always. The destruction of Jerusalem was to come suddenly upon them. And the day of judgment or our death will come suddenly on us all. Be ye therefore faithful and wise servants to the Lord Jesus Christ. If ye are, blessed will ye be when he comes to judge you and finds you so behaving. When this will be, we know not. Be prepared for it. Be not like the evil and wicked servant to whom his master sets an appointed task, and who neglects to do that task. Instead of performing his duty, such a servant will take advantage of his master's delay. He will spend his time in idleness, in quarrelling, and in eating and drinking with the drunken. Your Saviour tells you what will be the fate of that servant. His Lord will come in an hour, when he looketh not for him, and will cut him asunder, and appoint to him a place, where will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

My friends and hearers! It is with us

all, as if our master, having given to us our tasks, had gone into a far country, intending to return again, and to reckon with us. Such is our Saviour to us all. Let us do our duty in our stations of life, and be for ever looking for him. Let us be prepared to give a good account of our thoughts, our words and our actions. Let every day find us intent on our several duties. every day find us watching and praying. We shall then be like the faithful and wise servant. Blessed will all those be, whom their Lord, when he cometh, shall find so doing.

And now to God, &c.

Let

LECTURE LXXII.

ST. MATTHEW XXV. 1.

Then shall the kingdom of heaven be likened unto ten virgins, which took their lamps and went forth to meet the bridegroom.

OUR blessed Lord, as I shewed you in my last Lecture, had told his disciples all that was about to happen to the Jews and their city. He had also commanded them to be prepared for his second coming. He had bidden them to be like wise and faithful servants, whom their Lord has left to do their tasks, and whom, when he comes, he finds doing them. When the day of judgment would come, the disciples knew not, nor do we know. They knew, how

ever, and so do we, that the day of death is the same as the day of judgment. For after death cometh judgment. To prepare ourselves for death: to be found faithfully doing our duties, when our time to die comes, is the same thing as to be prepared for the second coming of Jesus Christ.

Our Lord, therefore, goes on, in the 25th chapter of St. Matthew's Gospel (to which I have now come) to teach his disciples by one parable how suddenly death comes upon every body, and how every body ought to be ready for it. And in a second parable, he tells them, in what manner we must prepare ourselves, namely by doing all our duties in this world. And in a third parable, if it may be called so as I think it may, he shews to them that a kind and good behaviour to each other is one of the duties of every Christian.

I know not whether I shall have time to

speak to you this evening of more than one of these parables, namely the first.

You all, I hope, remember what a parable is. It means, you know, giving instruction by the example of something which has happened, or which may happen. Our Lord says: "The kingdom of heaven is like unto ten virgins, which took their lamps and went forth to meet the bridegroom." Whenever a marriage took place among the Jews, there was always a great supper provided. The wedding was kept at night. The bridegroom had his companions, and the bride her's. These all attended the bridegroom to the bride's house, where the supper was given, and where they all were welcome, provided they were ready to go in with the bridegroom. Now heaven is a very happy place. Our Lord, like the bridegroom, has provided for us better things than any feasting on earth can be. All of us therefore like the ten virgins are to be ready for him,

VOL. II.