1. THEN shall the kingdom of heaven be likened unto ten virgins, which took their lamps, 2 and went forth to meet the bridegroom. And five of them were wise, and five were 3, 4 foolish. They that were foolish took their lamps, and took no oil with them: but the 5 wise took oil in their vessels with their lamps. While the bridegroom tarried, they all 6 slumbered and slept. And at midnight there was a cry made, Behold, the bridegroom 7 cometh; go ye out to meet him. Then all those virgins arose, and trimmed their lamps. 8 And the foolish said unto the wise, Give us of your oil; for our lamps are gone out. 9 But the wise answered, saying, Not so; lest there be not enough for us and you: but go 10 ye rather to them that sell, and buy for yourselves. And while they went to buy, the 11 bridegroom came; and they that were ready went in with him to the marriage: and 12 the door was shut. Afterward came also the other virgins, saying, Lord, Lord, open to 13 us. But he answered and said, Verily, I say unto you, I know you not. Watch there- 14 fore, for ye know neither the day nor the hour wherein the Son of man cometh.

THE purpose of the parable is, as we learn from the Lord’s concluding words, to impress upon the members of his Church their need of vigilance. Regarded in one view, it is a warning that they be careful to maintain good works—that they be not satisfied with saying, Lord, Lord, while they do not the things that he says. Regarded under another aspect, it is a warning that they be watchful over their inward state—over their affections; that they seek to have a continual supply of the Spirit of Christ Jesus in their inmost hearts, to approve themselves before God. They are like the wise virgins, who foresee a life of toil and self-denial before the kingdom shall come unto them—and who consequently feel that it is not a few warm excited feelings which will carry them successfully through all this—which will enable them to endure unto the end. They feel that principles as well as feelings must be engaged in the work—that their first impulses and desires will carry them but a very little way, unless they be revived, strengthened, and purified, by a continual supply of the Spirit of God.

On the exclusion of the foolish Bengel observes, that there are four classes of persons: those that have an abundant entrance into the kingdom, entering as it were with sails set into the haven; those again that are saved, as shipwrecked mariners reaching with difficulty the shore; on the other side, there are those who go evidently the broad way to destruction, whose sins go before them; while, again, there are those who, though they seemed not far off from the kingdom of God, yet miss it after all. Such were these five foolish virgins, and the fate of these, who were so near and yet fell short, must always appear the most miserable of all. T.

THE parable illustrates the vigilant and expectant attitude of faith, in respect of which believers are described as “they that look for him” and “love his appearing.” In the last parable it was that of servants waiting for their absent lord; in this, it is that of virgin-attendants on a bride, whose duty it was to go forth at night with lamps, and be ready on the appearance of the bridegroom to conduct the bride to his house, and go in with him to the marriage. This entire and beautiful change of figure brings out the lesson of the former parable in quite a new light. B.

We are to understand by the virgins all who profess to be waiting for the Son of God from heaven, and to love his appearing. This they have all in common, that they confess to the same Lord, they profess to have the same hope in him. The numbers make nothing to the case—only the division is essential. They are not distinguished into good and bad, but as the hearers at M. 7 : 25–27, into “wise” and “foolish,” for as a certain degree of good-will toward the truth is assumed there in the foolish from their relation as hearers, and then attempting to build, so here from their going forth to meet the bridegroom. We have them described—the wise, 2 Pet. 1 : 5–8, and the foolish, 2 Pet. 1 : 9.

The customs alluded to hold in full force to the present day, and form as important a part of the nuptial ceremony as they did in ancient times. The bridegroom, accompanied by his friends (“the children of the bride-chamber”), goes at night to the house of the bride, and brings her with pomp and gladness to his own home. She is accompanied from her father’s house by her young friends and companions, while other of these, the virgins of the parable, at some convenient place meet and join the procession and enter with the rest of the bridal company into the hall of feasting.

4. Oil in their vessels with their lamps.** It is clear that whatever is merely outward in the Christian profession is the lamp—whatever is inward and spiritual is the oil laid up in the vessels. When we contemplate with James faith as the body, and the works as that which witnesses for a vivifying soul, then faith is the lamp, the works the oil in the vessels; but when we contemplate with Paul the works as only having a value from the living principle of faith out of which they spring, then the works are the lamp, and faith the oil which must feed it. Yet in either case, before we have fully exhausted the meaning of the oil, we must get beyond both the works and the faith to the Spirit of God which prompts the works and quickens the faith, and of which Spirit oil is in Scripture the standing symbol.

5. All slumbered and slept.** Perhaps by this slumbering and sleeping more may not be meant than that all, having taken such measures as they counted needful to enable them to meet the bridegroom as they would wish, calmly awaited his approach. For had the foolish virgins been in a condition to mark the lapse of time and the gradual waning of their lamps, they would naturally have bestirred themselves before the decisive moment arrived to procure a new supply. And had the wise virgins not slept—had they been represented as watching while the others were sleeping—it would have seemed like a lack of love not to have warned their companions of the increasing dimness with which their lamps were burning, while yet help was possible. T.—Observe the implication: if the Christian has grace in his heart, he is always ready, though asleep; if not, he is unready, though he were wakeful and seemingly watching. Not what death finds us doing, but how death finds us furnished, is the important question. L. A.

8,9. Of course the request and the refusal—like the discourse between Abraham and Dives—are only the outer garb of the truth—but of truth how important!—that we shall look in vain from men for that grace which God only can supply. T.

10. They that were ready went in with him to the marriage.** The future everlasting blessedness in store for all the true followers of Christ is spoken of here, as so frequently elsewhere, as a royal banquet or feast. “Blessed are they which are called unto the marriage supper of the Lamb.” Scene of unrivalled glory, of exhaustless joy; rich and rare the food provided for the guests in the great banqueting hall of immortality! Other viands at other feasts pall on the sated sense; but for those viands upon which the spirits of the blessed shall for evermore be nourished into a growing likeness unto God, the appetite shall ever grow quicker the more that is partaken, and the relish be ever the more intense. H.

13. Now we labor, and our lamps fluctuate among the gusts and temptations of the present world; only let us give heed that our flame burn in such strength, that the winds of temptation may rather fan the flame than extinguish it. Aug.

Section 134.—The Talents.

Mount of Olives.

14. For the kingdom of heaven is as a man travelling into a far country, who called his own 15 servants, and delivered unto them his goods. And unto one he gave five talents, to another two, and to another one; to every man according to his several ability; and 16 straightway took his journey. Then he that had received the five talents, went and 17 traded with the same, and made them other five talents. And likewise he that had re- 18 ceived two, he also gained other two. But he that had received one, went and digged in the earth, and hid his lord’s money. 19, 20 After a long time the lord of those servants cometh, and reckoneth with them. And so he that had received five talents, came, and brought other five talents, saying, Lord, thou deliveredst unto me five talents: behold, I have gained beside them five talents 21 more. His lord said unto him, Well done, thou good and faithful servant; thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things: enter thou 22 into the joy of thy lord. He also that had received two talents came and said, Lord, thou deliveredst unto me two talents: behold, I have gained two other talents beside 23 them. His lord said unto him, Well done, good and faithful servant; thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things: enter thou into the 24 joy of thy lord. Then he which had received the one talent came, and said, Lord, I knew thee that thou art an hard man, reaping where thou hast not sown, and gathering 25 where thou hast not strewed: and I was afraid, and went and hid thy talent in the 26 earth: lo, there thou hast that is thine. His lord answered and said unto him, Thou wicked and slothful servant, thou knewest that I reap where I sowed not, and gather 27 where I have not strewed: thou oughtest therefore to have put my money to the ex- 28 changers, and then at my coming I should have received mine own with usury. Take 29 therefore the talent from him, and give it unto him which hath ten talents. For unto every one that hath shall be given, and he shall have abundance: but from him that 30 hath not, shall be taken away even that which he hath. And cast ye the unprofitable servant into outer darkness: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

WHATEVER we are in capacity, in ability, in position, in means, is the gift of God. Our talents are “his goods.” The variety of distribution is also from his hand. A period of probation, until Christ’s second advent, is appointed for testing character. Every position has its responsibility, and every lot its compensations. In every case there exists a personal trust, and responsibility is measured by the “several ability.” The award is made, not to absolute or relative success, but to fidelity, which does not depend upon the amount committed to one’s care. The trust and the ability to use it create the obligation. Neg- ligence is punished upon its own showing. The plea of inability is false, and the plea of severity contra- dicts itself. The time and the labor of the slothful servant belonged to his Lord; and his punishment was just, because he did not use for God the gifts that he had received from God. But, while a selfish disregard of the sacred trust of life receives merited punishment, the reward of fidelity transcends all human estimate—the public commendation and welcome of Christ, exaltation with Christ in his joy, and dominion in his kingdom. J. P. T.

THE parable of the pounds (Section 116), though having a prominent point of contact with this, was spoken at a different time and place, and to the multitude as well as the disciples. This, in the innermost circle of his own most trusted followers, of those to whom he was about to confide the carry- ing forward of the great work which he had himself commenced on earth. T.—Christ’s voice in this parable, as in that of the pounds, is, not “Wait for your Lord,” “Love his appearing,” but “Occupy till I come.” Blessed is that servant whom his Lord when he cometh shall find, not only watching, as in a former parable, but—working! B.

14. While the virgins were represented as waiting for the Lord, we have here the servants working for him: there the inward spiritual rest of the Christian was described—here his external activity. There, by the end of the foolish virgins, we were warned against declensions and decays in the inward spiritual life—here against sluggishness and sloth in our outward vocation and work. That parable enforced the need of keeping the heart with all diligence, this the need of giving all diligence also to the outward work, if we would be found of Christ in peace at his appearing. It is therefore with good reason that they appear in their actual order, that of the virgins first and the talents following, since the sole condition of a profitable outward work for the kingdom of God is that the life of God be diligently maintained within the heart. T.

Delivered unto them his goods. It is from the relationship which of old existed between a master and his slaves that the imagery of this parable is taken. A slave in those days might not only be called to do the ordinary work which fell to the lot of an ordinary domestic: but if he had the talent for it, his master might allow him to engage in trade or to practise in any profession, the master receiving the profits, the slave reaping the benefit of better position and better maintenance. H.—Slaves in antiquity were often artisans, or were allowed to engage in business, paying a fixed yearly sum to their master: or, as here, they had money given them to trade on his account or to enlarge their business, and to bring him in a share of their profits.

15. His ability.** The natural gifts are as the vessel, which may be large or small and which receives according to its capacity; but which in each case is filled. T.—Our Master is not here personally to assign to us our different places and our different work; he is not here directly to inspect, and at each day’s close to make the reckoning with us. But not the less, rather the more, are we under obligation to work for him; for has he not left us to deal with that portion of his goods he has put into our hands as to each of us seemeth best? has he not left us to cultivate each the special talent he has bestowed, in cultivating which we may be still serving him? H.

Christ not only startles the indolent by the inquiry, “Why stand ye here all the day idle?” and by the command, “Work while it is day, for the night cometh wherein no man can work;” but our life in his hands is converted into a lamp which, like the virgins in the parable, we are to keep bright and burning; and into a stewardship, concerning every item of which we are to render him finally a faithful account. Our “every word,” our various endowments, whatever they may be, are so many talents which he expects us to multiply by constant use. He will not require the possessor of two talents to account for three, but neither will he permit him to account for one only. The very fact that he possesses two, constitutes his call and his obligation to employ them; nor is he at liberty to set any limits to his endeavors short of those which his means and opportunities prescribe. And as Christian influence multiplies itself by use, he is held responsible, not only for the right employment of his two talents, but for the other two, which that employment would have added to them. J. H.

16. Traded and made other five talents.** Whoever, in allegiance to his divine Master, by his diligent use of God’s gifts, adds to the spiritual value of his own character, or to the true welfare of his fellow-men, fulfils the part of a faithful servant. The result is a true addition to God’s wealth. L. A.—19. After a long time. Embraces the whole period intervening between the first and second coming of Christ. T.

21. Neither the toil nor the gain receives notice, but the fidelity is commended and rewarded. J. G. B.—No earthly lord or master ever dealt so generously with those who had tried to serve him, as our heavenly Lord and Master will deal with us, if honestly, sincerely, devotedly, though with all our manifold imperfections, we give ourselves to the doing of his good and holy will. H.—Enter into the joy. Leighton’s words on this entering into the joy of the Lord are beautiful: “It is but little we can receive here, some drops of joy that enter into us, but there we shall enter into joy as vessels put into a sea of happiness.” T.

24,25. The good and faithful servant performs his master’s will, without arguing concerning it. It is only the wicked and slothful servant who disputes so much, and does nothing. Q.—He did not believe in his lord’s forgiving love, and in his gracious acceptance of the work with all its faults, which was done for him out of a true heart and with a sincere desire to please him. This was his wilful and guilty ignorance concerning the true character of the master whom he was called to serve. In his speech, half cowering and half defying, and in this respect a wonderful picture of the sinner’s bearing toward God, he shrinks not from attributing to him the character of a harsh unreasonable despot.

26,27. “Wicked,” in that he defended himself by calumniating his lord, and “slothful,” as his whole conduct has shown. Grant me to be such as thou describest, severe and exacting, yet even then thou art not cleared, for thou oughtest to have done me justice still; and there was a safe way by which thou mightest have done this; and thereby have obtained for me, if not large gains, yet some small but certain return for my moneys.

28. This taking away of the unused talent which will find its complete consummation at the day of judgment, is also in this present time continually going forward. And herein is mercy, that it is not done all at once but by little and little, so that till all is withdrawn there is still the opportunity of recovering all: at each successive withdrawal there is some warning to hold fast what is left, “to strengthen the things which remain that are ready to die.” It is true that at each successive stage of the decline, the effort required for this is greater—the strength for it less: but to complain of this is to complain that sin is sin, that it has any curse with it; and however this is the mournful truth, yet it remains always possible till the last spark is extinguished to blow up that spark again into a flame: even the sense of the increasing darkness may be that which shall arouse the man to a serious sense of his danger, and to the need of an earnest revival of God’s work in his soul. T.

30. Observe that the same condemnation is visited on the unprofitable servant as on the guest without a wedding-garment, the hypocrites, and the workers of iniquity. L. A.—A fearful picture of the condemned sinner; even on his own ground how justly condemned! The opportunities and the place which he had left unused, and has therefore forfeited, God (as his rule is) hands over to another. And not only is the talent forfeited, but the unprofitable servant is himself cast into outer darkness. While within there is joy, and light, and feasting, to celebrate the master’s return, the blessedness he might have gained is forever lost. J. A.

SEEING that all are called in their measure to edify one another, that all Christians have a spiritual vocation, and are intrusted with gifts, more or fewer, for which they will have to render an account, the parable is applicable to all. It has relation to all gifts and endowments, as wealth, reputation, ability, which are given to men that they may be sanctified to the Lord and consecrated to his service, and for the use or abuse of which the possessors will have also to render an account. Our English word “talent” has come to signify any mental endowments, faculties, or powers whatever, a use which is entirely the growth of this parable. T.—All receive their native capacities and their opportunities, their characters and their circumstances, from God. He bestows them not as a gift, but as a trust; and for their use thereof they will be called to account. Our Lord admonishes us that nonuse is a sin as well as misuse, neglect as truly as flagrant disobedience. The whole parable pivots on the words unprofitable servant, and it is one of solemn warning to every person who is so living as neither to grow in grace himself nor to edify others. L. A.

Section 135.—Description of the Judgment.

Mount of Olives.

31. WHEN the Son of man shall come in his glory, and all the holy angels with him, then 32 shall he sit upon the throne of his glory: and before him shall be gathered all nations: and he shall separate them one from another, as a shepherd divideth his sheep from the 33 goats: and he shall set the sheep on his right hand, but the goats on the left. 34 Then shall the King say unto them on his right hand, Come, ye blessed of my Father, 35 inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world: for I was an hungered, and ye gave me meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink: I was a stranger, 36 and ye took me in: naked, and ye clothed me: I was sick, and ye visited me: I was in 37 prison, and ye came unto me. Then shall the righteous answer him, saying, Lord, when 38 saw we thee an hungered, and fed thee? or thirsty, and gave thee drink? When saw 39 we thee a stranger, and took thee in? or naked, and clothed thee? Or when saw we thee 40 sick, or in prison, and came unto thee? And the King shall answer and say unto them,

Verily, I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.

41. Then shall he say also unto them on the left hand, Depart from me, ye cursed, into ever- 42 lasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels: for I was an hungered, and ye gave 43 me no meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me no drink: I was a stranger, and ye took me not in: naked, and ye clothed me not: sick, and in prison, and ye visited me not. 44 Then shall they also answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee an hungered, or athirst, or a stranger, or naked, or sick, or in prison, and did not minister unto thee? 45 Then shall he answer them, saying, Verily, I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye did it not 46 to one of the least of these, ye did it not to me. And these shall go away into ever- lasting punishment: but the righteous into life eternal.

THESE blessed of the Father, brethren of the Son, and heirs of the Kingdom, stand amazed that the Son of man, now come in his glory with all the holy angels, should so overwhelm their trifling services with a glorious reward. Nay, they can hardly recollect any service at all. The ministries were so trifling, and were bestowed on objects so inconsiderable, often with such mixture of bad motives, and such deficiency of good, that it amazes them to find every transient item legible in the book of the Judge, now seated upon the throne of his glory. Mark how he receives them, how he gathers up the bruised, withered, scattered flowers which seemed dying in our hands, and makes of them a garland; binds them on his brow as a diadem; points to them before his angels as an honor. The self-condemning disciple sees no beauty or worthiness but in his prince. Conscious of shortcoming, he hears the plaudit, and looks around among the right-hand myriads in quest of him whom it may befit. Not me, assuredly. “When saw I thee, in sorrow, and ministered to thee!” Yes, thee, blushing saint—thee; the Master’s eye seeketh thee. What a Master! Who will not love him and serve him! Hear the words of Bishop Andrewes: “There is glory which shall be revealed; for when the Judge cometh, some shall be placed on the right, and shall hear those most welcome words, ‘Come, ye blessed.’ They shall be caught up in clouds to meet the Lord; they shall enter into gladness, they shall enjoy the sight of him, they shall be even with him. These alone, only these, are blessed among the sons of men.” J. W. A.

THE same day of which the parables of the virgins, of the talents, and of the pounds specially testify, is the day spoken of here. It is the day of the bridegroom’s return. This parable merely gives a more enlarged, grand, and solemn view of what is the main subject of the preceding parables. They all give in detail the separation of the wise from the inconsiderate, the righteous from the wicked. D. K. D.

The sublimity of this description surpasses all imagination. Christ, as the Son of man, the Shepherd, the King, the Judge, as the centre and end of all human love, bringing out and rewarding his latent grace in those who have lived in love; everlastingly punishing those who have quenched it in an unloving and selfish life; and, in the accomplishment of his mediatorial office, causing even from the iniquities of a rebellious world his sovereign mercy to rejoice against judgment. J. P. T.—It will heighten our ostimation of the wonderful sublimity of this description, when we recollect that it was spoken by the Lord only three days before his sufferings! A.

A large field of reflection is before us—to consider Jesus Christ as a God in his majesty, as a King upon his throne, as a Judge on his tribunal, and as a Shepherd amid his flock, wherein the goats continue mixed with the sheep even to the last day! See here a spectacle very different from that of the cross, where the Son of God, disfigured, forsaken by his disciples, encompassed with his enemies, and seated between two thieves on the throne of his humiliations and ignominies, did in those two exhibit an emblem of the separation here described. Q.

Christ the divine Saviour is one with Christ the divine Judge; nor is there any consideration more appalling to conscious guilt and conscious neglect than this, that it is none other than the Shepherd who yielded life itself for the sheep, that is yet to sit in judgment on that day when justice alone shall be visible on the throne of God! W. A. B.—There is no manifestation of the nature of God, in opposition to sin and in retribution against the incorrigibly ungodly, so calm, determined, decided, severe, and awful, as that which is made in the words and yet will be made in the person of that Man by whom He will judge the world. J. T. D.

31. The Son of man in his glory. The

Humanity of Christ is made prominent in this reference to the judgment, as his Divinity was made prominent in reference to the resurrection. The dead shall hear the voice of “the Son of God”—the divine power and majesty will be most strikingly expressed through the voice that shall raise the dead; but “the Son of man,” our representative and glorified humanity in Christ, shall come into view in the solemnities of the judgment. His personal connection with humanity, his experience of its trials and temptations, his sympathy with its sufferings and sorrows, will throw an air of benignity and tenderness over a scene that must of itself possess so much of majesty and awe. The purpose of the incarnation is the moral wonder of earth and heaven—that God entered into humanity to redeem, ennoble, enthrone it; and this sublime wonder of the incarnation will stand out in Jesus, the appointed Judge, because he is the Son of man—the unveiling of that awful mystery, the Incarnate God, the Redeeming Man; all angels his servants; principalities, powers, and dominions gathered beneath his throne! J. P. T.

32. As before that final decision the faith of the gospel will have been spread among all nations, so all nations are represented as brought to the bar; but, among these, genuine believers will be separated from those whose fidelity has not been proved by their lives. This representation of the final judgment aims to set forth, most vividly and impressively, the great and fundamental truth, that no faith but that which proves itself by works can secure a title to the kingdom of heaven. N.—To whatever communion they belong, let none fancy they belong to Christ unless they are found working in his service. For them to talk of being saved by faith is to dishonor the gospel and to deceive themselves. Faith without works is dead, and, like all dead things, is an offence. Guthrie.

33. There is no intermediate station provided for those who are lukewarm and indifferent, who do not reject the gospel, but give themselves little concern about it: who, instead of working out their salvation with fear and trembling, leave that matter to take care of itself. Those who are not set on the right hand, must go to the left. Those who are not rewarded, are consigned to punishment. P.

34. The King.** Here for the first and only time does the Lord give himself this name. A.—It is the King, the King of kings, the Lord of lords, who speaks. Before the assembled universe shall Jesus of Nazareth be enthroned. He who on earth veiled his glory, took no higher title than the Son of man, was content to stand before an earthly judgment-seat and be doomed to die—shall come with power and great glory. He shall come, as we are told in one place, in his own glory; as we are told in another, in the glory of the Father. With all the essential glory which he had with the Father before the world was—with all the additional glory of his triumph over death and hell for us men and for our salvation, shall he be then visibly invested.

Inherit the kingdom! Rejoice, all ye who, following Christ as your great leader and exemplar ever before you, day by day are carrying on this inward warfare. The struggle is not to last forever. The enemies, so many, so powerful, within and without, by whom you are so often overcome, are not forever to haunt and harass and assault. At death they shall cease to have power; and when on that great day you stand on the right hand of the Judge, then shall the full, the perfect, the undivided reign of holiness commence, and every thought, affection, and desire of your heart doing willing homage to the Redeemer, the kingdom shall be yours, Christ shall reign in you, and you shall reign through him. But this kingdom is to come to you by inheritance. It is not one that you are to acquire in virtue of any sacrifices made, any labors undergone, any victories achieved. You must first become children of God by faith that is in Jesus Christ, and, being children, then shall ye be heirs, heirs of God, joint-heirs with Jesus Christ. H.

37. The righteous answer.** The commendation bestowed upon the righteous seems to proceed upon the ground of the good works they had done. Did our Lord then teach or imply a doctrine of salvation by works, or of merit? The very statement contradicts that supposition; for they who do such works have no thought of merit in them; they are astonished and overwhelmed at the enumeration: “Lord, when saw we thee!” What they did was not in the endeavor to merit heaven, but was the acting out of a true love to Christ in dependence upon him. 40. Ye have done it unto me. Without thought of personal reward, without a calculation of merit, under the promptings of the Saviour’s love, they had carried out his spirit in ministering to others. To act in all things from love to Christ denotes that vital union with Christ which qualifies the participant for the felicity of heaven. J. P. T.

It is everywhere taught by him that brotherly love is a peculiar fruit of faith, the very test of its genuineness; we cannot wonder, therefore, to find it made so prominent in this passage. Believers are represented in it as following the impulses of a true brotherly love, founded upon love to Christ, and as manifesting this love in kind acts to their brethren without respect to persons. Yet they attach no merit to their works, and are amazed to find the Lord value them so highly as to consider them done unto himself. N.—Even thus will it be in the moment of his awakening, with all that a Christian has done through his Master’s grace in the days of his flesh. How will he find in that hour that nothing had been overlooked, nothing forgotten, of all that had been truly done for Christ! Every hearty prayer and every earnest effort, every struggle with self, every victory over sin, every endeavor to benefit man and to bring honor to God, will then be seen to have borne its proper fruit, and to be blessed with its due recompense of reward. He may say to himself then, How has much come to little, and little come to much! Great may be the surprises which have been enumerated in other kinds, but greatest, perhaps, to a humble Christian, the discovery of his own reward, the discovery that God had marked indeed what man never saw, and crowned with his eternal blessings deeds which the doer had forgotten. An.

What thoughts crowd upon us as we listen to such a description of the scenes of the Last Judgment! Lo! he casts his entire cause in the earth upon the love of his people. His own poverty was to have an end, but that of his Church was to take his place. His personal conflict “finished,” that of his cause was then only to begin. The whole story of his necessities and endurances from the world, was to be repeated in the Church, which was to “fill up that which was behind of the afflictions of Christ.” B.

41. Prepared for the devil and his angels. Even in rejecting from his presence the selfish and the unpitying, the Saviour shows his pity to the end. The kingdom, the salvation, the blessing, were prepared for all who should give themselves to Christ: the curse, the woe, were prepared for the devil; and it is only of their own perversity in sin that any of the human race fall under that condemnation. J. P. T.—From one central will, alienated from the will of God, the Scripture derives all the evil in the universe; all gathers up in a person, the devil, who has most truly a kingdom, as God has—a kingdom with its subordinate ministers—“the devil and his angels.” Thus man’s sin is continually traced up to Satan; the Scripture not thereby denying that the evil of men is truly their evil, but affirming with this, that it has its ground in a yet higher evil. It is their evil, since it is an act of their will which alone gives it leave to enter. T.

41-45. The Judge does not in their case bring forward an opposite kind of actions to confront with those attributed to the righteous. Against the cited deeds of mercy he does not set up as many deeds of selfishness, or unkindness, or cruelty. He puts the whole stress of the condemnatory sentence simply upon the non-performance of the service of love to his brethren, and through them to himself. The great primary requirement, the presence or absence of which fixes the position of each class on the right hand or upon the left of the Judge, is love to Christ, likeness unto him, as tested and exhibited in deeds of kindness done unto his poor, afflicted, suffering children. H.

46. The punishment of the wicked is said to be everlasting, and the reward of the righteous eternal. Everlasting, and eternal, signify the same thing in our language, and are put for one and the same word in the Greek original: wherefore in that passage of Scripture they are to be taken as precisely importing the same thing; because it cannot be supposed, that any writer, much less that Christ, could have two very different senses to the same word, repeated in the same short sentence, without giving the least warning of his change of meaning, or adding any mark of limitation to it in either place of that sentence.—And are not the punishments of the wicked said to be eternal, in terms the most express? Are they not called “everlasting burnings?” Isa. 33:14; “everlasting shame and contempt?” Dan. 12:2; “everlasting fire?” Matt. 18:8; “eternal judgment?” Heb. 6:2; “the blackness of darkness forever?” Jude 13. Were these expressions thrown out only to frighten us into our duty with false terrors? Doth God, who forbids us “to do evil that good may come,” use equivocal words, and pious frauds, in order to make us honest men, and lovers of truth? Skelton.—Everlasting punishment. A TRUTH—great, terrible, and certain; planted deep in the nature of God’s attributes, and therefore unfathomable as all things are that are of him; but, withal, addressing itself to the simplest and strongest feelings of man—his dread of pain, his horror of shame and misery and death; meeting him at every turn to evil, and casting a fearful shadow across those pleasures which are not of God; and warning that all the temporal results of sin—the ruin of prospects, the destruction of health, the loss of reputation, the early grave—all are but shadows of its overwhelming penalty, when restraining mercy shall have ceased, and the sin and the punishment, passing together into the world of eternity and still bound in inseparable links, shall become themselves alike eternal! W. A. B.

Life eternal. In this and many other passages of a similar nature, we are expressly assured that both our existence and our happiness hereafter will be, in the strictest sense of the word, everlasting. This none but God himself could promise, or, when promised, fulfil. It is more than the utmost sagacity of human reason could discover, more than the utmost perfection of human virtue could claim. Eternal life, therefore, is constantly and justly represented in Scripture as the gift, the free gift of God, through Jesus Christ; and, were it on this account only, it might be truly said, that life and immortality were brought to light through the gospel. P.

31-46. What claims does “the Son of man” here put forward for himself! He is to come in his own glory; all the holy angels are to come with him; he is to take his seat on the throne; it is the throne of his own glory; all nations are to be gathered before him; the awful separation of the two great classes to be his doing; the word of decision on both—“Ye blessed!” “Ye cursed!” and the word of command to the one, “Come!” to the other, “Depart!”—“To the kingdom! To the flames!” all this is to be his doing. But most astonishing of all, the blissful or the blighted eternity of each one of both classes is suspended upon his treatment of him—is made to turn upon those mysterious ministrations from age to age to the Lord of glory, disguised in the persons of those who love his name: “Ye did thus and thus unto me—Come, ye blessed! Ye did it not to me—Depart, ye cursed!” In that “me” lies an emphasis, the strength of which only the scene itself and its everlasting issues will disclose. Verily, “God is Judge himself,” but it is God in flesh, God in One who is “not ashamed to call us brethren.” B.

Section 136.—Covenant of the Rulers with Judas. Preparation for the Passover.

Jerusalem.