SERMON IV.

CONVERSION OF ZACCHEUS.

LUKE XIX. 5, 6.

AND WHEN JESUS CAME TO THE PLACE, HE LOOKED UP, AND SAW HIM, AND SAID UNTO HIM, ZACCHEUS, MAKE HASTE, AND COME DOWN; FOR TO-DAY

I MUST ABIDE AT THY HOUSE.

AND HE MADE HASTE, AND CAME DOWN, AND RECEIVED HIM JOYFULLY.

THE Conversion of Zaccheus affords a striking illustration of the kindness of Christ as a Friend of sinners.

The man before us was the chief among the publicans. Of these there were two classes; one, an order of knights, respectable, and generally mentioned with honor. The other class were deputy assessors and collectors. They gave their bonds for a certain sum, and then, in many cases, enriched themselves by unjust exactions. A publican of this class was there fore odious, and the name was a proverb. Christ himself used the name in that manner: "Let him be unto thee as a heathen man and a publican." Theocritus, a poet, being asked which was the most cruel

of beasts, said, "Of the beasts of the wilderness, the bear and the lion, and of the beasts of the city, the publican and the parasite," or the designing flatterer. These publicans were for the most part foreigners. When a Jew became a publican, he was, of course, looked upon as a vile traitor, and was so abhorred that he was not permitted to enter the temple or engage in public prayers, and his testimony was not admitted in courts of justice.

Now, the man mentioned in the text, as we learn from the feelings of the people when they saw Christ enter his house, was one of these publicans, the principal of the extortioners; men knew him, perhaps, as the Shylock of Jericho; "and he was rich." In his personal appearance, it seems, he was below the common stature. Great talents at financiering have not unfrequently been associated with smallness of size, so that painters and poets have connected the two things together. If he were mean and wicked, his inferior personal appearance must have made him an object of contempt. But besides this, he was a Jew; not a foreigner plundering strangers, but one of their own countrymen hiring himself to their Roman masters, and making use of his office to oppress the Jews, his countrymen, and enrich himself. So that, all things considered, we shall not err if we suppose him to have been an odious character; a little, brisk, shrewd, cruel Jew, rich in ill-gotten treasures, and small as he was,

bearing sway among the herd of publicans through his intriguing manners, or the influence of his superior wealth.

This man had a desire to see Christ. "He sought to see Jesus, who he was." As Christ entered and passed through Jericho with a crowd of people around him, the excitement in the street caught the attention of this publican; but not being able "for the press," "because he was little of stature," to obtain a sight of Christ, he ran before the crowd, and climbed into a sycamore tree, and waited for his coming. He does not seem to have had any religious impressions, or any thing but a desire to see a celebrated stranger. The crowd soon came by the tree, and Jesus looked up, and saw him, and said unto him, "Zaccheus, make haste and come down; for to-day I must abide at thy house."

This is not the only instance in which Christ showed his knowledge of one who supposed himself to be a stranger to him. "Nathanael said unto him, Whence knowest thou me?" There can be no reason to doubt that Christ knew who Zaccheus was without being informed, and the sequel of the story leads us to believe that the whole transaction was arranged by the omniscient Saviour for the purposes which will presently appear.

As Christ came to the tree, and looked up, and said, "Zaccheus !" we may easily conceive the surprise of

the man at the salutation. He little dreamed of being noticed, especially of being addressed by name, on the part of him whom all Jericho followed. As the Saviour paused and the crowd halted, there was one moment for the arch publican to think of his situation. It is not impossible that, with the inconceivable rapidity with which thoughts pass through the mind under sudden excitement, some disagreeable apprehensions seized him; and it may be his conscience awoke. Perhaps he thought that Christ had come to arraign him, and expose him to the populace. He was like one caught and bound fast; the tree was a pillory if Christ saw fit to use it for that purpose, and turn the indignation of the people against the sinner. At the moment when the eye of Christ was directed towards him in the tree, it were not surprising if his past life and forebodings of shame filled the mind of this transgressor.

The call of Christ was more surprising to Zaccheus than his discovery of him. We can hardly imagine the effect which the Saviour's words must have had upon him after his first painful alarm: "Zaccheus, make haste and come down; for to-day I must abide at thy house." Never could there be a more sudden and affecting change in the feelings of a man. A moment before he was like an arrested culprit, liable, at a word from Christ, to meet the scorn and indignation of the populace; now the Saviour's words of

kindness and confidence in him melted his heart. "Zaccheus, make haste and come down." But for what purpose? To meet the insults or reproaches of the people? "I must abide at thy house." With me!' he might have said; 'thou with me!' With what emotions must he have descended. "He made haste, and came down, and received him joyfully."

Then, indeed, a strange sight appeared. There walked together the Son of God and the chief of the publicans; he "who did no sin, neither was guile found in his mouth," and the wicked Zaccheus, side by side. In silent doubt for a season, it would seem, this new object of the Saviour's mercy must have passed along, wondering whether it were a dream, and experiencing a conflict of feelings as he met the eyes of the people in his new and strange position. What joy there must have been in the presence of the angels of God at such a sight! What bitter feelings in the great enemy of Christ and man at the loss of such prey!

Christ went into the house of this sinner, and, with his disciples, became his guest. The crowd, as we infer from the narrative, followed him to the door; and we are prepared to feel the truth and force of the remark made by the evangelist with regard to them: "And when they saw it, they all murmured, saying, That he was gone to be guest with a man that is a sinner." Was there no virtuous, upright man in