the love of life we think will have grown cold, and the regret for all you are leaving, will cease from vainly troubling you. You will have sought your shelter under the shadow of Him that hath healing on his wings, and as you have walked in the light of the Sun of Righteousness, so the labours of your day then over, will you go hence with the holy calm of evening, to rise with the glories of His dawn.

SERMON V.

HUMAN EXCUSES.

LUKE xiv. 18.

And they all with one consent began to make excuse.

I PRESUME that the parable, of which these words form a part, is familiar to every one of us. Before I attempt, however, to derive any lessons of instruction from it, I shall bring to your consideration the words of the parable, and the common bearing, and application of its meaning. "A certain man made a great supper, and bade many, and sent his servant at suppertime 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 the 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. 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."

And the Lord said unto

The kingdom of God, as revealed under the dispensation of the Gospel, supporting the weaknesses, and supplying the wants of the human soul, gradually working out man's best happiness here, and granting all that he ought to ask, or desire, is more than once compared by our Lord to a gracious and bountiful feast. In the present instance, the first bidding declares all the previous invitations, and warnings of the coming Redeemer, by which the types, and signs of the law, and the voice of the prophets, sounded the note of preparation to the Jewish

people, and bade many to expect and welcome Him, and his religion. The excuses sent for their absence, are those prejudices, and passions, and worldly interests, which not only held back the Jews from coming into the kingdom of the faithful, but disposed them to treat every effort to win them over, with unrelaxing obstinacy, and inveterate opposition. The guests brought in from abroad to supply their places, are the Gentile world, to whom (after that the Jews had rejected it) the offer of grace and salvation was made. And when the Lord was angry, and declared that none to whom mercy had been offered, and who had rejected mercy, that none of those men should taste of his supper, for in that they had slighted the appointed means, for bringing them in, there remained none other whereby they could be numbered among his guests; then I think, was shown, that they were delivered over to a reprobate mind in their own strong delusion.

In reviewing the nature of the several excuses, which were made, we cannot fail of perceiving, that by men predisposed to treat lightly the will of God, whenever it chanced to cross the direction of their own pursuits, any excuse whatever was deemed of sufficient weight to

neglect the message of the Lord; and so whether it was their land, or their cattle, or their wife, or what not, each and all alike they thought, "had them excused." It is well if the servant to whom the message is entrusted, deliver it faithfully, and can say, Lord, it is done, as thou hast commanded; and when the Lord bid the servant "compel them to come in," he seems to have given warrant, and sanction to every effort and endeavour, however earnest or importunate to bring those to him who were straying on the highways, or loitering by the hedges. Such earnestness should never be received with suspicion or contempt by those towards. whom it may be exercised; since it was an enjoined duty on the servant, and one that tended to increase their happiness, and bring them to the knowledge and salvation of their Redeemer.

Now it is very possible for men "not to make excuse," but to come to the sanctuary of the Lord, and yet to partake little of the spiritual food provided. To be present during the worship of God, and yet not to join in the chorus of praise, shows that little interest is really felt, that the body alone is present, while the thoughts of the soul are away and wandering, amid the cares or