warning (v. 13), "Watch therefore, for ye know neither the day nor the hour wherein the Son of man cometh." Surely He knew well the temptation which would come upon His servants during His absence, that He repeats this warning so often. In ch. xxiv. 42, He says, "Watch, for ye know not what hour your Lord doth come." It is for the Lord's coming that we are to watch. Ver. 44, "Be ye also ready, for in such an hour as ye think not the Son of man cometh." In such an hour as we think not,—then there is no hour when it is safe to cease from watching, to forget that we have gone forth to meet the Bridegroom. In St. Luke's Gospel we find this expressed even more fully, ch. xii. 35-38, "Let your loins be girded about and your lights burning. And ye yourselves like unto men that wait for their Lord, when He will return from the wedding, that when He cometh and knocketh, they may open unto Him immediately. Blessed are those servants whom the Lord when He cometh shall find watching; verily I say unto you that He shall gird himself, and make them to sit down to meat, and will come forth and serve them. And if He shall come in the second watch, or come in the third watch, and find them so, blessed are those servants." Oh! shall we not live in the hope of that blessedness; just contrast the condition of the unfaithful servant who

is haunted by the fear of his Lord's coming, who is always seeking to put the thought away from him; with that of those whose hope and joy it is that their Lord cometh quickly, who are waiting for Him. Dear friends, let us not be content to live fearing instead of hoping for the appearing of Jesus. Let us not try to forget that He will come at an hour when we think not; but let us most earnestly seek and pray that we may be found faithful. Let us not forget that we are servants to whom He has committed His goods, to some five talents, to some one, to all something. To those who are faithful the Lord says, Because thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things: enter thou into the joy of thy Lord." It is not because our talents are few that we shall be rejected if we have used them faithfully; and remember however few they may be we shall have an account to give of them. He who had only one talent had an account to give of it. (Matt. xxv. 24), and he was not rejected because he had only one talent, but because he had not served his Lord with it; had he been found faithful, he too would have entered into the joy of his Lord. How much more joy would we have in this poor toiling life, if we felt that every day we had the honour of serving the Lord Christ. The same thing that will only be toiling drudgery when we

do it merely from necessity, will be done with pleasure when we do it faithfully as unto the Lord, in the hope of that day when He shall come and receive us unto Himself, to be with Him forever, employed in His high and holy service, the sharers of His kingdom and glory. For this, may the Lord in His grace and mercy prepare us.

FOURTH SERIES.

IV.

The Temple of God is Holy.

1ST CORINTHIANS, III.

"And I, brethren, could not speak unto you as unto spiritual, but as unto carnal," &c. Read the Chapter.

In this chapter we find St. Paul longing to feed and nourish the Christians in Corinth, to whom he was writing with the word of God, so that they might grow up and be strong, and be prepared to meet their Lord at His coming; but he was hindered. And how was he hindered? Not by his not having enough of heavenly food to give them, but because their hearts were, in such a condition that they could not receive it. He had fed them with milk, with food suited to babes; but he did not wish always to feed them only with milk; or that they should always continue babes. What would be likely to become of a child that could never receive stronger food than

the milk which nourished it as an infant? Could it grow up to be a strong man? Would it not rather become feeble and sickly, and soon pine away and die? If a child does not grow we may be sure it will not live.

Now there is something solemnly important for us in all this. St. Paul could not give these Corinthians that food which he longed to give them because they were yet carnal. They were walking as men in the flesh and not in the spirit. Let us see what he tells us in the chapter just before this, he says, (Chap. ii. 14), "The natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto Him: neither can He know them, because they are spiritually discerned." And speaking of the things which God has prepared for them that love Him, and which the heart of man cannot conceive, he says, (Chap. ii. 10, 11), "God hath revealed them to us by His Spirit; for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God. For what man knoweth the things of a man, save the spirit of man which is in him? Even so the things of God knoweth no man, but the Spirit of God." Dear friends have we thought of this? Have we remembered in all our reading and hearing of the Word of God, that the natural man cannot receive the things of the Spirit of God, that they are mere foolishness to him. What crowds