115 LECTURE VI. MATTHEW Xxv. 31-46. "When the Son of man shall come in his glory, and all the holy angels with him, then shall he sit upon the throne of his glory: and before him shall be gathered all nations; and he shall separate them one from another, as a shepherd divideth his sheep from the goats: and he shall set the sheep on his right hand, but the goats on the left. Then shall the king say unto them on his right hand, Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world: for I was an hungered, and ye gave me meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink: I was a stranger, and ye took me in: naked, and ye clothed me: I was sick, and ye visited me: I was in prison, and ye came unto me. Then shall the righteous answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee an hungered, and fed thee? or thirsty, and gave thee drink? When saw we thee a stranger, and took thee in? or naked, and clothed thee? or when saw we thee sick, or in prison, and came unto thee? And the King shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me. "Then shall he say also unto them on the left hand, Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels: for I was an hungered, and ye gave me no meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me no drink: I was a stranger, and ye took me not in: naked, and ye clothed me not: sick, and in prison, and ye visited me not. Then shall they also answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee an hungered, or athirst, or a stranger, or naked, or sick, or in prison, and did not minister unto thee? Then shall he answer them, saying, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye did it not to one of the least of these, ye did it not to me. And these shall go away into everlasting punishment: but the righteous into life eternal." ON five past Sundays, the successive portions of Christ's great warning about his second coming, have been set before the minds of the congregation. We come to-day to the lasta portion most momentous and deserving the most serious thought. The passage, is a picture of some of the circumstances which shall attend the re-appearing of our Lord. It tells us that when he comes in his glory, all his holy angels, the ten thousand times ten thousand who minister in his presence and go forth upon his errands, shall surround his person that he is to sit upon a throne, something perhaps like the cloud which on the day of his ascension received him out of the sight of his wondering disciples-that before him all nations shall be gathered, the quick and the dead, the negro and the white, Adam and the whole of his descendants-that notwithstanding this multitude which no man can number, his eye shall distinguish every individual; the shepherd whose flock consists of goats intermingled with sheep, dividing the one class of animals from the other, with no greater ease, no more unerringly, than He will divide the holy from the wicked-the former to his right, the latter to his left. Wonderful declaration! To us it seems as though the classes of mankind were innumera* Acts i, 9-11. ble. If there are some decidedly bad, and some decidedly good, there are others (we are apt to imagine) neither the one nor the other. Many of those we know, appear to our eye so different at different times, seem so indeterminate, look so much like neutrals, we cannot easily conceive they ought to be ranked either as good or bad, either with the sheep or with the goats. Nevertheless, the text is express. It does not deny that the varieties of human character are numerous-innumerable. It does not forbid the supposition that among those on the right hand, some may be destined to a lot more blessed than that reserved for others on the same side; nor that among those on the left, some may be more ill-deserving than those who on the whole rank with them. But it does represent every man as in the main either GOOD or BAD. If other parts of Scripture-those which speak of the eventual allotments of mankind-represent these allotments as in number only two-eternal blessedness and eternal curse, this portion of the Holy volume, wherein we have on record the Judge's statement how in judgment he will |