sorry and cries and prays and begs to be let off,
or because the priest or preacher cries, prays and begs for him to be
forgiven, to be let off, _why did Jesus die_?

_FOR FURTHER STUDY_: The word translated forgiveness in the Bible
means simply to send away, without reference to how the sin is sent
away; but God's word states plainly that sins are forgiven, sent away,
by Christ bearing them. "Behold the lamb of God that taketh away the
sin of the world."--John 1:29. "Who his own self bare our sins in his
own body on the tree."--1 Peter 2:24; "Christ died for our sins."--1
Cor. 15:3. Concerning the justice of Christ dying for our sins, see
the next chapter.

The prayer of the publican in the old version, "God be merciful to me
the sinner," Luke 18:13, has misled many. If that was really the
prayer of the publican, how _could_ the Saviour have said, "This man
went down to his house _justified_"? The margin of the Revised Version
gives what the Greek says, "Be thou propitiated." It is the same Greek
word that in Heb. 2:17 is translated, "to make reconciliation for the
sins of the people." President Strong of Rochester Theological
Seminary gives the exact meaning of it when he renders it, "Be thou
propitiated to me the sinner by the sacrifice whose smoke was then
ascending in the presence of the publican while he prayed." And Jesus
shows what the publican said when He added, "This man went down to his
house _justified_."

It is said that a young man ran away from his widowed mother and was
gone for years. One stormy night sitting near the window sewing, while
the rain was beating against the window pane, she thought she heard a
noise. Looking up she saw the shaggy, bearded face of a ragged tramp
pressed against the window pane, but it faded back into the storm as
she looked up. Faint lines in the face aroused memory. As the needle
was plied the mind was busy. Again a slight noise caused her to look
up, and again the shaggy, bearded face of the tramp faded back into
the storm. This time she knew that she was not mistaken. The shaggy
beard could not hide the lines in the face of her long-lost boy.
Throwing up the window she cried, "Come in, William, oh, come in."
Stepping to where the light fell full in his face, while the tears
coursed down his cheeks, he said, "Mother, I can't come in till my sin
has been put out of the way." There was honor left in the tramp yet.
There ought to be honor enough in every human being not