ll stumble, and fall, and perish.

As a general rule, it is in the present life that he bears the weight of
sinners striking against him; and in the life to come that those who
rejected him here, must bear the weight of his judgment.

But some do not relish this doctrine; those who heard it directly from
the lips of the Lord resented it keenly, and many resent it still when
it is taught from the Scriptures. In our day men do not often expressly
find fault with the teaching of Jesus as it is recorded by the
Evangelists: they prefer to blame the ministers who take up and echo
their Master's words. People fondly grasp one side of God's revealed
character and use it as a veil to hide the other from themselves. The
tenderness of God our Father is employed to blot out from view the wrath
of God our righteous Judge. Since the fathers fell asleep, all things
continue as they were; where, therefore, is the promise of his coming?

A great rock is lying on the plain: the cultivators have ploughed and
the cattle have grazed round it since the flood. Standing beside it, and
reverting to its possible history, you give scope to your imagination
and ask, What if it had fallen, or should yet fall on me? The bare
conception makes you shudder: you are fain to shake off the reverie and
compose yourself by the reflection that the rock, fixed to the spot by
the laws of nature, cannot move to harm you.

But the Judge of the quick and the dead, though likened to a stone as to
crushing power, is not like a stone in its silent still inertia. He
liveth and abideth for ever. He bears now,--has borne long. The Almighty
God does not move himself to hurt those who are his enemies, any more
than the rock which has slept half buried in the valley many thousand
years. But he will not thus bear for ever: he will come to judge the
world. He will come as the lightning comes: then blessed will all be who
shall have put their trust in him, while he waited, through the Gospel,
to be gracious. "When the Son of man cometh" the second time, "shall he
find faith on the earth?" He will then _find_ only the faith which his
first coming generated; for his second coming _creates_ no new faith.
Then, it is not "believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be
saved;" but "a fearful looking for of judgment."

XII.

THE ROYAL MARRIAGE FEAST.

PART I.--THE WEDDING GUESTS.

"And Jesus answered, and spake unto them again by parables, and said,
The ki