given opportunity of doing, and did them not. O the wasted opportunities of life!

4. In that day there shall be set over against all our unabsolved sins, all our failures, all our barrenness of good works, our loyalty of heart to Christ-that we did care, that we did strive, that we in very truth sought His will. How graciously He Himself brings all this out, making the most of each smallest thing, even the cup of cold water, because the soul loved much.

5. And after all, the sentence given upon each, the blessed sentence of purgatory, the hopeless sentence of hell.

Third Thought.-There is probably no greater peril of the believer than failure in watchfulness. Our Lord ceases not to warn us that we take heed, that we do not permit ourselves to sleep. Indifference to the divine things too often wrecks our souls. "Ye know not when the time is," and it is more than likely that we shall deeply lament our failure to make good use of the years we have had. What can we do?

We can deal thoroughly with every act of sin of which we are conscious each day, humbly asking God's pardon for it, and fully purposing to confess it at our next time of regular resort to the tribunal of Penance. So do we keep our souls in the state of grace.

We can begin each day with new determination of more earnest prayer, of more hearty work for Christ, so that at whatsoever time we may be summoned to our judgment we may be found to be striving after better things, not acquiescing in our hitherto unprofitable service.

We can be gaining a little, all the time, if we be in earnest about it, in our reality in prayer, in our fastings and self-denials, in the unselfishness and faith of our almsdeeds.

XCIX.

"For the Son of man is as a man taking a far journey, who left his house, and gave authority to his servants, and to every man his work, and commanded the porter to watch. Watch ye therefore: for ye know not when the Master of the house cometh, at even, or at midnight, or at the cockcrowing, or in the morning: lest coming suddenly He find you sleeping. And what I say unto you I say unto all, Watch."-St. Mark xiii. 34-37.

Exposition.-Swete says: "The traveller is here the Son of man, and the journey is His return to the Father. The authority is committed to the servants collectively, the task is assigned individually. Here apparently the servants are the disciples in general, the porter is the Apostolate and the Ministry, to whom belongs especially the responsibility of guarding the house and of being ready to open the door to the Master at His return. The suddenness of that return is not due to caprice on the part of the Master, but to the neglect of

duty on that of the servant. . . . Watching was not to be limited to the porter; all must keep vigil till He returned; priest and people, the man of the world as well as the recluse. The early Church expressed her sense of the importance of this charge by the institution of the vigils."

And Sadler: "We are to watch for the return of a Master, whilst we are doing the task He has assigned us. The Son of man is represented as a man taking a far journey, who left his house. This He did on His ascension. And gave authority to his servants and to every man his work. This does not mean, I think, that He gave some servants authority over others, though He has done this; but it should rather be, He left His house, and gave to His servants the authority which He had Himself exercised, or He gave them authority in the sense of the warrant or permission to work His work in His absence. To every man his work, and commanded the porter to watch. It would seem then that one was to watch for the rest, and the members of the Christian ministry have, in a sense, to watch for all: but then immediately after this come the words, Watch ye, therefore, for ye know not when the Master of the house cometh. Does He here speak of them as being porters? Only a few can be porters, or gate-keepers. No: He

does not assume that they are all porters; but they are each one, when at his task, to watch as if they were. Among servants it is the duty of the porter to watch, but in regard of the return of the Lord every one is to behave as if he were the porter, for he is to do his work and to watch. And so He concludes with What I say unto you I say unto all, Watch."

St. Gregory says, in St. Thomas: "By giving to His faithful ones the grace of the Holy Ghost, He gave them the power of serving every good work. He has also ordered the porter to watch, because He commanded the order of pastors to have a care over the Church committed to them. Not only, however, those of us who rule over Churches, but all are required to watch the doors of their hearts, lest the evil suggestions of the devil enter into them, and lest our Lord find us sleeping."

St. Augustine likewise: "He not only speaks to those in whose hearing He then spake, but even to all who came after them, before our time, and even to us, and to all after us, even to His last coming. But shall that day find all living, or will any man say that He speaks also to the dead, when He says, Watch, lest when He cometh He find you sleeping? Why then does He say to all, what only belongs to those who shall then be alive, if it be not that it belongs to