at the marriage of the Lamb or share the high honors of his Bride.

In most awakening power, therefore, does this parable speak to every one of us. It shows us high

honors to be obtained, for which it invites all of us to become competitors. It points us to the sublimest dignities of heaven as within our reach if we adopt the right measures to secure them. But it tells us plainly that unless we lay by more than that which currently passes for true Christianity, and augment our stock of self-denying consecration beyond what is the common import of our profession, we shall be left behind when the Savior comes, and at best only be saved at a loss which shall damage our joys for

ever.

Let each one, then, arouse himself, and earnestly press for the highest prize, lest, by being content to aim at less, he fail altogether.

Sixth Discourse.

THE APPLICATION-DUTY

OF

WATCHFULNESS-THE

OBJECT TO

WHICH IT IS TO BE DIRECTED-WHAT IS IMPLIED IN IT-GENERAL STATEMENT OF THE LESSONS INCULCATED BY THIS PARABLE

-CONCLUSION.

"Watch, therefore; for ye know neither the day nor the hour wherein the Son of man cometh."-MATT. xxv. 13.

• THESE words bring us to the practical application of this parable, and the object for which it was given. And as the crisis of it is the coming of the Bridegroom, so the essence of its teaching is to enforce the duty of watchfulness for that great event.

It is also remarkable how full and pointed the Scriptures are in holding forth and impressing this particular duty. The Savior enjoins it over and over, with the utmost solemnity and urgency. "Watch," says he, "for ye know not what hour your Lord doth come." "Know this, that if the good-man 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." Then comes this awakening parable to enforce these admonitions, to which it is added, "Watch, therefore; for ye

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know neither the day nor the hour wherein the Son of man cometh." In Mark, again, he says, "Take ye heed, watch and pray; for ye know not when the time is. For the Son of man is as a man taking a far journey, who left his house, and gave authority to his servants, and to every man his work, and commanded the porter to watch. Watch ye, therefore; for ye know not when the master of the house cometh, at even, or at midnight, or at the cockcrowing, or in the morning: lest coming suddenly he find you sleeping. And what I say unto you, I say unto all, Watch." (Mark xiii. 33-37.) So, again, in Luke, "Let your loins be girded about, and your lights burning, and ye yourselves like unto men that wait for their lord when he will return from the wedding; that, when he cometh and knocketh, they may open unto him immediately. Blessed are those servants whom the lord when he cometh shall find watching." (Luke xii. 35-37.) And again, "Take heed to yourselves, lest that day come upon you unawares; for as a snare shall it come on all them that dwell on the face of the whole earth. Watch ye, therefore, and pray always, that ye may be accounted worthy to escape all those things that shall come to pass, and to stand before the Son of man." (Luke xxi. 34-36.) So, also, writes St. Paul, "Ye, brethren, are not in darkness, that that day should overtake you as a thief: ye are all the children of the light, and of the day: we are not of the night, nor of darkness. Therefore let us not sleep, as do others; but let us watch and be sober."

(1 Thess. v. 4-6.) And again, in the Revelation of John, the Savior shouts back even from heaven, saying, "Behold, I come as a thief: blessed is be that watcheth, and keepeth his garments, lest he walk naked, and they see his shame." (Rev. xvi. 15.)

A duty so repeatedly and earnestly enjoined must be of the very highest importance and of the very deepest necessity. It becomes us, therefore, to look at it with seriousness and to give to it our devout consideration.

Let us look, first, at the object with reference to which this watchfulness is to be exercised. That object is, the coming of the Son of man. The clause of the text which speaks of this has, indeed, been rejected by some as an interpolation. It is not found in the Vulgate, Syriac, Arabic, Persic, and Ethiopic versions. It is also wanting in three of Beza's copies. But nearly all the Greek copies contain it, —also Munster's Hebrew Gospel. But, whether it belongs to the original or not, it is very plainly implied. The watching enjoined has no other object expressed, and none other can be gathered from its surroundings. The subject of the parable is preeminently that of the coming of the Son of man, as it is also that of the whole chapter, of that which precedes it, and of the Church's hope. The watching inculcated is specifically urged as a practical deduction from the parable and the general subject of discourse. And the whole connection is broken by any other interpretation than that which is contained in the received reading. I therefore take the

text as it stands, and shall so insist on it, and the more confidently, as the numerous parallel passages to which I have referred all specifically designate the second coming of the Son of man as the object toward which this watching is to be directed.

It has come to be the fashion in modern Christianity to adopt a very different strain of exhortation on this subject. It is seldom that preachers are heard urging on their people to watch for the coming of the Son of man. Death is the event to which men are referred, in connection with these passages, as to all intents and purposes the coming of Christ, at least to the individual. And there are some points in which the two concur. It is where death leaves a man that the coming of the Savior will find him. Nor is it unscriptural, in general discourse, to overleap the interval altogether, and to ply the conscience with the admonitions of the gospel the same as if the moment of death brought with it all the great transactions of the last day. But it is a mistake, and one fraught with much practical mischief, to treat of death as if that were the thing to be looked to, and of which to interpret the many solemn injunctions of Scripture with reference to the coming again of Christ. It is proper enough to swallow up death in the scenes of the great day; but it is wholly unwarrantable to allow the scenes of that day to be swallowed up in our contemplations of death. Death, whether in itself or in its immediate consequences, is altogether a different thing from the coming of Christ. Nor is it at all fitted to take the place in