The first is this :— We would have all anxious hearts consider how the objects op MERCY ARE HERE DESCRIBED: "The Son of Man is come io seek and to save that which was lost." We feel inexpressibly grateful for this description — " that which was lost I' There cannot be a case so bad us not to be comprehended ia this word "lost." It is im possible to imagine the condition of any man or woman born so miserable as not to be con tamed within the circumference of these four letters — "lost." The man may have gone to a perfect extravagance of vice ; he may have ruined himself body and soul ; he may be upon the very verge of hell, and feel as if he were slipping into the pit ; but this word descends to the lowest depth of his misery, for he is "lose." Souls lost through sin and folly are sought and saved by the Son of Man. Let us consider how men are lost. "We know first that they are lost by nature. How ever much men may rebel against the doc trine, it is a truth of inspiration that we are lost even when we are born, and that the word "lost" has to do not only with those who have gone into all sin grossly and wickedly, but even with all mankind. A far more terrible matter for us practi cally is this, that we are, apart from divine grace, lost by our own actions. Our nature has revealed itself in our character, our in clinations have developed themselves in our conduct, and we have lost ourselves by our own act and deed. We have erred and strayed from God's ways wilfully and wickedly like lost sheep, and now the word " lost " belongs to us by our own overt acts, as well as through Adam's fall. And, in addition to that, we are lost be cause our actual sin and our natural depravity have co-worked to produce in us an inability to restore ourselves from our fallen condition. We are not only wanderers, but we have no will to come home. 