his Master's eye saw more "beauty in his cifforts to please HiiHj than he ever saw himself. He will iind that every hour sjjent in Christ's service, and every word spoken on Christ's behalf, has been written in a book of remem- brance. Let believers remember these things and take courage. — The cross may be heavy now, but the glorious reward shall make amends for all. Well says Leighton, ^' Here some drops of joy enter into us, but there we shall enter into joy."
We learn in the last place, that all unfruitful memlers of Christs Church luill IJe condemned and cast aivay in the day of judgment. The parable tells us that the servant who buried his master's money, was condemned as '^ wicked," ^^ slothful," and " unprofitable," and cast into ^' outer darkness." And our Lord adds the solemn words, " there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth."
There will be no excuse for an unconverted Christian at the last day. The reasons with which he now pre- tends to satisfy himself will prove useless and vain. The Judge of all the earth will be found to have done right. The ruin of the lost soul will be found to be his own fault. Those words of our Lord, " thou knewest," are words that ought to ring loudly in many a man's cars, and prick him to the heart. Thousands are living at this day without Christ and without conversion, and yet pretending that they cannot help it. And all this time they know in their own conscience that they are guilty. They are buryiog their talent. They are not doing what they can. Happy are they who find this out be- times. It will all come out at the last day.
Let us leave this parable with a solemn determination,
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by God's grace, never to be content with a profession of Christianity without practice. Let us not only talk about religionj but act. Let us not only feel the importance of religion, but do something too. We are not told that the unprofitable servant was a murderer, or a thief, or even a waster of his Lord's money. But he did notliing^ — and this was his ruin. Let us beware of a do-nothing Christianity. Such Christianity does not come from the Spirit of God. ''To do no harm," says Baxter, " is the praise of a stone, not of a man.''