the one great Light of the world. (4) Christ is the one Illuminat,or of eternity. "Earthly blindness may be borne; it 18 but for a day; but who could bear to be blind through eternity?" (Beecher). (5) Attendance upon Christ evinces the con- dition of spiritual illumination. Bartimmus and bis companion now "followed," now only requiring the one great spiritual Guide. No longer are they dependent upon alms. Religion has the promise of the life that now is, as well as that which is t.o come. It fulfils that promiee by opening the eyes of its subjects.-J. A. M. Ver. 2.-Fair labour-agreemmt,. Van Lennep describes the Eastern customR to which our Lord alludes in this parable. "During the whole season when vineyards may be dug, the common wrokmen go very early in the morning to the sook, or market- place of the village or city, where comestibles are sold. While' waiting to be hired,' they take their morning cup of coffee, and eat a morsel of bread. The owners of vine- yards come to the place and engage the number of labourers they need. These i=e- diately go to the vineyard, and work there until a little while before the sun sets, which, according to Oriental time, is twelve o'clock, so that the • eleventh hour' means one hour before sunset. We have often seen men standing in the market-place through the entire day without finding employment, and have repeatedly engaged them ourselvet at noon for half a day's job, and later for one or two hours' work in our garden. In such a case the price has to be particularly bargained for, but it is more often left to the generosity of the employer to give what bakshish be feels dis- posed.'" There is now a very grave danger, of which we need to be on our guard. Men are talking a11 if our Lord made himself an authority on social questions. The truth is, that be distinctly refused to bear any relation to social, political, and legal disputes, He revealed unknown or hidden truths to men ; he resettled the great principles of morale; he quickened men with a new and Divine life; but he refused to guide in detail the applications of the principles he taught. In this parable, which seems to deal with the questions of capital and labour, the thing our Lord teaches is that every man is a free man, but if, voluntarily, he enters into engagements, he must loyally keep his engagements. L THE MAlil WEO BAB WORK TO Ol!'FEB llmBT KEEP BIB ENGAGEMENTS. Religion does not need to come in and say that he who wants work done must offer fair terms for the doing of it. Common humanity and honesty demand that. No man has any right to" go beyond,"" take advantage of,n or" defraud" his neighbour in anything. , fl. THE MAN WHO BAB SKILL TO DO TEE WOBK M"OBT KEEP ms ENGAGEMENTS. If he agrees for a penny a day, nothing can happen to make that unfair. He may make a new bargain to-morrow, but be must carry through his bargain to-day. Strikes are very often sinful repudiations of agreements.-R. T. Ver. 6.-The eleventh hour a type of old age. This treatment illustrates the sugges- tiveness of Scripture figures. They start thought on lines that lead away from their immediate connections. I. AT TEE ELEVENTH HOtJB TBEBE I8 STILL WORK TO BI: DONE. Fronde says, "Beautiful is old age-beautiful as the slow-dropping mellow autumn of a rich and glorious summer. In the old man Nature has fulfilled her work; she loads him with her blessings; she fills him with the fruits of a well-spent life ; and, surrounded by bis chilrlren and his children's children, she rocks him away to a grave, to which be is followed with blessings, God forbid we should not call it beautiful In If Bid age were only beautiful, it would be a power we could ill afford to lose. For all beauty is akin to truth, and all truth is akin to God; and so all beauty is a shadow of him, a message from him, a help towards him. This sin-filled world wants all the truth, all the love, all the beauty it can get, in order to dispel the darkness, the hate, and the ugliness of its eviL We become as the things on which we look, and God keeps old men and women among us in order that we may see, and feel, and be lifted higher by their grace. The aged are kept among us because of the work they can do. One thing- they can check our hurry. Young folk want everything at once. The aged seem to say, "Quietly. One thing at a time. Good things are worth waiting for." And they are kept in order to link together the generations. What a world it would be if the people came and went in complete generations, and there was no blending of one with 108 THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO ST. MATTHEW. [oH. :u:.1-84,.
the other, so that experience might tone ardour! And the aged among us witness for God. They tell us of the God who "fed them all their life long·1 the God who redeemed them from evil." IL AT THE ELEVENTH HOUR Gon DOES 0ALL HEN TO HIS SERVI0l!I, He proves the riches of his grace in the conversion of old men and old women, A marvel of grace, indeed, when all the long ten hours of the day of life have been spent in the ser- rice of self. A saved old man is the witness that God can "save unto the uttermost," ill, AT THE ELEVENTH HOUR IS AN ALMOST HOPELESS TIME FOB BEGINNING A LtFE-WOBK. It is unsuitable for any beginnings. The sun is in the wrong quarter of the heavens. "The night cometh when no man can work." And the ability Is low. The "eleventh hour" is time to be weary, and go to the long rest.-R. T.