e
acknowledged place of prayer; to it the devout Jews went at the hour of
prayer, if they were near; toward it they looked if they were distant.
The appointment was a help to prayer in the preparatory dispensation: it
would be a hindrance if it were maintained still. Not in that one place,
but in all places, the true worshippers pray to the Father.

"The one a Pharisee, and the other a publican." The two characters are
represented in deep relief: there is no confusion, and no ambiguity.
Each is exhibited in his own colour, and the two are sharply
distinguished from each other.

Nor are these two men in all their features diverse: there are points of
likeness as well as of difference. It is as profitable to observe
wherein they are like as wherein they are unlike. The distinction does
not lie in that the one was good while the other was bad: both were
evil, and perhaps it would be safe to say, both alike evil. In the end,
the one was a sinner forgiven, and the other a sinner unforgiven; but at
the beginning both and both equally were sinners. Their sins as to
outward form were diverse; but in essential character the sinfulness was
in both the same. The Pharisee said and did not; the publican neither
said nor did. The Pharisee pretended to a righteousness which he did not
possess; the publican neither professed righteousness nor possessed it.
While one maintained the form of godliness, but denied its power, the
other denied both the form and the power of godliness. At first there is
nothing to determine our choice between the two men as to their state
before God: the one was a hypocrite, and the other a worldling. Both
alike need pardon, and to both alike pardon is offered in the Gospel.
"The blood of Christ cleanseth us from all sin;" but no effort of our
own will cleanse us from any. With the forgiveness that comes through
Christ, the Pharisee would have been accepted; but wanting it, the
publican would have been cast out. The hinge on which the essential
distinction between these two men turned was not the different
quantities of sin which they had severally committed, but the opposite
grounds on which they severally placed their trust.[96]

[96] There is a strong resemblance between this pair and the two
sons who were severally asked by their father to work in his
vineyard.--Parable X.

Both go at the same time to the same place to pray, and both adopt in
the main the same attitude in this exercise; they sto