nied his master with an oath, but went out and wept bitterly, will be there; the penitent thief will be there; Judas,-no; Judas will not be there: he went to his own place in hell. He had once been at supper with Jesus; but he was a hypocrite, and the Devil entered him while he dipped his unholy hand into the same dish with Jesus. Yet even he might have been admitted to the great feast if, instead of going out to hang himself, he had followed 'his master up the hill, and fallen at his feet, and sought his forgiveness. All blessed saints, and all poor sinners, that ever called faithfully on the the name of the Lord, shall be there. Sin and death shall be cast into the lake of fire. "The kingdoms of this world shall become the kingdoms of our Lord, and of his Christ;" and the whole of that great multitude that no man can number, shall "lift up their voice as the voice of many waters, and as the voice of mighty thunderings, saying, Hallelujah, for the Lord God omnipotent reigneth."

Now to God the Father, &c.

LECTURE VI.

THE RIGHT USE OF RICHES IN THE LAST

DAYS.

BY THE REV. J. W. REEVE, M.A.,

MINISTER OF PORTMAN CHAPEL, BAKER STREET.

Parable of the Steward.

LUKE XVI., 9.

"And I say unto you, Make to yourselves friends of the mammon of unrighteousness; that, when ye fail, they may receive you into everlasting habitations."

OUR subject this evening, is "the right use of riches in the last days:" one, confessedly, of the deepest importance; whether we consider the ensnaring character of money, or how having much to do with it is apt to harden the heart; and especially when we consider what is said of money in the word of God-"the love of money is the root of all evil," (1 Tim. vi. 10); "the deceitfulness of riches chokes the word," (Matt. xiii. 22);

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"how hardly shall they that have riches enter into the kingdom of God," (Mark x. 23)—these things all teach us, that it is a hard matter to possess riches and not to be ensnared by them. The responsibility connected with the possession of them, as well as with the right use of them, is most solemn, and might well make us exclaim, with Agur, "give me neither poverty nor riches," (Prov. xxx. 8), did we not remember, "The Lord maketh poor, and maketh rich" (1 Sam. ii. 7); and He puts his children in such circumstances as He sees they can best serve Him in; and, therefore, it is not a question of how much, or how little, riches a man has, but what he is doing with what he has on what principle he is using it.

In elucidation of the subject, I direct your attention to the four following considerations :I. The explanation of the parable;

II. The abuse of riches;

III. The right use of them;

IV. The blessedness of the right use of them.

I. The explanation of the parable.

I need scarcely tell you that this parable has considerable difficulties; but without adverting to them, it will be better, perhaps, just to read it over with you, and to give you the generally received meaning.

"And He said also unto His disciples, There was a certain rich man, which had a steward; and the same was accused unto him that he had wasted his goods. And he called him, and said unto him, How is it that I hear this of thee? give an account of thy stewardship; for thou mayest be no longer steward." The steward, on this intimation, sets before himself the certainty of poverty and misery. It is plain, that whatever he might have done in wasting his master's goods, he had laid up none for himself: he had been a spendthrift, not a miser. He had lived softly and delicately, for he "said within himself, What shall I do? for my Lord taketh away from me the stewardship: I cannot dig; to beg I am ashamed. I am resolved what to do"-I have hit upon a plan-" that, when I am put out of the stewardship, they may receive me into their houses. So he called every one of his lord's debtors unto him, and said unto the first, How much owest thou unto my lord? And he said, An hundred measures of oil. And he said unto him, Take thy bill, and sit down quickly, and write fifty. Then said he to another, And how much owest thou? And he said, An hundred measures of wheat. And he said unto him, Take thy bill, and write fourscore." The

quickly" shews, I think, not the guilty hurry with which a fraudulent transaction is often done,

so much as the energy and alacrity with which men dispatch a plan, the bearings of which they understand, and in which they have confidence that it will succeed. "And the lord," i.e., his lord, the lord of the steward, "commended the unjust steward, because he had done wisely:" i.e., cleverly, shrewdly for his own interests: "for the children of this world," i.e., ungodly men, such as the steward and his accomplices, and his master -the one who conceived-the men who executed —and the master who praised the shrewdness—

are in their generation," i.e., in their kind, in their line, or unto their generation, unto people of their sort, "wiser" in worldly matters, "than the children of light," i.e., than the children of God, are in theirs, or unto theirs, in heavenly matters. The application is by our Lord, "And I say unto you, make to yourselves friends of," i.e., by, "the mammon of unrighteousness;" so use riches, "that when ye fail," i.e., die, or have to give account at our Lord's coming, "they," i.e., the friends thus made by the right use of riches, may receive you into everlasting habitations." The main points of the parable are

First: That we are stewards of God's goods; all we have is His, and we must give account when our Lord comes;

Secondly: That being only stewards, and hold