Page:Sermons for all the Sundays in the year.djvu/149

 But what was the answer of our Lord? He neither said that she should be stoned nor dismissed; but, ”bowing himself down, he wrote with his finger on the ground." The interpreters say that, probably, what he wrote on the ground was a text of Scripture admonishing the accusers of their own sins, which were, perhaps, greater than that of the woman charged with adultery. ”He then lifted himself up, and said to them: He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her”(v . 7). The scribes and pharisees went away one by one, and the woman stood alone. Jesus Christ, turning to her, said: "Hath no one condemned thee? neither will I condemn thee. Go, and now sin no more" (v. 11). Since no one has condemned you, fear not that you shall be condemned by me, who hath come on earth, not to condemn, but to pardon and save sinners: go in peace, and sin no more. 10. Jesus Christ has come, not to condemn, but to deliver sinners from hell, as soon as they resolve to amend their lives. And when he sees them obstinately bent on their own perdition, he addresses them with tears in the words of Ezechiel: ”Why will you die, O house of Israel?" (xviii. 31). My children, why will you die? Why do you voluntarily rush into hell, when I have come from heaven to deliver you from it by death? He adds: you are already dead to the grace of God. But I will not your death: return to me, and I will restore to you the life which you have lost. "For I desire not the death of him that dieth, saith the Lord God: return ye and live" (v. 32). But some sinners, who are immersed in the abyss of sin, may say: Perhaps, if we return to Jesus Christ, he will drive us away. No; for the Redeemer has said: ”And him that cometh to me I will not cast out." (John vi. 37.) No one that comes to me with sorrow for his past sins, however manifold and enormous they may have been, shall be rejected. 11. Behold how, in another place, the Redeemer encourages us to throw ourselves at his feet with a secure hope of consolation and pardon. ”Come to me, all you that labour and are burdened, and I will refresh you." (Matt. xi. 28.) Come to me, all ye poor sinners,