delay. Little did those in whom the hope of the Lord's coming revived in the last generation think that forty and more years would elapse ere that hope found its fruition. "While the bridegroom tarried, they all slumbered and slept "-wise and foolish together. The spirit indeed has been willing, but the flesh weak. They have slept in their places of waiting : they have slept with their lamps in their hands; but they have slept. Is it not so? Let us not look at our brethren around us, but consider ourselves only. Compare what we are with what we ought to be, in the light of such a hope, in the imminence of so supreme an event; and shall we not all confess that we are as those who slumber and sleep?

And now the hour of midnight is about to strike; and then shall a cry be heard-"Behold, the Bridegroom cometh! go ye forth to meet Him!" Who shall raise that cry? It comes not in the Parable from the Ten themselves, who meet the bridegroom on his way; but from another company, who come with him. Who shall these be in the reality but our departed brethren, of whom it is written that "them which sleep in Jesus will God bring with Him"-those "dead in Christ who shall rise first ere we which are alive shall be changed and caught up with them? Until they appear, we cannot know the day nor the hour when the Son of Man cometh ; but when their voice is heard it is ertain that He is on His way. It is assuredly about to be lifted up. Most graciously has the Lord looked upon us in our sleep, and visited us with dreams and visions of the night. In these our dear dead have come to our minds, and the promise of their speedy reviving has made our slumbers sweet, and brought us also nigh to awaking. We have always cherished their memories we have always hoped

to see them again. But now we expect their return with vivid anticipation. We watch for their footsteps: we keep their places ready. We do indeed "look for the resurrection of the dead, and the life of the world to come."

If the readers of these pages were likely to be such as have not acknowledged the work which God is doing in this our day, the duty of the writer would be to point the moral of his tale by pressing upon them the importance of such acknowledgment. He would say I doubt not that you have lamps, but where is the oil in the vessels with your lamps ? Come while yet there is time to those who sell, and buy it for yourselves, lest afterwards you fail for want of it. They will come, however, more frequently under the eye of those to whom the Lord has given wisdom to seek the larger measure of oil, and for whom there is no further step to be taken to which they need exhortation. But shall these, therefore, be simply congratulated upon their happy position, and led confidently to anticipate the issue? Nay, indeed, this would not be according to the mind of God. We should be like that too assured Pharisee we read of in the Gospel, who said to Jesus-Blessed is he that shall eat bread in the Kingdom of God! assuming, as a matter of course, that he himself would be among the guests there; but to whom the Lord answered by a parable which showed that none of those who were bidden might actually taste of that Supper. The word of Apostles to us now is as it was of old-" Let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall;" "Examine yourselves whether ye be in the faith, prove your own selves;" "Give all diligence to make your calling and election sure."

As, therefore, this precious Parable, which sets forth our special calling and election of God as sealed to be gathered as a first-fruit-as it is unfolded before our eyes, let us examine ourselves if indeed we be in the faith of

Are we virgins, pure of heart and unspotted from the world? Have we lamps in our hands-is any light shining forth from us, so that men see the grace of God in us, and give Him glory? Have we gone forth to meet the Bridegroom-is the love of His return alive in our hearts, pressing us forward on the way by which He comes? All these things must be ours if the oil in the vessels is to profit us—if indeed we can possess it at all. But, having these, let us prove our own selves as to whether we have the oil—that larger measure of the Spirit which is necessary if we are to be prepared for the coming of the Lord. Nor let us be content with the knowledge that we have once sought and received it-as when we came up to receive the blessing of the laying on of Apostles' hands. The grace then bestowed is not like a piece of gold, the very possession of which enriches us. It is a perception to be put forth, a capacity to be filled, a gift to be exercised: it is a beginning, but it is not an ending. It is like the Gift of Pentecost itself, which was not as a shower of rain once falling and then over, but was the first outflow of the River of the water of life upon the Church, thenceforth to flow into her for ever. And so our anointing should be but the commencement of an anointed life, a life of priesthood and kingship already beginning in spirit; a life of knowledge and speech, of power and action in the Holy Ghost, which shall feed the flame of our outward profession, and keep it bright and unwavering amid the storms of the world.

When the midnight cry was heard, "the virgins arose and trimmed their lamps." It was all they had time for ; and the wise ones themselves were doubtless thankful they had time for that. Let us be so ready, that nothing else shall have to be done.

FOURTH SUNDAY IN ADVENT.

The Parable of the Talents.

Matt. xxv, 13-30.

THE opening verse of this passage is a link between the Parable of the Ten Virgins and that of the Talents. In its "therefore" it points the moral of the former; and the latter, beginning with "for," takes up its exhortation to watchfulness, and carries it further on. Both were spoken at the conclusion of the great Prophecy which Jesus delivered to four of His Apostles on the Mount of Olives, in answer to their inquiry concerning the destruction of Jerusalem, and the signs of His coming and of the end of the age. Both describe the attitude of preparedness in which the Lord would have His disciples when He returns to the earth, at that day and hour which no man knoweth or shall know. The one speaks of that preparedness in its inner aspect—as the having a full measure of oil wherefrom to supply the lamp of life: the other regards it in its outward manifestation of faithful and fruitful work. The Parable of the Ten Virgins came before us last Sunday: let us to-day consider the Parable of the Talents.

The departure and return of the Son of Man are compared to the journey which the master of a household might make into a far country, at starting for which he might commit to his servants certain goods, that they