-the kingdom of glory, that glory which paeseth all that ey,~ bath seen, or ear hath heard, or that bath entered into the heart of man. That kingdom had been pre.pared for them from the foundation of the world; even before the world was (Eph. i. 4), God knew, in the fulneee of his Divine omniscienoo, each elected spirit, and predesti- nated each to be conformed to the image of his Son. The kingdom had long been theirs in the purpose of God; now it was to be theirs in possession. 2. TM ground of the welcome. They had loved the Lord; they had tended him (he said) in distress and sorrow; they had laid him, the Lord God Almighty, under obligations by their love and tenderness. He would reward them now. '!'be righteous are bewildered with that wondrous welcome. It ie a joy almost too great for them to bear-a sweetness eo penetrating that, the heart well-nigh faints in the intensity of its rapture. They knew that nothing they had done could deserve that unutterable blessedness now opened to their view. They can see, as they look back on their past lives, no deeds so good and holy ae the Lord had said. They had learned of him the grace of humility, those of them who were Christians; those who bad not heard the gospel (for surely many heathen men will be among the number of the blessed) had shown the law of love written in their hearts, and were a law unto themselves, doing by nature things con- tained in the Law (Rom. ii. 14, 15). None of them fully understood the preciousness of acts of unselfish love. They felt their own shortcomings; in their self-abasement they had ever thought themselves the chief of sinners. But the King now shows to them the meaning of their deeds of love. Charity, that chiefest of graces, springs out of faith. It looks to Christ, and rests in Christ as its ultimate centre. It is so, in some sense, even with the good deeds of heathen men ; for Christ is the Saviour of all men. Christ died for all men; and all who in truth and earnestness seek after God, consciously or unconsciously, follow Christ. "We must all appear before the judgment- seat of Christ; that every one may receive the things done in his body." The judg- ment will be, as Holy Scripture says in many places, according unto works; but those works spring out of faith, and derive their whole spiritual value from the faith and love which prompted them. The Lord, in this place, speaks of one class only of holy deeds. He does not exclude other Christian graces, other forms of obedience. All will, we may be sure, be taken into account in the judgment. But in this prophecy, as in many of his parables, the Lord takes one aspect of God's dealings with mankind. He insists on that one aspect, and impresses it forcibly upon his hearers. One important truth is best driven home by being presented alone; other balancing truths can be taught on other occasions. We must study the Scriptures as a whole. One part explains another; one part suggests the necessary qualifications for the interpretation of another. III. THE LOST. 1. TM condemnation. "Depart from me, ye cursed. n Very awful and tremendous words. All the more so as coming from his mouth who bade all men, "Come unto me;" who came not into the world " to condemn the world, but that the world through him might be saved." He had loved those lost souls; he had called them again and again; he had wept over their hardness and unbelief. But they would not come unto him that they might have life. They resisted the Holy Ghost; they closed their eyes in wilful blindn~es; they persevered in disobedience till their heart was hardened by the deceitfulness of sin, and there was no more hope of amendment. Now they must depart from him whom in life they would not hear; they must depart, and that into the eternal fire prepared (not for them; it was not the will of God that any should perish; he willeth that all men should be saved) "for the devil and his angels." They had loved darkness rather than light; they must dwell in the great outer darkness away from the light of God's presence, They had listened to the tempting voice of Satan ; they must share his doom. 2. The gr01J,nd, of condemnation. They had done no good; they had lived only for themselves. They had seen sorro,v and distress and poverty all around them; they had shown no love, no pity, no sympathy. And in neglecting the poor, the afflicted, they had neglected Christ the Lord. For the poor are his representatives. " He that bath pity 011 the poor lendeth to the Lord; " and he that careth not for the poor careth not for Obrist, who is present in his poor, who bids us love one another as he bath loved us. They who have no pity on the poor would not have ministered to the Lord if they had lived when he had not where to lay his head, when holy women ministered to him of their substance. And 4-94 THE GOSPEL ACOORDING 'l'O ST. MATTHEW. [011. :n.v. 1--46.
these shall go away i1;1to et~rn11l punishment. They are not accused of any crime-of theft, or murder, or 1m_punty; bnt they were without love, and he that loveth not knoweth not God who 1s love, and cannot enter into heaven which is the home of love. It is a most solemn thought that this tremendous condemnation w11s incurred not by crime, not by actual sin, but by neglect of duty, by selfishness and want of love'. Let us rou~e ourselv?S to a sense of the danger of selfishness ; let us covet earnestly the best gifts, eepec1ally that highest gift of love. "The righteous shall go into life e~rnal." It is love, the Lord eaitb, which is the mark of the blessed; "charity never fa1leth." LESSONS. 1. The Lord is at hand. He shall sit on the throne of his glory On which side shall we be set-on the right hand or on the left? 2. " Come ye ble~sed." There is no joy so intense, so rapturous; may it be ours I 3, Then' follow after charity. 4. "Depa.rt from me, ye cursed." There is no misery so awful• God in his mercy save us from it I 5, Then follow Christ the Lord; love the bret~en • imitate the example of the King. '