h and is still--
In mystery the soul abides."

Nor is it by any means a uniform experience that the approach of death
awakens religious anxiety. The other thief is a solemn warning.
Though face to face with death and in such close proximity to Jesus, he
was only hardened and rendered more reckless than ever. And this is
far more likely to be the fate of anyone who deliberately quenches the
Spirit because he is trusting to a death-bed repentance.

Yet we will not allow the possible abuse of the truth to rob us of the
glorious testimony contained in this incident to the grace of God. We
set no limits to the invitation of the Saviour, "Him that cometh unto
Me I will in no wise cast out." However late a sinner may be in
coming, and however little time he may have in which to come, let him
only come and he will not be cast out. There is no more critical test
of theologies and theologians than the question what message they have
to a dying person whose sins are unforgiven. If the salvation which a
preacher has to offer is only a course of moral improvement, what can
he have to say in such a place? We may be sure that our gospel is not
the gospel of Him who comforted the penitent thief, unless we are able
to offer even to a dying sinner a salvation immediate, joyful and
complete.

How complete the revolution was in the penitent thief is shown by his
own words. St. Paul in one place sums up Christianity in two
things--repentance towards God and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. And
both of these we see in this penitent's words. His repentance towards
God is brought out by what he said to his companion. "Dost thou not
fear God?" he asked. He had himself forgotten God, no doubt, and put
Him far away in the sinful past. But now God was near, and in the
light of God he saw his own sinfulness. He confessed it, doing so not
only in his secret mind but audibly. Thus he separated himself from
it, as he did also from the companion who had led him astray, when he
would not come with him on the path of penitence. Not less distinctly
do His words to the Saviour manifest his faith in the Lord Jesus
Christ. They are simple and humble: all he dared to expect was that,
when Christ came into His kingdom, He would remember him. But they
recognised the glory of Christ and expressed trust in Him. At the
moment when the religious teachers of the nations thought that they had
for ever destroyed Christ's claims, and even His o