less now, whenever he is brought before our thoughts.  The same sort of persons who saw him with indifference, think of him also with indifference; they who saw him with love, think of him also with love.  There is no art, no power in the world, which can give an interest to words spoken concerning him, for those who feel that little is and that little needs to be forgiven them, or to those who never consider about their being forgiven at all.  To such, this day, with its services, what they hear from the Scriptures, or what they hear from men, must be alike a matter of indifference:  it is not possible that it should be otherwise.  Yet, God forbid that we should design what we are saying this day only for a certain few of our congregation, as if the rest neither would nor could be interested in it.  So long as any one is careless, he cannot, it is true, be interested about the things of Christ; but who can say at what moment, through God’s grace, he may cease to be careless?  Is it too much to say, that scarcely a service is performed in any congregation in the land, which does not awaken an interest in some one who before was indifferent?  I do rot say a deep interest, nor a lasting one, but an interest; there is a thought, a heeding, an inclination of the mind to listen, created probably by the Church services in some one or other, every time that they are performed.  As we never can know in whom this may be so created, as all have great need that it should be created, as all are deeply concerned whether they feel that they are so or no, so we speak to all alike; and if the language does pass over their ears like an unknown or indistinct sound, the fault and the loss are theirs; but the Church has borne her witness, and has so far done her duty.

But again, for ears not careless, but most interested; for hearts to whom Christ is more than all in the world besides; for minds, before whom the wisdom of the gospel is ever growing, rising to a loftier height, and striking downwards to a depth more profound,—­yet without end in its height or its depth; is there not, also, a difficulty in speaking to them of that great thing which the Church celebrates to-day?  Is there no difficulty in awakening their interest, or rather how can we escape even from wearying or repelling them, when their own affections and deep thoughts must find all words of man, whether of themselves or