it. We cast away what on trial is found useless, we keep what is precious; such hearers keep the living seed as men do precious jewels; they appreciate the value of what they receive, and feel their own responsibility in receiving it. There is an ear labour just as there is a lip labour, the one in hearing and the other in praying, and neither productive of any good or beneficent result. They heard not in vain. But their keeping it may imply their defending it. They do not let error cast its darkening shadow over the precious truth that they have received. They are willing to part with the largest husk, but they will not give up the least seed. They contend earnestly for the faith, and hold fast the good thing which is committed to them. They take care of the seed of truth, and wait patiently for the future, when there shall appear upon it the blossom, and for the time when there shall be gathered from it the fruit of righteousness. They cherish it in their inmost hearts; they are not satisfied with mere intellectual apprehension of the word; they meditate upon it. It is to them their living food. Every promise, every precept, and every encouragement they carefully cherish, as that which is their life, and will not let it go.

And finally, it is said, they bring forth fruit. This is the truest test. When Paul preached at Athens, some mocked, and others procrastinated, and others, like Dionysius the Areopagite, hid it in their hearts, and brought forth fruit. When Jesus preached, some were heard to wonder, like Herod; some were able to talk of him, like Judas; others to cavil, like the scribes; and others to admire—“Never man spake like this man;" but not a few to learn and live thereby. The fruit is always the same substantially as the seed. The seed is holy, the fruit must be holy also. If it be the seed of instruction, the understanding will be enlightened; if the seed of

comfort, the heart will be cheered; if the seed of warning, they will take heed lest they walk in the ways that are corrupt; if the seed of example, they will become followers of Christ, and of them that through faith have inherited the promises. If there be no fruit, there can be no Christianity; fruit is the test of the tree, character the symbol of principle. And fruit in season above allthat is, our life showing itself as Christian and victorious in that sphere or place in which God in his providence has placed us-is precious. Such fruitfulness disarms all opposition, is the most eloquent credential of our creed, strikes a world that will read our lives, while it is determined not to read our Bibles; and that prophecy is fulfilled- Then shall the heathen know that I am the Lord, when I shall be sanctified by you before their eyes." All the hearers of the word, it is too plain to every spectator of the sower, are not profited thereby. It is a well-known fact, that three-fifths of the seed sown in every country does not grow into the harvest; and according to this parable, three-fourths of the audience received seed, but altogether in vain.-Let us examine and try ourselves, and see in what catogory we are, what is the soil of our heart, and what reception we are giving to the seed that is sown from Sabbath to Sabbath.

In the next place, Christ sows the seed upon all soils; he makes his sun to rise on the good and on the evil; he gives to all opportunity of knowing him; if any perish, it is not because the sower withheld the seed, or because the seed was not good, but because their own hearts were not ready and open to receive it. Let us never forget, in the last place, that two things are required for a harvest -a terrestrial labour, and a celestial blessing;-under the present economy the one is unavailing without the other. In vain we cultivate the soil and sow the seed, if

no sunbeams and showers descend upon it. In vain sunbeams and showers descend, if we do not cultivate the soil and sow the seed. Let us combine these two; let us look up and pray for a celestial blessing, let us abound more and more in terrestrial labours, let us ever feel that the Saviour watches from the skies alike our labours, his blessings, and the result. Where much is given, there much shall be required; our responsibility is increased by opportunity Work while it is called to-day, for the night cometh, when no man can work."

We can anticipate a day in which there will be no barren soil-no choking weeds; when the seeds sown in this spring of ours, shall grow up and wave in amaranthine beauty in everlasting summer. Its advent is certain. Its first rays sprinkle the highest spires, and gild softly the loftiest hills. Come, Lord Jesus, come quickly.

27

LECTURE II.

THE GREAT FESTIVAL.

Then said he unto him, A certain man made a great supper, and bade many: and sent his servant at supper time to say to them that were bidden, Come; for all things are now ready. And they all with one consent began to make excuse. The first said unto him, I have bought a piece of ground, and I must needs go and see it: I pray thee have me excused. And another said, I have bought five yoke of oxen, and I go to prove them: I pray thee have me excused. And another said, I have married a wife, and therefore I cannot come. So that servant came, and showed his lord these things. Then the master of the house being angry said to his servant, Go out quickly into the streets and lanes of the city, and bring in hither the poor, and the maimed, and the halt, and the blind. And the servant said, Lord, it is done as thou hast commanded, and yet there is room. And the lord said unto the servant, Go out into the highways and hedges, and compel them to come in, that my house may be filled. For I say unto you, That none of those men which were bidden shall taste of my supper.-LUKE xiv. 16–24.

THE remark from which the parable I have read probably originated, is contained in the 15th verse, where it is stated, "Blessed is he that shall eat bread in the kingdom of God." Every Jew believed that at the close of this present dispensation, and at the commencement of that dispensation which is yet to dawn, a great festival would be provided, at which should be assembled together Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, the fathers and the children of that ancient and once illustrious race; and therefore one of them that sat at meat and anticipated that day, said, "Blessed is he," that is, happy is the man, "that shall then eat bread in the kingdom of God." Our Lord then seized the remark incidentally made by a Jew who was present, and on that remark constructed one of

his beautiful parables,—so beautiful in itself, and so replete with instructive and with spiritual meaning, that we have only to break the shell, and so exhibit the precious kernel which that shell contains.

It is here stated, that "a certain man," that is, the Saviour himself, "made a great supper," the chief meal in ancient times, or a festival, to which all those mentioned in the sequel were invited. A feast is frequently employed in Scripture, to be a symbol of what is provided for the soul in the great gift of the Saviour, Christ Jesus. In the 9th chapter of the Proverbs, in the prophecies of Isaiah, in various other passages that will occur to you, in the Book of Revelation also-" the great festival'"the bread that satisfies"-" the feast, the provision that Wisdom has made, who has slain her beasts," as it is stated, "and poured out her wine"-are all intended to convey vividly, and by expressive and easily remembered imagery, the rich and ample provision that is made for all the wants of all that will in the great gift of a Saviour in the gospel. And this idea of a festival provided, teaches us that the soul needs nutriment just as much as the body. We often think that the body alone needs bread, and when we have earned it, or obtained it, and eaten it, we are satisfied. But we forget that we have satisfied only the wants of the lower nature, and that the great wants of the higher nature may either be unappreciated by us, because insensible to their nature and greatness, or may remain unfilled and unsatisfied by that living bread, which is as needful for the wants of the soul as the bread that perisheth is for the wants of the body. Let us never forget, then, that man has two appetites, or two great necessities; that man not only needs bread for the body, that this outward medium of communication with an outward world may be adequate to its uses; but that he needs also that nutriment for his