The grace exhibited in the Gospel appears also in the description of persons on whom its rich blessings are bestowed. If they had either universally or generally been conferred upon those whom the world esteem moral and good, there might be some pretence for supposing that human merit had some influence upon the salvation of the soul. But no; grace takes quite a different direction, and passing by men who are even studious to approve themselves to God, and who are busily employed “going about to establish their own righteousness;” Rom. x. 3, it delights to magnify itself in the conversion of such sinners as Manasseh, who made the streets of Jerusalem to run down with blood, 2 Chron. xxxiii. 12, 13; in such sinners as that woman who came to Jesus in the house of Simon, and to whom he said, “Thy sins are forgiven thee.”

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