set the sheep on his right hand, and the goats on his left." You will then find to your cost, that not God, but Satan was your father; and that with Satan must be your portion x. It is not without much regret that God now gives you up to that misery y. But in the last day he will find as much satisfaction, and be as much glorified, in your destruction, as in the salva- tion of his elect. He now complains, " Thou hast wearied me with thine iniquities :" but then he will say, " Ah ! I will ease me of mine adversaries2." Seek then to become the sheep of Christ. Beg him to bring you home to his fold, and to feed you in his pleasant pastures. Thus shall we all become one fold under one shepherd, and feed beside the living fountains of water to all eternity.]
x John viii. 42, 44. y Hos. xi. 8. z Isai. i. 24.
Luke xii. 35 — 37. Let your loins be girded about, and your lights burning ; and ye yourselves like unto men that tvaitfor 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 : verily L say unto you, that he shall gird himself, and make them to sit down to meat, and will come forth and serve them.
SUCH is the uncertainty of life, and such the importance of eternal things, that one would suppose every one should feel the necessity of standing ready for death and judgment, even though no injunctions had been given us to that effect. But our Lord frequently insisted on that subject, and, in parables as well as in plainer terms, inculcated the duty of continual watchfulness. In the parable before us he mentions, I. Our duty —
All of us are servants of one common Lord and Master. He is absent, and has commanded all of us to wait for his return :
1, In certain expectation that he will come —
[The time of his return is the time of death and judgment. This may be protracted, so that scoffers may say, Where is the