shall be taken, the other left. How taken ? slain are, there is she" (the eagle); the bird Not, ae some scholars he.ve supposed, talcen intended being most probably the grcnt only to perish, but taken nway by tho Lord vulture, well known in Syria. It is seen, in the wo.y described by St. Paul in 1 These. for insfance, travellers tell us, in hundrerl.i iv. 17, where he paints how the faithful on the Plain of Gennesaret; it i,i a hirlco1rn- servant who is living when the Lord returns looking bird, equal to the errgle in size nnrl in glory, will be caught up in the clouds, to etrcngth, and acts as a scavenger to purify meet the Lord in the nir. The other will the eurth from the putrid carcases with be left. Thus, as it has been strikingly which it would otherwise be encumbered. observed, "the beings who he.ve been most "Do you ask where all this will take place? olosely connected here below shall, in the As the curtain of the future rolls up be- twinkling of an eye, be parted for ever." fore my in ward eye, I see the vultures of Ver. 36 i~ wanting in nearly all the oldest Divine vengeance flying in flock3 athwart authorities. It was subsequently inserted the whole area. of the earth; the sky is in this place by copyIBts from Matt. xxi v. 40 darkened with their numbers ; far as my -a passage in which much of the imagery eye can reach, I still see them. Alas I for here used we.s repeated by the Master. In the habitable earth, my Father's goodly one important feature this discourse differs world . . . it is rank everywhere with cor- from that delivered at Jerusalem a little ruption ... wheresoever the carcase is, there later, and reported at length by St. Matthew the vultures will gather together" (Dt·. in his twenty-fourth chapter. There is no Morrison). The Lord's answer to the reference here (in St. Luke) to the siege of question-" Where?" was that his words ap- Jerusalem; the whole teaching is purely plied to the whole earth. The terrible an,! teleological, and deals exclusively with what awful scenes he had pictured would take will take place at the close of thi~ age. place everywhere. The earcase, as Godet Ver. 37.-And they answered and said phrases it, is" humanity, entirely secular and unto him, Where, Lord 1 The disciples were destitute of the life of God. . .. The eagles 8till unable to grasp the full meaning of (vultures) represent punishment alighting their Master's words when he spoke of his on such a society." 'fhere is another inter- ·second advent being visible in all parts of pretation of these words, which, although the world, comparing it to a flash of lightning many great expositors favour it, must be which gleams at the same instant in every rejected as improbable, being so o.lien to the point of the horizon. " Where, Lord, will context of the whole passage." The dead all this take place which thou hast been body (the carcase), according to these inter• telling us about?" And he said unto them, preters, is the body of Christ, and the eagles Wheresoever the body is, thither will tho are his saints, who flock to his presence, anrl eagles be gathered together. The imagery who feed upon him, especially in the act of is taken from Job xxxix. 30, "Where the Holy Communion.
HOMILETICS. Vers. 1-10.-T/ie Addition Besought. We are not informed of the circumstances which called forth the discourse condensed in the first ten verses of the chapter. An occasion was, by some incident, provided for a solemn warning against the sin of an unforgiving and uncharitable spirit. And this warning apparently intensified a con- viction which had been simmering in the minds of the disciples, and led to the prayer, "Lord, Increase [or,' add to us'] faith." Have we not a pa.rt in this cry? Are there not some of us who feel that, although we live in the light of Christ's Word and kingdom, we yet need one great additiou-fe.ith ?- " The childlike faith that asks not sight, Waits not for wonder or for sign." J. T1tE PRAYER SUPPOSES A WANT. Trace this want from two or three positions. 1. Reflect how sorely we are wanti11g in a lively sense of the great truths of our holy faith. These truths are not mere opinions; they are facts. The seat of the doctrine is the fact; it is with the facts tha.t faith has primarily to do. Are we receiving the facts with our whole mind a.nd strength? That God is; tha.t Jesus Christ is; that the Holy Spirit of God is witnessing with our spirits a.nd helping our infirmities ;-what of these fundamental verities? Realize whl\t I\ thorough grasp of these facts would involve; whflt manner-of persons they ought to be to whom they are matters of experience and ®tlliciousness. And what a.re we? Alas I is it not too certain that, between tha 92 'rilE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO ST. LUK~. [on. xvn. 1-37.