THIS prayer was acceptable to God. So the Saviour clearly represents. But there is in it no mention of a Mediator, or an atonement. Some have therefore inferred that no necessity presses upon sinners to approach God in the name of Christ—that there is no need of what at least seems to be the great evangelical provision—a sacrifice of expiation. The premises here, however, are mistaken, and the inference is an error. The word rendered, be merciful (ilastheti), has a deeper meaning in it than thus appears. In its elementary force, it is equivalent to this—Have mercy, by sacrifice, or still more strictly: God make atonement for me a sinner. We think, therefore, that the publican, having often seen in the service of the temple the slain lamb for sacrifice, was led, under the pressure of guilt, to look to that great and divine offering for sin, of which the legal sacrifices were the clear and impressive prefigurations. The mere type could not meet his conscious and urgent wants, and so, lifting up his distressed soul to the throne of heavenly grace, he cried, God make atonement, that real and long promised atonement, for me a sinner!—Presbyterian of the West.