:2^'"=t; 
 
 f% 
 
 
 Vt 
 
 
 !*!>, 
 
 Vs 
 
 ^r 
 
 -^ 
 
 \-^
 
 p^^'^':|^v,':^^;r;.::^/^7, -^ 
 
 '^■v--,!^rrf?i!9!^(wyy'^:s:^^ 

 
 THE ACCEPTED PENITENT 
 
 A SERMON 
 
 PREACHED BEFORE THE 
 
 €\i\u\ "^mitwhq %^Bmi\im 
 
 ST. JAMES'S CHURCH, PICCADILLY 
 
 THURSDAY, APRIL 18, 18G1 
 
 BY THE REV. HENRY DRURY, M.A. 
 
 VrCAR OF BEEMHILL, PREBENDARY OF SARTTM, CHAPLAIN TO THE LORD BISHOP 
 OF SALISBURY, AND TO THE HOUSE OF COMMONS 
 
 l^rhikb for llje ^ssocintian bg 
 
 SPOTTISWOODE & CO., LONDON, E.Ct 
 
 1861
 
 SERMON. 
 
 St. Joun, XX. 16. 
 
 Jesus saith unto her, Mary ! 
 
 We have lived to see a revival of many daring and offensive 
 speculations on great cardinal truths of religion. Old thread- 
 bare exceptions to positive statements of Holy Scripture are 
 again raked up and set on high with an indu; 'ry savourino- 
 of other days, and all the time-worn controversy on the 
 possibility of miracles, of any interruption to the ordinary 
 course of nature, is once more exhumed for the plaudits of 
 the multitude, and for discrediting the letter of the A^^ord of 
 God. And so it falls that, as with other doubts and cavil- 
 lings, the old Corinthian scepticism lives ao-ain. A voice is 
 again whispering amongst us that there is no resurrection of 
 the dead: no such resurrection of the body as we in our 
 simplicity have been brought to believe : that the records of 
 the Evangelists want that entire agreement in the details 
 of the narrative, which alone could authenticate the risino- of 
 tlie crucified Jesus : that therefore it ouffht to be a tiling as 
 incredible to us, as it was to King Agrippa, that God should 
 raise the dead. 
 
 It is not my business now to defend the Faith. These 
 criticisms have been answered so often and with such over- 
 whelming power, that I am prepared to say, with some of the 
 master-spirits of our Church, that in all the range of history, 
 sacred or profane, nothing is better attested than the blessed 
 Fact, which makes our Easter the queen of festivals, and 
 gives us an assurance of victory over death, and over the 
 grave, through Jesus Christ our Lord. 
 
 The circumstance, however, in the account of the llesur- 
 
 A 2
 
 rection, to which I am about to dh'ect your attention, has at 
 any rate this evidence in its favour, that it rests upon the 
 concurring testimony of all the sacred historians. The first 
 to whom Jesus showed Himself after He had risen was 
 Mary Magdalene, the woman of Magdala In Galilee, out of 
 whom He had cast seven devils. 
 
 And this is the story of His appearance. 
 
 Very early on the morning of Easter Day, Mary of 
 Magdala, with Mary the mother of James, and Salome, had 
 started, while it was yet dark, for the sepulchre. Before 
 they could reach It Jesus had risen. The angel had rolled 
 the stone from the door, the earth was unnaturally convulsed, 
 the astounded sentinels were lying on the ground in misery 
 and terror, as dead men. Bodies of the saints had passed 
 out of their graves, and gone Into the holy city, and were 
 appearing there to many — and at this critical moment the 
 women reach the scene. Lo ! the seal of the tomb was split 
 and the rock open! Their first thought was that the Corpse 
 of Christ was stolen. Mary does not doubt it for a moment. 
 She straightway runs to Peter and John and informs them 
 of it. " They have taken away the Lord out of the sepul- 
 chre, and we know not where they have laid Him." Peter 
 and John hasten forwards, and find It all true. The grave 
 clothes were on the ground ; the napkin folded In a place 
 by itself. All had been done quietly and formally and with- 
 out hurry; but the Body — was gone! They saw — they 
 wondered — and they went away again to their own homes. 
 
 But not so Mary. She clung to that hallowed ground. 
 She could not leave it : she could not go home. If she had, 
 she would have found no rest. Her heart was In the grave 
 with Him Who had spoken to her as man never spake, and 
 Who had done for her what man could never do, had healed 
 her of her iufiimity whatever It Avas, restored lier to her 
 right mind, and, not as the world giveth, had given peace to 
 her soul. She could not go home. She lingered about the 
 spot; hung over the tomb weeping : and presently, as though 
 moved by some sudden impulse, she stooped down, and 
 through her tears looked In. And, beliold, there sat two 
 angels in white, one at the head, the other at the feet, where 
 
 UIUC'
 
 the body of Jesus liad lain. They say to her, " Woman, 
 why weepest thou ? " She answered, " Because they have 
 taken away my Lord, and I know not where they have laid 
 hijn." And as she spoke she turned herself back, and she 
 saw a man standing. The Man also said to her, " Woman, 
 why weepest thou ? " She supposed Him to be the gardener. 
 " Sir," she said, " if thou have borne Him hence, or if thou 
 knowest who have borne Him hence ; if thou canst tell me, 
 do for mercy's sake tell me, where hast thou laid Him ? and 
 I will take Him away." And so again she covered her 
 face and wept. 
 
 The Man said to her, " Mary ! " 
 
 We all know what magic influence may lie in a word, in a 
 tone, in the softest cadence of a tone : what mysterious sensa- 
 tions a voice may awaken, even the whisper of a well-known, 
 well-loved voice — how it may change the whole current of 
 the thoughts, and send the blood flowing back to the heart. 
 The Man said to her, " Mary ! " She turned. She sprang 
 towards Him ; she would have seized Him, crying " Rab- 
 honi ! " " My Great Master ! " (the Avord means more than 
 Rabbi). Jesus said unto her, " Touch Me not," that is, 
 " Do not cling to Me, do not hold Me. You will see Me 
 often as yet. Do not fear that I am going to leave you im- 
 mediately. I am not yet ascended to My Father. But go 
 to My brethren, and tell them what you have seen. Tell 
 them that I have risen, and shall presently ascend — yes, 
 ascend to My Father and to your Father, to My God and 
 to your God." 
 
 Mary Magdalene came and told the disciples that she had 
 Been the Lord, and that He had spoken those words to her. 
 
 Now a natural question arises, why did Jesus first appear 
 to a woman ? Why not to one of His Apostles ? Oi*, if to 
 a woman, why to the Magdalen ? — a sinner above most 
 women. For we scarcely doubt that this was the same 
 person as that poor penitent, from whom Simon the Pharisee 
 shrunk as from a plague-spot and defilement. The answer 
 is not far to seek. 
 
 By a woman sin first entered into the world. Christ came 
 into the world, "born of a woman," that sin might be destroyed. 
 
 A 3
 
 The serpent bcgnilecl the woman that she fell. And " the 
 Seed of tlie woman," sent to bruise the serpent's head, an- 
 nounced first to INIary, " Thou shalt surely rise again." 
 
 The Lord God in Eden called aloud to " Eve ! " and 
 the sruiltv creature shrunk back into the thicket to hide. The 
 Son of God at the sepulchre whispered " Mary ! " and the 
 joyful penitent rushed wildly to bathe His feet again with 
 her tears, and to wipe them with the hairs of her head. 
 
 Unto the woman said God in Paradise, " I will greatly 
 multiply thy sorrow." Unto a woman in Joseph's garden 
 Jesus said " Mary" — and the sorrow passed away as a dream 
 in the night. 
 
 Thus did God restore woman to her original rank in 
 creation. He lightened the curse that lay upon her. He 
 brought her back from the degradation of a slave to her 
 primitive rank as the helpmate of man. He bid man give 
 her honour, because she was the weaker vessel. He bound 
 her husband to love her, comfort her, keep her in sickness 
 and in health, and forsaking all others keep only unto her for 
 life. And so, in a word. He made the barren one to keep 
 house, and to be a joyful mother of children. 
 
 But if the Redeemer would thus appear to a woman, why 
 did He select Mary of Magdala ? ^Vas it in this way that 
 it pleased Him to reward her intense fjiith and devotion ? 
 We assume her to be that sinner in the city of whom He had 
 said, " Her sins, which are many, are forgiven, for she loved 
 much." Anyhow she must have loved much ; and whatever 
 vices those seven devils had wrought in her, she had heard 
 her name called, she had turned, she had repented, she had 
 laid aside the besetting sin. For the plaited hair and the 
 meretricious gold she had put on the precious ornament of 
 a meek and quiet spirit. She had taken up her cross and 
 followed Christ, and ministered to Him of her substance; 
 and when all others had forsaken Him, when the owner of 
 the garden was perhaps feasting his friends in Arimathea; 
 when Peter and John had turned and gone home ; when the 
 other women had fled for fear, trembling and amazed ; whilst 
 the "Vratch had shrunk into the city, and the Apostles were 
 doubting, and disbelieving, and calling it all " an idle tale,"
 
 the Magdalen still wept over the grave of Jesus, till in very- 
 pity he whispered " Mary," and showed Himself alive from 
 the dead. 
 
 We might gather from this simple memoir many useful 
 lessons bearing directly upon that charitable Cause which we 
 this day meet to stimulate. I shall content myself with sug- 
 gesting one, and one only, for our morning's meditation. 
 
 We learn from the gracious sympathy thus accorded by 
 the Saviour to the Magdalen, that deadly as was this woman's 
 sin, yet it was not necessarily a sin unto death. There was 
 room for repentance even here — room for forgiveness — aye, 
 room for exercise of the tenderest compassion and the purest 
 love. And why should I remind you of this ? If we read the 
 Gospel message aright we draw from it the consolation, the 
 inexpressible comfort, tliat every sin save one, save blas- 
 phemy against the Holy Ghost, is capable of remission. 
 Now sensuality — impurity — is not blasphemy against the 
 Holy Ghost. It may lead to that crime. It is not the crime 
 itself. We accept with thankfulness the rich promise, that in 
 the fountain opened for all uncleanness scarlet sins shall be 
 washed white ; and that to the crimson sinner, when humbled, 
 the golden sceptre of mercy shall be held forth. 
 
 And yet there is a difficulty, to some minds insuperable, in 
 some amounting almost to a reluctance, to realise the re- 
 covery of a fallen woman. The height from which she has 
 cast herself is so dizzy, the blow so stunning, the degradation 
 so complete, that we are tempted to despair of one by her 
 own choice so utterly cut off and cut away from us. 
 Her spiritual life, we argue, must be extinct. In 
 the old familiar home they never mention her name; 
 even the edge of parental affection is blunted ; her sisters 
 are taught to forget her ; her brothers proscribe her 
 memory. She is abhorred of her acquaintance. Friends pass 
 by on the other side. Her own sex shrink from her in- 
 stinctively. Men dread to risk their reputation by recognising 
 her. And we may not wonder at it ; for even the commis- 
 sioned Minister, who is sent for that very purpose, in Christ's 
 stead and in Christ's name, to find the lost sheep, to call back 
 the aliens, and to beseech them to be reconciled to God — even
 
 g 
 
 he, the Lord's priest, too often, and, as I venture to think, 
 too scrupulously, hesitates here. He fortifies himself behind 
 some text of scripture — "Can this Ethiopian change her 
 skin ? If there were a chance, however remote, a possibility, 
 however vague — but one might as well write words in water, 
 as expect to make an impression on that steel-plated heart. 
 Is she not working out all uncleanness with greediness ? The 
 Spirit is quenched within her: resisted, and so fled — hopelessly, 
 irrevocably fled. She is literally and in its truest sense * an 
 abandoned woman.' I will not waste my strength in a vain 
 attempt to bring living water out of this barren rock." 
 
 And when all others have thus flung her aside and deserted 
 her, shall we wonder if the outcast flings herself aside, des- 
 pairs of herself, and in the agony of that desperation plunges 
 deeper and deeper into wretchlessness of living. " O but," 
 says the world, '' she is lost — shame, principle, conscience, 
 hope, all is gone — there is nothing left to work upon." And 
 each syllable of that withering sentence falls upon the culprit's 
 ear. She measures it all, and believes it true. You may 
 hear her muttering it in her broken sleep — "lost — lost — 
 shame, principle, conscience, hope — all is gone, there is 
 nothing left to work upon ! " 
 
 But is it true ? I mean absolutely and in all cases true ? 
 There are benevolent men who have sifted this question very 
 closely, and have arrived at a very opposite result. " Their 
 horror of themselves," says one of them, writing of this class 
 of transgressors, "and their desire to escape from the thraldom 
 of the seven devils, is widely spread, and is profound." I do 
 not for an instant doubt it. I can believe of the woman that 
 she tries in a thousand ways to drown the thought of her 
 infamy. I do not believe, that she is permitted commonly to 
 succeed. I do not believe the eye of her soul to be so utterly 
 blinded as to have no glimpses of a coming Judgment. I will 
 not credit it, that she can have so hardened herself to all the 
 emotions of the human heart, as never to be stirred at the 
 sound of a Sabbath bell, or the sight of a Sabbath worshipper: 
 never startled at the sudden death of a partner in sin : never 
 to have a vision of her own winding sheet : never to ponder 
 upon the great gulf between her and those of her sex who are
 
 living soberly, righteously, and godly in this present world : 
 never to moan restlessly upon a feverish pillow, thinkino- of 
 home, and the early days of her innocence ; of the mother 
 who watched her childhood with such devotion and love, of 
 the father whose heart was broken by her fall: and so to pass 
 into wild haunting dreams of worms that never die, and 
 flames that are never quenched, till she screams, may be, 
 aloud in the anguish of her sleepless sleep, and the drops 
 stand thick upon her brow. 
 
 Oh, my brethren, " there is no peace " — my God saith it — 
 " there is no peace to the wicked. '' '^ The wicked are like the 
 troubled sea when it cannot rest, whose waters cast up mire 
 and dirt." They cannot rest: that is the merciful provision 
 of Heaven. Anything better for them than that they should : 
 anything better than that moral coma, the sure precursor of 
 spiritual death. Rather let them wander up and down in dry 
 places seeking rest : rather let their sin pursue them, an un- 
 tiring, unrelenting avenger. Who knows but it may drive them 
 at last to some door of repentance ? some door that shall 
 open wider as they approach it ? some avenue through which 
 they may catch a sight of the skirts of a Saviour's robe ; 
 may press in ; may throw themselves at His feet; kiss His 
 feet, and anoint them Avitli the ointment, and stand behind 
 Him weeping ; and weep and weep, vmtil for their very Impor- 
 tunity He shall mercifully accept their repentance, and bid 
 them " go in peace ? " 
 
 Mary of Magdala, when thou thus enteredst unbidden Into 
 the presence of Infinite Purity, was the face of Jesus turned 
 from thee ? Didst thou find thy Master harsh and stern ? 
 Did He refuse thy touch ? Did He spurn thee from His 
 side ? Did He say to Simon and his assembled guests, " Don't 
 suffer this wretched creature to approach Me, she is a sinner?" 
 God forbid the thought ! Christ is all love ! My beloved. He 
 is the incarnation of love. Love is the pulse of His heart. 
 Love is the soul of His being. Love is the divine cxi^resslon 
 of His countenance. Love is the gracious utterance of His 
 lips. As a babe. He cried in the cradle in love. As a man. 
 He wept in His wanderings in love. As a proplict. He 
 warned and taught In love. As a king, He rules in love. As
 
 10 
 
 living, He breathed love. As dying, He gasped love. 
 As buried. He preached love to the spirits in prison. As risen 
 ao-ain — He returned to jNIary. 
 
 Now, if we might for a moment imagine our blessed Lord 
 still to be on earth ; if we might without irreverence conceive 
 of Him to be healing our sick, teaching personally in our 
 streets and preaching the gospel to our poor, still on His errand 
 of mercy seeking and saving that which is lost ; if we might 
 venture thus to realise His visible bodily presence amongst 
 us, might we not also go one step farther; might we not say, 
 and that without charge of presumption, that He would now 
 be here — in this temple — with this congregation — the soul 
 and centre of this Association, whose one self-imposed task 
 it is to cast the devils out of possessed women, and to bring 
 the Magdalens to Christ ? Is there any mission-field upon 
 which the healthful Spirit of His grace would more surely 
 fall, than upon this ? 
 
 And shall we doubt, my brethren, that He is with us, not in 
 heart only and in affection only, but in presence also at this 
 moment ? Surely if ever two or three were gathered to- 
 gether in His name, they are so now. In a few minutes we 
 shall be with Him at His holy table. We shall draw very 
 near to Him in faith. AYe shall spiritually eat of His flesh 
 and drink of His blood. He will be to us meat indeed and 
 drink indeed in that most comfortable Sacrament. He will 
 make Himself known, I trust, to each of us in the breaking 
 of bread. "We shall be one with Him and He Avith us; and 
 that is a poor, weak, bewitched, foolish, Galatian eye of 
 incredulity, before which Jesus Christ is not evidently set 
 forth at tills moment present among us. 
 
 There ai-e other reasons, and a thousand reasons, why He 
 AVho first showed Himself to Mary should specially bless the 
 labours of this Society, and guide it into all truth ; but for this 
 reason not the last and not the least, that (in the words of the 
 first clause of your Report)" it has helped to show how woman's 
 faith and woman's sympathy may be enlisted in one of the 
 highest works of Christian charity." It is a peculiarity of 
 that work that it cannot be carried on effectively without an 
 Association. The isolated agency of individuals may do
 
 11 
 
 something, and the smallest contribution to the stock of 
 public morality is most thankfully to be received. Start- 
 ling and stirring appeals to collected multitudes may do 
 something. With all our heart we wish them " God speed." 
 But these are spasmodic efforts : thay have no element of 
 permanence : too often they throw false lights of sentiment 
 round the dark body of sin : and there is no sort of misdoers 
 who require to be dealt with more definitely, more methodi- 
 cally, less sentimentally. They are all creatures of Impulse. 
 By Impulse they first started in their evil course. By impulse 
 they may be arrested for a space. But the same impulsive 
 nature remains, ready to sweep them back into perdition. 
 And " if after they have escaped the pollutions of the world 
 through the knowledge of the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, 
 they are again entangled therein and overcome, the latter end 
 Is worse Avlth them than the beginning." 
 
 You must therefore work with them upon a plan. You 
 must deal with them separately, as Jesus dealt with Mary 
 separately. You must bring them tenderly, but with fixed 
 purpose, under a yoke of discipline. You must test the 
 reality of their penitence, and you must deepen it and direct 
 it with careful observation and unremlttino; dllio;ence. You 
 must detach their ill-balanced minds from every disturbing 
 weight ; hedge them round with Influences for good : impreg- 
 nate the very atmosphere with a breath of sanctity and 
 purity. You must lead them gently into green pastures, 
 and beside the waters of comfort. You must place a man 
 of God at their side, one who is skilled to minister to minds 
 diseased, one in whom they shall have confidence to un- 
 burthen the secret of their heart. You must send chosen 
 women of God to talk with them, and to read to them, and 
 to pray with them, and familiarise them once again with the 
 contact of all that is pure and modest and virtuous. You 
 must assemble them daily in the consecrated chapel: make 
 them feel the contiguity of Deity : teach them that this is no 
 other than the House of God and the gate of Heaven, and so 
 lead them step by step to the horns of the altar. You must 
 provide them opportunities for retirement and solitude, that 
 they may commune with their own hearts in their chamber,

 
 .,^
 
 *.■ -'i-'y 
 
 '^:«^S 
 
 ■^i« 
 
 \ 
 
 i^"^- 
 
 W--'--^ 
 
 v^'ii^s^i 
 
 W^: 
 
 .J5ly 
 
 M