wn disciples had
forsaken Him, this poor dying sinner believed in Him. "How clear,"
exclaims Calvin, "was the vision of the eyes which could thus see in
death life, in ruin majesty, in shame glory, in defeat victory, in
slavery royalty. I question if ever since the world began there has
been so bright an example of faith." Luther is no less laudatory.
"This," says he, "was for Christ a comfort like that supplied to Him by
the angel in the garden. God could not allow His Son to be destitute
of subjects, and now His Church survived in this one man. Where the
faith of St. Peter broke off, the faith of the penitent thief
commenced." And another[4] asks, "Did ever the new birth take place in
so strange a cradle?"

III.

It is worth noting that it was not by words that Jesus converted this
man. He did not address the penitent thief at all till the thief spoke
to Him. The work of conviction was done before He uttered a word. Yet
it was His work; and how did He do it? As St. Peter exhorted godly
wives to convert their heathen husbands, when he wrote to them,
"Likewise, ye wives, be in subjection to your own husbands, that, if
any obey not the Word, they also may, without the Word, be won by the
conversation (_i.e._, behaviour) of the wives, while they behold your
chaste conversation coupled with fear." It was by the impression of
His patience, His innocence, His peace, and His magnanimity, that Jesus
converted the man; and herein He has left us an example that we should
follow in His steps.

But His words, when He did speak, added immensely to the impression.
They were few, but every one of them expressed the Saviour.

The robber was thinking of some date far off when Christ might
intervene in his behalf, but Christ says, "To-day." This was a
prophecy that he would die that day, and not be allowed to linger for
days, as crucified persons often were; and this was fulfilled. But it
was, besides, a promise that as soon as death launched him out of time
into eternity, Christ would be waiting there to receive him. "To-day
thou shalt be with Me." All heaven is in these two last words. What
do we really know of heaven, what do we wish to know, except that it is
to be "with Christ"? Yet a little more was added--"in Paradise." Some
have thought that in this phrase Christ was stooping to the conceptions
of the penitent thief by using a popular expression for some happy
place in the other world.[5] At least the w