addressed to carnal-minded Pharisees, or sceptical Saddu- cees, or worldly Herodians. They were addressed to Peter, James, and John, and the whole company of the Apostles. They were addressed to men who had given up every- thing for Christ's sake, and had proved the reality of their faith by loving obedience and steady adhesion to their Master. Yet even to them our Lord holds out the peril of surfeiting, and drunkenness, and worldliness ! Even to them He says, " Take heed to yourselves."
The exhortation before us should teach us the immense importance of humility. There is no sin so great but a great saint may faU into it. There is no saint so great but he may fall into a great sin. Noah escaped the pollutions of the world before the flood ; and yet he was afterwards overtaken by drunkenness. — ^Abraham was the father of the faithfiil ; and yet through unbelief he said falsely that Sarah was his sister. — ^Lot did not take part in the horrible wickedness of Sodom ; and yet he afterwards fell into foul sin in the cave. — Moses was the meekest man on earth ; and yet he so lost self-command that he spoke angrily and unadvisedly. — David was a man after God's own heart ; and yet he plunged into most heinous adultery. — ^These examples are all deeply instructive. They all show the wisdom of our Lord's warning in the passage before us. They teach us to be " clothed with humility." " Let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall." (1 Pet v. 5. 1 Cor. x. 12.)
The exhortation before us should teach us furthermore the great importance of an unworldly spirit. The ''cares of this life " are placed side by side with surfeiting and dnmkemiess. Excess in eating and drinking is not the
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only excess whidii injures fhe soul. There is an ex- cessive anxiety about the innocent things of this life, which is just as ruinous to our spiritual proq)erit7, and just as poisonous to the inner man. Never, never let us forget that we may make spiritual shipwreck on lawful things, as really and as truly as on open vices. Happy is he who has learned to hold the things of this world with a loose hand, and to believe that seeking first the kingdom of Ood, " all oth^ things shall be added to him!" (Matt. vi. 33.)
Let us learn, secondly, from these verses, the exceeding trnddennesB of our Lord's second coming. We read that " as a snare shall it come on all them that dweU on the face of the whole earth." As a trap falling suddenly on an animal, and catching it in a moment, — as the lightning flash shining suddenly in heaven, before the thunder is heard, — as a thief coming suddenly in the night, and not giving notice that he will come, — so sudden, so instantaneous will the second advent of &e Son of man be.
The precise date of our Lord Jesus Christ's return to this world has been purposely withheld from us by God. " Of that day and hour knoweth no man." On one point however all the teaching of Scripture about it is dear and unmistakeable. Whenever it shall take place, it shall be a most sudden and unexpected event. The business of the world shall be going on as usuaL Aa in the days of Sodom, and the days before the flood, men shall be '^ eating and drinking, marrying and given in marriage." Few, even among true believers, shall be found completely alive to the great fact» and livings in a