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pented.

They are walking before the Lord in newness of life. When he comes, and the cry is made, they are ready to quit their homes, their friends, and their families their business and their duties. Their good works go with them in sweet memorial. Their Lord receives them to himself: and knowing them to be his friends and servants, the Lord Jesus welcomes them to that feast of honour and happiness prepared for all such as truly love and serve him.

Watch, therefore, says our Saviour, and oh! my Christian friends and brethren, be ye all wise enough to listen to his affectionate warning; watch, therefore, for ye know neither the day nor the hour when the Son of man cometh-that is, when Jesus Christ will call you to account at his most awful judgement seat.

And now to God, &c.

LECTURE LXXIII.

ST. MATTHEW xxv. 14.

For the kingdom of heaven is as a man travelling into a far country, who called his own servants and delivered unto them his goods.

IN my last Lecture I observed to you, that our blessed Lord spake three parables to his disciples, after he had told them of the ruin of their city and temple. The parable of the ten virgins, five of whem were wise and five were foolish, I have already explained to you. I mean to speak to you, this evening, of what is called the parable of the talents. It is a very instructive and

beautiful parable. It was spoken by our Lord just at the time, when it must have done great good. For, after bidding his disciples to be always ready for his coming, it was a proof of our Lord's wisdom to proceed immediately to shew them, how they were to make themselves so, namely, by doing all their duties in life. And in much the same way as they were to prepare themselves, so are we. They had their tasks appointed to them: we have our's. And happy were they, because they did their tasks, and happy shall we be, if we do our's. If Jesus Christ our Lord, when he calls us from this world, shall find that we have lived in it to a good purpose, we shall indeed find ourselves most blessed, because eternally blessed.

But it is time to begin an account of the parable. Hear it, my friends, and hear it with the deepest attention.

"The kingdom of heaven," says our

Lord, "is as a man travelling into a far country, who called his own servants, and delivered unto them his goods."-God Almighty, who at present seems far from us, because we see him not, though he is near to us every moment of our lives, and sees all that we think and all that we do, God Almighty, I say, has of his goodness given to men several things, goods as they are called in the parable. He has given to some a great deal of money, lands, slaves; to another he has given health and strength; to another a good understanding and much knowledge; to another power and authority over others. He gives these things in different portions sometimes to different people, giving perhaps to a few almost all of these good things. But whatever we have we have from God Almighty. He has made us what we are. To his good

ness we owe every thing.

"Unto one," as our Saviour says, "the man who travelled into a far country gave

five talents." Now this means the persons, who have a great deal of money, a great deal of sense and knowledge, and who are, in various ways, raised very high in life.

To another two talents. This means those who have a smaller share of these great blessings.

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To another one talent. This means those who are poor, who have perhaps nothing but strength of body and healthiness of constitution. To every man, says our Saviour, he gave according to his ability; and straightway took his journey. This means, that, after God has given to us such and such things, and placed us in such and such posts, he leaves us, to all appearance to ourselves, in order to see how we are about to behave.

Our Lord now tells us, how men sometimes behave. He that had received the

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