Matthew 25

Matthew 25:1-13

AND REPLIES Matthew 24:1 to Matthew 25:13THAT a new tone has come into Christ’s teaching is increasingly evident. It is the tone of judgment, consequent upon bitter experience. In concluding our last chapter, we called attention to the severity of His invectives; in this chapter, the same state of mind continues. In the former, He was denouncing by frightfully descriptive terms, Sadducees, Scribes, and Pharisees; in this, He is declaring the judgment to come. His bitter experience in dealing with men had resulted in the destruction of hope concerning their reform even, and still more, concerning the likelihood of their regeneration.The speech of a man is often the echo of soul-experience. So perfectly does the verbal expression represent the soul’s experience, that the former commonly measures the latter.As the head of several movements that require large amounts of money for their maintenance and advancement, I have learned that a man who has just sustained heavy financial losses is never a fit counsellor concerning advance movements, and that the discouraged man should be eliminated altogether from counselling boards—such harmony is there between inner-experience and outward expression.

In a measure, Christ also was tempted at this point like as we are. When He saw that men would not be saved, did not desire redemption, He felt that judgment was a sheer necessity, and His speech took on a condemnatory tone.His declaration of judgment for the buildings of the Temple excitedTHREE “And Jesus went out, and departed from the Temple: and His disciples came to Him for to shew Him the buildings of the Temple. “And Jesus said unto them, See ye not all these things? verily I say unto you, There shall not be left here one stone upon another, that shall not be thrown down. “And as He sat upon the Mount of Olives, the disciples came unto Him privately, saying, Tell us, when shall these things bet and what shall be the sign of Thy Coming, and of the end of the world” (Matthew 24:1-3). We ask you to note that there are three questions, the first relating to the destruction of Jerusalem, the second relating to the sign of His Coming, and the third to the end of the age. If these questions are constantly kept in mind, it will make the answer the more intelligent.The questions were incited by His threatening words. His disciples were troubled at the thought of the Temple torn to pieces. The Temple had not only been to them the center of all spiritual interest, but the very place of God’s manifested presence. To say that it would go, was one with saying that God would go; and when God is gone, whence the light, for He is the Light of the world? When God is gone, whence wisdom, for all wisdom is with Him?

When God is gone, whence life, for life is from Him alone? Their alarm was justified.They pled for personal and special information. “Tell us, when shall these things be? and what shall be the sign of Thy Coming, and of the end of the world”? (Matthew 24:3).

The pronoun “us” is significant here. They realized that the “secrets of the Lord are with them that fear Him”. They believed that Christ would give them information not intended for the world. They knew that these particular things, the destruction of Jerusalem, the sign of His Coming, and the end of the age, were among the secrets which, by sacred Scriptures, God purposed to reserve unto Himself; and yet they hoped and believed, and with some occasion, that He would tell them what the world need not and could not know. Their expectation was almost justified. The true disciple of the Lord is sure to have the mind of the Lord, and to share in most of the Lord’s secrets.Prayer intelligently indulged in is not always an appeal for some new or additional gift.

Solomon, when the infinite riches of a plethoric world were proffered him, in answer to whatsoever he should ask, made appeal for no material thing, but begged for wisdom instead, bringing down not only an abundant blessing upon himself, but the Divine approval upon the intelligence of his choice. What prayer is possible to any desire equalling this— “Tell me!

Teach me! Impart to me additional truth! Lead me into larger light! Make known to me more of Thy plans and purposes that I may fit my life, my conduct, my character into the same!” That is the truest prayer. God has a few secrets that He will not divulge even to His own, but few they are indeed. These disciples proved at once their intelligence and affection and conscious personal relation, when to Christ they said, “Tell us”!Their request related to three separate items of interest. They were “the destruction of Jerusalem”, “the Coming of Christ”, and “the end of the age”.There was a time when the words of this chapter seemed to us a jumble. We could make little out of them.

At one point they seem to be talking of the destruction of Jerusalem; in the next sentence of the Coming of Christ; and almost immediately, of the end of the age; and we asked, “Which is here referred to, and why this jumble?” But at last we saw that as the three questions were united in a single sentence, so the three answers were to be traced in the Saviour’s reply, some of what He said referring to the destruction of Jerusalem, some of it to the sign of His Second Coming, and some to the end of the age. There is no clear line of demarcation in these replies. It is practically impossible to say that one sentence refers to the first, another to the second, and still another to the third. The simple fact is that these events have a connection that make the answers applicable to each of them. “Many shall come in My Name, saying, I am Christ; and shall deceive many” (Matthew 24:5). That has been true, and will remain true to the end of the age.“Ye shall hear of wars and rumours of wars: see that ye be not troubled: for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet” (Matthew 24:6). That also is true throughout the entire period. “Nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes, in divers places” (Matthew 24:7).

They shook Jerusalem and finally compassed its downfall. They will also characterize the great war that is coming, and have to do with the closing of the age itself.

The truth is that one of these events, the destruction of Jerusalem, is in many respects a type or symbol of the closing of the age. The answer to their first question, then, should be an adumbration of the answer to the last. In order to retain His secret concerning His Second Coming, Christ must of necessity refuse to His disciples those plain lines of demarcation sought that curiosity might be satisfied. But He does indulge inP REPLIES He declares that false christs will characterize the Church period. It will be noted that that prophecy both opens and closes His answers,“And many false prophets shall rise, and shall deceive many” (Matthew 24:11). “For there shall arise false Christs, and false prophets, and shall shew great signs and wonders, insomuch that, if it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect” (Matthew 24:24). Historically, that prophecy has been illustrated hundreds of times. In the sixty years of the writer’s life, there has not been a single decade but knew its pretended Christ, and it is doubtful if any century since this word was uttered has ended without knowing that spurious claim.There is at this very moment a widespread movement that makes that pretence the more engaging. “The elect” have not been deceived by false teachers. People who have had an actual experience of regenerating grace seldom or never take to the claims of modernism. They are so at variance with the Book that the Christ-born distinguish the difference and reject “the new gospel”, so-called, which they know to be “no gospel”. But Satan is now making a flank movement “to deceive, if possible, the very elect”. He is combining true teaching with false practices, as illustrated in the Pentecostal and kindred movements.The great fundamentals of the Christian faith are being preached by men and women alike, whose pretences of “tongues” and of “healings” will not bear the light of day.

This is not because the doctrine of Divine healing is unbiblical, for that doctrine is plainly taught in God’s Word. This is not because “the speaking of tongues” might not be an expression of the Spirit.

It was once! It may be again! But this is because the claim of “healing” has been made the medium of personal and selfish advertising; has been converted into financial gains of great measure; has taken on the form of a new Simony—a sort of sale of the Holy Spirit’s power. Beyond all question, this procedure has in more than one instance deceived the very elect.Dr. John Alexander Dowie began marvelously as a preacher of the long neglected doctrine of Divine healing, and by close observation upon his early days at the World’s Fair, I was fully convinced that he was doing the work of God. But, alas, for the temptation to traffic in holy things.

History records for him a rather ignominious end. The Tongues’ Movement under Baxter and Edward Irving proved, in the end, to be rather a blight than a blessing to the churches that accepted it, and even these leaders came to doubt both the genuineness and advantage of what they themselves had professed and practiced.

It is a sad commentary on the Church of God that it doubts God’s promises of healing, and that it has so uniformly turned to the questionable practices of the world. But, there is even a sadder commentary upon those members of that same church who get no thrill out of the uniform, persistent preaching of the great fundamentals of the Christian faith, but who will travel any distance to see the semblance of “the great signs and wonders” prophesied in the twenty-fourth verse of this chapter, and, though they be children of God, become deceived by the same.Again, Christ prophesied troubles and snares for the entire Church period. There are preachers who preach what they call an optimistic gospel; who paint with ready words the wonderful progress of our times, the marvellous growth in morals, the sure tendency to international adjustments and world peace, the increasing amenities that make for humanity and mark an ever-ascending civilization. But Christ did not belong with them. He spoke instead of “false Christs” rising to “deceive”—of “wars”, “rumours of wars”, “nation rising against nation”, “kingdom against kingdom”, “famines”, “pestilences”, “earthquakes”, and then said, “These are the beginnings of sorrows”, a clear indication that woes would increase through the whole Church period. He promised the faithful “deliverance to affliction,” “death”, “hatred”, “offences”, “betrayals”, “false teachers”.

He described the “lawlessness” that would abound, the “love of many waxing cold”, the “abomination of desolation” standing in the holy place, the “great tribulation such as was not since the beginning of the world to that time, no, nor ever should be”. He insisted that “except those days of tribulation be shortened, no flesh would be saved”.

He spoke of a “darkened sun”, “an extinguished moon”, “falling stars”, “shaking heavens”.His ministry was not accepted twenty centuries ago. It would be far less acceptable if preached to the present age. Men are not keen to know the truth, but are anxious to have comfortable sermons. Women close their eyes against offences and try to imagine they have not seen what is full before them. But let it be remembered that the ostrich who is hotly pursued, and whose life is sought, does not escape danger when he runs his head in the sand. In fact, he invites it, and will all the more shortly feel the deadly dart of his pursuer.

Far better to face facts with which you necessarily have to do than to vainly seek to forget them. Far better to watch against deception than to fall under the power of the same.

Far better to flee into the mountains than to abide in Jerusalem through the day of its judgment. Far better to watch for the Coming of the King than to be confused and shamed by His sudden appearance.Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God. Follow not every prophet, but test the prophets at the point of both precept and practice, for strangely enough, false prophets always secure large and enthusiastic hearing. Bend not the knee before every christ who comes in his own name, but watch for the appearance of Him who, “as the lightning cometh out of the east, and shineth even unto the west”, shall also come—the very Son of Man, the Saviour of the Church.He plainly affirms that the great tribulation will close this age.“Immediately after the tribulation of those days, shall the sun be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken: And then shall appear the sign of the Son of Man in heaven: and then shall all the tribes of the earth (Israel) mourn, and they shall see the Son of Man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. “And He shall send His angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together His elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other” (Matthew 24:29-31). There are people who seek to discredit us by calling us “literalists”. What else can we be? If God is not to keep the letter of His Word, what is God to keep? Concerning the first coming of Christ, He said, “He shall be born of a virgin”. It was even so! Concerning His first appearance, He said, “His birth shall be in Bethlehem of Judea”.

It so took place. Concerning the attempt on the life of that Babe, driving His parents into Egypt, it was prophesied, “Out of Egypt have I called My Son”. God brought the Babe back. In other words, God never disregarded one single word involved in the promises of His first appearance. Who can doubt that God will keep His every word concerning the promises of the second appearance? I look to see the sun darkened, the moon fail, the stars perish from sight.

I look to see the Son Himself “descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God”, “for He shall send His angels with a great sound of a trumpet”. I look to see the “dead in Christ arise”. These things will characterize and close the age.Now attend, while Christ presentsTHREE in prophetic presentation of that time: the parable of the fig tree, the parable of the midnight thief, and the parable of the ten virgins.The parable of the fig tree—a prophecy of that time. This is recorded in Matthew 24:32-41.“Now learn a parable of the fig tree; When his branch is yet tender, and putteth forth leaves, ye know that summer is nigh: “So likewise ye, (the pronoun is emphatic), when ye shall see all these things, know that it is near, even at the doors. “Verily I say unto you, This generation shall not pass, till all these things be fulfilled. “Heaven and earth shall pass away, but My words shall not pass away. “But of that day and hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels of heaven, but My Father only. “But as the days of Noe were, so shall also the Coming of the Son of Man be. “For as in the days that were before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noe entered into the ark, “And knew not until the flood came, and took them all away; so shall also the Coming of the Son of Man be. “Then shall two be in the field; the one shall be taken, and the other left. “Two women shall be grinding at the mill, the one shall be taken, and the other left” (Matthew 24:32-41). It is uniformly agreed by good Bible students that the fig tree is the type of Israel. She has long been passing through her winter, the time of the Gentiles. But summer will come and the tender leaves will appear upon the long barren and fruitless branches; and, at the sight of the first of them “Ye know that the summer is nigh”.Are those leaves putting forth now? There are many who so believe. The great Zionist movement, into which Jews have already put their millions, and by which they are being returned to the land of promise by the tens of thousands (33,000 of them having gone back in the year 1925) is accepted by many as the sure proof that summer is nigh. Many have stumbled over the phrase, “This generation shall not pass until all these things have been fulfilled”.

Even professed Bible scholars have charged Christ with mistake here; but when one remembers that “this generation” is the generation of the Jew, he knows that God has literally fulfilled His Word and kept that generation or people intact till now, and will till then. In other words, “heaven and earth may pass, but His words will not”, and while no man knows of that day or hour, nor even the angels, yet, “as in the days of Noe, so shall the Coming of the Son of Man be”, and certainly the time in which we live is akin to that which preceded the flood—eating, drinking, marrying, merry-making—such characterized the antediluvians, and such characterize the antemillenians. But our Master added another parable!The parable of the thief is a warning about watchfulness.“Watch therefore: for ye know not what hour your Lord doth come. “But know this, that if the goodman of the house had known in what watch the thief would come, he would have watched, and would not have suffered his house to be broken up. “Therefore be ye also ready: for in such an hour as ye think not the Son of Man cometh. “Who then is a faithful and wise servant, whom his lord hath made ruler over his household, to give them meat in due season? “Blessed is that servant, whom his lord when he cometh shall find so doing. “Verily I say unto you, That he shall make him ruler over all his goods. “But and if that evil servant shall say in his heart, My lord delayeth his coming; “And shall begin to smite his fellowservants, and to eat and drink with the drunken; “The lord of that servant shall come in a day when he looketh not for him, and in an hour that he is not aware of. “And shall cut him asunder, and appoint him his portion with the hypocrites: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth” (Matthew 24:48-51). Like most of Christ’s parables, this is of easy comprehension. Every country and people of every age have had their thieves—men who deliberately wait till all are fast asleep and then sneak in and snatch away a coveted treasure. They come always, as all absent masters return, when unexpected, for “If the goodman of the house had known in what hour the thief would come, he would have watched, and would not have suffered his house to be broken up”. If the servant had but known just when the master would return and if you knew at what hour Christ would come, you would make ready against the hour. The very fact that you do not know, that you cannot know, that you should not know, is a reason for preparation for an appearance that is certain and the time of which is hidden. “Blessed is that servant, whom his lord when he cometh shall find so doing”, and accursed is he who“shall say in his heart, My lord delayeth his coming; and shall begin to smite his fellowservants, and to eat and drink with the drunken; “The lord of that servant shall come in a day when he looketh not for him, and in an hour that he is not aware of, “And shall cut him asunder, and appoint him his portion with the hypocrites; there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth” (Matthew 24:48-51). Now don’t start back and say “cut asunder”; that is a frightful word for Christ to employ. Judgment is always a frightful thing, but not so frightful as the injustice of the servant who smites his fellows without occasion; nor even so frightful as the slothfulness of him who eats and drinks unto drunkenness and despises both himself and his lord.Our final parable is one with which all students of the Book are well familiar: the parable of the wise and foolish virgins—a plea for preparation. Mark the progress Christ has made in these three parables. The first was a prophecy of time; the second was a warning about watchfulness, and the third a plea for preparation. “A wedding”! That is a favorite figure with Christ. Virgins—ten of them, invited—expectant—anxious! Five wise, that took forethought and filled their lamps with oil; five foolish, that thought of participation in the festive occasion only, but made no provision against the darkness. “While the bridegroom tarried, they all slumbered and slept”. Sleep is quite all right for the Christian who has made his peace with God and who is prepared to meet His Son.

Watchfulness against the day of His Coming does not mean that one must keep his physical eyes forever open, and live on the quivive until nervous prostration has disabled him and set him aside. Such would be an absurd interpretation. But it does mean that he shall have the oil of grace in his heart—the light of life kindled from above, for only such shall see Him and share that festal hour with Him, and enter His “house of the heavens not made with hands”, and spend with Him a joyous eternity, celebrating the consummation of Divine love in the completion of the Church of God.

Matthew 25:14-46

DIVINE OF MEN AND IN JUSTICE Matthew 25:14-46. CHRIST was prophesying His own departure. He was foretelling the period of probation in which His servants, with greater or less talents, should be tested; and He was picturing the time of His Return, and the basis upon which He would pronounce His judgments of commendation or condemnation. But, running through this talent parable is another thought, woven into it as the scarlet line is woven into the cordage of the English navy; and that thought is ‘the Master’s method of estimating men’; and that thought I want first to elaborate, and then conclude with the judgment declaration.Perhaps this can best be done by considering some of the plainest suggestions of the talent parable first.SPECIAL GIFTS GOD’S OF A MAN. “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; “And unto one he gave five talents; to another two, and to another one; to every man according to his several ability” (Matthew 25:14-15) God recognizes natural abilities. “To every man according to his several ability.” God is not responsible for the natural abilities of men. There is a theological opinion to the effect that God is the direct and only author of every man, for which there is no scriptural basis. God created Adam and Eve, but at the same time He ordained a law, which covered not alone the vegetable and lower animal kingdom, but also the human, when He said, “let the earth bring forth a living creature after his kind”. When Adam and Eve had sinned, and through transgression of law made it possible for every child to say with the Psalmist, “Behold, I was shapen in iniquity and in sin did my mother conceive me”, they put an end to the Divine responsibility for the natural man. As Dr. Hillis, in “A Man’s Value to Society”, says, “A man’s original capital comes through his ancestry.

Nature invests the grandsire’s ability and compounds it for the grandson”. Plato says, “The child is a charioteer driving two steeds up the long life hill.

One steed is white, representing our best impulses; one steed is dark, standing for our worse passions. Who gave these steeds their color?” “Our fathers”, Plato replies. And Plato is scriptural, for it is the law of life that it should bring forth after its kind. Oliver Wendell Holmes was giving us sound philosophy when he declared that a man’s value was, to a great extent, determined one hundred years before his birth. And when you find out that there is some deficiency in your life that affects evilly body, mind or spirit, don’t rail at God for having made you so; for God created your first father perfect, and any deficiencies that have come into the human race to deface the body, degrade the mind, destroy the soul, have been brought there, either through the law of inheritance or by some other will or power than that of the infinitely wise and affectionate Father. “Our fathers have sinned and are not, and we have borne their iniquities” (Lamentations 5:7).In His gifts of grace, God regards natural abilities.“Unto one He gave five talents, to another two, and to another one; to every man according to his several ability”. We sometimes wonder why the world has in it so few of God’s great men; why it should take fifteen centuries to bring forth a Luther, and the same for a Savonarola; why in all England there should be but one Spurgeon, and in all America but one Moody.

If one reasons that these men were great solely on account of what grace did for them, he is compelled to ask, “Why does God limit His grace to so few when the world is in such dying need?” But if one remembers that God makes natural abilities the medium of His grace, we have an explanation of why few are great. The most of us belong to the two-talent company.

There are few men who become millionaires, and only a few who die of starvation. There are few men who are sages and only a few who are fools. There are few men who do great things for God, and only a few of His professed followers who refuse to do anything whatsoever for Him. The middle-class are the overwhelming majority—neither rich nor poor, but enjoying a competency; neither scholarly nor unlettered, but possessed of the average modicum of learning; neither apostles of the Pauline order, nor yet apostates of the Demas makeup, but mediocre Christians instead; and the reason is they are mediocre men and mediocre women.Phillips Brooks says, “Sometimes when we let it crowd itself upon us, this fact of the predominance of mediocracy, or of the average in life, becomes oppressive. It seems to level life into a great broad, flat, dreary plain. We cannot get rid of such oppression and the demoralization which it brings, by simply denying or ignoring the fact of the preponderance of mediocracy.

Only by redeeming mediocracy in our own and other men’s esteem; only by asserting and believing that the man of two talents has a great place and a great chance in the world; only so can we restore the healthy thought of life which the first sight of his numerousness disturbs.” If, therefore, any of us are tempted to complain because we have not more talents, we do well to ask what use we are making of the talents we have. God expresses His estimate of a man by the gifts of His grace to a man, and that estimate is always commensurate, exactly commensurate with a man’s ability and disposition.

He knows who can use five talents and who will use them wisely and well, and when He finds a Spurgeon, He bestows them; or a Moody, He puts them upon him. When He finds a Peter Cooper, or a James Lennox, He honors the business man above the preacher, because He sees that He can be made the best medium of blessing to his fellows. And God, in His measure of a man, never makes a mistake. If, therefore, a one of us comes short of belonging to the five-talent company, it is not because God’s grace is limited, but because man’s ability is circumscribed and the uses to which he will put divinely-imparted talents are known to God.“In a great house there are not only vessels of gold and of silver, but also of wood and of earth; and some to honour and some to dishonour. “If a man, therefore, purge himself from these, he shall be a vessel unto honour, sanctified and meet for the Master’s use and prepared unto every good work” (2 Timothy 2:20-21). God’s special gifts are always for Divinely-appointed purposes. The purpose of the lord of our text, in giving to his servants talents, was that they might trade with them and increase them, so that when he came he might have his own with the increase.“But unto every one of us is given grace according to the measure of the gift of Christ; “Wherefore, He saith, when He ascended up on high, He led captivity captive and gave gifts unto men; * * “And He gave some apostles, and some prophets; and some evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers; “For the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ” (Ephesians 4:7-12). God never bestowed a special gift upon a man that he might employ it to sensual or selfish ends. If God gives a man the ability to make money, the man ought to use it for the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the Body of Christ. If God gives a man a talent for scholarship, he has no right to search the realm of science and ignore that of the Spirit; to use it in the upbuilding of the minds of his fellows, while leaving their souls untaught. “The manifestation of the Spirit is given to every man to profit withal”, and it is not his personal profit, but the profit of his lord for which he should labor. Have we not been impressed with the fact that the world has very few singers—people to whom a voice for the expression of music has been given. And if we ever ask why they are so few it will be found that, if the two talent singers of this country should make use of this gift from God for His glory, we would shortly have a multitude of four-talent singers instead; or, if the one-talent singers, instead of hiding their little abilities away, imagining that they can best keep it by not using it, they might become possessed of at least two-talents, and return to the Lord His own with increase. One reason why the Welsh people have such excellent voices, as a rule, is that the whole Welsh Church sings.We never look into the face of a person to whom God has given an ability to sing, but we covet his talent for Christ’s sake; and if we find that he is unwilling to employ it in the service of the Christ, it fills us at once with sadness and fear; fear lest it should be taken from him, and sadness that such a Divine gift should be appropriated only to selfish uses, or remain altogether unemployed.One night, many years ago in Chicago, a young tenor singer from the East was being shown about the city by a Chicago friend.

During the day he had looked at the Board of Trade, the Auditorium, and a number of wholesale establishments. This night the friend was giving him a glimpse of the other side of city life where sin held high carnival. In one place they found a number of people singing ribald songs, and when these strangers entered, they called out to them to sing. In his distant home he had made himself familiar with sacred music and with that alone. He knew what they expected, but he determined to stand by his principles, and so in clear sweet tones “Jesus Lover of My Soul” floated out over the rough crowd. When he finished it, there was a clicking of glasses and an encore and they shouted, “sing again”, and he responded with“Nearer my God to Thee, Nearer to Thee, E’en though it be a cross That raiseth me. Still all my song shall be Nearer my God to Thee, Nearer to Thee.” Before he finished drunken men were beginning to sober. That night there were many surprised mothers, and sweetly surprised wives and children, because under the spell, son, husband and father quit the saloon and went home sober.I have preached as best I could and pled with men to the utmost of my ability that they might accept Jesus and be saved, to see my pleadings come to naught; and after the sermon I have seen another stand up and sing and melt to tenderness the hearts which had been too hard for my preaching; and I never hear one make such a use of this talent without feeling afresh the fact that God’s special gifts are for spiritual purposes.DIVINE HUMAN . On one occasion Jesus said, “Unto whomsoever much is given, of him shall much be required.” When a man has received five talents, he must account for five talents; when a man has received two talents, he must account for two talents; and when a man has received one talent, he will be called to account for that one only.Neither nature nor grace talent men alike. The race of man is unequal from the first. Nature knows no such thing as identical twins. Jacob and Esau may be born at the same time, but in physical and mental characteristics they are utterly unlike—one a domestic lad, the other a child of the field; one handsome, the other homely; one cunning and deceptive, the other generous and frank. It would have been impossible for Jacob to have followed Esau’s career, and equally impossible for Esau to fill up the Jacobic measure of the man. It seems to me that we are prone to forget this fact.

We have followed the preamble to the constitution of the United States, “all men are born free and equal”, forgetting that that document is not divinely inspired. Only a few men are born free, and no men are born equal.

I used to have in my church a young man who had worked his way up from sexton to sovereign, from office-boy to first officer in a large business. When, during the great strike in Chicago, precipitated by the Pullman troubles, I expressed sympathy with working men, he replied, “Their condition is their own fault. I began as poor as any of them, but I have made my way up; why cannot they do the same?” Of course, he forgot that they did not have his father for their father, and his father was a brainy man. Of course, he forgot that they did not have the training of his mother, and his mother was a wise and gentle woman. In other words, he forgot that they were inferior from birth, and never had the latent powers which were bound up in his babyhood, and which in their unfoldings lifted him into larger mental, larger social, and larger financial spheres. It is easy enough for the great statesman to ask why the little politicians do not do as he does; for the great poets to ask why the poorer writers of verse put forth such productions; for the millionaire to ask why the poverty stricken have not made money; for the peerless preacher to condemn the humble minister as indolent and indifferent; but, after all, the easy speech may be a very unjust one, and the two-talented man may be just as faithful, and of his abilities making even better use than the ten-talented man, for Nature does not talent men alike: To one she gives five, another two, and another one.And grace follows the lines of nature. The parable of the sower is a perfect illustration of this thought,“Behold, a sower went forth to sow: and when he sowed, some seeds fell by the way side, and the fowls came and devoured them up: “Some fell upon stony places, where they had not much earth; and forthwith they sprung up, because they had no deepness of earth: “And when the sun was up, they were scorched; and because they had no root, they withered away: “And some fell among thorns; and the thorns sprung up, and choked them: “But other fell into good ground, and brought forth fruit, some an hundredfold, some sixtyfold, some thirtyfold. * * * “Hear ye therefore the parable of the sower. “When any one heareth the Word of the Kingdom and understandeth it not, then cometh the wicked one, and catcheth away that which was sown in his heart. This is he which received seed by the wayside. “But he that received the seed into stony places, the same is he that heareth the Word, and anon with joy receiveth it. “Yet hath he not root in himself, but dureth for a while; for when tribulation or persecution ariseth because of the Word, by and by he is offended. “He also that received seed among the thorns is he that heareth the Word; and the care of this world, and the deceitfulness of riches, choke the Word, and he becometh unfruitful. “But he that received seed into the good ground is he that heareth the Word, and understandeth it, which also beareth fruit, and bringeth forth, some an hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty” (Matthew 13:3-8; Matthew 13:18-23). Ability—natural and spiritual—is the measure of responsibility. Evidently, here, the Master expected a return from these servants proportionate to what they had received. When the five-talent man shows an increase of five talents, he is commended and advanced; when the two-talent man shows an increase of two talents, he receives equal commendation and similar advancement. The Lord was as well pleased with him, evidently, as with his more prosperous brother. If the one-talent man had only made a commensurate use of his one-talent, doubling it, the same encomium would have been his portion, for he too would have met the measure of his responsibility. A man who has but a single talent has no less a serious obligation to God for the proper employment of it.

He has no more right to waste it because it is small, as compared with the ability of some other brother, than the man who has $1,000 has a right to throw it away because a neighbor is a millionaire. There was a time when that very neighbor did not have a $1,000, but by using what he had he increased it.

Who can tell unto what a little ability may be grown if only it is properly employed? Samuel Smiles tells us that Sheridan, Walter Scott, Chatterton, Robert Burns, Goldsmith, Robert Clive, Napoleon and Wellington were all dull boys—the dunces of the schools in which they had their early training, and yet, as Goldsmith said of himself, “they were plants that flowered late”. And if one recognizes any obligation to God at all, he is compelled by that sense of obligation to make the best use of those powers for Christ’s sake. For, as Hillis says, “Christ comes to hasten man’s step along that pathway which leads from littleness unto largeness. Before our admiring vision, the Divine Teacher seems like some sacred husbandman; His garden our earth; good man and great, earth’s richest fruit. He asks each youth to love and make the most of himself, that later on he may be bread to the hungry, medicine to the wounded, shelter to the weak.

He bids each love his own reason, getting wisdom with that eager passion that Hugh Miller had for knowledge. He bids each make the most of friendship, emulating Plato in his love for his noble teacher.

He asks each to love industry, emulating Peabody, whose generosity gushed like rivers. He asks each to make the most of courage and self-reliance, emulating Livingstone in self-denying service. He bids each emulate and look up to Jesus Christ, as Dante, midst the pitchy night, looked up toward the star. He bids each move heaven and earth to achieve for himself a worthy manhood.”Every talent is a trust to be given account of before God. “After a long time the lord of those servants cometh and reckoneth with them”. He reckoned with the five-talent one; he reckoned with the two talent one; he reckoned with the one-talent one. He reckoned with them because they were trading with His gifts, and our God will reckon with you and me for the same reason. “Every good gift, and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the father of lights”.

There is no sane man but has his talents, and whether yours be of time, of money, of influence, of power, of thought, of expression, of organization, you must give an account of it, and that account will be a revelation of your character and will form the basis of your judgment. It will show you to be a good and faithful servant, or a wicked and slothful one.

It will result in your exaltation to Heaven, or else in your utter and eternal overthrow. When there are duties laid out before us then, we dare not consult our whims as to whether we will discharge them. When there are opportunities opening up before us of service to God, if we prize our standing in His sight, we dare not consult the flesh as to whether we will fill them, for the day of reckoning is approaching in which it will appear in the white light of final judgment whether we were faithful or slothful.Louis Banks tells us how Bishop Whipple learned in Egypt the story of a pacha who had for his treasurer a devout Jew, whom the nobles hated, and they accused him to their master to be one who denied the Koran; and they said that the Jew deserved to be cast out. The pacha summoned the treasurer and said, “Tell me which is the best religion”. The Jew replied, “O Highness, I will tell thee an Eastern story, and from that thou mayest judge which is the best religion”. The pacha bowed assent, and the treasurer went on; “There was at Cairo a jeweler who had three sons.

On one of his visits to Damascus to buy goods, an old merchant said to him, ‘Abou Hassan, I have a talismanic ring which I will give thee. It will make its owner wise, truthful, generous and pure.

Take it and wear it for my sake, and bequeath it to thy children. Abou Hassan accepted the ring and wore it; and as he walked the streets some would say, ‘There goes Abou Hassan, the wise’; and others, ‘That is Abou Hassan, the truthful’; or ‘the pure’, or ‘the good’. When the old man drew near his end, he said to himself, ‘If I give this ring to any one of my sons, it will fill the others with envy. I will, therefore, make two other rings exactly like this talis-manic one, so that no one can tell the difference’. This was done, and not long before his death, Abou Hassan called his eldest son, and having assigned him his portion of land and goods, handed him a ring, saying, ‘Keep this ring for thy father’s sake, and mayest thou be wise and just, truthful and kind’. In like manner he gave to his other sons their portions and to each a ring, charging all of them not to wear their rings ostentatiously, but to carry them concealed in their girdles.

When the days of mourning were ended, the younger brothers dined with the eldest brother, and after the feast was over the host said to his brothers, ‘Our father was a good man. See, he gave me this talismanic ring!’ ‘No’, cried each of the others in one breath; ‘he gave me the ring!’ The three .rings were examined carefully, and no difference could be discovered in them.

Sorely puzzled, they agreed to leave the question to a wise rabbi, who gravely said, ‘It will not be known which is the true ring until life with each of you is ended. The son who exercises the greatest wisdom, justice, truthfulness, and kindness—this will have been the true ring.’” It is a spiritual parable, yea, even a Scriptural one; “He that endureth unto the end, the same shall be saved”.The lord did no injustice to the slothful servant. When he took that talent from him, he took that which belonged to the lord, and what had been of no profit to the servant. When a man parts with that which he puts to no use, he suffers no injury, he sustains no loss!The fakirs of India have a custom of refusing to use an arm. They bind it at the side and leave it unemployed for years, Is God unjust, when the muscles shrivel; when the bones grow soft and the joints stiffen? Or, is the man wholly to blame?Some years since, the newspapers reported how a man had died in a Chicago hospital a pauper patient.

After his death, it was discovered that his ragged clothes were filled with money. Bills were sewed under patches; gold pieces lined the coat collar, and when the work of investigation was finished, several thousand dollars had been brought to light.

Who was responsible for his pauperism? What profit was all of that money to him? And, when a man leaves the talents of life unused, and the God who gave them removes them, does He do an injustice to the man? No! He only takes away what the man despised, what the man was making a medium of insult to God.When Butler, the author of “Analogy” went into retirement in the little country parish of Stanhope, Queen Caroline asked the Bishop of Blackburn, “Is Mr. Butler dead?” “No, madam”, the Bishop replied, “not dead, but buried”.

And that is the literal truth of many a man’s talents, “not dead, but buried”.If, therefore, God shall take them away and bestow them where one will keep them alive and make fruitful use of them, is God unjust? Aye, rather, would He not be unjust did He anything short of that?

In Shakespeare’s “Measure for Measure”, we read,“Heaven does with us as we with torches do; Not light them for themselves; for if our virtues Did not go forth of us, ’twere all alike As if we had them not.” DIVINE HUMAN DESTINY. This fact is clearly set forth in the remaining verses of this chapter (Matthew 25:31-46). Evidently this judgment involves the children of the millennium. We believe it takes place at the close of that period.Many pre-millennialists have been led, as we think, into a misinterpretation here, simply because God does not, on every page in Scripture, put forth the full program of the ages. They have thought that this assembling of the nations to receive the sentence of judgment, at the lips of Jesus, occurred immediately upon the coming of Christ to His throne because of what is written into Matthew 25:31. That would be a Biblical dislocation—judgment at His Coming. Why should we insist that there is no lapse of time between His appearance here and this separating of men to the right and to the left? As a great teacher has contended, there are many instances in Scripture in which the juxtaposition of sentences do not involve a kindred closeness of the events mentioned.

For instance, in reading Isaiah’s words concerning the Messiah, “To proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord and the day of vengeance of our God”, who would have imagined that in this single sentence two grand and distinct areas were brought together and spoken of—the era of grace and the era of judgment. But the Lord, by His penetrating exegesis, cleft the passage asunder, and breaking off in the middle of a sentence—“to preach the acceptable year of the Lord”—He closed the book, and sat down, saying, “This day is this Scripture fulfilled in your ears”.

Two thousand years have already gone by and the latter part of the passage still awaits its application.A comparison of Scripture with Scripture will show that the judgment of Mat 25:31-46 does not precede the Millennium. It has the essential features that enter into Revelation 20:11-15; and there is a harmony between the Gospel and the Apocalypse. When the Son of Man in all His glory, with all His holy angels, sits upon the throne for His last judgment, then, and not till then, shall the sheep be divided from the goats, the one taken to the kingdom and the other turned away into eternal punishment. But, the order of the judgment is against the children of the Millennium—or the living rebels first, and later, against the unbelieving dead, raised to receive their sentence. It is perfectly evident that there are living rebels or else Satan could not find a following at the end of the millennial period; and we are told that his following there (Revelation 20:8-9) is to have exactly the same fate as that meted out to those that are raised to hear judgment pronounced. The children of the Millennium are the only people that can be justly judged on the basis of their works, whether they are good or bad! All others stand or fall according to faith or unbelief; but these, having lived all their lives in the presence of the living God—Christ on the throne—faith will have given place to sight, and works alone will remain to test the true and to prove the false. The true, having been regenerated, and having been “changed from mortal to immortal”, enjoy the same glorious reward accorded to the raised ones, who were “changed from the corruptible to the incorruptible”.The false having been unregenerate, will meet the same sentence as that meted out to their rebel brethren that have slept in their graves, “for the dead, the great and the small”, are to stand before the throne, and “the books will be opened, and another book will be opened, which is the Book of Life, and the dead will be judged out of the things which are written in the books, according to their works. The sea shall give up its dead, and death and hell will give up the dead that are in them, and they will be judged every man according to his works”. The man that is without faith can only work the works of the flesh, and the works of the flesh are these: “Fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, idolatry, sorcery, enmities, strife, jealousies, wraths, factions, divisions, parties, envyings, drunkenness, revellings, and such like; of which I forewarn you, even as I did forewarn you, that they who practice such things shall not inherit the Kingdom of God” (Galatians 5:19-21). These are the very works found characterizing the company excluded from heaven in Revelation 21:8. If it is complained that this is a dark presentation of the Millennium, let it be understood that this is no presentation of the Millennium at all. It is the Biblical event that closes it. That glorious era is not herein described, but as we have remarked, it is parenthesized. A man’s birth is the hour of awful travail, and a man’s death the moment of breaking hearts and agonizing spirits; but these do not mean an elimination of a glorious intervening period, that the man’s spirit may not have been as great as that of the Apostle Paul, his conquests more multitudinous than those of an Alexander, and his life as sweet as that of John the Apostle.The Millennial Age is the partial glory. The perfect glory comes with “the new heaven and the new earth”, our God in the midst!