ot only those
who do positive wickedness, but those also who fail to do good, are
counted guilty in God's sight. Inasmuch as in this parable no other
punishment is inflicted on the indolent servant than the deprivation of
his capital, it may possibly be intended to intimate that culpable
unfaithfulness in a true believer may sometimes descend so far as to be
undistinguishable by human eyes from the entire neglect of the
unbelieving. There is, however, in all cases, a dividing line, although
we may not be able to trace it--"the Lord knoweth them that are his."
Nor does this conception really weaken the motive to diligence; for if
any one should slacken in his efforts to serve the Lord on the ground
that a great degree of negligence, although it may diminish his reward,
does not imperil his safety, this very thing would conclusively prove
that he has no part in Christ. It is the nature of the new creature to
be forgetting the things behind, and reaching forth to those that are
before; when the leaning of a man's heart goes in the opposite
direction--that is, when he deliberately endeavours to make matters as
pleasant as possible for himself, by escaping from all service to
Christ, except as much as is necessary to carry him safe to heaven, he
certainly has not yet been born again, and in this state shall not see
the kingdom. He who sails along the sea of Christian profession, loving
the neighbouring land of worldly indulgence, and therefore hugging the
shore as closely as he thinks consistent with safety, will certainly
make shipwreck. Ah! the ship that thus seeks the shore is drawn by the
unseen power of a magnet-mountain--drawn directly to her doom; he who is
truly bound for the better land gives these treacherous headlands a wide
berth.

The last lesson is the judgment pronounced and the punishment inflicted
on the adversaries. They who will not submit to Christ the crucified
will be crushed by Christ the king. Every eye shall see him; they also
who pierced him. Meekly now he stands at the door and knocks; then he
comes as the lightning comes.

One hope remains,--one door stands wide open yet. His enemies must be
slain, either now or then. The enemies of the Lord's reign in the
present world are the evil desires that occupy a man's heart, and close
it against its rightful sovereign; drag them forth and slay them before
him, that he may enter and possess his own. Surrender his enemies into
his hands to-day, and you wi